Cisabel

Ya know? It's funny to me that after sharing my experience, I've been deemed as entitled, a bad communicator, I do not have a BSN (that's not offensive at all to those that don't), I need to tougher skin, I'm a cry baby and etc BUT what people don't seem to understand is that there's a way to communicate your point of view as well. Seasoned nurses should have the wisdom and intelligence to guide young nurses instead of attacking them. We are all different and will always have different stand points but being able to communicate that or changing someone's point of view will not change if you attack them. I can evaluate an opposing thought but accusing me of finger pointing and etc but then turn around do the same to me and anyone that agrees or see anything from my point of you is humorous.

Thank you! They see some peds but it's not a designated place for pediatric patients. I don't see many topics or discussions with Burn nurses and I would love some insight and advice. Thank you for suggesting the book. I will definitely look it up! Good luck to you as well!

I will say this. Maybe using the term "NETY" is too harsh but I will not excuse her attitude and behavior. I am in no way bitter or upset as some are trying to "point out" or "decipher". I will just try to keep it in mind whenever I am or if I am put into the same position. I have had great days and not so good instructors. I've had some instructors that were pretty blatant about their day being awful but not once was it seemingly toward me. It's hard to not take something personally when you see the same person waving and smiling with everyone including the other student but snap at you with every word out your mouth. Or say you're going to lunch and she says (in so many words) that she doesn't care and turns to someone else and says "you heard what I said, right?" Or tells your clinical instructor that you don't know how to take vitals (with an automated machine). As I'm writing this, I can laugh about it. As a FIRST day on the floor, there was nothing comical about it. So, there's not a perfect way to treat clinical as I learned throughout my nursing school journey.

To address some of the questions, yes it was optional for her to say she didn't want a student because her coworker did. No, it was not optional for me to say that I wasn't going to be with her. I could not reassign myself and I do not believe she should've found me another assignement either. I appreciate the constructive point of views from those who have been seasoned and been in a position to point out some other ways to look at it. Again, I've read several posts that said to do this or that, so following those instructions on my very first day was imperative to me at that time. It is not discourage me to change it up when I got to my other assignments because I continued to do the same thing: made myself available to help with any of their other patients if they wanted. Would've it made a difference if the time was "My first clinical..."? Maybe so and maybe not. But this is how I felt during that day. Her reporting things to my clinical instructor things that weren't true and also seeing her doing it to my classmates in a later clinical is uncalled for. Anyway, I will make sure that when I am put in this position that I "update" whomever is interested. Thanks for the insight.

Desperate to be a victim í ½í¸‚! I'm far from a victim! Overburdened with one patient and just came from a 14 day vacation? Ok.

Apparently, people missed the point of the entire post. I don't care about the nurse. It is MY point of view of what happened to me on my first day of clinical. There are many snarky comments and things that happened throughout the day and I won't outline a full 10 hour day. The point that my instructor should reassigned me is something I can agree with. I did not volunteer my services or was begging for attention. I was more so trying to make myself available like other blogs have said Nursing students should. I am very aware that they do not get paid to teach students and when my instructor came she made it seem like it was not a problem for me to be with her she walked off and it changed every time. When I returned to the floor months later, she acted the same if not worst and she did not have another student. I overheard her saying things about my classmate and my second clinical instructor knew it wasn't the truth. After that, no one was with her again during my second clinical rotation there. I just want future nursing students or current students to know that there's no perfect way to avoid some things. I fell right into the trap of "this is what you do and don't do".

I did! I said it several times. And every time the nurse made a snarky remark, I told my instructor. My instructor came over there and the nurse made it seem like everything was fine. I was lucky enough to return to the same floor in a different clinical group and different instructor and she acted the same way with my classmates. I just steered clear of her. Then she would come reporting things about my classmates that we knew wasn't true.

Thank you for questions because I can correct you. #1 I did not interrupt her during her shift or in the middle of important tasks. We reported before shift report so we could be right there in the beginning. Also, she had one patient at the time. One was in dialysis, one was assigned to the other student and the other was discharged. I did not "bother" the staff as you put it. It was her nasty disposition that I'm calling out. If YOU don't want a student nurse then say so. When I asked if I needed another assignment she said no and told me to ask questions if I had any. So NO YOU ARE NOT CORRECT. My point is that I've read several posts where they say that students are engaged or show that they want to learn and I made sure that I did all of that. I did not "volunteer my services" as you're trying to put it. I was making myself available to do the tasks that I believed that would help. Again, it's my first day on any floor and I'm following what other nurses have said would cause someone to eat their young!

I appreciate your point of view but this was not the case. I teamed up with the MA that was helping with her patients. I didn't know at the time. She was perfectly fine with me cleaning up her patients and changing their linen. At first I questioned myself but after returning to that same floor and my other classmates experiencing the same thing. I wish shoe would just say that she did not want a student nurse. She gave conflicting emotions because she acted the way she did but also would say "If you have any questions, let me know!" I told my instructor and I just went around helping other people that wanted to be helped. My whole point is not to believe the other posts. They don't always work. I don't care about the nurse. I will just remember the way it was this day for me. If I am too busy I will let their instructor know.

It was our first day stepping foot on the floor. We were lost. We were scared. We've all been there. If you haven't yet, you will. Some of us were sweating. Some of us were shaking. Some of us were quiet. The one thing that we did have in common is that we were all scared. Here we are, stepping on a floor, full of patients that we needed to take care of but we knew NOTHING. "Go find your nurse" is what our instructor told us. Slowly, we strolled to the different pods and introduced ourselves. As I approached the nurse that I was to shadow the entire day, I became increasingly relaxed. She was an older nurse that looked mothering and I believed that I was going to learn a lot that day. "Ms. Martha? Hi. I'm Charlotte. I'll be your student nurse today" I widened my eyes and mustered the best smile possible, considering it is 6:30am. I was greeted with a blank stare, followed with an up and down glance that could make a dead man's veins run cold. She finally said, "Hmmmm. I already have a student nurse that is in her last semester. I need to focus on her and help her graduate. Where's your clinical instructor? Can you just be with her? If you have questions, you can ask. I just need to focus on my other student." Let's fast forward this day. My patient went to dialysis, meaning I will not have anything to do for 4-6 hours of my 10 hour day. Because my patient was gone, I volunteered my services for her other patients. I volunteered to empty foley bags, change bedsheets or whatever other tasks or errands that needed to be done. I asked questions. After the attempts of basically begging her to let me help her were denied, I even asked if I could just watch her and shadow her without even being acknowledged. (Mind you this was my first day. I know I sounded like a sad puppy but I had no idea of what else to do). Unsurprisingly, she shot those requests down as well. This is only a small insight to how my first day went. This is living proof that the advice that some nurses give about why nurses eat their young and all of things to do to avoid it is all FALSE!! "Make yourself available". Did that. "Ask questions and act interested". Did that. "Make sure to not come off as a know it all". Did that. "Sometimes, nurses are very busy and teaching a student will disrupt them blah blah blah!" If you are a nurse and do not want a nursing student, JUST SAY IT! It is very unfortunate that there are some nurses out there that do not want to teach. The cornerstone of nursing is teaching. You must teach the family and patient constantly during their visit. Also, "each one, teach one" should be taken to heart. Think about when you first became a nurse. You were frightened and scared. Fellow nursing comrades, if this has happened to you or if this ever happens to in the future, take it with stride. It is difficult to work with and hard to not take it personally. Just remember that day and vow to never EVER treat someone that is willing to learn and help with disgrace.

Hello everyone! I am a new graduate nurse and looking forward to this nursing journey. I just graduated and accepted a position in a Burn Center that consists of an emergency room, ICU and step down. I noticed that there aren't many posts about Burn Unit nurses! I wonder the reason behind that. It's not only on this site but everywhere I look. Anyway, being a new Burn Unit nurse, I would love some insight and advice from some burn nurses. Thank you in advance!

Well this cracked me up!