"Graduating & Not Ready"

[nursinggurl]

Please tell me if I'm crazy, but my class will be graduating in two weeks and I am frustrated with a couple of people who are just not ready. They bug me all day at clinicals for help and are truely not ready for Safe patient care. One actually asked me today (while reading her drug book) "what benzodiazapine is". I mean really? We graduate in 14 days and you don't know? I follow her around all day trying to make sure she doesn't hurt anyone. Today I heard her telling her patiet to stop moving because her IV was going to come out. I go into the room and find the patient wraped in the IV tubing. I'm helping her get the pt untangled when "lil miss" "I'm not ready to graduate either" walks into the room (Great, now I stuck in there with two incompetent students) The phone begins to ring just as she walked through the door, she looks at me like I'm crazy and say's "aren't you going to answer the phone". I returned the look and nicely said NO. When all fails and you have no idea of what to say or do when you enter a patients room, always always fall back on the nursing process. ASSESS the situation, priority #1, get the poor little patient untangled from the IV tubing before you answer the phone. I MEAN REALLY?

Sorry for rambling I just can't believe these are the people I'm about to graduate with.

[OhioCCRN, MSN, NP]

no one is ready when they graduate. that's why you will be a graduate nurse and not an lpn or rn until you pass the nclex. why worry about other people? it's a bad recipe on the floor once you really start working. cyoa and leave other people out of it. they will either pass the nclex or not. i graduated with 14 people and only four of us are actually working as nurses! the ones who goofed around and just didn't 'get it ' in school are still doing what they did before school. i'd say watch what you say as well, because the nursing world is somewhat small and you never know who you might work with one day or who might be able to get you a job!

i agree with the above posters sentiments, however,

do you mean to imply that once you pass nclex you are ready for anything and that makes you a competent nurse? because all new grads who pass the nclex are still novice nurses. a licence doesnt make you a good nurse... it is simply a speed bump on the way. what makes a good nurse is humility to ask for help when they need it and eagerness to learn new things because as a poster noted on a totally unrelated thread, the day you think you know everything and are comfortable, that is when things get dangerous.

to the op, nursing school is not a relay race... you are on your own. cover your behind and worry about your grades and your future.. if the said student has family members in the administration, there is little you can do. concentrate on graduation! good luck!