I've been assigned a last-semester clinical student who is a mature student. She's great with patients care because she has been a CNA/PSW for many years. However, she has some issues with organization, professionalism, and ATTITUDE.
1. In terms of organization, she often misplaces her sheets, needs to borrow a pen, or doesn't have the proper paper work ready for me such as her hours sheet that she's supposed to hand in every week.
2. In terms of professionalism, she's been late a couple of times with no communication. She just shows up in the middle of report or often several minutes late. Never early. (Although most nurses on my unit unfortunately show up late, I think she's picked up on it and is proudly doing the same). She's also picked up several personal calls on her cellphone while she's charting.
3. Her attitude is the worse... the way she talks, it's as if she's the boss of me or something. She would say things like "Open this" or "Read this for me" or "Come with me to this room" literally without a please or thanks or even phrasing it as a question. She's literally just making demands. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt as I figured communication is not her best suit but she is also very relaxed and chatty and loves to say things like "yeah, I know I know" since she's been a CNA for many years. She's also made it clear that she doesn't want to be a nurse but yet she's here, spending her time on clinical with a chip on her shoulder it seems, doing the bare minimum. She's voiced that she's mostly just here to learn to give medication as she seems to know everything's else.
Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.
Emergent said:
I'll never forget a nursing student who was assigned to my patient one day. The patient was an obvious opioid seeker. The student had obviously had the unit on patient advocacy and meeting the pain goals of the patient. She totally fed into the patient's manipulative behavior. It made my shift a lot more difficult because she failed to consult me before trying to placate this patient. She was self-righteous and interfering of my plan of care.
I got the stink eye from a student nurse because I wasnt going to toilet a highly anxious patient 100 times an hours. I explained my logic that to do so would reinforce her anxiety and panic. and I did not have the time or ability to toilet this patient at the expense of my other patients. The patient had an incontinence product insitu so in the very small percentage that she might actually be incontinent as opposed to overly anxious she would be protected.
Tenebrae, BSN, RN
2,021 Posts
I got the stink eye from a student nurse because I wasnt going to toilet a highly anxious patient 100 times an hours. I explained my logic that to do so would reinforce her anxiety and panic. and I did not have the time or ability to toilet this patient at the expense of my other patients. The patient had an incontinence product insitu so in the very small percentage that she might actually be incontinent as opposed to overly anxious she would be protected.