Scary story I heard from some nursing students

[NurseyPoo7]

We had some nursing students on my unit a few weeks ago and I overheard their instructor and the students discussing an incident that happened with another clinical group at another hospital.

They said this group of nursing students had pts on a med surg floor.. and one nursing student was assigned to be the "charge nurse" of the group and was supposed to help with FSBS. Apparently, this student informed the other students of their patients' FSBS results. Well, long story short, at the end they couldnt find the documented FSBS in the computer and when the instructor asked the "charge" student about it ,he fessed up he had "made up" the numbers because he didnt know how to do a fingerstick and didnt want to ask someone

[JDZ344]

I have heard nursing aids doing this which a bit more understandable. They have not been trained on the significance of these numbers. A nursing student however, if they have reached the level in their program that they are allowed to go do them by themselves they definitely should know the significance of FSBS. If they know what it is and why its important and still proceeded to just make up number then I agree they shouldn't be a nurse or student nurse. What else would they just fake?

I don't think aides should be given a pass here either.

[skittles08]

I am a nursing student, and my only experience with FSBS in clinicals was in a LTC facility. We also had to use the nurses passcode and scan the patient's ID bracelet to log results. We usually assigned 2 students to do all of the FSBS each day, and they went together. We handed our results to the nurse on a peice of paper. I don't know if she used what we gave her or double checked us on the machine for her sliding scales. I do know that we would have been in ALOT of trouble if we ever thought of lying about a patient's blood sugar.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

Also, I don't let nursing students give meds, draw blood, or stick them for even a glucose if I/m not there, as well as get them up, or zero lines, or anything I consider it would be easy to mistake. Mentoring students is part of our job too.

In my program, some of the things you mentioned we have to have a Co Nurse of Instructor with us, it's policy. Any meds, IV's we have to be watched. We can do the I's and O's (clearing the machines and FSBS and many other things alone) but it's always up to our Co-Nurse though as far as the things we can do. Some nurses have said go ahead and do this or that and we aren't allowed and they will try and say it's ok. But like if I was your student and you wanted to watch me do the FSBS, even though I am allowed to do it alone, it would be respected.

[cherrybreeze, ADN, RN]

Perhaps we feel differently, to each their own, but no pt will receive meds, IV starts, blood draws, dressing changes, accuchecks without me or their instructor there. Can they do their assessment, their bath, help them to the commode without me? Sure. But I don't let nursing students do what I listed without me. It is my personal perogative. So I will say I'm sorry if what I said offended you or you felt insulted, but that is the way I do it and it isn't "breathing" down their neck. Those tasks don't take hours and hours, but they're important to me. So let's agree to disagree.

Please don't twist what I said. I didn't say I was "offended" or "insulted." You also imply that those things AREN'T important to me. You couldn't be more wrong.

Their instructor is present and checks off the meds they give, if they start an IV, draw off a line, etc. I do not feel, however, that blood sugars fall in to that category (a CNA can get a blood sugar without an RN present, and to me, this is equivalent) and you also mentioned that a student doesn't GET A PATIENT UP without you there. Invasive things are different, of COURSE.

[ProBeeRN, BSN, RN]

Perhaps we feel differently, to each their own, but no pt will receive meds, IV starts, blood draws, dressing changes, accuchecks without me or their instructor there. Can they do their assessment, their bath, help them to the commode without me? Sure. But I don't let nursing students do what I listed without me. It is my personal perogative. So I will say I'm sorry if what I said offended you or you felt insulted, but that is the way I do it and it isn't "breathing" down their neck. Those tasks don't take hours and hours, but they're important to me. So let's agree to disagree.

HA! One clinical rotation while I was in school when we told the nurse assigned to our patient that we were taking them for the day--that was it...never saw them again. Some would occasionally check our flowsheets-or poke their heads in-- but most weeks I never interacted with any of the nurses at all unless I hunted them down. I think they expected our (1) instructor to oversee all (8) of us- including med passes, tx, orders. And this was on a tele floor too. But then again, my school's clinical program was abysmal.

I would have killed for someone like you to help show me how an experience nurse did their job.

[Flatbelly]

I have heard nursing aids doing this which a bit more understandable. They have not been trained on the significance of these numbers.

Yeah, I forgot we're stupid as doorknobs.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

In our nursing home clinicals we had a student that couldn't get a BP on someone, the aide told her to try the neck :| It was not a joke and I don't believe she had a job after that, she said that is what she always did when she had trouble getting one :|

[murphyle, BSN, RN]

On the subject of barcodes/nurse's codes required to operate the FSBS system:

In my department (Emergency), there is an override mechanism by which you can "freehand" enter a blood sugar on a patient who isn't in the EMR system yet (i.e. if you're working triage). There is also a mechanism by which a provider who normally wouldn't have a staff ID number, such as a non-hospital-employed physician or PA/NP, can enter FSBS results using a "bypass" code. It's conceivable to imagine such a sequence of circumstances allowing a slack-minded SN to skate through not performing FSBS, claiming that he/she filed the results under the bypass provider number and freehand entered the patient name, and hence they might be delayed into the system. It'd be a perfect storm of circumstances, but the story is just plausible enough, especially given the many, many workarounds I've seen teaching units use to allow SNs access to otherwise staff-locked equipment. (The security subversions my preceptor committed to allow me to function at all as a preceptee on CV-SICU, for example, would curdle any good IT person's blood - yet were it not for that, I'd have spent three months sitting on my butt at the desk doing nothing. Everything on that unit was staff-ID-locked, up to and including the vital-signs monitors. This wasn't at Podunk Memorial, either; this was a major teaching hospital that, somehow, had bought into an information platform with all the provisions for documentation by both medical students and student nurses completely disabled. MS had to document under their resident's or attending's staff number; SNs filed under their staff RN, preceptor or CI. IT failure, there.)

[bloviate]

WORD

And more WORD.

Nursing school was several years ago now and even then, I couldn't get into the FSBSG machine without one of the nurses putting in their passcode. And none of them left without making sure I knew what I was doing since I was working on their passcode.

I think we have a game of exaggeration dramatics filling in for lack details here.

Why spoil a good story for the sake of a little truth