Seriously?

If the students have been around since 6am and shes just doing head to toe at 10, i believe she came to clinicals late and just wanted to get something in before she came to find you. Although this is not suppose to be an excuse. Shes suppose to locate you first before doing anything at all. What if she tried to give the patient a second dose of medication

Cut her some slack. She was probably nervous as heck and had a clinical instructor breathing down her back to look up 20 medications, write down and analyze all lab work, and get a physical assessment done and charted before 9 am.

Mainly, I'm venting and finding out what other students do since this has happened with this school before, so cut me a little slack.

I definitely cut her some slack, never mentioned it, wasn't all that bothered, and it's barely a blip in my day. I also understand what being a student entails as I'm a frequent preceptor and work with entry level students frequently. However, the students in this thread on top of doing all you mentioned, also contact the primary nurse early AM.

This would have been nice because I would have let her do more things such as pass the meds. Perhaps she could have helped me during report because as a float and one that hasn't had time to read the chart, she probably knew more than I did, so we both could have benefited from a nurse to nurse contact.

When I worked med/surg, we often had students around. We were given a list of which students would be with which patients, and we gave each of them our report. After that we checked in with them from time to time, but their instructor was the one with them when they did nursely things, not the staff.

For us, we couldn't step a foot inside the room without speaking with the primary nurse. We also had to ask that nurse if it was ok. That is just weird to me that the student would be in there without you knowing.

Maybe she thought you would be meeting her in that patient's room at that exact moment for report?

yeah, that's the ticket.

This would have been nice because I would have let her do more things such as pass the meds. Perhaps she could have helped me during report because as a float and one that hasn't had time to read the chart, she probably knew more than I did, so we both could have benefited from a nurse to nurse contact.

totally agree.

even in nsg school, we are taught the importance of communication, and i believe and try to uphold its clinical significance.

effective communication eradicates a lot of 'misunderstanding', whether we're communicating verbally or in writing.

as in my clinical experiences (as a student), we were mandated to meet up with the primary nurse(s), before we could do anything.

if we didn't do so, we got points taken off and reflected in our grade.

leslie

yeah, that's the ticket.

totally agree.

even in nsg school, we are taught the importance of communication, and i believe and try to uphold its clinical significance.

effective communication eradicates a lot of 'misunderstanding', whether we're communicating verbally or in writing.

as in my clinical experiences (as a student), we were mandated to meet up with the primary nurse(s), before we could do anything.

if we didn't do so, we got points taken off and reflected in our grade.

leslie

I would have been miffed too. I agree with the above. You might have been able to teach/ help/ show her more. Meeting with the nurse assigned to the patients and getting a report from them and game plan together is essential in the learning process of the student. I just can't imagine not doing that.

As a student we had to listen to report and then intro ourselves personally to the nurse in charge of the patient PRIOR to even laying an eyeball on the patient.

I talked to the team leader whom said that indeed the students are required to introduce themselves to the nurse and get a report upon arrival. I told her I didn't want to step on any toes, but this doesn't always happen and she thanked me.

I am a current student. We are expected to find the nurse and let them know we have that nurses patient(s) for the day, especially if we are giving meds. Only once was I unable to find one of my nurses to let her know, but we also have sheets that we tape on our patient's door that says our school name and program, the students name, what room # they have, what times we are there, if we are giving meds, documenting, etc.

Additionally my teacher also posts a list of the students and their patients in the nurses break room.

It is the student's responsibility to inform the nurse before entering the pt room about the assignment, if its ok, report, care plan and what is to be done/not done by student. The student should be reported to the teacher. I'm a student and I may listen to report on the voice care and look at the chart if the nurse is not out yet from the break room but as soon as I see her and before I go into the room I inform her of everything. I like to enter the room with the RN the first time so the pt does not have fragmented care and that it is more team work and I enter the room with the RN if she goes in. I'll do meds with my teacher and do vs/reassessments on my own but inform the rn of my findings and what I plan on doing next. Some nurses like it some don't

Did you tell the student herself that she should inform the nurse before performing a physical assessment next time? I can't tell from your posts, but it seems a little harsh to go over the head of the clinical instructor and student and talk to the team leader over ONE incident with ONE student. This was my problem with the majority of the nurses I did not get along with in clinicals - they would talk to everyone besides ME about what I did wrong. I loved it when a nurse would tell me what I did wrong to my face in a respectful way and made it a teachable moment. And I made plenty of mistakes - people are lying if they say they did not/do not.

Re: some of the attitudes in this thread - Students are there to learn and should not be expected to be perfect. This threat of us getting in major trouble over every little mistake increases anxiety and leads to pitting of nurses against each other rather than collaborating. Lack of communication at shift-change is a problem, but it's not something wholly unexpected from someone unfamiliar with the hospital setting. There are some mistakes that need a punishment, and some that really just need guidance.