Starting to really HATE clinicals!!!! LONG

[shoegalRN, RN]

Hey everyone. I really hate to vent, but I got to get this off my chest!

I am really starting to see why there is such a nursing shortage. For starters, last week in clinical, a new nurse (just graduated a year ago) got really snippy with a bunch of the students, including myself. Me, being me, I chalked it up to that's just the way she is and left it at that. I tried to stay out of her way for the remainder of clinicals and just got my instructor to do med pass with me. This same nurse, (who btw, is a graduate of the SAME nursing program I am in, as well as a NP student in clinicals herself) made some of the younger students really upset, to the point where they were complaining about her to the clinical instructor. The clinical instructor just said, "well, that's just the way she is".

Fastward to today. I go to the floor to get my patient info. I see 2 computers that were empty, and I used one of them to get my info. I was sitting there, writing down my meds and I was there for about 15 minutes. I see two nurses that kept walking past me. Next thing I know, these same two nurses come from out of nowhere and asked if I was a nursing student. I said yes, and showed them my badge. One nurse comes on the side of me and crosses her arms while the other nurse tells me that the computer I'm using is for the doctors only to look up x-rays and things like that and students need to use the computers at the nurse's station. I said, "I didnt know and I'm done looking at the meds" and I logged off and got up no less than 30 seconds.

Now, these computers are directly behind the nurses station in an open area, (not off in a separate room like at my hospital where everyone KNOWS those computers are for the doctors). Secondly, I used this SAME computer last week while in clinical, and seen several nurses and students alike using them and nothing was said to them about it being a doctor's computer. Thirdly, there was no doctor waiting to use the computer.

I just felt like this was really petty. I felt like if it was really an issue with me using the computer, they would have said something when they walked past me for the umpteenth time. Not go off to the side and "come up with a plan" to double team me and try to "confront" me about using the computer and then having the second nurse come on the side of me with her arms crossed for "back up" just in case "something jumped off".

Now, I've been in corporate america for 14 years, I know how this game goes. It was the same petty things going on there. I've always been the one not to entertain drama by keeping a low profile and staying under the radar. I'm very aware how to pick and choose my battles.

I understand not all nurses are this way. I work with some very nice and hardworking team oriented nurses, so I will NEVER generalize all nurses.

Your thoughts?

[Maudy]

Unfortunately, you'll run into a lot of nurses like that. It irritates me to no end. I don't understand why it was such a big deal about the doctors computer. At one of my clinicals, the student nurses were able to use the doctors computers if no one was using it.

Don't let it get to you. I was in your place MANY times throughout nursing school. Just promise yourself that you won't be like that when you get your license and have students on the floor when you're working. :)

[MikeyJ, RN]

Some advice -- ignore them and do what you have to do to get through your clinicals.

I absolutely DESPISE every waking second during clinicals -- no exaggeration -- DESPISE.. perhaps verging on HATE. It isn't that I hate nursing because I love working as a nurse apprentice on the pediatric floor and love having that autonomy and support of the nurses I work with. Clinicals are the complete opposite -- on every floor I have done clinicals, there is always a few nasty nurses who insist on making students life a living hell. And then you have the pressure of surpassing the expectations of the clinical instructors.

I personally do not have a roaring reputation with my clinical instructors -- I am safe with patient care and do well, but I do not go out of my way to please my clinical instructors, and I am aware of that. But I personally do the minimal amount of work in clinicals to get by. That isn't how it should be, but clinical experiences have jaded me. Now if you ask the nurses I work with on the pediatric floor, they would give raving reviews about me because I do go out of my way to help them all and really try.

Welcome to nursing school -- a.k.a. HELL! :)

[ERNurse752, RN]

I hated and despised nursing school clinicals too. Someday, they will be over.

Don't let them get to you. Karma, baby. Just remember that.

[serenity19649]

i am completely sympathetic, i have had horrible experiences, in clinicals. to the point of being relocated to complete them. i am older and don't have the ability to shut up sometimes (even though it is in my best interest). hehehe so i stand against the ill tempered in clinicals, and this is why. if i don't stand up for myself, how can i stand up for my patient!!!

and yes you will p- some off but in the end, they will know your doing your best to take care of your patients. most nurses who do this to students, really are in the wrong field to begin with. if they treat you bad, just imagine how they treat their patients. :angryfire

i have 2 more clinicals and i am done, i will tell you in my situation, i have had more positive experience in my clinicals since i did speak up.

but then again every situation is different.

but please dont let them treat you like a door mat.

smiles,

[racing-mom4, BSN, RN]

Wow I did not find this site till I was done with Nursing school, but I wish I would have, as see I thought I was crazy as I hated my final semester of clinicals so bad....now I see I am not alone. I was fantasizing evil thoughts towards my instructor, and I am truly a nice person.

I dont know if it is the pressure of trying to get so much done in such little time, being physically/mentally exhausted from trying to keep up with your lecture classes, having test/projects/papers due. Then you have the pressure of "trying to play the game" keeping a smile on your face, not complaining, and not killing anyone~~~patients or teachers!

The only advice i can give is:

1) Know your not alone.

2) Stay connected to the non-nursing world~carve out some time in your week to do an activity you enjoy that is not related to health care or homework~~and do that activity with friends who are NOT students or nurses.

3) Get a big calender and mark off the days till your done. Take it one day at a time~~then vow that when you become an RN you will be kind and considerate to the nursing students.

Best of luck....You can do it, and you will inspire others to do it as well.

[Ms Kylee]

I hated all of my clinicals except Maternity... yes, there were nurses there that hated the students, but it was easy to stay under their radar. Med Sug clinicals just suck eggs because I work on a Med Surg floor, and it feels like I'm "at work" 16 hours a day.

But.. on my floor at work, we have students twice a week and I love having them. They make my job so much easier, and they're so willing to help me turn and lift and help out wherever I need them if they don't have a patient and aren't busy.

As for student clinicals... I'm just counting the days...

[SDS_RN, RN]

When I was in clinicals we also had those few bad apples that were nasty to students did not want us anywhere near them or their patients and they let you know that. Unfortunatly that's how it is but you can't let them discourage you. That just shows you how not to treat students or even your patients when you're a RN. You kling onto the ones that work w/ you side by side and learn from them.

When I was in clinicals one of my classmates checked her pts sat during her assessment and the sat was 90% she reported it to her nurse and she threw a fit. She said now I have to go recheck it and call the doctor to report this very rudly to my classmate. Yeah she was one that you hoped had the day off during your clinicals. She would never give you the opportunities to start a pt's IV hang the meds ect. She would go do it herself and would not invite you to come along or anything. All I can say is I'm glad I don't have to deal w/ her much anymore but I still feel for the future students that will.

[Rabid Response]

I didn't like clinicals very much either when I was in school. My first med-surg clinical rotation was so bad that I shut myself in a storage room and cried the first day. The nurses were really mean, and my clinical instructor didn't care whether we were learning anything or not. Nothing was ever as bad as that first rotation, but I still usually felt like I was harassing the nurses I was assigned to follow. But never fear; school and clinicals will be over before you know it. Then you get to move on to the next circle of hell--precepting/new grad orientation!

[smk1, LPN]

I once had a charge nurse flip out because I was a nursing student not a nurse and I came into the gasp! NURSING STATION! Apparently it is hallowed ground and nursing students are not allowed to set foot in the nursing station. We also are not allowed to use the counter to chart etc... Basically any ridiculous thing she could think of to complain about us. I smiled and respected her authority and went about my business. Cooperate and graduate. I finally learned that it wasn't worth raising my blood pressure over and would have a good private laugh over the horror show that must be her life if she has to find ways to exert her control and power in such petty ways at work. I get to go home to a beautiful child and loving husband and hang out with a pretty great set of friends. I can't imagine she has those benefits or she wouldn't be such a wench.

[MikeyJ, RN]

I once had a charge nurse flip out because I was a nursing student not a nurse and I came into the gasp! NURSING STATION! Apparently it is hallowed ground and nursing students are not allowed to set foot in the nursing station. We also are not allowed to use the counter to chart etc... Basically any ridiculous thing she could think of to complain about us. I smiled and respected her authority and went about my business. Cooperate and graduate. I finally learned that it wasn't worth raising my blood pressure over and would have a good private laugh over the horror show that must be her life if she has to find ways to exert her control and power in such petty ways at work. I get to go home to a beautiful child and loving husband and hang out with a pretty great set of friends. I can't imagine she has those benefits or she wouldn't be such a wench.

Haha.. I had a similar experience on my maternity clinical. During our break, we would break in the BREAK room. The charge nurse immediately ran to our clinical instructor, and told him that students should not be allowed to take a break. She flipped out on students all the time. At one point, she actually slammed a door in my face. She was just flat out mean.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

As the charge nurse who gets the complaints of the docs when their computers aren't available (which might be petty of them), it's not really petty to me to see students on the wrong computer and I ask them to leave even when there's no doc in site. This spares them and me drama.

Otherwise I hear you loud and clear. Being a student and dealing with petty attitudes can be rough. Hang in there, do what you gotta do. Good luck!