I previously posted this in the Men and Nursing forum, but was told it was in the wrong place. So I'll try again.
I am a nurse at a large medical center in Raleigh-Durham, NC. Every Thursday and Friday, a group of students from a local community college come to my unit for clinicals. Overall, the students are wonderful and we are grateful for their help during their clinical time. However, there is one student who greatly stands out from the rest. To put it bluntly, he is downright strange. He spent 10 weeks on my unit over the summer, during which time no one ever saw him display any kind of emotion, empathy, or anything towards his patients, other students, or nurses on the unit. He walks around like he is in a daze, often idly pacing up and down the unit for no apparent reason. I've witnessed him go into patient rooms without even introducing himself, and do shoddy assessments in which he appeared uneasy about touching the patient. I've seen him practically beg other students to help his patients with their ADLs, as he was too embarrassed. In addition, he has made several nurses on the unit uncomfortable with his cold stares, and occasionally strange comments. For example, one morning he walked into the break room, which was full of women, and muttered "yeast infection" and turned bright red from trying to withhold his laughter. That was just strange and inappropriate!!
I've talked to his clinical instructor about this guy's obvious lack of social skills, empathy, and behavior that is almost antisocial in nature. But what worries me most is, how come any school would allow such an inept person to be in the nursing program in the first place. I don't think that he could possibly ever make a good nurse, unless perhaps he was in a clinical setting that required minimal social skills, such as the OR where patients are under anesthesia.
Anyway, sorry for the rant here ... my question for the board is, what do y'all think of this situation? Am I overreacting? Or is there cause for my concern?
I was not homeschooled. Heck no, my mom could not stand me as it was. We still do not get along.
I homeschool because I choose to take charge of my kids' education and social interactions. I saw nothing good from our local school district,and my son was headed for trouble. HE finished 5th grade unable to write a coherent sentence or read well. They just teach to a test. Kids were beat up at school bus stops on a fairly regular basis. Those among so many other reasons, were why I pulled my son from the local school district and took the leap of faith to homeschool him and his sister. No regrets....we are in our 3rd year. My 6 year old can read at the 3rd grade level, can speak some Spanish and is slated to finish 1st grade in feb/march. My son can finally read "close" to his 8th grade level and is actually DOING his assignments, unlike in school.
I could go on and on but that is not the topic germane to the thread. Suffice it to say, I do not regret my decision and do not sweat my kids' social behavior -----we have it covered.
Leaving a patient lying in urine would be an automatic failure. Strange behavior might not get him out of school but refusing to do patient care definately would.
I have often wondered about the accommodation of mental disabilities for nursing school. We have a student in my class that makes me very uncomfortable, I know it's wrong of me, but I don't think that he has any business being there. He seems nice enough and I would not mind having him as a neighbor, but I would not want him as my nurse.
Ya know, I'm sitting here catching up on the posts, but find myself just shaking my head in bewilderment. I'm sorry, but what happened to common sense?
As unfortunate as it may be, not everyone is capable of doing everything they may want to do, and it is about time we all accepted that and moved on.
Have things changed so much since I graduated from nursing school in 1986? Our instructors were brutal - and if they didn't think you cut it, you were out. And, to be honest, I never saw anyone kicked out that didn't deserve it.
Harsh, but especially in a profession that deals with life and death on a daily basis, necessary. I don't understand this bending over backwards to accomodate folks in areas they'd be better off out of.
Yeah, we do need to set limits. There are winners and losers - sorry to break the news to some people!
Physical disabilities you may be able to work around as a nurse, but in this case - sheeesh! who are we setting loose on the poor unsuspecting patient world?
This school needs to re-think their policies, IMHO.
Thank goodness that there are more positions in the Nursing world than bedside nursing. This may not be a disservice to these students who do not plan to enter into nursing practice and may be of wonderful service to all of us if such students use their skilss with their nursing knowledge to better the world of nursing.
More than one way to look at things and to consider and respect the talents of others, especially those who differ from ourselves.
Gen
I agree that, thank goodness, there are numerous areas in nursing to accomodate all kinds of people. I also believe that social skills are necessary in all of them. How many nurses do you know who work in a vacuum? This young man has an excellent job, makes a wonderful salary, and I really like him (once I understood the problems). But have to say, I still think he would not fit in as a nurse. Just my two cents though.
Ya know, I'm sitting here catching up on the posts, but find myself just shaking my head in bewilderment. I'm sorry, but what happened to common sense?
As unfortunate as it may be, not everyone is capable of doing everything they may want to do, and it is about time we all accepted that and moved on.
Have things changed so much since I graduated from nursing school in 1986? Our instructors were brutal - and if they didn't think you cut it, you were out. And, to be honest, I never saw anyone kicked out that didn't deserve it.
Harsh, but especially in a profession that deals with life and death on a daily basis, necessary. I don't understand this bending over backwards to accomodate folks in areas they'd be better off out of.
Yeah, we do need to set limits. There are winners and losers - sorry to break the news to some people!
Physical disabilities you may be able to work around as a nurse, but in this case - sheeesh! who are we setting loose on the poor unsuspecting patient world?
This school needs to re-think their policies, IMHO.
I agree! Our school would boot people out for legit reasons. We were not even allowed to miss 1 single clinical day!! Many people complained...but amazingly:uhoh3: we all survived and only 1 person was booted. We had to pass the math test with 100% accuracy and we only got 2 more chances to pass...otherwise we were out! Many people would complain...but again, we all survived and only 1 person was booted!
It may sound "unfair" to some who didn't agree with it, but isn't it true that "life is not fair"?
He has absolutely no bedside manner, and gets extremely embarrassed at almost anything. For example, he left an elderly female laying in a pile of urine for his entire 7 hour clinical shift - when I found out and asked him why, he stated "I have never given a woman a bath and I intend to keep it that way."
I wonder if he might actually think bedside nursing is beneath him, and it may have little to with his social skills. I had many classmates who went into nursing to become CRNA, or to go into radiology. I had another classmate who once said to me, "I don't see why I would give a bed bath. I never have to do it as a nurse." I haven't met anyone as bad as this guy, but I had many uncaring classmates. One even told us how cool it was to see blood gushing out of this man foot because he was so much anticoagulant.
But then, I don't have much faith in people - I have met too many nurses and students who just don't care. I am loathed to excuse the behavior as antisocial or strange. His remark above seems to come from a person who can clearly communicate his feelings.
Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatric, Behavioral Health.
Purposely allowing a patient to lie in urine for 7 hours and not address her hygiene..and if the same thing happened again for this female patient or any other, he would continue to do the same? Whoa, he could have chose to delegate or ask someone else to do it for him.
I call it patient neglect, regardless of his reasoning, and reportable.
I'm afraid he would be on my little documentation trail.
I don't think that homeschooling is intrinsically responsible for poor social skills, but the conditions surrounding it can be. For example, my friend Beth was homeschooled by her ex-vet mom who really knew her stuff, and she's very socially graceful. However, I know a few people who are extremely religious and homeschool their kids in order to censor everything. I don't have anything about religion itself, but the real world isn't going to care what God's opinion is on matters. In the real world, claims of divine voices talking to you are going to be translated as schizophrenia. For example, I knew a girl was homeschooled till high school, and all she would talk about was God and try to convert (hustle, really) everybody around her, not knowing that it is extremely rude to pass such judgment on people. It irks me to see parents who try to create their own little utopia and not face the reality that someday, the kids won't be in that little private sphere.
Try approaching the student privately and if it does not work then the clinical instructor. Maybe he is going through a difficult time or has a disabulity? :)
For what it's worth, lots of homeschoolers participate in sports at local schools and have various homeschool groups with kids their own age. So, it's not like they all are caged, never to meet another child their age. My husband was homeschooled and played with kids his own age every day after "school." I was more of a bookworm, but.....ANYHOO, sorry. This is obviously it's own thread (if someone wants to start it). Carry on!
Hi,
My post is not related to your comment at all! I just picked a random post to subscribe to so that I may un-subscribe to the emails about this thread.
For what it is worth, I have known home schooled and non-home schooled students who are just downright good.
What makes me uncomfortable about this thread is that someone mentioned that they took exception to a statement and NOONE has validated their feeling, only got defensive about their posts. I do not generally like to discount anyone, especially so when they state hurt feelings.
I understand and agree with the situation being what it is he should not be in nursing. What I don't understand is that lying in urine for 7 hours is a very long time, where was the primary nurse? where was the tech? Something is not right regardless.
I am fairly new to this forum, but after reading through 5 pages of responses on this issue this was my thought too: where is the licensed nurse? Either the primary nurse, preceptor, or instructor? Someone is responsible in addition to the student. I've never had a clinical where someone wasn't checking up on the patient (and on me/my skills as well!) throughout the day... whether I was in the room or not.
DutchgirlRN, ASN, RN
3,932 Posts
Cool, thanks for the explanation.