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?
Specializes in home & public health, med-surg, hospice.
I do think several posters on here are cofusing me/you as I posted a thread about a strange graduate nurse. Boy oh boy did I get roasted for supposedly picking on the strange graduate nurse. I only asked for an opinion. I hope you have a better response.
I thought of your little lady too, DutchgirlRN, upon reading about this student and how similiar the whole situation was.
I know th' post was closed but I've have been so wondering what happended with her!
I thought of your little lady too, DutchgirlRN, upon reading about this student and how similiar the whole situation was.
I know th' post was closed but I've have been so wondering what happended with her!
She quit. She realized she wasn't cut out for med/surg and apolized to her preceptor for trying to imitate her accent on purpose, stating that she realized that was immature on her part. I hope she finds her niche'. Thanks for asking.
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
:angryfire
In the '90's I was part time faculty in a BSN program. One year we had a "different" student. She was female, in her late 30's, seemed to have no friends, few social skills and didn't seem to be able to bond with anybody. She also had dyslexia and ADD, and had gone to great lengths to have special accomodations made for her. She had her tests read to her, had a proctor and a special room, her written assignments were done by someone else (paid for by the University). Clinicals with this woman were a nightmare!
I had her on a woman's unit once and she "misread" the accucheck, giving an inaccurate dose of insulin. Charting was a nightmare as well because I had to check and make sure she wrote the correct numbers. I didn't think she needed to stay in the nursing program and talked to the level coordinator often about her. The "Americans with Disabilities Act" kept coming up as the rationale for keeping her. The student herself had memorized whole paragraphs of the ADA and often this was the only conversation she'd have with me. If I asked a question about a patient situation often the first thing she'd say was "Remember I get extra time to answer because the ADA says so".
She had a 3.9 GPA; again, she has all these accomodations and such for her written and test work. How much accomodation am I supposed to give her when we are talking about taking care of people? I just could not justify keeping her in clinical and thought I could have failed her for this situation, especially because she was not even remotely remorseful about it. My common sense was telling me that if she could not read numbers accurately she had NO BUSINESS working with them!!! The level coordinator of the program and even the Dean said we had no choice but to keep her. She got a "D" in my clinical and we all had to go to the University Court because she protested that!
I understand people have rights. I also believe the patient has the right to be cared for by a nurse that has been deemed competent by her instructors. I made a lot of noise over this person (who also got into Sigma Theta Tau because of her GPA). My faculty friends said to let it rest. However they were Community Health, Psych, and other instructors who weren't on a Med Surg floor, weren't responsible for her meds, read her papers written by someone else, and were more often interested in the theory behind the practice than the practice itself.
Needless to say this woman is no longer working as a nurse. She was fired from several jobs for errors directly related to her dyslexia and ADD. Our state spent thousands of dollars subsidizing her education and her special needs. Deans and directors spent countless hours with attorneys and special needs people to accomodate her and prevent lawsuits. In addition because of her, other people with similar disabilities were given the opportunity to apply for and be accepted to nursing school. In this day and age where so many people are so eager for just a few nursing school slots, we should not have to put up with incompetence. I think working with this student is why I decided not to pursue education on anything more than a part time level.
This reminds me of a student, actually Class President who I thoght was weird.
I had returned to school to complete my RN requirements after being an LPN. I joined a class that had already completed it's first year of school. So they had all bonded and were close. I was the outsider. I noticed the class president was (to me) a very strange person. Yet he was extreemly popular with the class. I could not figure it out. Why they would elect him president and then relect him again the second year. To top it off he was a mediocure student. And not at all exhibiting leadership qualities.
What struck me was the odd things he would say. Like "my hobby is making babies" (his wife gave birth 2x during the time he was in nursing school) He was a nursing student granted but he was much too comfortable as a male talking about female issues, anatomy, sexual things, and female health.
After graduation he was hired into a ER. Less than 2 years later he was arrested for molesting female patients. He would claim they were in tremendous pain get an order and heavily sedated them and then would fondle them. Finally one woman who (probably was not sedated as well as he thought) was aware and reported it to police. Immediately several women came forward and reported simular experiences with this nurse. Some of the women he "treated" could not recall anything. Others did recall clearly and still others recalled it as a dream.
I knew im my heart there was something strange with this guy when I first met him. I do not understand why I was the only one, it bothered that he was too comfortable with female anatomy. I tried to tell myself it was that he was a dad and more importantly that he was a nurse. But I knew other dads and other males in the profession did not act like him.
Some people are precieved as strange who in reality are quite normal once you get to know them. The fact that this guy stood out so much and made you extreemly uncomfortable about his behavior should set off alarms. The fact the behavior was antisocial coupled with a flat affect should really scare you and others. Unfortunately you don't have the power to dismiss him from school. keep your eyes open. Keep reporting.
Your story is very illustrative of how non-discrimination has gone way too far. Nursing cannot allow such a large probability of error. My dad's a high school teacher, he has seen similar cases of students who should have been given special help, but had parents who would mainstream their kids and threaten with court orders if the school refused. He's also had to pass people who used their disabilities as an unlimited Get out of Jail Free card. Everyone should be given a chance, but not a free ticket.
Agnus,
I agree that you should follow your gut instinct. Every girl, at some point in her life, will meet creepy guys. They usually come on the form of men who are too snuggly or friendly or don't know the meaning of personal space. I've learned that whether or not my paranoia can be justified does not mean that guys can impose on me and I have to put up a polite front to not seem like a b*tch or a freak.
I don't think that he should be a nurse either, especially after his diva act of refusing to bathe the female patient.
There was a student I went to nursing school with who was very inappropriate as well. He actually got thrown out of a patient's room one day for harrassing the patient. The patient spoke spanish, and he kept asking the patient how to say various phrases in spanish! That is just one example of the many weird, off the wall things he did the year I went through school with him. This was an LPN-to-ASN program, by the way. Which means he somehow made it through 2 nursing programs having a complete lack of social skills. Yes, the instructors did seem aware of how he was, but the mostly just laughed it off. I have no idea why more wasn't done. He sure isn't someone I would want as my nurse! {shudder}
Specializes in Gerontological, cardiac, med-surg, peds.
:angryfire
In the '90's I was part time faculty in a BSN program. One year we had a "different" student. She was female, in her late 30's, seemed to have no friends, few social skills and didn't seem to be able to bond with anybody. She also had dyslexia and ADD, and had gone to great lengths to have special accomodations made for her. She had her tests read to her, had a proctor and a special room, her written assignments were done by someone else (paid for by the University). Clinicals with this woman were a nightmare!
I had her on a woman's unit once and she "misread" the accucheck, giving an inaccurate dose of insulin. Charting was a nightmare as well because I had to check and make sure she wrote the correct numbers. I didn't think she needed to stay in the nursing program and talked to the level coordinator often about her. The "Americans with Disabilities Act" kept coming up as the rationale for keeping her. The student herself had memorized whole paragraphs of the ADA and often this was the only conversation she'd have with me. If I asked a question about a patient situation often the first thing she'd say was "Remember I get extra time to answer because the ADA says so".
She had a 3.9 GPA; again, she has all these accomodations and such for her written and test work. How much accomodation am I supposed to give her when we are talking about taking care of people? I just could not justify keeping her in clinical and thought I could have failed her for this situation, especially because she was not even remotely remorseful about it. My common sense was telling me that if she could not read numbers accurately she had NO BUSINESS working with them!!! The level coordinator of the program and even the Dean said we had no choice but to keep her. She got a "D" in my clinical and we all had to go to the University Court because she protested that!
I understand people have rights. I also believe the patient has the right to be cared for by a nurse that has been deemed competent by her instructors. I made a lot of noise over this person (who also got into Sigma Theta Tau because of her GPA). My faculty friends said to let it rest. However they were Community Health, Psych, and other instructors who weren't on a Med Surg floor, weren't responsible for her meds, read her papers written by someone else, and were more often interested in the theory behind the practice than the practice itself.
Needless to say this woman is no longer working as a nurse. She was fired from several jobs for errors directly related to her dyslexia and ADD. Our state spent thousands of dollars subsidizing her education and her special needs. Deans and directors spent countless hours with attorneys and special needs people to accomodate her and prevent lawsuits. In addition because of her, other people with similar disabilities were given the opportunity to apply for and be accepted to nursing school. In this day and age where so many people are so eager for just a few nursing school slots, we should not have to put up with incompetence. I think working with this student is why I decided not to pursue education on anything more than a part time level.
Scary situations like those recently mentioned above make me really wish that nursing programs mandated a personal interview as part of the selection process. Think about it ... with so many students trying to get into the program and so few spots available, interviewing the top students before accepting them based on grades alone would help to "weed out" the weird ones from the beginning, so as not to have to deal with such drama later. I find it so unfair that those lacking compassionate, caring personalities and social skills get into the program because of a high GPA, whereas someone who has the makings of a great nurse does not get in because of a mere fraction of a GPA point. Being a helping profession with such an emphasis on psychosocial skills and abilities, I really think that nursing schools need to re-evaluate their selection processes and take a closer look at who they are actually accepting.
Scary situations like those recently mentioned above make me really wish that nursing programs mandated a personal interview as part of the selection process. Think about it ... with so many students trying to get into the program and so few spots available, interviewing the top students before accepting them based on grades alone would help to "weed out" the weird ones from the beginning, so as not to have to deal with such drama later. I find it so unfair that those lacking compassionate, caring personalities and social skills get into the program because of a high GPA, whereas someone who has the makings of a great nurse does not get in because of a mere fraction of a GPA point. Being a helping profession with such an emphasis on psychosocial skills and abilities, I really think that nursing schools need to re-evaluate their selection processes and take a closer look at who they are actually accepting.
I wholeheartedly agree with you!! These last few posts have been right on the money.
Kelly_the_Great
553 Posts
I thought of your little lady too, DutchgirlRN, upon reading about this student and how similiar the whole situation was.
I know th' post was closed but I've have been so wondering what happended with her!