Student nurse...on night shift?

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Hello my fellow nurses!

I have been a NICU nurse for 20 years, and have just recently branched out into private duty nursing.

I am currently caring for a stable 6 month old baby 4 nights a week. He is on oxygen and continuous feeds at night. Most nights he sleeps fairly well, so there isn't a whole lot to do but sit and monitor him.

I was just informed that there will now be a student nurse with me one night a week.

Is it common to have student nurses with private duty nursing agencies? And at night?!

I can maybe understand having a student nurse on days when it is busier (with therapies, appointments, the baby is awake, etc), but what on earth is a student going to learn at night when there is nothing to do?

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Specializes in Pediatric Private Duty; Camp Nursing.

Yeah, that's weird. If a student were to do PDN as a clinical, it would be more beneficial to do a day shift, perhaps going to school w the ct or something. If you are the teaching type, you can spend that time talking about the world of home healthcare and all that goes with it. However 8 hours entertaining a student gets old quick, I don't like it when my orientees stay longer than a couple of hours, I like my personal time! Perhaps you could refuse?

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Interestingly, the student never showed up, and I never heard anything else about it. Maybe they too realized the absurdity of it!

Not sure how much I could expound upon the world of home health since I am only 2 months in and still learning myself!

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

Hmm where I work we have had students on nights but I work in a hospital.Private duty is an odd setting to have a student in.

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Specializes in Pediatric Private Duty; Camp Nursing.

Some of the students in my own class got a rotation on PDN, just a one-day clinical. I got wound care and OR days instead. But they were day shifts.

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