Students (and others) using staff parking

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I don't want this to be viewed as sour grapes, and I don't want to be viewed as a nurse that doesn't like students; however, I have to get this off my chest...

My shift starts late morning. One day there was no parking in the staff lot, and I had to park in a visitor lot (and pay for that privilege). When I got in, I apologized to the secretary for being a few minutes late and mentioned my parking issues. She told me there were no spots today because there were "a ton" of students that were parked in the lot.

Again, I don't want to appear a whiner about this, but I pay a monthly rate to park in that lot. I've also seen drug reps, medical equipment vendors, etc. park in the staff lot. No idea if these individuals or the students pay to park there. When I was in school, one hospital where we did clinicals had ample free parking, so it was not an issue. Another did not. As students we could park on the *top* level of the visitor parking garage (and pay the daily fee for the lot...and get in trouble if we parked lower than the top level). Otherwise, you had to find parking on the street, pay the rate in the meter, and possibly have a fairly long walk to the hospital.

I like students, I like mentoring them, I want them to have a good experience in our hospital. I don't hold these views because I want students today to go through the struggles ;) I went through. However, I'm not too crazy about the students using staff parking.

Thoughts?

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
I live on a narrow street with parking on one side that effectively reduces the street to one lane. We don't have garages or driveways. There is a nursing home one block up from the end of our tiny street and a small park directly at the end. There is enough parking for the residents most of the time but there was a college that used the nursing home for clinicals and it caused problems. They were supposed to park at the Catholic church 2 blocks away. But being that they were special they decided one day to park on our street and in the lot for the park resulting in those of us who live there (and paid taxes) to have to circle the block waiting for a spot to open not being sure what was going on. Sure enough at 1530 a whole slew of students came out and got in their cars and pulled out. Everyone let it slide that day but suddenly this was happening all of the time. One day I got so fed up I called the dean of students at the school. That's when we found out about the parking arrangement with the church. She said she would follow up (and she did) but it kept happening. So I called the ECF and asked to speak with the clinical instructor. When I got her on the phone and dropped the dean's name and told her that she knew what was happening we witnessed an amazing thing. All of a sudden all those students went running to their cars and moved them because, as it turns out the dean had threatened them with expulsion if they did it again. So, to make a long story short, I agree and I don't think it's sour grapes.

Love it! I lived in a townhouse community and worked nights. When I'd come home in the morning, there was plenty of parking . . . until spring. Then, suddenly there were enormous pick-ups with boat trailers parked in our lot. It seems there was a boat ramp about half a block away, and the parking was inadequate for the level of use. That went on for several years until they finally expanded the parking for the boat ramp. There were several mornings I had to park a few blocks away and walk. Damn, I'd get home all ready to sleep and then a brief hike in the sunshine, and I couldn't get to sleep for anything!

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First of all whoa. I have never had an issue with parking for clinical. I guess it depends on where you are and what is allowed. When I did clinical placements at hospitals we were allowed to park in staff parking as long as we paid for it like staff do and we did not get any special discounts for being students either. I also never heard about a student failing a clinical placement because of parking. In my opinion that is an extremely hard punishment/consequence for parking.

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I also never heard about a student failing a clinical placement because of parking. In my opinion that is an extremely hard punishment/consequence for parking.

Why? If the student is told not to do something and they go ahead and do it anyway why would it be extremely hard? They are called consequences. Too many young adults are not familiar with the concept.

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I live on a narrow street with parking on one side that effectively reduces the street to one lane. We don't have garages or driveways. There is a nursing home one block up from the end of our tiny street and a small park directly at the end. There is enough parking for the residents most of the time but there was a college that used the nursing home for clinicals and it caused problems. They were supposed to park at the Catholic church 2 blocks away. But being that they were special they decided one day to park on our street and in the lot for the park resulting in those of us who live there (and paid taxes) to have to circle the block waiting for a spot to open not being sure what was going on. Sure enough at 1530 a whole slew of students came out and got in their cars and pulled out. Everyone let it slide that day but suddenly this was happening all of the time. One day I got so fed up I called the dean of students at the school. That's when we found out about the parking arrangement with the church. She said she would follow up (and she did) but it kept happening. So I called the ECF and asked to speak with the clinical instructor. When I got her on the phone and dropped the dean's name and told her that she knew what was happening we witnessed an amazing thing. All of a sudden all those students went running to their cars and moved them because, as it turns out the dean had threatened them with expulsion if they did it again. So, to make a long story short, I agree and I don't think it's sour grapes.

Used to be most students lived in the dorm and did their clinicals at the hospital where most of them would work as RN's upon graduation. So parking was not a problem at other facilities. Of course, when living in the dorm, we had to park far away but it was just par for the course.

When we did public health, we carpooled to the public clinics. And we had to use our personal vehicles or public transportation to get to peoples' homes.

For Psych, we lived at that hospital for a semester and had parking far from the building.

So, conclusion: The school needs to encourage carpooling and make their students park where students traditionally park - far away. No inconveniencing of staff should be allowed.

Drug reps? guess that's another story. Visitors of patients, outpatients coming for appointments, surgery, etc. should have valet or very easy parking

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Specializes in Acute and Critical Care.

Parking at my hospital used to be free of charge for staff and visitors alike. Staff had a separate designated parking lot and you couldn't park without a tag - or you'd get a nice $70-$100 fine for parking violation. With some expensive reconstruction going on at our university hospital's another location, they started charging visitors and staff. They changed visitor parking to be paid by the meter (cash, card or mobile app) and staff parking to be paid monthly or annually. The parking lot is not a restricted area, so the fine remains the same if you park in the staff parking lot without a tag. Students are equally required to buy the parking tag but I guess most of them use public transportation anyway.

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Agree. In my program we had to go to the top of the garage, and use a separate oarking lot for an ltc facility. Its just not right to use up employees and patient/family parking.

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We aren't even allowed to park onsite for clinical. We park at the school and walk.

I'd be miffed, too.

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Specializes in Oncology, OCN.

Glad this isn't an issue at the sites I have clinical at. We are told to park in the employee parking garage, our ID badges give us access to the restricted entrance. There is plenty of space available though so no one is put out by it. I'm at a far away hospital for my psych rotation right now that is much more rural and low demand, parking isn't restricted at all there. Just pull up and park wherever.

I do agree though that students should follow whatever instructions they've been given about parking and disciplinary action for violation is fully warranted. Grateful this isn't an issue for me.

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Infection Control/Geriatrics.

I agree that's frustrating! It would be nice if the schools had a shuttle van that they could just bus the students over and drop them off, then be there to pick them up and take them back to school when they're done. Then they could jump in their cars and go home from there.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Women's Health, LTC.
Heck, our clinical instructors told us that if we parked in any staff parking, it would be an automatic fail for clinical. I'm not sure how enforceable that would have been, but none of us were willing to take THAT chance!

Same for me. I never took the chance. However, one rotation was done at a University Hospital. They issued parking passes prior to clinicals that clearly stated who we were and where we could park (the farthest lot away).

I guess for me, it was always an issue of respect for those who worked there. I never tried to sneak into staff lots.

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