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I'd like to know why students hide in the break room or hide at the nurse's station while call lights are going off and the RNs are running around like chickens w/their heads cut off. They'll even sit right next to a ringing phone while you're in the middle of doing something important. I never did this as a student. And why do they get to the hospital the same time as I do and want report from me instead of listening to it w/the rest of us?

Irishnurse - did the same person write your first and your second posts? You should go back and reread what you wrote, because the intent - especially when posted to the student forum - appeared to be to gripe and inflame. I understand that people frequently come on here to vent, but an open question directed to all of us students, who probably aren't the lazy ones on your floor, isn't going to find much sympathy. I'm sorry you had a bad experience with some students on your floor. Perhaps those students were scared or overwhelmed that day, but if there's a pattern I'd recommend talking to their instructor. He/she can explain to you what they are and are not allowed to do if there is any misunderstanding, and reeducate the students on what their responsibilities are on the floor. I know that my nurses can't possible keep track of what the students from various semesters and four different schools can and can not do when they come to the floor, so I make sure I remind them each week ("I can't pass meds yet, but if you have anything interesting I'd like to watch, no I'm not allowed to take TB patients, and we can't hang blood until we graduate..."). I also hand my preceptor a card each morning, that states exactly what skills I'm checked off on, and what my focus is for the day. I hope that all that makes his/her job a little easier, especially if they have more than one of us assigned to their patients. Our instructor told us to do that - maybe if you have a chat with the CIs on your floor, they can figure a way to improve communication between nurses and students.
Judging from their bold attitudes, I don't think the group of students we have right now is overwhelmed or scared. I have talked to the instructor and so has our DON, nurse manager, clinical educator and the clinical ed's assistant. They have also spoken to the school. We the nurses are also told in detail what the students can and cannot do.
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Judging from their bold attitudes, I don't think the group of students we have right now is overwhelmed or scared. I have talked to the instructor and so has our DON, nurse manager, clinical educator and the clinical ed's assistant. They have also spoken to the school. We the nurses are also told in detail what the students can and cannot do.

Well if nothing has changed and you have already gone through the proper channels, I would become assertive. Don't ask them to do things, tell them. "I need you to do ____" or " I'm going to be charting for awhile so I need that chair, you can go and get one for yourself from____", I'm going to take the chart for the next 15 minutes, you can have it back then.", "I need you to go and see what patient____ wants" You need to take care of _____ before breaktime or lunch." No need to be rude, but use a tone that brooks no argument. It sounds like you are dealig with a bunch of children so perhaps that is how you have to talk to them. Don't go out of your way to teach them things, and keep things simple for yourself by having little interaction with them". I honestly have never heard of anything like this. I can't imagine students getting aways with this kind of behavior. The nurses have to express at least a minimum of confidence in our skills and behavior for us to pass clinical out here.

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TO 1BUSYSN: The system won't allow me to post the way I'd like, but this is in resonse to your last post.

First off, I don't complain about everything. I'm only complaining about the students on my flr. On my last annual review, one staff comment was that I DON'T complain.

As to you saying you can appreciate those who are efficient but not like them if they're not kind to others, please reread my post and see that I do kill w/kindness and that I'm patient w/my patients. My co-workers compliment me on my attitude. I'm very laid-back.

I disagree that we need to put up w/administration b/c people'w lives are more important than $ and keeping up appearances.

The students ARE allowed to answer phones and call lights. They ARE allowed to toilet pts that aren't theirs. Like I already said, we are told what they can and cannot do. If they don't want to handle a pt that isn't theirs, fine. But they can hand a pt a book/blanket or give a pt an emesis basin if he's vomiting. This is teamwork.

My face to face attitude is great-ask anyone, honest.

I talk to students all the time b/c, like I already said, the students themselves say they approach me b/c I'm not mean to them.

And I often have students assigned to me b/c I try not to bust their you-know-whats.

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Don't have a solution for you then - we've lost one student from our clinical group, and it was because he got a poor performance review from his nurse ONE week. He had a little bit of an attitude, but was otherwise a decent (B) student who was eager to learn. Each week our preceptor fills out a little report card on each of us, grading us as unsatisfactory, needs improvement, satisfactory, or exceeds expectations in several categories. Then there are areas for general comments and strengths and weaknesses. I always give this to them in the morning so I'm not asking them to fill out two pages when it's time for post-conference. Perhaps the school you work with could institute something similar? Then you'd have a way to give the instructor feedback each week, and something would be done about students who aren't doing their jobe. What you're experiencing is certainly not the norm.

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Specializes in Telemetry.

How do those things get done when the students aren't there?

With all due respect, my CI this semester made it very clear that we are there to learn how to be nurses, not nursing assistants. While i understand the concept of teamwork, i also get the feeling from reading your post that your looking for an assistant more than a student to teach. We are not to answer phones on our floor and the PCAs are supposed to respond to the lights. I'm sorry that you're overwhelmed by your situation, but i hardly think that its fair to displace your frustration in the way that you are.

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How do those things get done when the students aren't there?

With all due respect, my CI this semester made it very clear that we are there to learn how to be nurses, not nursing assistants. While i understand the concept of teamwork, i also get the feeling from reading your post that your looking for an assistant more than a student to teach. We are not to answer phones on our floor and the PCAs are supposed to respond to the lights. I'm sorry that you're overwhelmed by your situation, but i hardly think that its fair to displace your frustration in the way that you are.

I definitely don't treat the students as if they are there to be nursing assistants. I like having students to teach. At your hospital you are not to answer lights or answer the phone. However, at my hospital the students are supposed to do these things, as are the nurses. I would never sit there while lights were going off expecting the CNAs to answer them b/c the CNAs are both probably in other rooms assisting other pts. I don't care if it's my pt ringing or not. We do have a unit clerk to answer the phone or the charge nurse will do it, but sometimes both are away from the desk and the nurses and CNAs have to cover for them. I would never, ever expect anything from a student that I wouldn't expect from myself when I was a student. We have signs in all nursing break rooms and bathrooms that say, "Call lights are everyone's responsibility."

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I'd like to know why students hide in the break room or hide at the nurse's station while call lights are going off and the RNs are running around like chickens w/their heads cut off. They'll even sit right next to a ringing phone while you're in the middle of doing something important. I never did this as a student. And why do they get to the hospital the same time as I do and want report from me instead of listening to it w/the rest of us?

I think you should clarify this statement by saying students YOU work with do this. Not ALL or I would even venture to say not even MOST students do this. Students at my school work our tails off, we assist everyone and do things before we are asked to. If you are a preceptor then they are to receive report from you because YOU are supposed to individualize what YOU THE NURSE want that student to do and what they should take from that day with you. BTW we are NOT clerks, we are student nurses. We have rules our instructors give us, specifically, do NOT answer hospital phones, do NOT do things without your RN knowing what you are doing and DO NOT assume tasks without KNOWING they are ok with your RN and her plan for her patients that day. We do listen to report with the group but we also get with our RN for the day and discuss details of how SHE needs her day to go. You should talk to the nurse instructor and ASK YOURSELF what the students are allowed and not allowed to do before you jump to the conclusion that students as a whole are lazy. I assure you most of us are not. Yes, there are lazy ones, yes there are ones that are shy and are not yet assertive. But to state students don't do things is overstating this situation. I find it insulting as a student nurse.

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I think you should clarify this statement by saying students YOU work with do this. Not ALL or I would even venture to say not even MOST students do this. Students at my school work our tails off, we assist everyone and do things before we are asked to. If you are a preceptor then they are to receive report from you because YOU are supposed to individualize what YOU THE NURSE want that student to do and what they should take from that day with you. BTW we are NOT clerks, we are student nurses. We have rules our instructors give us, specifically, do NOT answer hospital phones, do NOT do things without your RN knowing what you are doing and DO NOT assume tasks without KNOWING they are ok with your RN and her plan for her patients that day. We do listen to report with the group but we also get with our RN for the day and discuss details of how SHE needs her day to go. You should talk to the nurse instructor and ASK YOURSELF what the students are allowed and not allowed to do before you jump to the conclusion that students as a whole are lazy. I assure you most of us are not. Yes, there are lazy ones, yes there are ones that are shy and are not yet assertive. But to state students don't do things is overstating this situation. I find it insulting as a student nurse.

Would you and your group please come and precept at my hospital? We would appreciate it and you'll learn a lot. And I never ask students to do what they're not allowed to do. I wll clarify by saying that the studnets at my hospital are the ones I'm talking about, sorry. It's just that it seems to be getting worse and worse w/this particular school and you'll see that the powers that be have been spoken to if you read my previous posts in this thread. I bet you and your group could teach these kids a thing or two. Again, I'm talking about one school, not all, sorry.

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Well from me in my experience i wouldn't dare to do patient care unless I've learn it. Many students are first semesters and doesn't what to expect or what to do like me. After all the students are there to learn not to work cause we don't have the necessary means yet as to become a nurse. I have no means of answering a call when it's not my responsibility just yet. Nurses sometime are bitches cuz they don't understand sometimes as a student nurse your restricted to do somethings. I remember one time during my clinical in the hospital my client needed to use the bathroom but still had an IV attach to them. So i called their primary nurse to take out the IV and she said "Why couldn't you do it" and i replied back "I'm no allowed to touch IV's cuz it's only my first semester" and then she said "So what? How Are you going to be a nurse (And gave a dirty look)". O man in my head i was like what a *****...that lower my dignity because i didn't noe what to do with that IV cuz i never learn how to attach or remove it. Some nurse gotta understand that nursing students are restricted to do somethings

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Specializes in Telemetry.
Again, I'm talking about one school, not all, sorry.

Then, honestly, you should have said that in your original post. I understand feeling frustrated and wanting to vent, but don't see what you were looking to accomplish by coming on to the student nurses board and writing a post bashing ALL student nurses. Not just the SNs at your hospital, but ALL of them, as your original post did. Would you go to the NY page and start a thread jsut to say that you hate NY, or go to one of the specialty boards and call of the nurses in that specialty lazy? No, i highly doubt it. So why do that on the SN board? I guess because its easier to do that sort of thing when you feel like you're in a higher position to do so. Respect is a two way street.

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Well from me in my experience i wouldn't dare to do patient care unless I've learn it. Many students are first semesters and doesn't what to expect or what to do like me. After all the students are there to learn not to work cause we don't have the necessary means yet as to become a nurse. I have no means of answering a call when it's not my responsibility just yet. Nurses sometime are bitches cuz they don't understand sometimes as a student nurse your restricted to do somethings. I remember one time during my clinical in the hospital my client needed to use the bathroom but still had an IV attach to them. So i called their primary nurse to take out the IV and she said "Why couldn't you do it" and i replied back "I'm no allowed to touch IV's cuz it's only my first semester" and then she said "So what? How Are you going to be a nurse (And gave a dirty look)". O man in my head i was like what a *****...that lower my dignity because i didn't noe what to do with that IV cuz i never learn how to attach or remove it. Some nurse gotta understand that nursing students are restricted to do somethings

The irony is that that same nurse would've probably nailed you to the wall if you HAD touched the IV! I hope she was spoken to.

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Would you and your group please come and precept at my hospital? We would appreciate it and you'll learn a lot. And I never ask students to do what they're not allowed to do. I wll clarify by saying that the studnets at my hospital are the ones I'm talking about, sorry. It's just that it seems to be getting worse and worse w/this particular school and you'll see that the powers that be have been spoken to if you read my previous posts in this thread. I bet you and your group could teach these kids a thing or two. Again, I'm talking about one school, not all, sorry.

No problem. Well the next step I would suggest is that you nurses who precept, stop. Go to your charge nurses and tell them, if these students don't tow the line, then we won't have them burden us. Maybe, another option is that on a day off, I know this is asking a lot but we have had this happen at our school, a few nurses come, from the floor/hospital that we will be doing clinicals in. They come before we go to that site and we have a basic answer/question session. You know they talk to us about what a "typical" if there is such a thing, LOL, day will be like, what we can and cannot do, what we are expected to do, and what really it takes to stand out as a nursing/nursing student. It really helps us clear up any misconceptions that we might have as well as it gives the nurses a chance to meet us and give us the "what for" before time for us to come to their world.

Just a friendly suggestion that might help all parties involved. I do feel bad that you have students who are not held accountable. Thank you for your post and all the work you do.

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