I love nursing students! I love their enthusiasm and nervous excitement when they walk into the emergency department for their specialty experience day. Most students are afraid that the nursing staff will avoid them. Every once in a while, though, it's the other way around and the staff nurse is the one who is being avoided.
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When I first started in our emergency department night shift, I noticed that the 2-3 students were largely ignored for the first half hour or so during shift change. They stood nervously by the desks, repeatedly adjusting their coats and book bags with a look of "please tell me what to do!" on their faces.
I looked around at the day shift staff, busily getting report on the sick, critical, violent, or the repeat pts that they will be taking over on, so busy that having to explain things to students was just not possible at that moment.
So I took over and made a whole structure for them which was heartily accepted by my coworkers. On student days, I try to wrap things up early and give a quick orientation. I give a few tips on NCLEX, on how to stay cool in crazy situations, and what to expect for the day, and what to do when an ambulance arrives with a pt. Then I pair people up with the most patient, coolest and toughest 20+ year vets and go home. I usually get told how the students did when I get back to work that night. It's almost always great news. The evening students are always paired with me.
When it hits the fan at the wrong moment, I still have been able to get them in on mega-codes, help ortho MDs reset bones, start CPR, explain the critical nature of XYZ patient, and why that walking/talking pt will be sent to the ICU. Even with varying degrees of receptiveness, students have almost always been amazingly well mannered and willing to dig in. Except once.
One day last semester, a pair of students came down and I noticed increasing amounts of boredom/irritation as I went through my (now well practiced and tailored) orientation when I was interrupted in my talk about megacodes.
"I don't want to see that, and I definitely don't want to DO that. Just tell me where to stand while they do whatever they have to do and I'll wait until it's all over," she said dismissively.
I was floored. I asked her if she had intention to work as a nurse. She answered that she did, but not in any situation where she would have to do anything dirty or see blood. In fact, she planned to get her NP as soon as possible so she could just write orders and walk away. Her friend agreed.
When I asked her why she was in the E.R. rotation, she said that it was only because she had been assigned to it. I could only think about the other students who would have loved to be there and what a waste of everyone's time it was for her to have even been there at all. I couldn't help but think of what a waste of time it was for me to have just spent the last 20 minutes telling them anything at all since it had clearly been thrown away before I even spoke.
To tell you the truth, I was completely upset. I remained upset for almost a week. I spoke to my coworkers who said that many times they will avoid having a student because of that very attitude. I ended up going home and thinking that I didn't know if all students secretly felt that way. If so, why was I putting so much effort into them?
Just before the winter break, I spoke to an instructor and asked her opinion. She gave me great news. It was this, "Just send them back to their instructors and pop an email to the school."
Huh. So with the semester ending, I dug back into work and stopped thinking about it.
This semester the students started to arrive again. I watched them stand a fidget for a moment before my instincts took over and I started to cautiously orient them. My fears were immediately dissolved when one asked "Do you think we might get to do CPR?"
Thank God for the kind of students I look forward to seeing in my department.
