Treat Clinical Time with Respect

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Jul 12, 2015

Yes-I've been a nurse for nearly 30 years. I teach undergrads. Students are allowed one absence from clinical (for life- sick, car break down, whatever) with a makeup required. A number of students take their one absence to go to nurse assistant orientation. I'm just tired of seeing people who want to be a nurse assistant at some hospital more than learning to be a professional nurse in their clinicals.

Ah, gotcha. In that case, in my opinion, they are 1) doing something that will materially advance their basic clinical skills at a time where we should all be grateful they care to do so (assuming this is in their first semester) and earn some money to boot, 2) within their rights according to your school policy, AND 3) foolish for telling you if they know you are against it, AND 4) gambling that nothing else will happen to make them absent for the rest of the semester.

I don't see this as choosing to be a nurse assistant over being a professional nurse, especially if, again, this is first clinical semester when the largest part of what they learn to do is nurse-aide level work. I think if I were on your faculty I would discuss this in terms of giving them a one-time-only credit for an independent learning day, like the professional day they might get for a CEU offering when they are real nurses. Have them seek it out themselves, plan and schedule it with your program in advance, as they would for that purpose, write a proposal of what they plan to get out if it, and the week afterwards, have them write something about the experience and what surprising thing they learned about it and themselves.

Lemons/lemonade?

Michnurse03 · Jul 12, 2015

I appreciate your frustration,

When I went through the program 1 missed clinical = 5 page paper,

if you missed a second clinical you were kicked out of the program.

Being a nurse is way to hard without a great foundation - Clinicals is the beginning of building that foundation,

Hang in there

allnurses Guide · Jul 13, 2015

I'll probably get "flamed" for this post but it would be lovely for students to treat clinicals with appreciation and respect. I've had more students decide being a nurse assistant at hospital X worth skipping clinical. If you want to be a professional nurse- come see me.

I wonder how you know the reason your students took their one allowable missed clinical day, but it doesn't really matter.

Since their choice takes nothing from your erudite tutelage, you're contributing to the destructive stratification in nursing today. By declaring that someone who wants to augment their knowledge on their own time is unprofessional, I'd go so far as to say your students are showing judgement that exceeds yours, in fact.

To be honest, the very fact that a student's independent desire to learn more than is strictly necessary upsets you enough to write a post about it most likely means your students will suffer in two major ways. Clinical competence and interpersonal relations in the workplace.

Your students will be those who contribute to wound infection rates and UTIs by wiping "back and forth" with a urine or feces covered wipe, contribute to increased levels of pain due to not knowing how to turn and position patients properly, increased risk of aspiration due to not learning to tailor feeding techniques to a patient's unique medical status, and display an attitude towards unlicensed assistive personnel that is a corrosive acid on the concept of teamwork. No thanks.

P.S. All of the above examples are real examples of "professional" nurses who were taught that nursing fundamentals is a type of leprosy to be shunned lest it render the nurse unable to attend Steering Committee Meetings or schmooze with corporate middle management.

However, your post is of a type written by people who never come back and respond. My respect would be greatly increased if you buck the trend and explain why someone learning nursing fundamentals in an extra-curricular way means they are less professional.

adventure_rn, MSN, NP · Jul 13, 2015

Yes-I've been a nurse for nearly 30 years. I teach undergrads. Students are allowed one absence from clinical (for life- sick, car break down, whatever) with a makeup required. A number of students take their one absence to go to nurse assistant orientation. I'm just tired of seeing people who want to be a nurse assistant at some hospital more than learning to be a professional nurse in their clinicals.

Yeah, I heard about that once or twice in my program (notably those people didn't get new grad job offers at the hospital they skipped clinicals/class for...probably because the pissed of their clinical instructor references...).

The worst was my public health class--nobody took the teacher seriously and treated the clinical like a joke. One of the girls actually told our clinical instructor that she had to leave early so that she could pick up a shift at Anthropologie (a boutique clothing store). My response would have been, "If your goal is to be a cashier, then by all means go. If you want to be a nurse, you'd better get your priorities in order."

BeachsideRN, ASN · Jul 17, 2015

Yeah, I heard about that once or twice in my program (notably those people didn't get new grad job offers at the hospital they skipped clinicals/class for...probably because the pissed of their clinical instructor references...).
The worst was my public health class--nobody took the teacher seriously and treated the clinical like a joke. One of the girls actually told our clinical instructor that she had to leave early so that she could pick up a shift at Anthropologie (a boutique clothing store). My response would have been, "If your goal is to be a cashier, then by all means go. If you want to be a nurse, you'd better get your priorities in order."

Wowser