What is the biggest frustration for nursing students?

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Just curious as nursing instructors what do find nursing students complain most about or find most challenging. Thanks.

Just curious as nursing instructors what do find nursing students complain most about or find most challenging. Thanks.

As a second year nursing student my biggest pet peave is the lectures are something I can do on my own. In my program the lectures are power point slides that instructors read. Writing or rewriting is the worst way to learn and does not promote critical thinking, only memorization. To be honest lectures should be interactive. Some ideas:

1. Have notes complete and online for students to print and read prior to class.

2. In class utilize role playing, concept mapping, group case studies, what if questions , etc.

3. Put students on the spot and ask about signs and symptoms of disease, meds, situation - action - result questions.

4. Why not occasionally give a short answer quiz. I find many of my classmates will do good on tests however they can not articulate the material, hence they will not retain it long term.

5. My best class was health assesment because my instructor demanded us to articulate the material. I tape recorded my assesments and then practiced it verbally with other classmates. we worked together then refined our assesments and made them our own. I still remember this information one year later.

take care,

Mike

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Specializes in Pediatrics.
The instructor should ask the pt as well as the R.N. if it is OK. If you just dump me on this poor overworked soul, who do you think she takes it out on.

Just gonna give you a little persoective on my clinical. My students start at 7, I get there at 6 to make the assignment. The day staff comes on at 7. Last week, they finally made their assignment by 8;45. I am not joking. there are my students, ready to give meds, and we need to keep the MARs in the books until the nurses gcheck them over. I cannot wait 2 hours for them to decide what district they are taking.

I spend the day feeling responsible for her being over burdened or I spend the day hearing "This is not my problem I have work to do, you are in my way." How is that productive. I know with the shortage this is impossible to fix, but when the nurse get's down right nasty, the instructor should step in.

Again, my perspective (and it's happened to me): the nurse in question is no more likely to be nice to the instructor. As much as they don't like you, they don't like us either. I know it's hard not to take it personally.

And BTW, the instructor should be doing the teaching, not the nurse. Unless you are in an area where you are supposed to be shadowing the nurse. I am responsible for my students, and do not put my work on the staff nurse. I do, however, encourage my students to interact with the staff, for 2 reasons. They need to learn to deal wit them, and not be afraid of them (and learn how to communicate and problem solve), and I cannot personally go up to each nurse and ask them every question on behalf of each of my students. But when it comes to meds, skills and procedures, assessing pt's, etc....that's my job. it's not easy to do it with 9 students, but i gotta make do.

Now as far as I will learn when I hit the floor, I apologize but that is not sarcasm. I can memorize a book, and I can ace a N-CLEX test but true learning will take place when I enter the work place. RN school is fundamentals that are neccessary, but no one can say that every new grad is not green when they start. If RN school taught you everything then experience would mean nothing. I would guess that many seasoned nurses can not recite an anatomy or nursing text but are still great nurses. I believe that RN school is years of how to pass the boards. I will gather my greatest knowledge from those who have nursed for 20 years before me and grace me with their wisdom as I work along side them.

Sorry it is long winded, but I wanted to clarify, hopefully this is not offenxsive to some of you instructors.

Not at all offended. And you are right...there is only so much we can teach you. it is the reality of school. You cannot be proficient in every skill and be an expert in everything when you step out there for the first time.

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If I were a nurse on med-surg who was expected to teach and at the same time do my job, I'd feel a little overwhelmed. The hospital is being paid to let the nursing students work there. Who is paying the nurse for this added responsibility? My past experience is that "shadowing" a nurse who is happy to have a student is far better than working with a nurse who has no interest in my being there. Nursing students ought to ask a lot of questions - of course. But what about when nobody is happy to answer them? Not everyone who is a good nurse happens to be a good teacher.

Diahni

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P.S. It's very hard to learn in the environment described above by several clinical teachers. As I student, I could tell right off what kind of a day it would be by the way in which the nurse responded to me when I asked about taking report. A preceptor program probably works better because 1. the nurse is trained to teach and self-selected herself to do so, 2. She is being paid do to so. Being asked to teach on top of the regular shift is bound to bother some. It really is an unfair burden to someone who is already working hard. Although it should be the instructor who is doing the teaching, how often can this happen when they have 9 or nine students?

Diahni

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Specializes in Pediatrics.
If I were a nurse on med-surg who was expected to teach and at the same time do my job, I'd feel a little overwhelmed. The hospital is being paid to let the nursing students work there. Who is paying the nurse for this added responsibility? My past experience is that "shadowing" a nurse who is happy to have a student is far better than working with a nurse who has no interest in my being there.

I agree with you completely (except I'm not sure what you mean about the hopsital getting paid to let the studetns work there??).

Nursing students ought to ask a lot of questions - of course. But what about when nobody is happy to answer them? Not everyone who is a good nurse happens to be a good teacher.

Diahni

That is why we have a faculty shortage. it is a tough job, and not everyone has the patience to do it. At first, I dodn't think I had the patience, but it is getting easier. I have just adjusted myself to a student's mindset and try to see it from their perspective.

Many floor nurses cannot do that. it doens't mean they are not good nurses and do not know their stuff. The floors are soooo fast paced.

When nobody is happy to answer? That's when you gotta defer back to the instructor. I may not know the answer to every question, but I would never turn that around to make it look like you should have known that or I am not there to answer your questions. But I will often answer a students question with a quaestion, to encourage them to think. I am not into spoon feeding answers to my students.

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I agree with you completely (except I'm not sure what you mean about the hopsital getting paid to let the studetns work there??).

Oh yes, the school pays the hospital. Shouldn't it be enough that they get free labor? I was kinda surprised when I heard this myself.

That is why we have a faculty shortage. it is a tough job, and not everyone has the patience to do it. At first, I dodn't think I had the patience, but it is getting easier. I have just adjusted myself to a student's mindset and try to see it from their perspective.

I think the most important thing is to remember that teaching and getting the task done are two different things. I have heard more than a little impatience in the voice of a very patient instructor.

Many floor nurses cannot do that. it doens't mean they are not good nurses and do not know their stuff. The floors are soooo fast paced.

When nobody is happy to answer? That's when you gotta defer back to the instructor. I may not know the answer to every question, but I would never turn that around to make it look like you should have known that or I am not there to answer your questions. But I will often answer a students question with a quaestion, to encourage them to think. I am not into spoon feeding answers to my students.

It's amazing how many questions can be answered by having a computer nearby. What drives me nuts is when there are three different answers.

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As a student I have had both wonderful and terrible nursing instructors. The biggest difference between the two that I have noticed is the really good instructors are encouraging, approachable and even slightly empathatic to what we as students are going through. By feeling respected you in turn respect them and want to do your best to please them. The really terrible ones don't realize that making us fear them through belittling comments is not a conducive learning environment, it only makes us second guess everything we know, increase anxiety and makes all of our jobs more difficult. I want to be challenged and independent but I also want to be treated like an adult with respect.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.
Oh yes, the school pays the hospital. Shouldn't it be enough that they get free labor?

Well, this is news to me, and I can't wait to ask my boss about that one.

I think the most important thing is to remember that teaching and getting the task done are two different things. I have heard more than a little impatience in the voice of a very patient instructor.

Just a little reminder: we are human beings too. We are not perfect. We have bad days too.

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Specializes in Onc/Hem, School/Community.
As a nursing student, my biggest frustration has been inconsistency in the teaching.

For example, in lecture we are told one thing then when we have precept, the professor tells us that she doesn't agree with what we were told in lecture and that it should be this other way....grrr...

It is very frustrating ...how are we supposed to know what will be on the test (not to mention how will we remember the correct thing to do with a patient)? Before I started the nursing program, I had a 4.0, now I can't get above a B because of the inconsistencies, which do nothing but serve to confuse and frustrate.

I am in the honor society but am in danger of falling below the standard simply because of the teaching inconsistencies----THAT is frustrating.

Amen to that! Most of the time, there are just slight variations between the way 7 different instructors, the book, and the film teach us; but, it all boils down to whom is testing you. Once clinicals hit, I only listen to my clinical instructor d/t the fact that he/she will be doing our skill grades, etc.

My biggest pet peeve is when an instructor isn't willing to admit to a mistake, misinformation, etc. For example, I once had a clinical instructor (no lie) that told me I did NOT have to check the pt arm band before administering meds. :nono:

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I totally agree here - there are going to be those nurses almost everywhere you go, and part of learning to function as a nurse is learning to work as a team with all types. And another patient assignment is just not always possible - my reality is that I often don't have enough patients for all my students to have their own, because we're trying so hard to graduate as many students as possible.

Becki

I agree with this to some extent, but if a clinical instructor is aware of a known issue with a certain nurse then please keep an extra close eye on their interactions with their student. There is nothing worse as a student, than being made to feel worthless and incompetent at clinical and worrying about a bad report being given to your CI. I agree with the people about the power point slides. We like that you have them, but we should all know how to read by now :lol2: Open up class time for discussion of more difficult concepts and questions. Test writing is a biggie. i am not one to complain about questions on a test usually, but please realize that we have about a dozen books that are required reading and each book has a slightly different range of normal lab values. Please DO NOT make up a multiple choice test that includes answers where the lab values are all within normal limits or all incorrect depending upon which book you are looking at. That is unfair and is NOT testing mastery of the information. Allow challenges to test questions to be discussed even if no points will be given back. At the very least you may see a pattern of knowlege gap within you class. If you are a clinical instructor be very clear on what is allowed and what is not under your watch. Some instructors straddle the fence on whether or not we can do certain things and it makes it hard for the staff nurses to know if we are just being lazy when we say we can't do something or if we are really prohibited from doing ____. Please realize that grammar and the wording of a test question can change the outcome of the "correct" answer. Look at a students performance history. If an assignment is missing and the student has no proof that they turned it in, look at the students history. If you see an 'A" student with darn near perfect attendance with no history of late or missing assingments, please accept the possibility that it was turned in, but someone put it in the wrong box, dropped it or lost it and allow the student to re-do it if possible. Realize that we don't expect you to know the answer to everything, there is no shame in saying "I don't know". Realize that you are not the only nusing instructor that we have and we may be getting conflicting information about how to write careplans, prioritizing our care and our diagnoses. There needs to be a CLEAR set of directions for careplans and assingments from the teacher who is actually grading the work. The last thing we want to hear is that _____ doesn't belong in a functional health history from teacher A, and teacher B grades it and marks it down for not including _____ because she thinks it does belong. :nono: Organization! I have been fortunate so far to have mostly really great instructors, but here are some of the issues be they small or large, that i have seen.

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Just gonna give you a little persoective on my clinical. My students start at 7, I get there at 6 to make the assignment. The day staff comes on at 7. Last week, they finally made their assignment by 8;45. I am not joking. there are my students, ready to give meds, and we need to keep the MARs in the books until the nurses gcheck them over. I cannot wait 2 hours for them to decide what district they are taking.

Again, my perspective (and it's happened to me): the nurse in question is no more likely to be nice to the instructor. As much as they don't like you, they don't like us either. I know it's hard not to take it personally.

And BTW, the instructor should be doing the teaching, not the nurse. Unless you are in an area where you are supposed to be shadowing the nurse. I am responsible for my students, and do not put my work on the staff nurse. I do, however, encourage my students to interact with the staff, for 2 reasons. They need to learn to deal wit them, and not be afraid of them (and learn how to communicate and problem solve), and I cannot personally go up to each nurse and ask them every question on behalf of each of my students. But when it comes to meds, skills and procedures, assessing pt's, etc....that's my job. it's not easy to do it with 9 students, but i gotta make do.

Not at all offended. And you are right...there is only so much we can teach you. it is the reality of school. You cannot be proficient in every skill and be an expert in everything when you step out there for the first time.

Just wanted to say that at my school the CI isn't required to do all of the meds and other skills with the students. The students can do it with the instructor or and RN, so I can see how the poster who stated her nurse may have 9 patients could get testy about doing skills with the student. I try to do things that may take awhile with my instructor (like my first catheter insertion) so the RN doesn't have to wait and waste time watching me. Just pointing out that it is different everywhere you go.

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One thing that can make a frazzled/overwork nurse breathe a little easier (unless they are really just mean), is proper communication from the beginning. When i arrive at clinical and meet the nurse that i am assigned to, i introduce myself and let her know what I can do by myself and what i have to have an RN to watch me do. i let her know if she can expect me to do the assessments and chart them and ask if she would prefer me to go over my findings with her before charting them and I have a copy of my current do's and don'ts list for her to see what I can do, do with supervision or absolutely under no circumstances can touch. I let her know my brief plan of action for the day running down my priorities and letting her know that I know when meds are due and asking any questions about how a med was ordered. I then tell her that i can do ____ procedures unsupervised on her other patients if she needs it done (BG sticks, D/C IVs and putting on saline locks, simple dressing changes etc...) i also let her know that i would love to see _____ procedure done so if she has one scheduled let me know if it is ok for me to come watch. this process usually takes 5 minutes or less and i head out to start working. i like to keep busy and I feel as though if i take charge, the nurse doesn't feel like she has to babysit me, i get a better learning experience and usually a good report to my CI.

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