I've been in two different hospitals in both my first and second semesters and come up against some ROUGH nurses who would rather do everything themselves than let me touch a thing.
I'm trying to wrap my head around the fact that they are BUSY, they have a TO-DO list, they have patients that NEED meds, help, EVERYTHING. But, I'm here to help. I'm wearing these bright purple scrubs not because I like the color, but because I want to learn, I NEED to learn. I will take them to the bathroom, I will bathe them, I will take their vitals, just PLEASE let me.
When I say 80% of the nurses I've followed have done NOTHING with me I am not exaggerating. Why is this? Last week the nurse I was following wouldn't even let me take vitals, VITALS!! I am in my second semester of nursing school, I think I can handle that.
Anyway, I wanted to know whats up with that! I recognize that they are busy. I also recognize the few nurses that have taken me under their wing and shown me SO MUCH. I'm thankful for that, and grateful.
Yes be grateful for the ones that do have patients and time. Stay clear of the ones set in there ways once your on there level there will be a day they need you and will be glad to be blessed with your presents. God bless good luck.
Our instructors always emphasized that being a nurse is being a teacher; whether it is teaching a patient or a caregiver, or a student nurse, or a community. It is part of being a nurse. There really is no exception, excuse or reason for a RN to be mean, belittle, rude, condescending to ANYONE. Isn't a nurse's character one to be admired? Not questioned? I have only had one nurse that was rude to me and she was rude to everyone, patients and caregivers and other staff members. I wondered how she was even able to work at this particular hospital as everyone else is so extremely nice and caring. I truly believe that you are either a nice person or you are not. There is no in between. You can't just switch on and off your character and if you do then you are NOT being genuine and people pick up on that right away; especially patients. Being tired and over worked is not an excuse to be rude or impolite to anyone. This is my opinion. Treat people the way you want to be treated. :)
If this were true, we would have been replaced with robots decades ago. Unfortunately, you're stuck with me. I have moods, good days, bad days, easy days, hard days, and unfortunately you may get responses based on any of those things and more.
NOTHING in life should EVER be this idealized. NOTHING.
Our instructors always emphasized that being a nurse is being a teacher; whether it is teaching a patient or a caregiver, or a student nurse, or a community. It is part of being a nurse.
Arguably true, at least on the surface. A nurse is responsible for a considerable amount of teaching---in the course of his or her JOB. The issue here is the expectation that a nurse is obligated to take on someone ELSE'S job, that of the clinical instructor HIRED by the student to DO the job.
Sure, nurses teach students, and do so gladly. They DO this when they are asked, when they are available, when they FEEL like it, and yes....when they are paid. The CI that dumps her students--HER students--onto harried floor staff is certainly NOT doing HER job, is she? Nope. But you need to recognize that the RN who gets dumped on did not accept the job, she got it thrust upon her. Believe me when I tell you the view is very different from the overworked and underappreciated side of the street from the Glory Days of Student Nursing!
There really is no exception, excuse or reason for a RN to be mean, belittle, rude, condescending to ANYONE.
On this I will agree with you wholeheartedly. Regardless of the situation, rudeness is not called for. I don't care if she's a NURSE, that's not the reason to chastise those who do the belittling. It's because no one deserves to be treated disrespectfully simply because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Being a nurse doesn't mean we should be cut LESS slack than anyone else...we are humans. And yes, PEOPLE should treat each other accordingly. You shouldn't expect to be treated better by nursing staff than housekeeping staff....people are people.
OP, I just started second semester of nursing school. During my first semester, I had a great experience at the hospital. we were on a med surg/ortho floor. we had Epic access, and we learned to do a complete head to toe. there were nurses there who didn't want to teach, some who wanted to teach, and others who HATED having students. We would identify those who liked to teach and those who didn't like to teach, we learned who we would avoid at all costs. It took time to earn the trust of the nurses and offer your help! I remember on the second day of clinicals, I was paired with a nurse who wouldn't let me do anything unless I had done it in sim lab, I ended up not with her at the end of the shift. While in the hallway looking to see if I could find anything to help, a nurse suddenly asked me to help her turn a pt. Then she started showing me things (I wasn't allowed to pass meds then), and I started learning basic things. I offer to help and do as much as I can. Repetition= practice. I got to do many accuechecks. Also, I let them know what I can/cannot do. Also, please do understand that we can slow the nurses down when some things need to be done on time. Sometimes you can do the work with the nurse, like doing wound care together. Once I helped a nurse gather supplies (yes, I learned what supplies needed) for wound care and the next time I got to actually do wound care with her.
Make them feel like you're an asset. I offer to do accuechecks and take out IVs. I answer call lights so CNAs and nurses don't need to get up. Once my nurse forgot to get a medication and was in isolation gown and I offered to get the medication, which she was relieved about. And once she almost gave a med twice to a pt and I POLITELY said it was given already. I fed the pt so that the nurse could be with her other pt; she was running behind already.
One tip I learned was, even if your nurse checked meds for you, you should check again. Once a nurse approved the meds, only to have me and my CI find out we almost underdosed the pt. Fortunately, it was a constipation medication. So always check with your own eyes. Ultimately, if you make a med error, it is your responsibility.
That being said med-surg floors are very busy and I hope my first job will not be in med-surg. I know some seasoned nurses hate having students, but the world is very very small. What if the student comes from a family of nurses and ends up working with a relative, etc... or maybe the student's relative is a hiring manager, etc....
Some schools have a reputation of having great nursing students and some schools have long time partnerships with certain hospitals. Perhaps you and your classmates should talk toy our CI about the situation and that the school may need to reassess the need to find a different clinical site.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Our instructors always emphasized that being a nurse is being a teacher; whether it is teaching a patient or a caregiver, or a student nurse, or a community. It is part of being a nurse. There really is no exception, excuse or reason for a RN to be mean, belittle, rude, condescending to ANYONE. Isn't a nurse's character one to be admired? Not questioned? I have only had one nurse that was rude to me and she was rude to everyone, patients and caregivers and other staff members. I wondered how she was even able to work at this particular hospital as everyone else is so extremely nice and caring. I truly believe that you are either a nice person or you are not. There is no in between. You can't just switch on and off your character and if you do then you are NOT being genuine and people pick up on that right away; especially patients. Being tired and over worked is not an excuse to be rude or impolite to anyone. This is my opinion. Treat people the way you want to be treated. :)
Being a nurse does require education: education of the patient and their family as to their medications, treatments, illness and care. If you work in a teaching hospital, you're responsible for the education of the newly minted physicians. Education of a student nurse is the responsibility of the school.
You're still in nursing school, so I wouldn't expect you to understand what it's like to be a nurse with a full patient load informed at the start of your shift "Oh, and you'll have a student, too." You have no time to prepare, you don't know what the student can and cannot do with or without supervision and there they are, expecting to be taught. While there is no excuse to be mean to anyone, surely, after ten pages of nurses attempting to explain why they're reluctant to teach and students saying over and over again that they DESERVE to be taught by the already-overburdened floor nurse and that there's no excuse for the nurse NOT to teach you can see why the nurses are starting to become impatient.
Evidently the students don't get it; they refuse to listen to the nurses who are telling them that a student is not helpful but only increases our workload. One day, when you're a nurse you'll get it. Until then, perhaps you could listen with an open mind to those of us who ARE nurses and are trying to explain it to you.
Last Fall I was asked to precept a nursing student on nightshift in ICU.
I am so glad that I asked what do I have to do? The school
expected preceptors to attend a full day class (the school is over an hour away) or take a 60
page online learning module. No CEUs. No reimbursement for your time and inconvenience.
I was asked about a week before the student was to start and I had a vacation and previous commitments so I had to decline. The student had an issue following her preceptor's schedule.
The students were paying for clinical hours, set up their own preceptorships and there was no clinical instructor on site.
If you really look at it, the staff nurses were doing all of the teaching, including writing weekly evaluations, and the school made a profit.
All of these are reasons that nurses are so unwilling to teach.
Last Fall I was asked to precept a nursing student on nightshift in ICU.
I am so glad that I asked what do I have to do? The school
expected preceptors to attend a full day class (the school is over an hour away) or take a 60
page online learning module. No CEUs. No reimbursement for your time and inconvenience.
I was asked about a week before the student was to start and I had a vacation and previous commitments so I had to decline. The student had an issue following her preceptor's schedule.
The students were paying for clinical hours, set up their own preceptorships and there was no clinical instructor on site.
If you really look at it, the staff nurses were doing all of the teaching, including writing weekly evaluations, and the school made a profit.
All of these are reasons that nurses are so unwilling to teach.
Unbelievable. You are asked to give up gas, your time, your attention, focus interest on the student (written evaluations, too)...for NO compensation....but the school ASKING you to do this WAS being compensated. If your employer considered this extracurricular activity in your annual reviews, if it would improve your career opportunities, opportunities for advancement, then you'd be getting something out of the arrangement.
As it stood, everyone EXCEPT you would be getting a benefit. Certainly your employer, who would have to authorize this little deal, would also likely be getting a cut of compensation (after all, the school would be requesting allocation of resources, at the employer's expense). Then again, perhaps your employer assumed you would be in no way hindered during your workday for this endeavor? Did your employer expect that you would do all this work somehow on your "own" time?
Students, take note. There's advantage being taken.....and it's NOT of YOU.
I will tell you why my friend :) . I have been in your shoes trust me and I thought why are they so mean? but the truth is that every nurse after a while learns to short cut . They don't want you to see that. As students we want to do everything by the book, after all we are thought that way but trust me ,on the floor everyone follows their own rules. I had a nurse who did not wear gloves when she started the Iv and she said " don't do what I am doing" . I had a nurse who didn't do her assessment after changing shifts , I had a nurse who never labeled any of the IV tubes. I've seen nurses eat on their station and talk their language for hours . You name it I have seen it. I learn that I will never be that nurse. I train new nurses and I tell them do not short cut , know your basic fundamental of nursing . They don't want you see them being lazy and not doing what they are spouse to do.
Surely there may be SOME nurses like this, but I encourage you to reconsider the phrase "every nurse" when talking about the motivations for avoiding students (I discourage sweeping generalizations in most opinions). I do not hide from students - or anyone - because I am ashamed of how I do my job.
Yes, there are some things that I do differently from how I was taught in my fundamentals class. But not all "shortcuts" are equal sins. As you begin your RN career, I encourage you to use good judgement when prioritizing and choosing what "shortcuts" can and cannot be safely used.
After Reading all these comments I am bewildered, so hard to pick a place to start, what I am reading the most is that the nurses are not being compensated for teaching students. Soooo people don't become nurses for the awesome salary I mean for real if a nurse wanted a high paying healthcare job they should've went to med school, so why all this emphasis on monetary compensation, When the main reason people become nurses is because they care about what they do.
While nursing, to me, is a calling, that isn't the primary reason that I went for it and went to nursing school. I chose to become a nurse because it was a reliable job that entails me to go wherever I want in the US and paid better than my previous jobs. Combined.
And if I wanted to go to medical school, I would have gone to medical school. But that would have meant becoming a doctor, not a nurse.
I have read a few posts that say nursing students can't help the floor nurses and that they get in the way, im not sure about other students but when I'm assigned to a patient(s) (usually 2-3) I pass all their med during the time that I am there and if they need any procedures done that I've been checked off on (i.e inserting foley, I.V's, trach suctioning, etc.) that is a lot of help imo on top of charting their shift assessments, doing pt. education.
If I have a student and they tell me that they'll be doing X, Y, and Z for me so don't worry, then no, I don't worry. I have a firm discussion with their CI and then the student has to give me one very good reason why I should allow them to continue to stay, and "I have to have these hours!" doesn't cut it.
Sorry, a student can survive missing a chance to see how the ED works, I can't survive losing my job and/or license because I let a student, who is there for less than one shift, do all my work for me and make errors. All I know is the reputation of the school that they come from, and what the average student from there is like. The one exception to that rule are students that I am precepting for several weeks, because then I get to know them and not just their school.
Does this make me sound like a bad person? Honestly, I don't care. I am not there to provide an ideal learning experience to students, I'm there for the patients. Do I want the student to make the most of their day, and will I work to enable that? Naturally!
One other thing that students need to think about is that if we look upset, it may not be them. Nurses are only human, they're allowed to have bad days.
Unbelievable. You are asked to give up gas, your time, your attention, focus interest on the student (written evaluations, too)...for NO compensation....but the school ASKING you to do this WAS being compensated. If your employer considered this
extracurricular activity in yo
annual reviews, if it would
improve your career opportunities, opportunities for advancement, then you'd be getting something out of the arrangement.
As it stood, everyone EXCEPT you would be getting a
benefit. Certainly your
employer, who would have to authorize this little deal, would
also likely be getting a cut of compensation (after all, the
school would be requesting
allocation of resources, at the
employer's expense). Then
again, perhaps your employer assumed you would be in no
way hindered during your
workday for this endeavor?
Did your employer expect that
you would do all this work somehow on your "own" time?
Students, take note. There's advantage being taken.....and it's
NOT of YOU.
The expectation was that I would
donate my time, my day off and
expertise. A colleague actually
tried to chastise me for not
wanting to "give back." As if the
lack of planning and foresight of this school and this nursing student was somehow my responsibility.
My region has world class
medical centers and dozens of community hospitals. We are not in Haiti or Alaska. It is insulting that these schools- and their students-have no respect for the time and expertise of experienced nurses.
When these schools provide a
receipt for a charitable donation that I can use as a
tax deduction, I will make the
commitment to take their preceptor training on my day off, coordinate my schedule, and educate their students.
When I was a student our instructor let us ask if anyone needed blood draws, IV insertions, or wound care done for their patients. The answer was always an overwhelming yes!
TaraACelestin
5 Posts
Yes be grateful for the ones that do have patients and time. Stay clear of the ones set in there ways once your on there level there will be a day they need you and will be glad to be blessed with your presents. God bless good luck.