I'm in my last semester of nursing school and have met so many amazing nurses in my clinical experiences. These nurses were patient and willing to take a minute in their busy day to teach or allow me observe.
Of course I have also met nurses who wanted nothing to do with us students. I've had nurses roll their eyes at me when being assigned a student, nurses introduce themselves by telling me "stay outta my way", nurses that don't want me to do anything with their patients, nurses that say "your assessments don't count, you're just a student", I've had nurses say "I don't get paid to teach", nurses that have been mean and rude. Why??? Haven't these nurses been new? Students Eager to learn?
So last week on Medsurge unit in our "teaching hospital" I knew I was in for a long day when I saw my assignment. I worked with this nurse once and had heard nothing but horror stories from other students. I started by introducing myself [received an eye roll], and let her know my assignment included med administration, labs (blood draw from central line), general nursing care, and of course shift assessments. Her response a sarcastic "great". I prepared my meds and discussed them with my instructor. As we headed into the room to administer the nurse was already there giving meds. "You took too long" she said. I apologized and explained I needed to do them with my instructor. She also did the blood draw. My day went on like this.
Frustrated I caught her at the nurses station and asked if we could talk. I asked her "what made you want to be a nurse? Do you remember being a student?" She didn't answer. Then I said " I feel like I am an inconvenience, I want nothing more to be a great nurse and in order to do so I need to learn from someone with the same passion". I then walked away. 30 minutes later she came up to me and said that she thinks we have it easy. Computers and nclex prep courses we are just taught to pass an exam. Although I don't fully disagree I did explain that the nursing field is growing and medical advances, increasing comorbitities, and advancing technology does not make it any easier to learn. She then said "I wanted to be a nurse to take care of people, to be respected, and to make a change... I almost forgot". Aside from my end of shift report we didn't talk again.
Since this day my fellow students have said she's a great nurse, willing to teach and patient.
Moral of my king story -- stick up for yourself and never forget why you want to be a nurse.
Nurses are so quick to forget they were students and another nurse had an extra workload and at the time as a student you didn't see it that way.... Quick to forget the past I notice with a lot of nurses. I best nurses I have experience always said "I was once a student...." And helped me SO I didn't miss up and they had to fix that also... Oh well
I always see both sides to everything. I must ask you, did you not have clinicals where YOU were the student? Did you only get to work on machined dummies where no real patients were presented? We all must be thankful where we are, where we came from and where we are going. Are nursing students making your job more difficult? Undoubtedly. On the flip side, we all will be or have been nursing students and we should just be more kind to each other in general. As hard as nursing students can be on your day, be thankful you are in a position to help them. There are a lot of people who are dying to get into nursing programs (as i am certain you once did) and there are people dying to help students as that would mean they are currently employed (a lot of people without a job these days) We must not forget about how lucky we are to be alive and have our health and not in the position of the patients. Help one, help all......
Yes, the OP explained that she was being respectful and ready to take on tasks. But not every student who says she's respectful and ready to take on tasks IS respectful and willing to take on tasks.
So now nurses are assuming nursing students are guilty before even proven so? this to me, if anything were ever to be called it, is NETY. Also, if students aren't there to help the nurses, why are so many of them complaining on this thread about the students who weren't helping?
Nothing in here sounds like 'nurses eat their young' . I thought that was competition and attitude toward fellow nurse co-workers.
I'm only pre-nursing, but had to train others in the past while having high stress job, no lives at risk though.
Students should not be there to help the nurses. They are there to learn. It's the nurses problem if their job doesn't get done, hence the pressure. Watching and listening is learning. It takes a lot of time management skills to be able to slow down to train a student on a skill, while not falling too far behind. Accepting you will fall behind and it will take a while to catch up will lessen the stress. Just know where falling behind is OK and not OK.
Yes the OP explained that she was being respectful and ready to take on tasks. But not every student who says she's respectful and ready to take on tasks IS respectful and willing to take on tasks.[/quote']
I personally don't think the OP was respectful to the nurse she was working with. Telling someone who is teaching you about wanting to be a great nurse and then saying "I need to learn with some with the same passion" is just rude. Then to walk away and not let her respond? I think there is a better way to handle that.
Thankfully I've yet to run into a nurse that wanted to eat me. I've run into a few during clinicals that didn't want to deal with a student but they were subtle enough that I didn't feel like too much of an inconvenience.
Every one of the nurses on the floor that I work on are wonderful about taking students. I work as a student nurse and while the floor isn't a specialty that I want to pursue, I'd be happy to be trained by nearly every one of them. Never once have I felt intimidated or unwanted (keep in mind that I'm quite thick skinned and am in the mindset that it's none of my business what someone else thinks of me :) ).
I personally don't think the OP was respectful to the nurse she was working with. Telling someone who is teaching you about wanting to be a great nurse and then saying "I need to learn with some with the same passion" is just rude. Then to walk away and not let her respond? I think there is a better way to handle that.
I agree- I think the OP is lucky the nurse didn't report her to her instructor- and then to add- "why did you become a nurse?" really??? Depending on what I had going on that day, and it sounds like the nurse was busy, I don't think my response at the end of the day would be "....x, y, z, and thank you for reminding me of why i became a nurse....I had forgotten."
I personally don't think the OP was respectful to the nurse she was working with. Telling someone who is teaching you about wanting to be a great nurse and then saying "I need to learn with some with the same passion" is just rude. Then to walk away and not let her respond? I think there is a better way to handle that.
Except everything the OP mentioned had nothing to do with a nurse who was/is interested in teaching. Eyerolling, sarcastic remarks, rudeness, and doing things without showing the student, defeats the purpose of the student being there.
adnstudent44
78 Posts
I appreciate your response @ruby vee