Working with student nurses

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How do you guys feel about working with student nurses? They are helpful but at times irritating to my day. I am always kind and polite to them because I remember how it was to be a nursing student. Sometimes I feel that they have a "know it all" attitude.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

Today, I had an interaction with a student during hand-off. My patient had to go to a procedure, and I was handing off to the day nurse. The transporter needed assistance because the patient was AMS and combative.

Everyone was busy, so the day nurse and I got it out of the way, and I asked a passing student to help. He looked like he had just won the jackpot!

Working nights, I won't have the opportunity (or burden, depending on how ***** your day is, I suppose ;) ), so take my Pollyanna post with a grain.

To have a student with me did bring back memories, even if I'm only a few months out of being one myself. Happy ones. Exciting ones. Sometimes, the eagerness of a student is a nice thing to have around....

...in small doses...hats off to the day shift nurses! :D

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I graduate in March and I can't recall, beyond fundamentals, the last time I worked with a nurse. We are required to do ALL patient care, unless it's something we've never done, which at that point, our instructor works with us, not the patients nurse.

But I can say that I worked with some very nice and helpful nurses during my fundamentals quarter.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

I just went through a couple posts, and I don't understand why some students feel it's necessary to correct a working nurse. When I was a student, I didn't question the nurse's technique when I was with her, even if I learned differently (best practices) in school.

It was discussed in class and in post-conference that nurses have their different ways of doing things, and that doesn't necessarily mean that a way is wrong. I remember recognition of that fact being a clinical criterium during two separate rotations!

I watched, and if I learned a different technique in school, it was no skin off my back if she wasn't doing it textbook. She was responsible for that patient, not me.

So, my advice to students? Keep your mouth shut on technique and just watch. Do it the textbook way in front of your clinical instructor. You might adopt a different way of doing things when you work as a nurse, too. More importantly, patient situations might require you to.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.
I graduate in March and I can't recall, beyond fundamentals, the last time I worked with a nurse. We are required to do ALL patient care, unless it's something we've never done, which at that point, our instructor works with us, not the patients nurse.

Just keep in mind that even if you don't work directly with the nurse, what you are doing for her patient is on her mind, and she is ultimately responsible for it. For example, if you are giving meds and you have the MAR, let's say an order comes in to D/C a med and replace it with another one. She has to hunt you down, review the MAR for the last dose of the old med, figure out when the new med should be given, change it, and make sure that you and your instructor knows it's been changed. From your perspective, it was a 60-second exchange. From her perspective, it took a bit longer than that. :D

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I am currently a nursing student, and to be honest I am very kind, I am great with my assessments, and I feel bad that I might have to slow the nurse down, but to be honest with you.....as part of our passing clinical is to be assertive and tell the nurse what to do and which patients we will take, and when we will delegate....and honestly I feel so uncomfortable having this attitude b/c I feel bad for my co-assigned. But like I said its part of our assignment as a student nurse during clinical to be assertive & some what aggressive. Just try your best to be patient and realize that as part of the student nurse assignment we have to fake being uncomfortable for our grade

No disrepect, but I wish a nursing student WOULD come into my ER and try to tell me as an experienced ER nurse what to do!

After I laugh in your face, we would have a come-to-Jesus meeting with you, your clinical instructor, our ER educator. There is no way in hell I'm taking any kind of orders from a nursing student.

I'm not trying to be mean, I'm being real.

And there is a difference between being assertive and aggressive. Your clinical instructor should teach you the difference.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
the ignorance towards students i see from some nurses is unbelievable. nurses are quick to complain about a heavy workload or a short staff but will just as quickly complain about the help of a student. students are there to learn from nurses - not be criticized or discouraged. maybe it slows you down for a shift but try thinking further ahead than the ten extra minutes you'll be on the floor - the nursing shortage is only getting worse and as professionals it is your responsibility to promote and encourage others to enter the profession, not scare them off. the code of ethics outlines nurse's responsibilities to guide and support students so if you do not wish to do so i would reconsider the career. it astounds me how many nurses so quickly forget that they too were once students. that being said - not all nurses behave this way and some are very supportive towards students.

also, policies and procedures change. the student nurse and the nurse with 30 years experience will obviously have differences in the way they approach care, learn from each other! if the discrepancies between techniques is causing an issue - check the best practice guidelines, that is what they are there for.

nurses aren't being "ignorant toward students"; the opposite is true. nurses complain about "the help of a student" because students are not a help. you even went on to say that "students are there to learn from nurses." not to "help" nurses. teaching a student is an enormous job and believe it or not, that wasn't the job we were hired to do. we're there to take care of patients.

i don't know of any nurses who have forgotten that they were once students -- if someone actually has forgotten that, they're probably in the early stages of alzheimer's and it's time to quit. i do know that students have absolutely no idea what it's like to be a nurse . . . . and hopefully you'll be able to re-read this thread and get back to us when you do know.

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
Um, excuse me, but did you say that part of your clinical is to "tell the nurse what to do and which patients we will take"....????

Um, call me crazy, call me old fashioned, call me a b**ch...but those are MY patients, I am working under MY license and I am not going to take orders from anyone, unless that person has an MD behind his/her name and is writing said orders in the patients chart...or giving me verbal orders....and I am especially NOT going to take orders from a nursing student......Honey, I don't care how assertive or aggressive they want you to be....ain't gonna happen....not on my shift....just what nursing school are you going to, anyway? Now, I know I have been doing this for some time, but I can just imagine going up to a nurse when I was a student and telling them what to do...................OMG...(and I was a much older student too)...wow, just wow.....

My sentiments exactly. No student would tell me what to do and live to tell about it.

I'm like you, I can't imagine being back in my student days and telling older, experienced nurses what they should do.

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Well I have heard my clinical instructor mention being assertive, but not in the sense the poster on here meant. He was telling us to step up to doing tasks, take the initiative to let it be known that you are willing to try a task. What the poster on here mentions was aggression, and there is a difference, as someone so graciously pointed out. I do not think that will go over very well in the clinical site I am at, and I am not about to try to find out either...:cool:

Being in clinical rotation myself it has been helpful reading these posts. I realize that my presence has the potential to slow a person down, particularly if they are attempting to explain something to me. I keep a little notebook in my pocket. I observe and if there is a procedure I do not understand I jot it down. When we have a quite moment I ask for clarification.

Since I started like that the individuals I am working with tend to know that I am going to ask a question if I am confused about something. They seem to recognize my curious look, or better yet the "doe in headlights" look and tend to ask if I need clarification. Repoire is a powerful tool and it makes everyones day go easier. I say again, thanks to all who take the time to teach/train/instruct us. We really could not do it without you...:smokin:

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The ignorance towards students I see from some nurses is unbelievable. Nurses are quick to complain about a heavy workload or a short staff but will just as quickly complain about the help of a student. Students are there to learn from nurses - not be criticized or discouraged. Maybe it slows you down for a shift but try thinking further ahead than the ten extra minutes you'll be on the floor - the nursing shortage is only getting worse and as professionals it is your responsibility to promote and encourage others to enter the profession, not scare them off. The Code of Ethics outlines nurse's responsibilities to guide and support students so if you do not wish to do so I would reconsider the career. It astounds me how many nurses so quickly forget that they too were once students. That being said - not all nurses behave this way and some are very supportive towards students.

Also, policies and procedures CHANGE. The student nurse and the nurse with 30 years experience will obviously have differences in the way they approach care, learn from each other! If the discrepancies between techniques is causing an issue - check the best practice guidelines, that is what they are there for.

Maybe if I were a teacher...I'm not...I'm a nurse, my pt's come first not some students overblown sensitivities. However, nowhere in the Nightengale pledge I took in nursing school, nor in the code of ethics I signed at my facility, nor in the board of ethics for my state does it state that I have to guide and support students. It does state a lot about my relationship with pts, nothing about student nurses. Maybe that is different in your country.

Secondly, students are not help. They are more work.

That overtime you cause, I have to explain and account for every second of that to my boss, and if I have children in daycare then that daycare is charging me for every minute I am late picking them up.

Maybe not all students are helpful and supportive towards nurses.

I am generally nice and supportive to students...but I believe that to get respect you have to give it. And once it is lost, it is so much harder it earn it back

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My sentiments exactly. No student would tell me what to do and live to tell about it.

I'm like you, I can't imagine being back in my student days and telling older, experienced nurses what they should do.

I'm betting that something is missing in the poster's instructions. I'm guessing she's either not communicating the goals/instructions clearly or that she's not understanding them clearly from the instructor. Maybe she just feels that being more practive and assertive is aggressive.

My last quarter we were expected to delegate to the techs and take a more proactive role with our patients. We were supposed to try to organize our time more like a nurse and less like a student nurse (higher expectations on prioritizing, doing less baths and ADLs, communicating with the doctors in addition to the nurse about patient condition, etc). It was.....challenging. Delegating to a tech at whose facility we were guests was awkward and we got a lot of push backs from the techs who weren't excited about being given direction by nursing students. We were communicating with doctors as well as our nurse using SBAR, and the R of SBAR is Recommendation" so perhaps that is what that poster is referring to when speaking about "telling the nurse what to do"? Just a guess.

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Specializes in PICU, ICU, Hospice, Mgmt, DON.

Perhaps, but if that were true, why hasn't she clarified that???

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Perhaps, but if that were true, why hasn't she clarified that???

Busy, doesn't understand how what she said differs from what she meant, feels jumped on, scared away, doesn't know how to clarify what she meant. just hasn't checked the thread again yet, is over it, doesn't care if strangers on the internet don't understand her....? IDK. If the poster doesn't come back there's no way to know what was meant, but I like my theory so that's what I'm sticking to ;)

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