You will not learn anything in the conference room!

[dudette10]

Why are you there then?

Do NOT hole up in the conference room with your classmates. Please! Answer call bells, help toilet patients, pass or gather trays.

If you are paired with me, you WILL learn something. If I have to go to the conference room to say, "Hey, I'm about to titrate a Cardizem drip," why aren't ALL of you following me?

If the nurses were told you'll be doing ADLs for the patient today, and I've told you that your assigned patient needs turned q 2, why am I having to remind you? Why isn't your ONE patient washed up by 1000?

Why, when listening in on report, are you chattering to your classmate? Just because it isn't your assigned patient doesn't mean you can't learn something through the off-going reporting to me, or my questions to her.

There are very few students I've been impressed with lately. Today, two of my patients had students. ADLs only, no med pass. One student was velcroed to my side. She removed a Foley, dressed a sacral wound, hung an IVF bag, and did a SQ heparin all with my supervision. The other did nothing with me, and I had to go to the conference room to remind him on turns and a bath for his patient.

With no humility whatsoever, I can say that you, as a student, WANT me to be your nurse on clinical days. If you've shown me that you want to do stuff, I will give you the opportunity to do stuff. If my first impression of you is that you don't have the initiative to take advantage of what I have to offer you, I won't waste my time on the next clinical day.

I've been where you are. I know that not every nurse wants to teach students. But when I found one, I became her shadow, and I learned a lot.

[Vana21, ADN, BSN, RN]

I love nurses that offer to show me different things moreso then the occasional one who wasn't told she would be shadowed by a student and wasn't into that idea.

My clinical instructor is frightning and if we don't have our paperwork done to the T before post-conference we get grilled hard. I always try to learn new and different things when I can, bu some points in the day I absolutly must do paperwork so I can have it finished.

It's a good way to learn time management.

[immunetogravity]

I finished school last semester, and I have to say, while getting hands-on experience was the most important to me, there are instructors that will give you papers among papers among TONS of papers that you are required to complete DURING clinical. Some of these can take up to hours to do. This was the case in my final semester, much to the frustration of me and my classmates.

Charge nurses would complain that we were just sitting around buried in our binders, and we literally had no choice in the matter. I would try to stay glued to my precepting nurse as long as I could and just work on my assignments when he/she sat down to chart, but there would be times where there was only a couple hours of the day left, and I would have to tell my nurse, "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to skip this med pass because I need to work on my care plan." If I had a cool nurse that I was comfortable with I'd add "would you mind grabbing me if there's an IV start/foley/dressing change/miscellanous skill I can do?"

I don't mean to make excuses, I know hiding students exist in large quantities and I've seen a lot of them. But sometimes if a student is in the conference room buried in careplans, papers, and charts, it's because their grade will take a ding if they're not. Never hurts to ask.

[ellaballet]

We aren't allowed to touch patients we aren't assigned to, some instructors at my program wont let students ambulate or even turn a patient without them. I always try to help out answering call lights but I always feel so bad when the patient desperately needs a bedpan and I have to say "Okay, let me go find somebody for you!"...And then that somebody I find gives me the evil eye because I have two hands and should be able to do it...But I don't want to get in trouble with school! Lol. I always try to help out and get as much experience as I can but ultimately I don't want to jeopardize my education.

[caliotter3]

Just think of how many would-be students of the velcroed to your side type are prevented for one reason or another from being in the learning situation instead of those that give the impression that they don't really care. It is a shame.

[Susie2310]

I was shocked in my RN program that we are expected to do a LOT of paperwork (involved med sheets, bare bones of care plans, plus more paperwork to be added this coming semester) but not after clinical..DURING clinical. While I appreciate having it done at the end of the day instead of working on it that night, I would much rather be out with my patient or helping nurses do things.

I am shocked too that students are expected to write up their med sheets, care plans, etc., DURING clinicals. Why is valuable clinical hands-on time being used in this way?

When I was a student we went to the hospital the night before to get our assignments; researched our patients, went home and prepared our prep sheets and med sheets, arrived at the hospital early the next morning to check labs, MARS, kardex, etc., and, under our clinical instructor's supervision, began to provide total care for our assigned patients. When we were on the unit, we were providing patient care, not doing any written work. That night, at home, we would work on our care plans, etc., and then the following day in clinicals we would proceed as for the first day. That night we would complete our care plans/other written assignments to turn in the next day in class.

[caliotter3]

This "do it during clinical time" is new to me. During my clinical experiences we were not allowed to do any of that activity, short of jotting down notes for the work that would be completed at home. We were expected to come to clinical prepared to do the activities required of us in relation to caring for the patients, not paperwork. That was for the dinner table at home, perhaps at two in the morning before the morning it was due; not for the conference room at the hospital during clinical time.

[ICU56]

I love having students, I plan my day around making it the best clinical experience for them that I can. I try to treat them like they are the nurse, Ill snag an extra vocera and log them in as one of the night shift people and tell the monitor tech to call them for their patients. This last clinical group we had would fight to be placed with me. But there are always the few who don't seem to want to take advantage of the opportunities that clinicals present to them.

Personally, the thing that bothers me the most about "lazy" students is that they don't seem to understand that I end up having a ton of extra work, and will end up staying after 15-30mins to finish everything because I've spent the day trying to make sure that they had the opportunities available to them, and that they had ample time to learn and not feel rushed. I don't need a cookie for that, but Id like a little effort since it is the profession they chose to pursue.

[beckyboo1, BSN, RN]

I am shocked too that students are expected to write up their med sheets, care plans, etc., DURING clinicals. Why is valuable clinical hands-on time being used in this way?

When I was a student we went to the hospital the night before to get our assignments; researched our patients, went home and prepared our prep sheets and med sheets, arrived at the hospital early the next morning to check labs, MARS, kardex, etc., and, under our clinical instructor's supervision, began to provide total care for our assigned patients. When we were on the unit, we were providing patient care, not doing any written work. That night, at home, we would work on our care plans, etc., and then the following day in clinicals we would proceed as for the first day. That night we would complete our care plans/other written assignments to turn in the next day in class.

That's how it was done 20+ years ago when I was in LPN school but not now. It's crazy!

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

Just think of how many would-be students of the velcroed to your side type are prevented for one reason or another from being in the learning situation instead of those that give the impression that they don't really care. It is a shame.

Absolutely!

Thank you to all of the current students who posted here to say what was expected of them by the instructors...and how it prevents them from being the type of student who will have a richer, fuller clinical experience.

It does depend on the instructor, apparently, and it makes me wonder why, why, why does the paperwork have to be completed on the precious little clinical time? Is it possibly for *the instructor's* convenience so she can do the care plan grading that night? Hmmm....

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

I am shocked too that students are expected to write up their med sheets, care plans, etc., DURING clinicals. Why is valuable clinical hands-on time being used in this way?

When I was a student we went to the hospital the night before to get our assignments; researched our patients, went home and prepared our prep sheets and med sheets, arrived at the hospital early the next morning to check labs, MARS, kardex, etc., and, under our clinical instructor's supervision, began to provide total care for our assigned patients. When we were on the unit, we were providing patient care, not doing any written work. That night, at home, we would work on our care plans, etc., and then the following day in clinicals we would proceed as for the first day. That night we would complete our care plans/other written assignments to turn in the next day in class.

Did you go to the same school? That's the way we did it, too. I had one instructor who did not tolerate paperwork during clinical and who would just give the evil eye if we were found "loitering" at all. That's the way it should be done!

[smf0903]

I am shocked too that students are expected to write up their med sheets, care plans, etc., DURING clinicals. Why is valuable clinical hands-on time being used in this way?

When I was a student we went to the hospital the night before to get our assignments; researched our patients, went home and prepared our prep sheets and med sheets, arrived at the hospital early the next morning to check labs, MARS, kardex, etc., and, under our clinical instructor's supervision, began to provide total care for our assigned patients. When we were on the unit, we were providing patient care, not doing any written work. That night, at home, we would work on our care plans, etc., and then the following day in clinicals we would proceed as for the first day. That night we would complete our care plans/other written assignments to turn in the next day in class.

This is what we do. The only time we do paperwork during clinical time is if our pts were d/c, thus requiring us to do a new prep tool and med sheets. However, it's to be done whenever we can sneak a moment here and there, no sitting in conference room or wherever.

I think it's a shame that students are doing paperwork instead of taking care of patients. What's the point of having clinicals? I think the paperwork is important, don't get me wrong, but you can learn how to do paperwork from case studies in the McCheeseyburger tree fort in McDonald's playland. What you CAN'T learn is how to interact with pts, with their family, how to deal with issues as they present themselves in the clinical setting, how to talk to your patient's about their fears and hopes regarding their condition, etc., etc., etc.

Just wow. I would feel so robbed of my clinical experience if I had to spend it hunched over my paperwork instead of interacting with patients and personnel.

[beckyboo1, BSN, RN]

Absolutely!

Thank you to all of the current students who posted here to say what was expected of them by the instructors...and how it prevents them from being the type of student who will have a richer, fuller clinical experience.

It does depend on the instructor, apparently, and it makes me wonder why, why, why does the paperwork have to be completed on the precious little clinical time? Is it possibly for *the instructor's* convenience so she can do the care plan grading that night? Hmmm....

This is school wide for us and our actual care plans aren't due until the next week. We must have a concept map completed before we leave clinical though that the instructor has to approve of. Then we are expected to fine tune it by the beginning of the next week. The instructors are quick to tell us how this is a "perk" for us because we don't have to do all of this paperwork at home. I don't really get it either.