I am a B.S.N. Student in Texas. After talking to several other students from my school, it seems that very few nurses we have encountered even acknowledge that the students are there in the hospital. I feel as if they do not "wish" to have time for us. These are nurses with four or five patients who seem to have plenty of time for everything else but no time for students. Granted, I understand that students can get in the way and slow nurses down but most of us truly want to help. Maybe my persepctive is a lot different because I am in school and I see things idealisticly. I know everyone was a student once. I am just wondering how nurses feel when students are in the hospital? Do you personally feel differently about nursing than you did when you were still in nursing school?
Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.
Love yer posts, TriageRN_34. In our program, clipboards are de riguer. We only wonder, at different clinical sites, whether we can take them into the patient's room or not! Some of us even have the kind that open up and you can stick papers in. I stuffed a copy of Fahrenheit to Celsius conversions in mine the other day...
NurseFirst
Thanks again! :). I found a clipboard that had conversions printed on them and boy..when I lost that sucker and couldn't find another I was so heartbroken..heck taking my steth would have been easier on me at the time! LOL!!!!!
OH remember though...don't take those into quarentene rooms ...technically at that point you aren't supose to take them out! EEKKSS!
Thanks again! :). I found a clipboard that had conversions printed on them and boy..when I lost that sucker and couldn't find another I was so heartbroken..heck taking my steth would have been easier on me at the time! LOL!!!!!
OH remember though...don't take those into quarentene rooms ...technically at that point you aren't supose to take them out! EEKKSS!
Rather...I'd end up getting gowned up, and before I went in the room, remembered something I wanted OUTSIDE the room. Oh...so, as I'm told, if you're gowned and gloved, ppl assume you've already been IN the room (including JCAHO, from what I've heard.)--so you can't wander around gloved and/or gowned even if you haven't been in the isolation room. Oh beans!!!
--so you can't wander around gloved and/or gowned even if you haven't been in the isolation room. Oh beans!!!
NurseFirst
I know I do the same thing. I'm right outside all gowned and forget something. I chant as I go down the hall "I haven't been in the room yet....I haven't been in the room yet...". If some bigwig wants to challenge me and call me a liar, I'll just quit. Don't want to work in an institution that doesn't respect my integrity and honesty. But that's just me. :rotfl:
Just had to put in my 2 cents aswell! I am a student nurse and have found this to be the case in the hospitals i have been to aswell. The vast majority of nurses will help you and show you interventions if you ask. Some are not happy to have been lumbered with a student but make the effort anyway and i can live with that. We all know it can be extra pressure and often extra work to go through everything. I have occasionally met some extreme cases that go out of their way to show you up and put you in uncomfortable situations. Ocassionally however you find a real gem:p ! I make it my job to stick to these fantastic nurses like glue and i always end up learning a lot! I do feel that getting a bad mentor can have its benefits though as during my training so far i feel i have developed a lot of interpersonal skills and have really learned to practice diplomacy and tact!
I also wish to add my two cents. I have been a nurse now for a little over a year. When I was in BSN school, we encountered a lot of not-so-helpful nurses. None were outright nasty, but just unenthusiastic.
As a new nurse, I understand this completely. We had a few students on our floor, and my manager was wise enough not to put them with me, since I barely had my own feet on the ground at that point (still the case, actually). But no one really wanted to be with them. It really does nothing but slow you down.
For the student nurses, I would recommend the following:
- Don't judge. If you do see a discrepancy, just keep it to yourself and discuss it in your post conference with your instructor. Use it as a learning opportunity, but don't bring it up with the nurse because you will get fewer chances to learn with him/her in the future.
- Be helpful. If you offer to do AM care, you will get brownie points with the nurse as well as with the aid, and all will be more willing to help you out.
- Act as though everything is a learning opportunity. Don't be a know-it-all. Even if, in your last semester, the nurse is showing you something you have seen a hundred times, be overly grateful and act like she/he is really doing you a big favor.
- Don't take anything personally. These nurses are just overworked and tired. They would act the same toward anyone in your position.
I hope this provides a little insight from both sides of the fence.
-Julie
PS - I want to say something about RN students shadowing LPN's or NA's. This is completely inappropriate. I am not saying that LPN's and NA's don't have excellent skills that everyone could benefit from learning, but that is NOT the way to be trained. You don't see med students shadowing PA's in the hospital. Doctors teach doctors, and nurses should teach nurses. It demeans the profession when you have less qualified personnel training RN's. We had a similar situation in our psych rotation. We, as RN students, shadowed the mental health workers (basically college grads who ran programs with the patients) and had basically no contact with the RN's on the unit. I still have no clue what a psych nurse does. Completely inappropriate!!!
Personally, I love students. I get irritated sometimes when they take 20 minutes to get vital signs or make a career out of caring for one patient. Worse, some students will want to talk when all sorts of activity is going on around them, and they are unaware of the activity. I know it is because they have not learned how to pick up on cues, but it is frustrating. Remember that nurses are people too. Some are grouchy, some are teachers, some are willing to help others learn. The idea is for you to be the best nurse possible, regardless of who is around you.
...I thought I'd put my 2 cents in too about being a student nurse....
I know how it feels to have someone (a student nurse) watch your (the RN) every move. I usually keep my mouth shut when I see something differ from what I was taught. Nurses have many appropriate short cuts, but I was wondering one time when my primary went into a pt.'s room that said "WARNING! All persons entering this room must wear a gown and mask" and didn't gown up. The pt. wasn't assigned to him and she had MRSA in her lungs. He (the nurse) saw her call bell on and went right in. When I asked him afterward why he didn't gown up, he got irritated and said, "well, I wasn't in their for very long." Yikes! Is THAT appropriate? My other favorite is when I saw a nurse of 40 years stick her UNGLOVED finger into the mouth of a newborn who had just been diagnosed with Group B strep...a couple minutes before the baby was started on Ampicillin. I just sat there with my mouth open. Maybe it's just me, but I think EVERY nurse should wear gloves if he/she is going to stick a finger into a pt.'s orafice. Maybe I'm an anal-retentive student, but I don't think that's a good shortcut.
On the bright side I've had many great Nurses to work with in my clinicals...I had two that went WAAAAY out of their way to educate and talk with me...one of them was an L&D nurse who spent 30 minutes showing me how to read strips! I'm always appreciative of anyone who is willing to make me a little bit brighter!
I know all of you RN's are super busy, but I just want to spred the love and tell all of you who are happy to take on students that you're appreciated!
Personally, I love students. I get irritated sometimes when they take 20 minutes to get vital signs or make a career out of caring for one patient.
well, sometimes instructors only assign the student nurse one patient. we are on a 12 bed unit with 7 students. so we can have only 1 pt. (thank goodness they are a little higher acuity than just med surg-i really wish we had more than 1!)
so-if they are caring for only one, it may be because that is what they are made to do. i may have only 1 pt, but i always try to help out fellow students w/ theirs, or go help a student-less patient if htey need something i can do.
I've been an LPN for almost eight years now and am scheduled to graduate in May with my BSN. I agree with the poster who stated that there is a major difference in how SPNs are treated as opposed to SNs. That could have been the different facilities I've been at, however. I had very bad experiences as an SPN. CNAs would basically go hide while we did their "dirty work" (literally). Floor nurses would tell your instructor you didn't do what you were supposed to do, or that you did things you weren't supposed to do. It was hell. I vowed to always be kind to student nurses. I have always enjoyed having students around. Just one kind word or thumbs up can have such an effect on them.
I've had nothing but good experiences since being a SN. I don't know if maybe my confidence level is much higher now than when I was an LPN student. Who knows? And for the record, my husband is an LPN student now and has had mostly really good experiences. If anything, he's dealt with prejudice from an instructor who seems to be a "man hater".
Anyway, I love being with students and I love being a student under a nurse that loves to have me there.
Really the only real experience I've had with students in the OR.
We are a small hospital, and have student LPN and AD RN students visit.
They are usually with us for part of the day, once or twice a week. Once in a while, a student will come through following their pt.
I've seen variations of two types
The ones that talk too much, and the type that doesn't talk enough.
The two subsets are those that are "in the business" and "know it already" and those that are overwhelmed.
I'm not 50 mind you, but sometime I feel the old fashioned feeling that the student should be seen and not heard. (more venting later)
When in the OR, I normally say to them, ask, if you have a question, and/or watch us for a while, and if you see something you don't understand, or see us doing something that seems wrong, ask.
I like them to think about what they are seeing, you know, stimulate 'em.
I will occasionally ask them, why are we doing this or that, and see what they are thinking.
Students visiting can be a two way street, we can learn from them as they are learning for us.
I have to say that sometime, a student just needs to shut up!! Especially those that think they know it all, in the biz or not!!
The other day we had two in that frankly needed to grow up. They were found doing wheelies in the wheel chairs, and went for a break, and missed an entire procedure. Grow up a little guys!
Personally, I love students. I get irritated sometimes when they take 20 minutes to get vital signs or make a career out of caring for one patient. Worse, some students will want to talk when all sorts of activity is going on around them, and they are unaware of the activity. I know it is because they have not learned how to pick up on cues, but it is frustrating. Remember that nurses are people too. Some are grouchy, some are teachers, some are willing to help others learn. The idea is for you to be the best nurse possible, regardless of who is around you.
But I'm a lot faster when I can use my own steth and BP cuff, and don't have to go searching for the dynamap machine. I never had trouble figuring out which side of the BP cuff goes next to the patient until I used a dynamap...why can't they "color code" the sides, like my BP cuff...instead of printing in micro-type (this side goes to patient skin)--or whatever it says....Use my own stuff, I get VS done in less than 5--and usually have assessed lung and bowel sounds by that time, too....
...technically at that point you aren't supose to take them out! EEKKSS!
Antikigirl, ASN, RN
2,595 Posts
Thanks again! :). I found a clipboard that had conversions printed on them and boy..when I lost that sucker and couldn't find another I was so heartbroken..heck taking my steth would have been easier on me at the time! LOL!!!!!
OH remember though...don't take those into quarentene rooms
...technically at that point you aren't supose to take them out! EEKKSS!