Awesome Clinical Teacher

[kokopuff3]

Why do nurses eat their young?

I'm a first year nursing student and this took place at clinical a couple of days ago. We have placement from 0700-1900 on Sundays. My colleagues and I were going about our day without a hitch, when Grumpy Evening Nurse walks in...

GEN: *lofty tone* Last week, one of the students took out the MAR, and we were looking for it for three days, and you guys have to be more careful, because the nurses are getting blamed...*continues rant*

Nursing Students: ..The reason? Last week we weren't even at clinical placement, we were at school so there was no way any of us could have taken the MAR out and lost it. Also, it seemed as though she was looking for someone to take her frustrations out on.


Awesome Clinical Teacher: Don't talk to my students that way. If there is a problem you discuss it with ME.

GEN.. *draws herself up to her full height, about 4'11* I have to get my med cart..*storms out*

[Antisocial_Worker]

Why do nurses eat their young?

The universal question. My boyfriend, who is an RN, and I have had several conversations about this very thing. It doesn't faze him, but it horrifies me because to hear him tell it, veteran nurses will cheerfully allow a patient to die on the table if it means you, as a new nurse, are made to look incompetent and get fired.

He told me stories about the hospital where he used to work before he moved here, where he saw teams of nurses desert a patient in the ER, leaving a new nurse to deal with a situation that was way beyond anything they could or should have been expected to know how to handle. Did the patient live? Did they die? Nobody cared. The goal was to make sure the new nurse either got canned or quit.

He said the only way to avoid being eaten alive is to go in bowing, scraping, and pretending to know nothing because the veteran nurses don't care what's being taught in school now; they will do things the way they do things and you will either do it with them or incur their wrath.

[kokopuff3]

[QUOTE=He told me stories about the hospital where he used to work before he moved here, where he saw teams of nurses desert a patient in the ER, leaving a new nurse to deal with a situation that was way beyond anything they could or should have been expected to know how to handle. Did the patient live? Did they die? Nobody cared. The goal was to make sure the new nurse either got canned or quit.[/QUOTE]

..These people call themselves nurses? I never understood why people who do those kinds of things would never stop to think about if that was their family/loved one, if they would like that kind of treatment for them...unbelievable

[kpzra]

I went toe-to-toe with an ER nurse who wanted me to do things that as a Paramedic student I was not trained for, and did not need to know. My instructor pulled all of us off doing clinicals there, and we went to another hospital for the rest.

[kokopuff3]

@ 24601..Good for you for standing up for yourself and caring about patient safety..It seems as though your instructor did the right thing as well..

[Sapphire Silk]

..These people call themselves nurses? I never understood why people who do those kinds of things would never stop to think about if that was their family/loved one, if they would like that kind of treatment for them...unbelievable

The bottom line is, nurses are human beings like everyone else, and some nurses are assholes. Far too many people today get into the profession for the check, and others are simply burned out to the point they are charred.

For every asshat nurse there is another who is a GREAT mentor. Ignore the asshats, look for the mentors. The great mentors, btw, will never ask you to do something dangerous.

GEN was just looking for an excuse to be disagreeable. The instructor's response was golden . . . and how I would have (and have) responded to a similar issue.

[Lyse]

I have to agree with Panacea. The couple of nurses at my last clinical site were awesome and willing to actually take time to make sure we learned what to do, and perhaps more importantly, why to do certain things. Did it make their day longer? Probably. But they were determined to actually teach us something. And they did.

The nurse on the 2nd and 3rd floor, on the other hand, didn't trust students or want to be bothered with us. Our instructor kept us out of their way fir the most part.

[kokopuff3]

@Panacea: You're definitely right..I guess I'm still very idealistic ..I agree with what you say..as green as I am, I've been exposed to nurses that I want to be like.

[kpzra]

I had some that were great, and I learned from. The problem was when we were told to do something we didn't know how to (like cath someone or give IV meds) and she'd wander off, then yell at us when it wasn't done. We still did the OR, OB/GYN, and autopsy clinicals there just not ER ones. It was just easier to move them than try and work around her schedule for most of us.

[Amina516]

Panacea = yes.