Banding together to "grow a nurse"

Nurses are taught by nurses.  Education is provided in the classroom and at a facility taking care of patients under the watchful eye of seasoned nursing faculty.  All nurses have been taught in this manner so how could nurses ever forget they were once a student?  While some nurses are welcoming and share their wealth of knowledge with nursing students, others…not so much…we hear “stay out of my way” or the student is completely ignored by the seasoned nurse.  Sometimes they make life very difficult for the nursing student.  Learning and comprehension do not occur when a student is stressed.  Students learn when their mentor is calm, welcomes questions, allows time for the student to think of the answer to hopefully have positive patient outcomes and for the student to have that “ahha moment”!

Why oh why would a nurse act like the student is not in their presence?  Why would they make the student feel like they were in the way?  When I facilitate clinical, I go in to the patient’s room and introduce myself, and ask, “Is it okay if we have a student come in and help take care of you today?”  (I have been facilitating clinical for seven years and have only had one patient decline a student.) When the patient advises it is okay, I will throw in, “Are you okay with a male student?” (Again, I have only had one tell me no males, so we assigned a female student.)

If I were the nurse in labor and  delivery, I would do exactly what a physician does when they have an intern with them…they bring them in.  They do not ask permission because this is how physicians AND nurses learn.  The student is observing only.  Many times we have heard the seasoned nurse walk into the patient’s room and say, “We have students today and you do not want a student do you?”  Presentation is everything!  Even if a student observing would have made no difference to the patient, it surely will after a question like that!  The students have advised many times during the clinical day, when they are paired up with a nurse, they are ignored.  Attention all directors, managers, and staff nurses….at one time, you were a student once, we must band together to “grow a nurse” and stop this form of horizontal violence in nursing.

What are your thoughts and comments?