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We’ve all got those teachers we love, the ones that make us look at nursing in a different light.  And then there are those instructors that we just don’t get. When you just don’t understand each other, and the more you have to work together, the worse it gets. What do you do? This instructor is plays an integral part of your nursing career, but you’ve also got to do what’s best for you. So what happens?

For me it was a clinical instructor. I will spare all the little details, but it was my second quarter (of 3) in my med-surg rotation.  Things were going well, but I was still feeling very nervous before each clinical day. I confided in my instructor that I was feeling anxious, and that even though I was very prepared for class each week, I felt like I had forgotten something. She was a very laid-back instructor, and so I thought that in telling her this, she would be able to help me out and that maybe I would start to feel a bit more confident.

Wrong! I guess she thought she was helping me, but she ended up babying me. Not having me take on challenging cases, or perform new skills. I felt lazy because I really wasn’t being challenged any more. As the quarter was coming to an end, my instructor basically told me that if I didn’t hurry up and “get more confident,” I would probably fail the next quarter. WHAT?  Really? No one had ever told me I was going to fail before. And it wasn’t like I was doing poorly, I was performing skills well and taking good care of my patients, but because I told her I was nervous, she’d lost confidence in me.

At first I was devastated, and I started to lose confidence in myself. But after mulling it over for a few days, I really started to get angry, and then I was just out right determined to prove her wrong. We didn’t click. She’s a smart woman, but I couldn’t have faith in an instructor that gave up on students so easily. I worked my but off to prove to her that I was confident enough and skilled enough to survive. And when the next quarter brought on a very challenging instructor, I knew that the only thing that would boost my confidence was not to prove it to my instructor, but to prove it to myself that I could handle it.

We don’t have much say when it comes to our instructors, and when you get stuck with one that you just don’t click with, there isn’t much that you can do.  If they’re telling you you’re not cut out for this, or that you won’t make it, remember why it is you are in nursing school. Don’t prove work to prove it to the instructor that you’re competent, prove it to yourself and in the end, no-one can doubt you.

Nursing Students: What are your thoughts? What has happened or what did you do when you didn’t click with an instructor?

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Is it true that nurses are just doctor wannabes? Find out the statistic about nursing education that handily debunks this myth, plus four more fun facts that will prove to be food for thought the next time you set foot in a classroom.

1. First, let’s debunk a myth. Ever heard the phrase “Nurses are just doctor wannabes”? If this is true, why are nurses almost 100 times more likely to go on to graduate from nursing school than medical school?

2. Just a century ago, nurses weren’t allowed to be married…and certainly not pregnant. It was almost 100 years ago (in 1919) that Great Britain established the first oversight nursing training and standards. Conditions have certainly changed since then—nurses are now allowed to be married and even work while pregnant.

3. Meet the first U.S. nurse. In 1873, Linda Richards became the first nurse to earn a nursing diploma in the United States. The first hospital nursing school on record was established in Germany in 1864.

4. And the first nursing masters degree? Columbia University School of Nursing was the first university to offer a master’s degree in a clinical nursing specialty, in 1956. It’s estimated that 13 percent of the nursing population, or 377,046, have a master’s or doctoral degree.

5. Nursing is a popular choice of study. Nursing students make up more than half of all students in all health programs. This shouldn’t be surprising. Nurses comprise the largest group of healthcare professionals in primary and long-term care.

How many of those nursing students do you think actually end up working as nurses? Leave us your best guess in our comments section.

Sources:
www.nursingadvocacy.org
www.aacn.nche.edu
www.nmc-uk.org
www.northnet.org
www.nursing.hs.columbia.edu

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You can spot me from a mile a way. All in white. Standing tall and proud with my stethoscope strategically draped behind my neck.

Oh yeah, I’m a professional…can’t you tell? Just feast your eyes on my fancy clipboard. I know, you wish you had one, too. Nope, gotta be part of my club. Only the very elite get to be part of this club. Watch out, future nurse coming through!

I stop sometimes and think how ridiculous I may look to people. I remember rolling my eyes when my younger sister was in nursing school….I thought she was nuts.

Well, here I am some few years later. I am doing the same exact things that I thought were hilarious back then. Sometimes I feel like I have learned so much, other days I know I haven’t even learned a fraction of what it takes to become a nurse.

Top Ten Reasons Why I Know I Am A Nursing Student:

1) I am constantly diagnosing people.

2) I think I have certain diseases we are learning about in school.

3) I get excited over putting in Foleys!

4) I am constantly using medical jargon whether it is necessary or not.

5) I am using proper aseptic technique just to apply a band-aid to a cut on my finger.

6) I feel the need to whip out my stethoscope when my kids have a cough.

7) I have more books than I do shoes.

I think it is so fun to flush a saline lock!!

9) I don’t have a social life anymore.

10) I am guilty of practicing writing my name Megan Gilbert, RN

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Here at Scrubs you are NEVER alone!

Occasionally we get a request for advice from a nurse who is having some difficulty in his/her job situation or home life. We will ALWAYS keep the identity confidential and will respond as best we can by drawing on our highly diverse family of writers.

This is one that we received recently:

I have been an RN for two years, and lost my previous job back in July 2011. I have been unable to get a job since then. I feel like my former employer has been dragging my name through the mud. Either that, or nobody wants me after finding out I lost two jobs. The first job was right out of nursing school and turned out to not be a good fit. I had trouble learning cardiac rhythms and they fired me because of that, even though I asked for help. The job I lost in July was basically because my boss treated me like an outsider and treated everything I did and said as wrong. I never ever harmed a patient or put a patient in danger in either job. This is wreaking havoc on me not only career-wise, but emotionally as well. What can I do? All I know is how to be nurse and I don’t want to give that up. I just don’t know what to do anymore.

Sound familiar? It did to ME! Once upon a time, an RN could leave one job, walk across the street and land another right away with no delays. Unfortunately, in today’s job market we no longer have that kind of clout. Facility administrators are under orders to cut costs by any and all means possible and that usually means staff reduction.

Even older, experienced RNs who have done it ALL find themselves having a harder than usual time getting an interview after sending out dozens of resumes and filling out countless applications. Employers do not seem to value the quality of care as much as they do the bottom line. This is a real slap in the face for those who have dedicated their lives to being the best that they can be and going above and beyond so many times.

The more time that passes takes its toll on your psyche, self-esteem and physical well being. Any nurse in this kind of situation should see a doctor or therapist to deal with the depression and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness that begin to emerge. No one should have to suffer with these drains on your life!

If you have the flexibility to relocate or to work in a different community, it is worth considering, especially if you feel your name and reputation have been “blacklisted“ where you are.

Also, it never hurts to look into other avenues of nursing such as home health, school nursing, hospice care, outpatient surgery or even medical coding and billing specialties. There are a lot of continuing education and technical training courses online which can open up new doors without you having to take on the burden of yet another college degree. Take advantage of the free continuing education offerings in order to stay current on issues and changes in practice.

Managers and employers who treat nurses as you have described usually have their own bad reputations around the area. Most likely there are other nurses who have suffered the same type of abuse and they are usually easy to talk to.

My advice is this: Know that you are a person who is worthy of respect and that you must first love and respect YOURSELF. Get the professional help you need for the depression.

Be still and listen to your inner self. You may be nudged into something you have not even considered. I happen to believe there is a higher power that uses all of us, sometimes in ways which we could not have imagined. Be open to other possibilities even as “temporary” measures.

Most importantly: Do not give up on yourself! You are a worthy person who has made it through a difficult course and you have a license to practice. You are on a rough road that WILL get smoother eventually. Nurses are nothing if not resilient!

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Now that I’ve been a nurse for mrmphyears, there are a few things that, looking back, I wish somebody had told me all of these tips right off the bat.

Not that I didn’t get good training, you understand, but there are some things that experienced nurses take for granted and don’t even think to pass on.

Lesson the First: Know where every bathroom in your building is.
This is actually both easier and more necessary than it sounds. Most modern hospitals have plumbing that’s centralized around a few points. Learn where those points are and you’ll never be without a biffy, even if you have to go down to the locked psych ward and beg to use one of theirs. I learned this early when, six weeks into my very first job, all of the bathrooms on my floor were being remodeled. Simultaneously. Nurses have big bladders, yes, but not that big.

Lesson the Second: Good pens are rarely cheap, and cheap pens are rarely good.
Does anybody even use pens anymore, what with all the computer charting? Let me tell you something, children: Back when I was first getting started, we had to walk 16 miles uphill to the office supply store to….oh, wait. Sorry. The lesson here is that the cheapo permanent markers and highlighters and stick pens that the hospital provides are rarely worth messing with. Buy your own. For a small outlay, you, too, can have one of those nifty Sharpies that hangs off of your ID tag along with all the other stuff you carry with you. And, speaking of carrying stuff…

Lesson the Third: You don’t really need all that impedimentia.
Calipers are nice to have if you’re working on a telemetry floor. A reflex hammer is nice, and a penlight is essential, if you’re doing neuro. I’ll bet you dollars to doghair, though, that somebody’s stashed at least one of whatever you need in a drawer somewhere. The only really critical things you need to have on your person at all times are coffee money and a stethoscope. The index cards, measuring tapes, quick-reference guides and so on can stay on your carefully staked-out turf where nobody will mess with it.

Lesson the Fourth: Learn where everybody’s “spots” are and stake out your own.
Each unit has its weirdo—the guy who gets really upset if you sit in “his” chair. Likewise, each unit has its own system of territory-staking. For my current unit, home is wherever your coffee cup is. In my previous unit, because we had only one nurses’ station, we all just sort of figured out where to dump our stuff and left everybody else’s alone. If you’re new on the job, your spot might be in the back, where the med students are, but eventually you’ll move up to the front of the station.

Lesson the Fifth: Not only are respiratory therapists great at getting nurses’ butts out of slings, but they also have the best coffee.
If you’re starting on night shift, this is vital to know.

Lesson the Sixth: Anything that’s good in the cafeteria or in the vending machines will be discontinued.
Once, many years ago, I saw some White Castle sliders in the big vending machine in the basement. I bought all of them and stashed them in a paper sack in the fridge. At the time, White Castles weren’t even available in the freezer section of your local grocery store and thus were like gold. Our vending machines haven’t had anything close to that good ever since, but I used those tiny, delicious burgers as currency with residents and attending physicians for a good month. Likewise, our cafeteria used to offer a tasty, healthy, low-fat grilled veggie buffet on Fridays. They don’t anymore. The takeaway? If you see something good, grab it, and don’t be surprised when they replace it with vaguely plasticky hot dogs and stale Ho Hos.

The Final Lesson: Nothing is as bad as it seems the first month (or six months) on the job.
I always tell the students I precept that it’s waaaay easier to be a nurse than it is to be a student. While this is true, it’s also true that for the first three months or so, being a nurse really sucks. You’re constantly overwhelmed and terrified, worried about what you’ll have to do next, and you never actually have time to do something thoroughly enough. This will change, I promise. Most of what you do as a nurse becomes routine after a while, so you can spend more time on actually nursing. Fear not, Chickadees. As your hip measurement increases with your time on the job, so do your confidence and efficiency.

Even without those oh-so-tasty little sliders.

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We all know an introvert: that person who can fall silent during a conversation without embarrassment and who needs several hours to recharge after a party. Introversion is one of those misunderstood personality slants that can be as tricky for the person with the slant as for those around her.

If you’re introverted and choose nursing as a career, you’ll probably feel like you’re spending most of your working days onstage. This is not necessarily a bad thing. As a fairly introverted person myself (I like nothing more than to come home to the silence of an empty house), I find that acting the part of Jo, RN, helps me differentiate between work and life. At first it felt artificial, but I’ve come to cherish the separateness that I feel once I walk out of the hospital. It keeps me from getting burned out.

It can be tricky to manage a lot of different demands during a shift. I think of it as encounter multitasking: There are loads of people who each want something unique from you.

Sometimes it feels overwhelming. For me, the trick has been to learn to take one person’s demands at a time and concentrate only on those demands. Yeah, it can take me longer to get things done, but I get them done without forgetting essentials or making mistakes.

A key point is to make time for yourself during your work hours. I eat lunch alone. Everybody knows it, everybody respects it: It’s my time to let my eyes unfocus and my brain calm down. If you work in a place where you might get lunch twice a week (or less!), even five minutes in the bathroom can be your sanctuary.

Make time for yourself outside of work, too. Don’t socialize only with the people you work with (this is a good tip for anybody). Have friends who aren’t nurses. Spend an hour or so here or there doing something relaxing or physically demanding, like reading or working out, that has nothing to do with anybody but you.

Lastly, treat your at-work time as your onstage time by getting into a routine. I have a morning routine that never varies. It makes me feel like I’m armoring myself for the day, getting into costume to play my role. Not following that routine on my days off helps me keep my work life in its proper place.

Don’t panic! Even the nerdiest, most introverted person can make it as a nurse. If all else fails, work in neuroscience. We’re all like that.

1. Carry around strong mints to overpower those smells that may turn your stomach. One drawback: You may start to associate mints with illness.

2. Vapor rub applied to the upper lip can block out those nasty smells.

3. Don’t look directly at the things that may flip your stomach. If a patient is vomiting, divert your eyes from the vomit. Learn to look indirectly at it by focusing on a point above the vomit, bedpan, etc.

4. Sympathy works wonders. Being able to sympathize with a patient who is expectorating can help keep your mind occupied on something other than “the gross.”

Eventually, you’ll grow accustomed to the sights and smells of your workplace. The more you learn, the more experience you gain and the more sympathy you feel, the less these things will affect you.

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Stuff happens, right? Even though your head tells you not to get involved with someone at work, sometimes it’s unavoidable…and, yes, sometimes there is a happily ever after.

Having said that, an “office romance” in nursing can present a serious set of challenges in an already challenging environment: It can be distracting, especially if you encounter the other person frequently, and it can make coworkers uncomfortable and sometimes even hostile.

Here are some tips to take to heart, should you decide to dive in:

Know your hospital or company policy—both written and unwritten.

Maintain friendships with coworkers, and make it clear that you would never divulge department (or personal) secrets to your lover. At the same time, you should be wary of coworkers who pump you for confidential information they think you might be privy to because of your “special relationship.”

Keep details about your affair to yourself. Should the relationship dissolve, do your job and stay silent about your ex.

Always remain professional. Public displays of affection are off limits! One colleague told me that a few of the couples who did marry went so far as to call each other by their titles and surnames while on duty.

Dating a coworker definitely doesn’t have to be, in the words of a nurse friend, “disaster, disaster, disaster.” But ultimately, in nursing as in life, discretion is usually the better part of valor.

To read more tips—including what to do when you run into co-workers, or want to drive in to work together—read the complete story in the 2010 Winter Edition of Scrubs Magazine, available at your local scrubs retailer. Find a retailer who carries Scrubs Magazine here.

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1.Something all new doctors and nurses learn fairly quickly (it’s a universal law in hospitals): Never, ever, EVER say “slow,” “quiet” or “calm.”

2. Do not ever say “I don’t know what day shift was talking about—he hasn’t had a bowel movement all night” because within an hour you will be engulfed by poo.

3. It’s okay to cry after your patient dies.

4. A wall suction canister works great to drain your foley bag, especially if you need to walk any distance to dump it and don’t want to wear urine on the front of your scrubs.

5. There is no “I” in nursing unless you are trying to win a spelling bee.

6. The opposing shift is not your enemy (see #5).

7. It’s okay to say “I don’t know,” and usually, if you are willing to ask, you can find someone who does. Always, always, always put patient safety before your ego.

8. Charting is very, very, very important.

9. “Real world” nursing is SO not like Grey’s Anatomy or ER. Believe it or not, we do NOT have sex in the break room. In fact, we are too tired from working hard to do anything but eat, pee and sleep during our breaks in the break room.

10. We as medical professionals often get so used to being elbow deep in other people’s body fluids that we forget that our friends and family might not want to discuss stomach contents, rectal tubes, sputum samples or spurting arteries over dinner.

11. Always assume your sedated patient can hear you. Also always assume your brain-damaged patient can hear you. ALWAYS treat ALL of your patients with respect.

12. Do not ever let a patient die alone.

13. Vicks VapoRub under your nose works great to help with not-so-yummy odors. So does putting a tea bag in your mask before you put it on.

14. It’s entirely normal to hear ventilator, tele, bed and IV pump alarms in your sleep during your entire first year as a nurse.

15. Use good lotion to keep your hands from getting too dry from all of the alcohol antiseptics we have around.

16. A good stethoscope and comfortable shoes and scrubs are worth their weight in gold.

17. Ask for help (see #5).

18. If you’re caught up, ask your coworkers if they need help (see #5).

19. When you have an opportunity to learn something new, take it (see #5).

20. When you have an opportunity to teach something new, take it (see #5).

21. If you clean your stethoscope with a bleach wipe after using it on a patient with c.diff, MAKE SURE you let it dry before you put it around your neck again (don’t worry, after you’ve accidentally bleached your scrubs once or twice you’ll never forget again).

22. Nursing is an art, a science, a way of life, and a privilege.

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By nature of the profession and the work that we do as nurses, doctors, or other medical staff, we are routinely exposed to the sick, the dying, the tragic accident, the miracles of medicine, the joy of cures.

Also by nature of our profession, I see on a daily basis the organic reasons for life, the physiology behind somebody healing from an illness, how medicine works on a human body to fix their ailments.

On the other hand, I also see what goes wrong and I see when a body’s organs fail to function properly and what the end result is. When we have a death at the hospital, a common question that floats around the nursing staff is “what happened” or “why did they die?” Although there is oftentimes a medical “reason” for such travesty, do we ever really know why?

I was raised in a Christian household and taught that God has the ultimate control over our lives. I pray every night before I go to sleep for the health and happiness of my family and friends. Fortunately, in my own life, aside from aging grandparents, my family and friends have led relatively healthy lives- and I thank God for that. But I’m certain that families of children at the hospital have also prayed every night for God’s healing hands to help their dying child. As a nurse (and as a believer in God) one of the greatest struggles to overcome is that three letter word, why.

Why would God take the life of an innocent child? Why would He heal this child but allow the one next door to suffer? Why would He put such a wonderful family through so much turmoil?

One of my very first posts on this blog was about a boy whom I referred to as Frog Boy. He was a patient at our hospital that I met the previous year at a summer camp, and we grew extremely close to one another during his months spent in the hospital awaiting a heart transplant. Five days after his ninth birthday he died suddenly one evening from a “silent” coronary event.

His current heart was a transplanted heart back from when he was just over a year old and because during transplantation you lack innervation to the new heart, these children oftentimes do not have warning signs of a heart attack like the average person would have. Along with being completely devastated by his death and angry that I was not there to be with him, for months as other kids were getting their transplants my prior-to-bed prayers were spent questioning why that beloved child was not given more of a chance.

I hit a low at work after his death. I felt burnt out, angry, sad and most dramatically directed this frustration at God. I would watch the news at home and see criminals surviving police chases, murderers getting acquitted of their crimes, people on a daily basis breaking into homes and robbing people at gunpoint. Why did these people live and such a vibrant child with so much life ahead of him have to die? How could God do that to his family, his siblings, and selfishly, me?

Then one day it hit me. Everyone’s time spent here on earth has a meaning and a role that they play in life. For some, it takes a lifetime well into adulthood to figure out that meaning or to fulfill it. For others, they are so wise beyond their years and have such an impact on those surrounding them that they only need a short time.

That young boy, even at the ripe young age of 9, touched so many lives in his short lifetime because of his huge heart, even though it was sick. He brought smiles to those that needed some sunshine, and he brought optimism to those that didn’t think they could go on. He was a child basically locked up in the hospital attached to an IV pole, and he had a better spirit than most people I know.

Perhaps he knew his time was limited, that’s one thing that I will be sure to ask him when I see him in heaven. All I know is that I am a better person today because of him, and his life and subsequent death has taught me that even amidst tragedy we must remember life and not dwell on the why. I know he is happily acting as my guardian angel and looking over the child that got the heart that he was waiting for. God knew he was special and thought he could continue doing all of his good from heaven.

Since then, when deaths have occurred, no matter what age or circumstance, I have not turned away from God, but instead turned to him, and thanked him for the time he allowed me spend with that person here on earth. I used to once be afraid that I would never care for another patient again for fear of losing them unfairly. But like I said in my past post to that fine young boy, I’d rather love a patient like you and lose you than never love at all.