While in clinical I find myself feeling like a train wreck waiting to happen. That at any moment that train will hit something or fall of the tracks and catch on fire… and then burn down an entire forest. Okay a little over dramatic I know but that’s how I feel. As nursing students we are meant to ride the line that separates confidence from insecurity, that we are to show on the outside that we know what we are doing, but on the inside… the way we feel is that every part of us is going to explode, or that every normal bodily function is just about to embarassingly, spontaneously occur. And to top that off, you have to reassure that patient of yours that you are completely competent and able to complete the task. However, at times there are coassigns that make your life hell. A wise, wonderful friend of mine who has since finished her schooling once told me “nurses eat their young” and she is completely right. At times your coassign will be wonderful and want to teach you things or ask you questions to enhance your learning and that’s okay. But then there are times you have a coassign from hell, who does all your work for you, makes you look bad in the eyes of your instructor or who does something extremely unprofessional. I’ve had a coassign ask me “are you going to do this patients meds or no?” while pushing the MAR (med administration record) into my hands and giving me this ridiculous look (when the medication was due at 2 and it was 150 and I was on my way there)…... I am not about to delve into details about things, but let’s just say I have seen coassigns finish tasks for students and then tell the instructor that they did it, question whether the student is going to do something when they were on their way to do it or walk in on students while they are performing a task, and at times those tasks have been very uncomfortable for the patient, and the coassign hangs out and questions what the student is doing. When in actuality that student is following what he/she has learnt as per policy and procedure. I don’t know, but once I get out in the real world, IF I get out into the real world, I would never, EVER do that sort of thing to a student. That makes the nurse look unprofessional and frankly… bitchy. I would want the student to learn, to show them things they haven’t learnt yet, or to show them some tricks of the trade. Like I said, students are frightened enough as it is and are nervous and anxious about learning a task. I would never want to belittle them or make them feel like they don’t know anything. Don’t get me wrong, most of the time, coassigns are awesome. They enjoy having students there because it gives them a little break from everything that they have to do, because that list can be pretty damn long. I have an immense amount of respect for those nurses and all that they do, and all the knowledge that they have. All I’m saying is, is that we have to have respect for each other, students for students, nurses for nurses. There is no point in being bitchy to be bitchy, it just makes you look bad and doesn’t give anyone a chance to create a good opinion about you. And opinions are hard to change. So be nice to people… and that really doesn’t take much effort….. Maybe karma will come back and do something good for you…
