nursing student Archives - Page 3 of 3

No Explanation Required: A Preceptor’s Tale

By Marcy Phipps, RN, whose essay, “The Soul on the Head of a Pin,” appeared in the May issue of AJN. She has also contributed a number of thought-provoking posts to this blog (here’s the most recent).

I’ve been precepting a new ICU nurse intern, which I generally enjoy doing. The only downside (from the preceptor’s perspective) is that I’m obliged to call ahead and request “unstable” assignments. This is meant to enhance the clinical aspect of the internship, and it definitely does. Considering that I work in a trauma center, though, reserving the sickest patient in the unit feels a bit like ordering up a large serving of chaos. And although I can request the assignment, I can’t predict what will be learned.

Our most recent patient was a new admission with a traumatic brain injury. At the start of our shift he had a grim neuro prognosis and was hemodynamically unstable. His condition deteriorated throughout the day and he was eventually diagnosed as brain-dead. His family chose to donate his organs.

Taking care of an organ donor is difficult. Brain-dead patients are inherently unstable, yet certain parameters must be maintained to ensure adequate organ perfusion. It’s tedious and meticulous. It also requires a shift of perspective—ironically, even though the patient is legally dead, […]

Marcy Phipps, BSN, RN, CCRN, CFRN2016-11-21T13:15:13-05:00October 20th, 2010|Nursing, nursing perspective, students|5 Comments

A Nurse So Cold

Al is weak, frail, and most important, scared. At 55 years of age, after 34 years providing care, she finds herself in a major medical center— on her back, staring at ceiling tiles. The woman who’s always had skin as pure as a china doll now ironically has a porcelain hip. She’s just 36 hours out from a total hip replacement, and she knows something is wrong. She feels her heart pounding, she can hear the beating in her ears, feel the pulsing on her pillow. She rings the call bell to ask for the nurse to check her. An hour comes and goes, and no one comes to her room.

That’s from the August Reflections essay, titled “Miss Orienting Nurse.” The author is Linda Pellico, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Nursing, who tells of her chagrin at witnessing rote care provided to a hospitalized friend by a former student of hers. We hope you’ll read the essay and let us know your own experiences as a nurse or patient—or both. How many of us will someday have to rely on such cold and distant figures as the nurse and MD portrayed in this essay?-JM, senior editor

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:16:06-05:00August 16th, 2010|career, nursing perspective, students|2 Comments

A Nursing Student Learns the Trick of Reassurance

I wasn’t sure why Mary Sue was in long-term care, but I could tell she had dementia. She spent most of her time in a recliner near the nurse’s station, asking anyone who walked by why she couldn’t go back to bed.

“It isn’t time yet, Mary Sue,” the staff would reply. I asked one of the nurses why they didn’t just take her back to bed. “When we do,” she told me, “she asks to return to the chair. Out here we can keep an eye on her. She can look out the window. She smiles more often.”

But I had yet to see a smile. This was my first rotation as a nursing student, and I tried to use techniques I’d read about to distract Mary Sue: towel folding, cards, books. But she remained on target, reaching out to me and repeating her request with a distraught look on her face. . .

Read the rest of the November Reflections essay, written by a nurse looking back on her first nursing school rotation five years ago. The basic human need for reassurance is shared by all of us, whether we are patients or providers. What do you do to stay centered during the day, to remind yourself of your own value, to focus on what really matters . . . or just to stay in the game?

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:21:27-05:00October 27th, 2009|nursing perspective, students|0 Comments

Role Reversal: Remember That Nursing Student You Almost Failed?

Although I'd been a nurse for more than 20 years, this was the first time I had been so completely dependent on the health care system. I felt vulnerable. I knew too much. I needed to feel confident that the ED nurse assessing my injuries would do a thorough job and give unqualified support to a fellow nurse-turned-patient.

Jacob Molyneux, senior editor/blog editor2016-11-21T13:23:44-05:00August 14th, 2009|career, nursing perspective, students|0 Comments