Effing Clinical

This hospital (Suburban Stupid Hospital With A Staffing Problem) sucks. There were THREE nurses for the whole ICU-stepdown unit. THREE. Which meant each nurse had 4-5 pts, at least half of whom were on a vent, or at LEAST totally immobile. That's totally unsafe. And the nurses were really angry when we showed up, because if they had KNOWN that we were going to be there, they wouldn't have done ANYTHING for the patients we were going to take. Except that we weren't doing patient care today, we were orienting to the unit.

They don't even have an aide, or an CNA. So...that's why they have us come there apparently. It's because they want to use us as free grunt work. That's NOT why we're there. I don't mind doing work. I like to pitch in, but we're there TO LEARN primarily. We are PAYING to be in nursing school, not to be unpaid aides doing tasks we learned how to do LAST YEAR. We're supposed to be learning NEW things, not just doing bedbaths. Assessments? Sure! Foleys? Glad to! Suctioning? Bring it on! Spending ALL MORNING cleaning patients, WITHOUT getting to do any of our new skills? NOT COOL.

And everything is either broken or absent.

And there are PLENTY of other clinical groups at ACTUAL TEACHING HOSPITALS, with staff who WANT to teach them, with doctors who show them things, with LEARNING to accomplish, which just makes this all feel dreadfully unfair.