Hi wbnurse!
Congratulations on starting your training! I am really sorry to hear that your first day of placement didn't go well. My background and speciality is medicine for the elderly so I am always sad to hear about people's bad experiences working in this field. Were you allocated a mentor or associate mentor on your first shift? I know on my ward we have had students start placement but aren't on shift with either mentor. If you end up with a junior member of staff or a nurse who is not a mentor it may be the case of they don't really know what they need to be doing with the student. I know it doesn't take much common sense or a qualification in mentoring to show someone around the ward and give them a handover, but if the RN doesn't have a lot of experience of students and are very busy, they can sometimes forget about the student. I'm not saying it's right, but it happens from time to time and hopefully this can be rectified when you manage to work with your mentor. If you were with your mentor, then they have no excuse. I would say that it's a bit quick to say you hate your placement because of a bad first shift. There may have been factors going on that you weren't aware of. Please give it a chance because there is potential to learn so much. If your mentor and members of staff get a hint that you are disinterested then they may give you a hard over it because they may think "why bother?" as they may see it as a waste of time if you're not really bothered if you are there or not. I'm not saying that this is the case for you, but try not to come across as annoyed or disinterested because of one bad shift. I have mentored a lot of students. Most of them have been fabulous and are moving on to great things but there is nothing more frustrating than trying your hardest with a student and they are just not bothered.
Why don't you try turning the negatives into positives as I see that from 2 basic tasks that there is a lot you can learn from it and write excellent pieces of evidence for your portfolio. I will give you a couple of examples of what I mean.
1) Cleaning a bed
-What is the protocol for cleaning beds in your area? What does current literature say is the best approach?
-What are the benefits and drawbacks in infection control policy? (A benefit could be that it reduces the spread of hospital acquired infections such as c diff and MRSA. A negative could be that it's time consuming, therefore staff rush and do not complete the task properly due to high turnover of patients)
-See if there is anything hot in the news regarding infection control. I don't think this went public but our trust had an outbreak of a certain strain of c diff. It was found in certain pockets of nearly every ward. We suspect it was because of beds not being cleaned properly in between patients due to high turnover. There may be other stories similar.
- Incentives. Does your trust have any incentives for ward staff to maintain good infection control? Ours has an accreditation for wards that consistently maintain standards during audies.
-Spend time with infection control and see what they do.
2)1:1 with a patient
- What is the rationale for the patient to require 1:1 nursing? Is it because they are confused, wandering, aggressive, pulling at medical devices, high risk of falls etc.
-Has the patient got mental capacity? If not why not? Has it been formally assessed? What does the law say about capacity? (Mental capacity act etc.)
-Have protocols been followed? Our trust has increased supervision bundles for patients who require supervision or 1:1. If patient is strictly 1:1 and lacks capacity has DOLS been completed?
-What nursing interventions could help the patient? What does current literature say?
-Has the patient been referred to mental health liaison or psychiatry for assistance in managing the patients behaviour?
-Spend time with mental health liaison, dementia specialist nurse, Parkinson's specialist nurse etc.
-Research delirium, dementia etc.
I don't agree with any member of staff being left to 1:1 a patient for 3 hours, let alone a student. Unfortunately things happen and staff get tied up and are unable to relieve you. I am guilty of this myself and I have also been in this position. If I was the only trained I often sat in the supervised bay whilst I wrote my care plans, wrote in communication cardexs, plan discharges and complete admissions. This is hard if the patients are constantly disruptive but it can be done. I have had shifts where even as a band 6 I spent most of the day 1:1. Also when we supervise bays we do the hourly rounds, fluid charts, food charts, toileting for all the patients in the bay, not just the patient/s you are watching. It sounds difficult but it can be done. You really have to learn to multi task when you work in care of the elderly, lol.
I hope this helps to reassure you that care of the elderly isn't so bad and gives you a few hints and tips. I try my best to look at the good in a bad situation. I think it just goes to show that you are a better person if your placement is bad but you continue to use your initiative and learn. It shouldn't be this way but sadly it happens. I really hope that this was just a one off and the placement improves for you.