Quick story-time: During one of my clinical rotations this semester, I was partnered with a classmate who was a CNA/PCT. I was very excited, because I was hoping I would learn something new. Needless to say I was very disappointed…

My partner proceeded to complain upon learning our pt. was on precautions. Mind you when I volunteer I have to put on precautions often; it does not take more than a minute to do so. I told my partner that and she insisted she would not step into the patient’s room. I said “Oh well” and began to don PPE, then she reluctantly began placing on PPE. My partner also complained about how it felt like a nursing home and she was not learning. I agreed with her and explained that yes, it may feel like a nursing home, but out clinical instructor is awesome and we get to do so much with her compared to the other clinical groups. I explained to her that even though I was not interested in working with older patients, I have enjoyed everything we have gotten to do. She just nodded her head, but you could tell it was not going anywhere. Which is fine, you cannot change people in life…

Another thing that annoyed me when working with her was that she yelled at our patients as if they were hard of hearing. When we left our main patient’s room, she told me he is hard of hearing. Mind you, she was fifteen minutes late for clinical and missed report, so she missed the part about our patient giving delayed responses. I explained that to her, but it did not matter she continued to yell at our patient for the duration of our care. I was thoroughly embarrassed, as our patient stared at me confused overtime she raised her voice. 🙄 Her attitude on the floor was also not the best, her body language screamed that she did not want to be there.

Meanwhile she complained about how tired she was from working her shifts in the ER and how the ER is better. I told her I understand how it feel to already have your mind set on a specialty, but we have to learn the basics. I then corrected myself and said “I’m sorry, I need to learn the basics, since you already have experience”.

I decided to find my instructor to report vitals/assessment findings so she could chart them. My instructor asked me what was up, because she can read us pretty well. I explained the situation to her and she listened and told me to not feel discouraged because management on the floor was very pleased with out care and to count that as a small victory. So I did!

As far as my partner, she pretty much moped around for the entire shift until a patient’s family member was talking about money then she lit up… I can understand why though, she works long shifts, is in school and extracurriculars. At this point a higher salary may be her only motivation at this time. I also think because she was a CNA/tech for so long, she fell into the monotony of healthcare, but I was unsatisfied with her as a clinical partner.

What do you think?