The "honeymoon" as they say, is over. In the course of 3 days I think I may have worked myself into two probations. One was for a supposed "no call" to clinical last Monday, which was not actually a no call because no one on the floor was available to answer the phone the entire morning, therefore when I did call, no one answered. Ok, the second probation (should they decide to give it to me) is directly related to that same day. The day I was absent was Tuesday 11/2/04. On Monday, I was assigned my patient and only had 15 minutes to retrieve information from the chart before it was time to feed the patients. After breakfast, this patient (and her chart) went down to a medical appointment, and her chart was not returned to the floor before our clinical day ended. Now, a rule for our clinicals is that students are not allowed on the floor without an instructor at any time. So, long story short- I was unable to get all the information needed for my careplan. I still wrote one up utilizing the information I did have. Unfortunately, it only warranted a 46%. SO, my clinical instructor tells me that I may be put on yet another probation (clinical), but she has to speak with the department head first. This wouldn't be such a threat to me except for the fact that the department head is the same one who made my clinical teacher dismiss me from clinical this past Monday d/t illness, and is the same person who's exam I EVER had to retake. My clinical teacher tells me to write a statement explaining why my careplan was missing so much info, and told me maybe it would help. THEN she said that with two probations there may be no saving me, despite my excellent grades and the fact that all the teachers can see me being a great nurse someday. She ended by telling me she wants to see me succeed, and knows that I have the capabilities to. I am so frustrated. I am getting mixed signals and don't know what to do. Thank you for letting me vent. :uhoh21: :uhoh21: :uhoh21:

I'm sorry to hear you're having a rough time. Let us know how everything goes!

I feel your pain. One, realize you're not at fault. Two, make your state hella good!

I recently got put on medication probation. I gave calcium and pepcid, po, without my instructor checking me off. It was my first week with this teacher, having just been with an awesome instructor (who happens to be one of the advisors) who was comfortable with us having our nurse check off our meds. Plus, our new instructor thought we would be alright with two patients the second day on the floor...I don't mind it, but let me get used to the floor first. So I got written up for that. And then she writes me up for poor paperwork!!! One, we get done one day at 1900, go home, go to bed, then be at the hosptial at 0600 the next day...And you expect me to do paperwork?! I was so stressed about getting written up for the meds I had given, and making sure everything was alright...This patient had untouchable pain. She was screaming and crying, wouldn't respond to pain meds, and was allergic to most narcotics. A lot of my time was in there trying to comfort her and make sure she had whatever she needed to be comfortable.

I made sure to explain in my written statement that my mistake was in not talking about the meds with my instructor, but that I did check the 5 rights, 3 times! So, i haven't heard anything back about that. We'll see.

Point is, keep your chin up. We've all made mistakes (if you haven't yet...just wait). And you're going to learn from them somehow, and take that on with you. Best wishes-Andrea

Good luck and keep us posted! I've found that in our program lack of knowledge/contact is no excuse for subpar work. We have to be REALLY proactive to seek out help/ask questions when we have similar problems. Maybe next time if something like this happens, let your instructors know why your careplan is short ahead of time? Most instructors I've dealt with are very understanding and would have probably taken the time to allow you to retrieve the information you needed - or at least helped you understand how you should handle the difficulty of the chart/patient being off the floor. Maybe I'm just blessed with kind instructors and a good program? Regardless, I hope things work out for you!

When I was in school, our professors would give us their cell # and/or home phone # . For emergencies such as yours. Perhaps you can suggest this to your clinical person. Don't depend on the unit secretary or anyone who answers the phone in the unit to relay the message to your prof.

A girl I knew, had a family crisis and got into trouble with the prof.;eventually it was resolved but it was not worth the headache.

Take care and keep plugging away. You can do it.!!!