[zoeboboey]

Originally Posted by SpookyCat

I'm sorry for going off topic like this but I did not realize how much I really had to say. I'll probably post this on another more related thread. Did/Does anyone else feel like this as a student? Either way what did or would you do???? Please help!

I'm glad you persisted and started your own thread on this.

I remember being a student and I also remember HAVING students. When I WAS a student many moons ago my instructors were ALWAYS readily available. As I gained experience they were not right by my side every second but I ALWAYS could gain access to them.

When I HAD students a few years ago, their instructors were scarce and I was basically expected to teach and supervise them but - that day my assignment was nearly impossible as it was and I felt SO BAD. I was not mad at the students but at the situation which made it very difficult to provide them a good role model and teaching opportunities - or to stop and answer questions. I verbalized this to them and hope they understood. If I was angry at all I was angry at the instructors who basically dumped the students. Perhaps they had more students elsewhere but both the students and I felt abandoned by them.

My point being - be as prepared as you can be, contact the instructor if you aren't able to get what you need, realize that the vibes and behavior may have very little to do with you but perhaps w/ staffing or their primary concern, the patient.

Good luck and know that if you can survive school you can probably survive anything!

[SpookyCat]

Originally Posted by hairtocare

I hear ya!! Our instructor made another one of my classmates cry last wednesday, and he is ashamed. I don't get it, why do they have to act like that? I hear nurses saying "we have a saying 'we eat our own' ".......why in the world would someone want to do that? Our instructor has everyone scared to death, I just try to stay out of her way and stay one step ahead of her. I'll be done with her soon and move on to the next.
What I don't get is the fact that she is so horrible to everyone and then at graduation she is the instructor who gets the most flowers and got a standing ovation? Are these students senile or just plain stupid????

Yeah I hear you too!

Just last week we were finishing up our 2nd OB rotation and thankfully I had a different instructor the 1st time b/c the second instructor was not as nice. She rode me all three weeks each week coming up with some way to insult me in front of the staff or other students. She was a tactless piece-o-crap who I will forever use as an example of what I do NOT want to be like when I graduate. BTW when we were all leaving the last day everyone wished her luck b/c she is applying 4 a job as a full time instructor at our school. (Everyone that is except me) If I had her 4 both rotations I would not know that I really like OB because she made it to be such a drag.

[SpookyCat]

Originally Posted by zoeboboey

I'm glad you persisted and started your own thread on this.

I remember being a student and I also remember HAVING students. When I WAS a student many moons ago my instructors were ALWAYS readily available. As I gained experience they were not right by my side every second but I ALWAYS could gain access to them.

When I HAD students a few years ago, their instructors were scarce and I was basically expected to teach and supervise them but - that day my assignment was nearly impossible as it was and I felt SO BAD. I was not mad at the students but at the situation which made it very difficult to provide them a good role model and teaching opportunities - or to stop and answer questions. I verbalized this to them and hope they understood. If I was angry at all I was angry at the instructors who basically dumped the students. Perhaps they had more students elsewhere but both the students and I felt abandoned by them.

My point being - be as prepared as you can be, contact the instructor if you aren't able to get what you need, realize that the vibes and behavior may have very little to do with you but perhaps w/ staffing or their primary concern, the patient.

Good luck and know that if you can survive school you can probably survive anything!

Thank You for responding!
Yes I believe that the situation is similar for us only the nurses weren't kind enough to even say to us that they had too much on their plate and couldn't help us. I wish they were more like you. AND I wish we had smaller clinical groups in order to give us more one-on-one with the actual instructor. We are presently in a group of 8 and most of the time we are assigned to 2 pts each. So thats 16 pts my instructor is in charge of helping us with. Lemme just say that it is a battle to give your meds or do most procedures on time b/c she won't let us give any meds w/o her where as some instructors will once you've shown them the MAR and meds.

[mrs.captain.kangaroo]

I truly do not understand why abusive behavior by instructors should be considered acceptable by nursing schools. If someone cannot correct someone without belittling them and making them cry, how can that be considered good instruction?

[ksilty]

What you are experiencing is a rite of passage that most nurses feel as students. The first year of nursing school may seem intentionally harsh because you are transitioning from an enviornment where mistakes are easy to fix to one where they could cause permanent damage. Nursing Programs make the first year difficult on purpose - to paraphrase a quote from Philosophy class - "That which does not wash us out, makes us strong".... Hang in there, things will get better. Rookies receive the same treatment in any critical job, don't let 'em see you sweat. After the first year, the fog lifts and people start treating you like a real person again........

[zoeboboey]

Originally Posted by SpookyCat

...So thats 16 pts my instructor is in charge of helping us with.

Yeah so really that's unrealistic for HER to be in charge of that many. Hmm...

I don't really understand. Some of what goes on just contributes to the nursing shortage! I went thru the same "basic training" the prev poster mentioned - the "wash out" - I can see it to some degree but learning by intimidation is extremely difficult! I had so much performance anxiety back then - I was just blessed that I had patient instructors I guess.

I HAVE seen tho students that I think would have been good nurses pushed out because of ONE instructor who had a personality clash w/ them...

I'm concerned too, sort of off-topic, I read somewhere that some hospitals are now hiring only BSN's. How is THAT going to help the shortage? Esp when there are not enough schools as it is!

Anyway - good luck - you're going to encounter difficult bosses, patients, doctors - this is good practice in how to grin and bear it - and still succeed. Take care!

[SpookyCat]

[quote=zoeboboey;2703043] I'm concerned too, sort of off-topic, I read somewhere that some hospitals are now hiring only BSN's. How is THAT going to help the shortage? Esp when there are not enough schools as it is!
/quote]

I agree. I ended up going to a private 4-year school myself b/c I would have had to be put on a 2-year waiting list if I wanted to got to the other two schools in my area. B/C of the waiting list I'll actually get my BSN faster than I would have gotten my Associates. On the other hand I'm already swimming in excessive amounts of student loan debt and I still have another whole year to go b4 graduation.

[SpookyCat]

Sometimes it feels like I'm being supervised by someone that is foaming at the mouth while waiting for me to make a mistake so that they can Pounce.

Last month my patient's spouse came to me and told me that he felt so sorry for me. "The way she is treating you is uncalled for. There is no reason for her to stand over you and make you so unnecessarily nervous. I think you are doing a wonderful job."
I almost cried twice that day: 1st for the off the charts anxiety levels I was experiencing, 2nd for the simple fact that someone else saw what was going on and that I wasn't imagining it. I am so thankful for patients and families like that. They keep me going.

[la bellota]

I just wanted to say hang in there sister. I have 38 days left.

I have had some wonderful nurses I have worked with. They were busy. If the opportunity presented they let me drive. They communicated to me when we were not able to perform the procedure but gave us opportunity to watch. Best of all they gave us respect, kindness, understanding, and an open enviroment so that we could ask if we did not know.

But then there were ones as you have described. I have jokingly come up with an idea for our graduation. I was going to create a faces scale so we can assess the kind of pain a floor nurse feels when she sees a student.

0 - smiles - it is no pain at all to show the SN the ropes, or she is glad to have the help

1 - concerned - slightly painful because it is a busy day but is still willing to have you join her and participate or observe.

2 - put your roller skates on and follow along little student nurse

3 - oh God. Not a student nurse. Maybe if I just do what I need to do and let her follow I won't have to talk to her.

4 - oh God. Not a student nurse. Maybe if I don't talk to her or do procedures or give meds while I send her to do bed baths she won't realize that I am being passive aggressive or maybe she won't know that I am here.

5 - Hell no, I am not getting stuck with a student nurse. And I am going to let her know that I am not happy. I am going to ask her 3 times when she is leaving, even if I ask 15 minutes ago. I am going to remind her that she has it easy now. Just wait there is more hell to come. I am going to
Tell other co workers that I got "stuck" with a SN, why me?

6 - I am not happy. I will do everything in 5 (pain rating) and then point out to my co workers the student nurses' failings behind her back. We will give her cold stares and ignore her questions.

7 - I will be mean and derogatory to the student nurse. I will call her names in front of co workers. When in front of a patient say to the patient she is a student nurse and she better do it right because I am watching her. (upsetting patient and increasing fear of student and patient exponetially) I will go to other departments and let them know they may be getting students soon. A forwarning of incompetence so the SN looks suspect as she goes to other departments.

I hate '7' days. Fortunately they are few and far bewtween but they happen. Fortunately we have had more '1' and '2' days. I can deal with '3's. It is just sad when we get 4 - 7s. And they are more common than I like to admit. But I try not to take it personally because when this happens it is usually the environment that was off before you got there. I kind of like the days that are 4, 5, 6 that end up being 1s and 2s. Because that definitely happens. And it feels good when it does. Like you have changed their minds.

Anyway....sorry for the long reply. Hang in there, my friend. May you have many days of 1 and 2

[zoeboboey]

Originally Posted by SpookyCat

..I'll actually get my BSN faster than I would have gotten my Associates. On the other hand I'm already swimming in excessive amounts of student loan debt and I still have another whole year to go b4 graduation.

You don't have to pay on it while you are in school right?

It is overwhelming the amt of $ - what I wish I had done as a new nurse was to have seen a financial planner - so I could get my bills paid, enjoy my income, but also have a plan for the future that was practical and relatively painless. Think about it

That's great tho that you are getting started w/ nursing more quickly this way - I hope you enjoy it! And the pain scale you mentioned in the other post? Some of them ought to get out of nursing, IMHO. I always told myself if I ended up hating what I was doing, for whatever the reason, I needed to get out - no patient should have to have a caregiver like that.

Good luck to ya and God bless you!