[SpookyCat]

I replied to another post with this but it may have been off their topic.
Today 07:18 PM Oh my gosh. Thank you. As a student, I could use all the info that I can get about nursing. One thing though.. I know it may have been just a figure of speech but we as students are not all smiles and cheery. I scared to death every time I step out on that clinical floor. What am I so afraid of? Not patient care really so much. I love people. If I didn't I wouldn't even attempt this profession.

I am afraid of getting walked on even more than I already am. Not only do I get walked on by most of my instructors, who I swear play so many mind-games with us (my ex-marine dad seems to think so after the stories I've told him). I get it from the staff at the community hospital where we do our clinical, who will deliberately steal your pt's MAR so that you look bad for not being able to admin meds or will walk away while you are mid sentence trying to tell them about your pt's recent change in LOC. Then I also get it from my fellow class mates who are such perfectionists that they will insult you to your face or behind your back if you question your knowledge either to one of them or to the instructor in front them. I don't pretend to know something when I do not. Isn't that dangerous?

I worked retail for seven years so I have had my fair share of horrible treatment from customers(especially Black Friday). But I have never been belittled and treated to horribly in all of my life. Why do nurses and nursing instructors have to yell at you? Have they ever heard of constructive criticism? Do they secretly enjoy making students cry themselves to sleep every night? I cry now just thinking about it.
I have never felt so low in all my life and I was on the deans list last semester.

I'm trying to stay with it and wake up every day with a clean slate. However I'm not so sure I want this, if this is all nursing is all about. How am I supposed to learn with all of this 2-faced Cattiness? Why are these nurses and instructors like this to students/me?

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!

[angelchick]

I Understand and feel your pain honey. Yes I have and sometimes still do feel like this, what gets me through is thinking of the end result... What do I want to achieve by being a nurse? Will these people matter to me in the future? Do their unthoughtful, rude, sometimes cruel remarks make them true? Or do they make THEM unthoughtful, cruel, rude people? Keep ya chin up hon, and remember why you are doing this... It's so sad that in a profession like "nursing" that we have to deal with it. Take care and message me anytime you feel the need to vent.

Take care,

[GingerSue]

really sorry that this is your current experience
- but it isn't always like that

[4x4country]

Keep your spirits up! You can do it. I am a nursing student too, so I understand. I really DO. Sometimes no else might understand the stress and the negative feelings directed to us, however, nursing students can relate to each other.
Look at it this way, You are doing great in school! Dean 's List, Congrats! Be proud!
My school has a few instructions that if you cry in front of them, they feed off of it. Several students have broken down in front of the instructions, and they ride their butts all day. I feel so sorry for the students. When I get stressed, I try to take a breath and slip into the bath room, splash water on my face, and relax.
I have been at some clinical facility's that I would never I mean NEVER work at. The atomsphere is horrible. I have been a CNA for several yrs so I have seen a lot, but nursing school is a new picture. I have waitnessed nurses and docs making fun of a pt in pain to their face, fake moaning and saying "boo-bhooo, cry me a river". Not lieing either. wish i was.
I keep my head and spirits up to be a pts advocite (pt). I want to be a nurse the pt remembers that made their stay a difference. I have had so many nurses influence me and touch my heart, I only wish to do the same to my patients. I remember this is my dream, this is my calling.

smile through your , make a postive influence on your next pt.

[sg2629]

Spookycat please hang in there. There really are nurses out there that will welcome you, guide you, and watch you grow. You have a good attitude by "trying to stay with it and wake up every day with a clean slate." In reading your words a faculty member I had immediately came to mind. One day at the end of my clinical, after what I thought was a very good day, she turned on me like a rabid dog. She demeaned, humiliated me, actually use foul language, called me an idiot - all while in the hallway within earshot of staff and patients. Today I learned I passed the NCLEX, thought of her and said to myself, "who's the idiot now!" Keep your eye on the prize.

[Tampagirl]

I felt the same way you did certain times throughout my program. Not only was it the nurses on the floor but it was the instructors who told us at the beginning of the program that they would have your back if anything wrong happened while at clinicals.

One instructor rode me like a mule the entire program. No matter what I did she always had a backwards comment about it. I avoided her so I would have less conflicts with her. We graduated today and when I went to get pinned we could pick whichever instructor we wanted and I picked her. She gave me a hug after and told me that she was proud that I had made it. I think she did it to make me a better nurse in the long run. It wasn't that she was trying to break me but teach me that no matter what happens in your career or clinicals that if you can make it through it you will be stronger from it.

[SpookyCat]

Each and every one of you are awesome for taking the time to message me. I truly thank you for letting me know that i'm not alone.

[SMK1]

Some people are just not good people. Stay away from them to the extent possible. Try to focus on the good people that you do see. The respiratory therapist who is kind enough to give you a quick rundown on when to use which masks to deliver O2 and how to put them on correctly. THe physical therapist who gives you a good tip for helping to ambulate a post op ortho client. The physician who takes the time to explain why a certain patient can't have a treatment that seems beneficial. The pharmacist who goes out of his/her way to find a list of vitamins that are in a combo vitamin like (nephrovite) for you because it isn't listed in a drug book. The nursing assistant who asks you if you need any help. THe nurse who teaches you a good tip on how to manage your time or stay sterile when things don't go as planned during a sterile procedure. The charge nurse who sees a student standing quietly waiting for a nurse to come watch them give meds and volunteers to do it. The secretary who shows you how to make 2 sided copies with a smile... these people are all around, but in the midst of all of the rudeness and ridiculous crap thrown out by others around them, they are the forgotten people. As a student who is graduating in about a week and a half, my hat is off to each and every one of the "forgotten ones". You really make a difference even if it doesn't seem like it at times because of the nonsense going on around you. I hope to be like you!

[WDWpixie]

I am finishing my last semester and this has been my first experience with a truly scary instructor!! We never knew when we approached her whether Dr. Jekyl or Mr. Hyde was going to respond. This late in the game, it was petrifying....so at a point where I should be really bringing everything together and trying to feel somewhat accomplished, I spent these last few weeks feeling totally incompetent and wondering if I would actually make it to graduation. It appears at this point that I actually will, but the woman did nothing for my self-confidence. I don't "get it" either. I know there are several students in my class who are actually kind of scary to think are graduating also, but for the vast majority of us who have worked our tails off, enough already!! A little confidence booster from time to time would work WONDERS!!

[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????