Target of clinical instructor's venom HELP!!!

Sue Damonas, BSN · Feb 3, 2007

When I was a nursing student in the early 80's this one instructor hated me from day one and made my life miserable! The other students noticed it. She was always berating me and giving me difficult assignments. One day I had a patient dying from colon cancer and we had a hard time controlling his pain. She insisted that I get his am care done and he begged me to not do his am care. When she found out that I didn't do it she screamed at me at the nurse's station and made the other students bathe him in spite of his wails of pain. I was so upset because I felt we needed to control his pain rather than bathe him but of course I was the one who was wrong! She would not listen to me. She continued doing this all through the semester and I had no choice but to take it and at the end of the semester during my evaluation she admitted that she was very hard on me and wished me well.

Jay-Jay, RN · Feb 3, 2007

Sue, that SUCKS TO NO END that she would do that! :madface: As a nurse with advanced training in palliative care, I know you were definitely in the right there, wanting the pain control to take priority! (And, of course, the patient's own wishes...)

It does my heart good to know she had to do remedial work, LOLOLOLOLOL.:chuckle :roll :chuckle :chuckle :clown: :roll
Where is this charming individual now?

Well, this was quite a few years ago. I kind of hope she's retired now. But the last I saw of her, I had returned to my old college to take a community nursing course, and I saw her walking down the hall. She gave me a rather chilly 'hello'.

chenoaspirit, ASN, RN · Feb 3, 2007

I recently started my clinicals and got off to a rough start. I have since got a handle on the routine at our clinical site and i am enjoying the experience except for one thing. I have been the only target of the instructors snide remarks and put downs.
I really want to tell her to get over herself. I have really worked hard to be where i am now and dont want to blow it by not handling the situation correctly. Has anyone experienced an instructor belittling them and putting them down? Please let me how you handled it without getting kicked out of nursing school. I have six more weeks with her, i could just grin and bear it.
Some of the other students at the site with me dont like her (she lies, she hovers over them the whole day at the site etc. etc etc.).
any suggestions about how we can "handle" her will be greatly appreciated.

I feel for you. My maternity clinical instructor apparently hated me. No matter how well I did or didnt, she rediculed me in front of all the nurses on the floor. It made her feel BIG to make me feel small. She even made me cry on occasions. The nurses even commented and said things like "I wouldnt let her talk to me like that!" But what could I do...basically nothing. She made me feel stupid, incompetent, not worthy of achieving the title of NURSE. I made it through it, you will too. My next clinical instructors were great. Another of my classmates was the brunt of another clinical instructor's redicule, the student complained, the instructor actually quit! But then she had the name of "trouble-maker". I feel for you, I really do. Her redicule still effects me. When I see her come onto the floor with her new "victims" I just cringe. Its literally traumatic for me to even see her face! Just remember this is temporary, she wont have the ability to do this to you for long.

gitterbug · Feb 3, 2007

keep plugging along, gather ammo, keep your head down, and keep to the fact. remember, other students do not want to upset their cart. if you need/can keep a list of staff or patients that this instructor may have offended, embarrased, or ignored requests this may help you if she tries to flunk you. good luck. had a terrible instructor too. was so glad to see the backside of him.

NicoleRN07, RN · Feb 4, 2007

I never had an instructor like that, but I did have a co-worker just like that when I started working the ER. My advice to you, ignore it if you can. If you can't stand up to her, show her that you are not going to be pushed around. It's important that you stand up for yourself, and if you can't do that, you're going to have a problem with it once you begin your career as a nurse. There are a lot of nurses and doctors out there who enjoy belittling others, because it makes them feel better about themselves. Good luck!!

leslie :-D · Feb 4, 2007

dang, i come from a school that it was the exception if an instructor was unbiased, empathetic and nonjudgmental.

i lost over half my class because of the blatant badgering from the instructors.

their techniques were for sure, a part of the school's agenda, so if you had problems with how you were treated, it was too darned bad.

talk about brow-beating.

i do recall a time that i was receiving my evaluation and when she was done with me, i turned around and evaluated her.

i kept my cool, reminded her of the repercussions of the self-fulfilling prophecy, and if one expected a student to fall on their face, indeed they would.

conversely, i con't, if you believe one can triumph by grabbing the bull by the horns, then you can rejoice in seeing a student bloom and flourish.

she just looked at me flatly and w/minimal feedback.

but when i graduated, she pulled me aside, telling me that what i had shared with her had been invaluable.

who thought she would have listened?

not me, that's for darned sure.

but she did.

and she must have spread the word amongst her buddy instructors because even they had lightened up.

i have an assertive personality so i'm not the type who could or would ignore it.

there's no reason for such belittling.

prove her wrong-that you're a born survivor and that's exactly what you intend to do.

leslie

Jay-Jay, RN · Feb 4, 2007

Hurray for you, earle, for having the guts to do that! Most of the students in my class were too gutless to even complain!

I once thought I had 3 other students who were going to back me up when I went and complained about our treatment. They all chickened out and I wound up going alone.

AfloydRN, BSN, RN · Feb 4, 2007

There's one at every school. My advice is ti just suck it up and get finished. She has no further bearing on your nursing career.

CHATSDALE · Feb 4, 2007

some people love the feeling that power brings to them, i think that there is one in every clas that they concentrate their venom on

if yo were at work i would tell you to stand up for yourself but in a school setting you are wrong no matter what you do,,if at all possible ignore her and try to be invisable and grit your teeth for the next six weeks

SmilingBluEyes · Feb 4, 2007

Not to take away from any experience here, cause I had an instructor like that too, But I find is sad, is, for every good instructor are bad ones, who stand out like sore thumbs. It's too bad, cause there are a lot of good ones taking a bad rap or getting NO recognition (in addition too cruddy pay) in doing their very important jobs.

blueheaven · Feb 4, 2007

I think many of us have had the instructor from U_NO_WHERE. between my junior and senior year of nursing school (I'm a old-time diploma grad) I was working on one of the units in the hospital when the ward clerk approached me and said "Oh you are "debbie jones"!! You are #1 on my mom's shi-- list next year. she said she didn't know why her mom picked out 1 or 2 every year to try and kick out of the program-she thought she would give me a heads up. The ward clerks mom was my critical care instructor the next year and sure enough...she made my life for the last 8 weeks an incredible, exquisite nightmare!!! I did not know until the day before graduation if she was going to pass me. Some people get a sick joy out of beating others down. Guess I didn't do too bad-been working in critical care for years!

Hang in there!!!

meownsmile, BSN, RN · Feb 4, 2007

I think someone said it in a past post,, there is one in every nurses life. An instructor that made it their project for the semester to make your life H***.

I had mine in LPN school years ago. Dont get me wrong,, i dont think she was a bad instructor, she just was real ept at picking up on peoples soft spots and their weaknesses and she used that to try to "break" you.

For some in my class their weakness was medications, and they got drilled to no end about interventions, adverse reactions, dosages etc. For others it was clinicals and dealing with certain patients, and you could count on getting one of those every time.

She tried me too,, i think we all got our own dose of her "medicine". She assigned me to a patient that noone else had, had ever had,, and never had after me. Now i dont really know what her point was in this except she couldnt find a patient that i didnt handle. As i did this one,, she was feeling real good when she came up to me after clinical and asked how it went with that one? Told her "oh just fine, once we got everything straight we had no problem at all". I wont go into a lot of detail about this patient, but suffice to say it was an old military nurse, and if you touched anything without a paper towel in your hand you heard about it. Try giving someone like that a shower. I finally told the patient my hands were as clean as she was,, since i was all soapy too,, and she was fine with me the rest of the day. I WIN!!!!

Hang in there, shell find someone else to target as soon as she gets what she needs out of your reactions.

She also taught pharm,, and had more than one of those gals in tears at the clinical site about the meds. Some were much older than me and broke,, never let her see ya cry.