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| No. 10 | 
Nov 05, 2009, 03:59 PM
 Re: Do you think this was unfair?
First-sorry to hear about your aunt 
And i can sympathize with your situation. As for the documents though, i have some advise because this may not be the only time you need to email an assignment.
A teacher of mine had a MAC computer and at first whenever we sent her things from our computers she couldnt read them. To solve that issue, when we would save our documents in microsoft word, we would save them as RTF instead DOC (right below where you type in what you want to name your document)
this is what she did when emailing us, and i never had a problem getting any of her emails, and they were always formatted perfectly.
I believe by clicking RTF from the drop down list, it allows the document to be opened in microsoft word, works, wordpad, etc...
 | | Advertisement Sponsored Links | | | | No. 11 |
Nov 05, 2009, 04:54 PM
Re: Do you think this was unfair?
Dafreak, I do tend to ramble when I am emotional or feel strong about an issue...lol. It is hard to say exactly what you mean when typing. It is a lot easier through words. 
As for the last minute thing - it was not last minute. This care plan had a set day, set time for it to be turned in as a hard copy. So we were all turning it in at 7 am on our clinical floor.
As for finding a babysitter - that honestly would have been impossible. I have three set people to watch my son. My whole entire family was at the wake & so there was nobody available to watch him. It was very late notice for me when I found out so I never would have been able to find someone during the hours of 1 am to 6 am. This was more of an emergency type of situation but even so if you don't have the funds available to you (child care is expensive) and you don't have additional people to help, then there is nothing that can be done about it and it's on you as a mom to take responsibility. All my friends work, my boyfriend had work, my family was at the wake, and my son's Godmother lives in Ireland so I really did not have a soul to watch him. Normally my mom would have but she had the wake and as I stated before, she does enough for me and I cannot ask her to not go to the wake just so I can go to clinical for the day when we are able to make up clinical if needed.
Which missing clinical is not a problem as long as I make it up. I am going an additional day, normally a day that I would be off to make it up. There was once a girl sick in pre-conference with a runny nose/etc... and she was sent home and made it up another day. So they are pretty okay with that as long as it is a reasonable excuse and isn't a lie. I would never lie or miss clinical just to miss as obviously that is how we learn.
The other instructor, the one who did stick up for me, talked to me and told me that my care plan was very good & that my review was good enough to PASS so I DID PASS. Luckily I worked really hard and put a lot of time into that care plan and finished early enough to where I turned in the care plan for review pretty much completed....so that definitely worked out in my favor. I am just happy with passing and I only felt the need to go to someone else if I didn't pass because I just did too much work to not receive at least somewhat of a grade. But in the end, it did work out. My one instructor was pretty nice about it and now I know next time to call no matter what hour as that is way better communication than an email. The head instructor, well, she still is rude to students and many of the girls aren't really fond of her because of how she talks down to us but I am just going to deal with it as best as I can and hopefully make it through this.
Thanks to everyone who responded. I know it is hard to understand the situation through an email because it's hard to get the true story across. However, I believe that family is important and if we didn't care and one of them passed away during nursing school and we didn't give them time in our lives - you know how guilty we would feel when it was all said and done and we didn't have another second with that person? At least, that is how I feel. I love my family & to me, they come first. Yes, nursing school is important but I could never live with myself if I didn't make time for the ones I love. I already sacrifice more than enough for nursing school. I devote every day to it. I study every single weekend. I get good grades and have made it through everything so far. So my aunt's death is a time I feel should be given to my family, not nursing school. I think so many of us worry about school, school, school, and trying to measure up and we often put aside our family and God. I think nursing schools should let students have time with their family here and there - even just a day. I feel I rarely get the time to relax. Today has been the first day in a LONG time and it is long overdue.
| | No. 12 |
Nov 05, 2009, 05:08 PM
Re: Do you think this was unfair?
wow the head was definitely an ass.
| | No. 13 |
Nov 05, 2009, 05:54 PM
Re: Do you think this was unfair? First of all, I'm very sorry to hear about your aunt's death. It will become easier to bear as time passes. My husband is a college professor and teaches many nursing students each semester. So many many students invent relatives and then kill them off when they need a convenient excuse to miss class or not turn in a paper when it's due that it's very difficult not to be cynical when the next student announces a death. I'm in no way implying that your aunt didn't die, rather that the timing of her demise was unfortunate. What students do when something serious comes up unexpectedly, is exactly what you did -- notify the instructor or professor promptly. Another thing you might have done was to print out your project in the correct format (if possible) and then taken your son with you and slipped the hard copy under her office door with a brief explanation of your situation, and the promise of the final copy later in the day or, at the latest, by the next day. I would include a copy or even a Xerox of the obit with your package. Could another student have babysat while you were at clinical? My husband has had moms bring babies, toddlers, kids with them to class in such an emergency. Do you belong to a YWCA? Many YW's have very low cost daycare available plus programs for kids beginning from age two to six. You might check. Our public library has several programs for little kids and toddlers. Do you have a neighbor you could use in a pinch? Check with your local senior citizens center because most are loving caring grandmas and would love to babysit and spoil your boy. Remember not all faculty members are identical. Most are understanding, accommodating (when possible), and will work with students within rules, some are stricter than others, and a few are pretty unreasonable. I assume, from your post, that you're a single mom. Most professors will be more inclined to cut students like you a break that an 18 year old living in the dorm who misses class after class because s/he was up until 5 am drinking and doing who knows what. As soon as you know what's going on when something comes up, email your professor. I know MY husband would much rather have a rough draft and a promise than nothing, but don't do it regularly!! Get yourself a backup babysitter plus daycare and a preschool/toddler program. That way, all your bases are covered. Hugs, Kathy sharpeimom | | No. 14 |
Nov 05, 2009, 06:25 PM
Re: Do you think this was unfair?
My father died at the inopportune time when I had several midterms and projects due. I left the area immediately to tend to my distraught mother. When I returned, all of my instructors were compassionate and allowed me to make everything up, except one. The head of the nursing department, who happened to be my instructor for one class, gave me hell and literally threw me out of his office within earshot of all the nursing office personnel. They were staring at me as I left in shock and in tears. An F in that class would have put me in line for failure from the program. It was only after some time and groveling on my part, that the man reversed his decision to give me an F on the midterm. That was for my father. Heavens, if it would have been my aunt.
That story being told, it is your responsibility in the end to see that things are attended to. If you have a list of three or three hundred people to act as sitters, you still are responsible to deal with childcare issues successfully. The issue with the computer, same there. You can't wait until the last minute to deal with computer issues. I had issues with my computer just this term for my first online class. I got chewed out by a brand new instructor for an important class, who told me in no uncertain terms that I should have resolved my computer issues at the time I enrolled, not when the first project was due. I understood her point of view. You have to plan for, and deal with, unforseen circumstances often in life, or life will be more difficult than it is to begin with. Have had several family deaths recently, including my mother so I am sorry to hear about your aunt's death.
| | No. 17 |
Nov 06, 2009, 04:07 AM
Re: Do you think this was unfair?
Boo on the snippy lady that asked you, "name?" etc. OK, yeah. We get it that she's been in the field for decades and seen it all, heard it all, etc. But every story is not B.S., and clearly she did not know you, your work ethic, etc. It's great that your instructor had your back. You sound like you're a responsible person, and this is probably a one-off incident, which is good news because you NEVER want to be on that lady's radar screen again!! Also, never hurts to have little Plan C, D, E, etc.. Redundancy!!
I really admire people with young children who go through nursing school. It's just so stressful. Good luck with the rest of the program!!  |
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