Excuse me while I vent...Input Please

[qaqueen]

I just started block 3 and I have a concern with one of my instructors.

Usually, if I have an issue with an instructor, or anyone for that matter, I am the first one to deal with the situation head on. This time, for some reason, it is different.

It is not as if this instructor is incompetent or providing insufficient information, it is more like the instructor is completely unengaged in the class, the teaching process, everything.

How do you deal with this? I don't know what the instructor wants. As far as I know, no one in the class is clear on the assignments. We have had 4 classes with this instructor so far. One class was "online", miscellaneous reading that we will not be tested on and haven't discussed. One class was watching a movie in class and discussing it afterward. This individual is also the clinical instructor and oh by the way, didn't bother to show up for the first day of clinicals, 'just see the staff nurse, she will direct you'.

I am adult student and more the capable of learning in spite of a bad instructor, however, when the expectations are unclear, it is difficult to comply.

As I said, if it was something specific that was being done incorrectly, I would be the first one in the instructors face. This instructor isn't doing anything wrong, this instructor isn't doing anything!

Any advice is appreciated.

[spongebob6286, BSN, RN]

did you try confronting her if something is unclear? is yes, was it answered? I think your instructor wants you to be as independent as possible.to take initiative in your learnings. in my opinion,intructors should guide their students, fascilitating their learnings. I have a professor who throws back to us our questions. she wants us to discover by ourselves the answers to our queries. at first it was annoying because shes the professor and should answer all our questions. but in the end,it personally made me to be a diligent student, to always go back and read the books..

[rotteluvr31, ADN, RN]

keep your lines of communication open using email, phone calls, etc, so you have asked for clarification of what the instructor wants.

I ask lots of questions for clarification. And I keep copies of all the emails sent/received, for review and for "just in case". I always figure that if I don't know, someone else may not know either, so I just ask rather then guess. Good luck!

[ZooMommyRN, ADN, RN]

. This individual is also the clinical instructor and oh by the way, didn't bother to show up for the first day of clinicals, 'just see the staff nurse, she will direct you'.

Red flag! I can't understand how the facility OR the school would allow this! Yes when at clinicals you are there to learn and put skills to work but your instructor should be point of contact for most of the day, sure ask the staff nurse about the patient but in general they have other patients and can't fill the role of staff and instructor, also thought it was a law of sorts that an instructor had to be in the facility, I know ours is only allowed 12 students per instructor. This needs to be addressed as it can lead to a safety issue

[qaqueen]

Gotta agree with you ZooMommy.

If I were the staff nurse and left with 10 students to direct/supervise, I would send them home.

qaq

[JBudd, MSN]

Gotta agree with you ZooMommy.

If I were the staff nurse and left with 10 students to direct/supervise, I would send them home.

qaq

Ditto. Even if it was just 2 or 3. Students are their instructor's responsibility. The only exception is if arrangements were made for a student to be in an area to observe and follow a nurse, even then the instructor is somewhere in the hospital.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

The answer to this disorganization is very simple. Go to the instructor, or simply put your hand up in the air and ask her to clarify those things which she has not made clear. Keep asking until they are clear enough to you.

As an RN, doctors will, from time to time, write orders on a chart that will leave everyone scratching their heads and wonder what they meant. We got on the horn (the telephone), read them back to him and asked him to clarify them or outright asked him to just tell us what he wanted us to do. We then wrote a verbal order on the chart that clarified the messed up one.

The buck stops with us as licensed nurses. That means getting all the ducks in a row, crossing all the "t's" and dotting all the "i's". It is our job to turn a dog and pony show into a elegant ball and make sure that it goes off without a hitch.