I flunked out of clinical today..

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I`m devastated.. This was my last semester.. 3 weeks away from graduation. What happened is I didn`t have my watch for clinical and that was a break in dress code.. and when I went to take a vital sign i was confronted with the problem that there was no clock anywhere around and I had no watch.. I went and took out my cell phone and used the timer to get the exact 30 second count. I had my back to the door at that point because i wasnt really sure my instructor wanted to see my phone out .. I couldn't feel the radial pulse so well.. I was nervous and recorded the wrong number. I handed them my vitals and it was way off.. the HR.. I looked at it and thought to myself that`s not right .. my instructor said go do it over again .. I did with another student and had a number that was way different but I used the apical pulse which I could hear much better. Now I get sent to the office and told that I falsified medical records to try to cover up my mistake of not having a watch. I am kicked out of the program .. my instructor said that she did not see my cell phone and that she was watching me the whole time.. that i was facing her and looking at the door to see if there was clock hanging.. This did not happen. I don`t know how I can prove it. Its basically my word against hers and i`m like devastated.. She keeps saying that my story changed.. that the second time i got the HR i got 117 and then told someone else it was 170.. which was completely false I even wrote down 170, with another student watching me right there (its a child, that`s why so high), and I`m not entirely sure why she would be so insistent to say this.. I was like flabbergasted at all of this.. shell shocked and maybe I didn`t express myself properly but I didn`t change my story .. I might have misspoke .. i mean hell when she took me to the waiting room to talk to me about this and I told her I listened to the HR for 30 MINUTES.. when obviously I meant seconds.. I`m just very upset right now.. 3 years of my life and it ends like THIS!!? Now I don`t know if i will ever go back into the program .. I need to write a letter in my defense for when the teachers have their meeting about this where they decide whether to take me back for next semester.. or any semester. It`s devastating.. I`m taking 1 day off to clear my mind and then start writing this tomorrow.. anyone have any idea what I can write.. I don`t know if theres anything I can do to get them to change their minds. This is so awful

Well.. first off this was my ED rotation. I have only had this instructor 2 times. we don`t just have one instructor for the entire semester.. there is ED, Peds, Med-surg, etc. She doesn`t know me at all and is very sure of herself that I just made up a number. The thing is they claim academic dishonest. I know this seems like oh big deal its vitals but they really hammered it into me that It looked like I just made up a number.. i tried to explain otherwise and i get a great big NO.. THATS NOT WHAT HAPPENED from the instructor.

de2013:

I totally understand where you are coming from. I have never gotten bad vitals before and have never charted anything inaccurately. I have never covered any other tasks.. but they said right when I was talking to them I wonder if you would be truthful in making a med error/mistake if you did something like this- it really has to do with character. patient was 2 yrs old, HR was under 98 the first time and 160 when doing apically .. the colleague did not do the HR, he just went in with me to let me use his watch.

I think because it was so close to graduation that they were presented with a very negative side of me from the instructor.. who has only known me 2 x .. and that they trust her word over mine because she was more composed and insistent. By the way, all of these suggestions are a god-sent-- THANK YOU EVERYONE! I see a lot of amazing suggestions and i`ll definitely have something worthwhile to present to the director

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

I would request an appeal of the decision. I get the impression the watch was not the big offender. The Instructor evidently believes you lied and that is worse.

In real life, if I got to work without my watch I would borrow one from somebody or get the vital signs another way. You cannot quit being a nurse over a mistake like that.

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Based on what you wrote, I would infer that the instructor felt that based on how you handled the situation during and after (how scattered your words and thoughts were about it and how much anxiety you had) she may have felt that you were in no way ready to graduate in three weeks. This sounds like something that would occur to a first semester student, not one in their last semester expected to graduate in a few weeks. There were so many other things that you said you did wrong: no watch- you should have asked to borrow one from someone when you saw there was no clock in the room. We are never told to use cell phone timers to take vitals. While you may have felt you would have got in trouble by asking to borrow, by asking to borrow a watch you would have been showing you realized you made an error in not bringing it, but were taking the initiative to get one so you could take correct vitals.

You then said you couldn't even feel the pulse all to well? That sounds like you're saying you DID in fact make up a vital. How were you able to accurately count when you said you couldn't even feel it? Did you tell the instructor that as well? Also, the fact that when you and the other person took the same vital and yours was way off kind of gives the impression you don't even know how to take a pulse. Which you should, you should know how to accurately take vitals by now

Either way, it comes down to you made errors in judgements, actions, and then when confronted about it, you weren't even able to explain yourself clearly. Based on how you say you responded to the instructor I would think you were lying too even if you weren't. Based on your really anxious actions and behavior, and then inability to even effectively communicate what happened, I wouldn't think you were being truthful about what happened. You admitted yourself you said some false things when asked because you were so nervous. You then trying to correct yourself could be seen as changing your story. (lying by the instructor)

From what you're telling me, and how you handled it sounds like the instructor had her reasons for saying you falsified the records, and were lying to her. Even though it was a mistake, and it was due to your nervousness and inability to explain to her correctly, you kind of did.

I would just try my best to EFFECTIVELY explain what happened throughout the entire ordeal. You telling them exactly what you wrote here doesn't sound really good, so I'm not sure if I would say all of that. It makes you look and sound incompetent and not ready to graduate.

I hope you don't think I'm just being mean. I'm just telling you what it sounds like to someone looking in on the situation based on the things you said that happened.

GOOD LUCK, I REALLY HOPE THINGS WORK OUT FOR YOU.

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I can't believe they would throw you out for this. This is why I think nursing school is not reality. If you were on the job you would find a reliable way to take the pulse. Being that your grade is on the line you have to "make do" if you've forgotten your watch because you will get in trouble. I know the strickness is preparing us but this is ridiculous.

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.
I can't believe they would throw you out for this. This is why I think nursing school is not reality. If you were on the job you would find a reliable way to take the pulse. Being that your grade is on the line you have to "make do" if you've forgotten your watch because you will get in trouble. I know the strickness is preparing us but this is ridiculous.

Just curious what year nursing student you are?

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Student 2001,

I feel your pain. I have had a couple of instructors that were such **********! I had a friend during clinicals go through something similar, the instructor wrote up an incident report and I guess made up some stuff to cover her own **** (I was there and witnessed the incident, which was not even a big deal but one of the doctors threw a fit about it so the instructor had to cover her own and what she wrote was not the truth) but regardless, they took her side and put my friend on probation. It it was our last day of clinicals ever! Somehow or another the instructor threw my name in there while she wrote up the incident report and I got a call from the coordinator about the incident as if I had part of it... My reply?: "I had nothing to do with it, I was just a witness and I will not hesitate to contact my attorney should my name be mentioned again in any manner whatsoever regarding this matter... They dropped it right then and there...

I told my friend to fight it but she thought that it would be best to admit to it even though it was not true, she got put on probation and got threatened with dismissal.

Never, ever, ever, ever... admit to something that you did not do. Last resort, start throwing "my lawyer" around... it's three years of your life and it sounds to me like it was some stupid silly thing that got out of control and you are being accused of something really serious.

BTW I forgot my watch a ton of times and I always had my cell phone with me.. sorry this is the real world

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Specializes in L&D.
I can't believe they would throw you out for this. This is why I think nursing school is not reality. If you were on the job you would find a reliable way to take the pulse. Being that your grade is on the line you have to "make do" if you've forgotten your watch because you will get in trouble. I know the strickness is preparing us but this is ridiculous.

I can. Just because she's not on the job, doesn't mean she couldn't find a reliable way to take the pulse. This was clearly a misstep in communication. Communication could make or break a patient's life, for goodness sake! There is a lesson to be learned here. I see a lot wrong with this situation, especially for someone about to graduate.

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I guess what I meant to say is that if she was on the job she could have asked a coworker to borrow a watch etc.. Being a student she was afraid of getting in trouble. Her mistake was just not fessing up to not having a watch but if she has a instructor that is anything like mine I can understand she was scared in the moment and made a bad decision. I think its crazy that would be grounds for dismisal. Btw still not sure why using a cell phone is wrong. It's a must to have a cell phone for us at clinical for using the drug apps and texting the instructor when we need her.

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The instructor is covering her butt. You are working under her license. 170 is a crazy high number, and you should recognize that by now.

I guarantee you won't make the same mistake again. From one point of view it's an awesome learning experience for you. From the instructor's point of view, you are working under her license.

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This is terrifying. Please let us know what happens.

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.

Remember students never "work under the nurses license".

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Just curious what year nursing student you are?

3rd year

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