Med Surg clinical instructor OMG!

[OnTheRoad]

First clinical this am and we are all scared and jaws dropping because First thing this instructor said was "Don't EVER call me! If you have questions or need help with care plans ask your classmates". She let us know that our clinical day is her day off (she is the med surg unit supervisor at the hospital we are doing clinicals at). She told us that if we ask her a stupid question during clinicals she will either not answer us, or tell us it was a stupid question she doesn't have time for. I am soooo not looking forward to working with this woman for the next 16 wks!:trout:

So how is your semester starting?

[Batman24]

That is completely unprofessional and rude. :angryfire

Maybe you should let her boss in on what she has said. Seems if she can't be bothered to answer "stupid" questions from her students then perhaps she shouldn't have a job teaching them. Awful.

[Achoo!, LPN]

Isn't the point of school to answer questions and enhance learning? Sheesh!

Hope you make it through and your next clinical instructor is wonderful!

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

I think I would nip this in the bud. You are purchasing a product (education) from a shop (college). This is unprofessional and rude. You need to take this to the dept head and if no satisfaction there, to the college dean.

Good luck. It is vitally important that you have a good med-surg experience since this is the basics for much of nursing care. Good luck.

[PralineLPN]

At least you know she won't be looking over your shoulder all the time. Stay under the radar, do what she asks. You'll be fine.

[NaomieRN]

I would not make wave if I were you. I had a similar clinical instructor last semester. I did not want to ask her questions, so had my PDA with me to clinicals. If I really needed to ask questions, I would ask the nurses on the floor. One other thing I did, I read everything about my patients diseases the night before. Other students were always asking questions, so she was harder on them. I have learned when you ask too many questions, the instructor tend to not trust you. I have also learned all the answers were from my test book. So, as long as I read ahead, I did not need to ask a million questions.

[Jules A, MSN]

I agree with the people that said just fly under the radar and get through it. First days aren't always a good indication of how it will play out. While "on paper" I agree that you are paying for a service but in light of the shortage of clinical instructors and overload of people clamouring to get into nursing school it was not my experience that students who went up the chain of command got any more than ignored or worse booted out. FWIW I never had to call one of my clinical instructors with questions about the assignments so hopefully that won't even be an issue. I'm sure all of us had at least one that was snippy with what they considered stupid questions. In fact the semester that I really blossomed was with a rather fractious instructor who would tell you it was a stupid question if she felt it was but other than her lack of tact it was a great experience for me. Best to you and like someone else wrote just tuck your head down and push through. Jules

[sassyRN73, RN]

That really sucks :angryfire The old adage no question is a stupid question is paramount in nursing. I work in and ICU as a tech and there are some nurses w/ 10 years exp. and they still ask questions regarding things they are not familiar with or haven't seen in a long time. My advice would be to really do alot of prep for clinical and ask the floor nurses if you have a question. It's always better to ask and get the right answer than to allow your fear of sounding stupid to cause a mistake. Good luck this semester and may the going be calm.

[BoonersmomRN]

uGGH. I had a similar instructor my 1rst semester. She said if we asked her anything stupid she would just "walk away" instead of answering us. So if she walked away...to know you had to re-think what you were asking.

Well whaddya know one day I asked her something about IV piggybacks and she walks away. I stood there for 15 minutes going over and over and over what I had asked trying to figure out what I was missing. She comes back and asks me if I am ready to go hang it..and I said NO b/c I am still trying to figure out why you walked away. She looked at me like I was nutzo and then started to laugh. Seems she walked away b/c that stupid thing she had in her ear to hear messages on told her she had a call at the nurses station. She didn't even say excuse me.....caused me 15 minutes of absolute anxiety ridden panic.

I'm telling ya....I wanted to knock her block off hahahhaaaa.

Good luck. Hang in there and use your classmates, other nurses, and the books as references as much as you can.

[jov]

make sure your communicate this information on your class/instructor evaluation on the last day.

[marilynmom, LPN, NP]

The nurses are who you are going to learn from anyways, not your clinical instructor. I rarely saw my clinical instructor on the floors when I was doing my Med/Surg rotation--when I did it was just her asking if I was doing ok, I saw her in pre and post conference and that was it which was fine with me.

Just buddy up with the nurses and you will do great! It's better that you don't see her than have some instructor breathing down your neck the whole time.

[PralineLPN]

Actually, now that I think about it, I had a teacher like this. First day at a hospital, and we all get yelled at because we asked the receptionist if we were supposed to wait in the lobby. She said it refleced badly on the school??? and gave us a 10 min lecture on knowing what your supposed to be doing. She turned out to be my favorite teacher. But beware if you didn't know your stuff.