Nursing Instructor Issues

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okaihaudowns

5 Posts

dear member of the crusty bat society: my response to your post esp. this comment:

"you are annoying and when you get out in the real world you'll get eaten alive."

there is a difference between getting frustrated by all the questions thrown at you, by students that you see as incompetent and then taking that frustration out on a student target. you have the power to choose what you do with your frustration. the consequences of your actions and words are powerful and effect other people and how they feel about themselves and their capabilities. this is the power of an educators position, students are like vunerable patients that are in a strange and intimidating environment. they need care and support.

just saying............................

Specializes in Med/ Surg/ Telemetry, Public Health.

Bite your tongue, and keep it moving, make it through the semester. You don't want to fail a clinical!

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN

1 Article; 5,115 Posts

i said, and don't mind repeating, that even otherwise calm and patient instructors, being human, can have their limits. i wouldn't pop off at every foolish or unformed student-- if i had, i wouldn't have lasted a semester teaching in any nursing program on the planet, nay, not a week. just shows what it takes to find out how far we can get pushed by exceptional cases sometimes. :D

i also stand by my assertion that we have been students, and we hear a lot from students who can have no perspective about what it takes to be an instructor. yes, yes, they will be willing and able to say at great length what they see and observe and how mean the instructors are, but it's sort of not the same thing as having actual experience as an instructor, is it?:idea:

SubSippi

909 Posts

I think it's very unprofessional for an instructor to say that to a student, even if you were getting on her nerves. It would be unprofessional for a coworker to say "you're annoying" to another coworker. If she thought you were asking questions you could find the answers to yourself, she should have just said that! If you ask questions when she's busy, she should tell you! Personally, I think people like that take their personal frustrations out on others who they know can't do anything back. Like people who are really rude to service industry workers, but who would never treat their friends or coworkers that way. Anyway, don't take it personally. People annoy you sometimes, you annoy people sometimes, and, in my opinion, it was her mistake for lashing out in that way. My advice is to keep a good attitude, and to not go around bad-mouthing her to all of your classmates or other teachers, because those things get back around. If she can decide to dislike you for no reason, make sure you don't give her an actual reason to give you a bad evaluation!

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN

1 Article; 20,908 Posts

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

I agree with Great.........I related on another post that there is a need as we mature to moderate our impulses. I don't think there is a Mother out there, especially sleep deprived nurse MOms, that their toddlers didn't drive them insane with the "What's that", "what's that?", "Mommy what's", "Mommy how's come?", "Mommy What's that?", "Money Has come?"...that one the 90th time you want to scream "BE QUIET" at the top of your lungs and tear your hair out. Thank goodness it's just a phase.

As Adults we learn to curb our enthusiasm. Yes..... the tendency of some students to rapid fire simplistic questions can be really annoying. We learn to curb our impulses and to moderate our responses and behaviors. This instructor could be having a personal hard time and the OP was the final straw. Is it right? No. But we are human too and at time give in to impulses that we shouldn't. We also need to consider the personal burdens that he instructor may have and gave her a lapse in judgement.

Has anyone else wanted to tell someone to just shut up......even though we like them a lot? This class/instructor is a brief moment in a long line of people we are forced to deal with that we don't really like and like we were taught in kindergarten we need to play nice in the sand box, share our toys, keep our hands to ourselves, use our indoor voices, and keep our hands/thoughts/opinions to our selves.

OP as you continue through nursing try to view things from the other persons point of view, take a deep breath in and let it out slowly before rapid firing questions. Write down your questions and google them when you get home. Set aside a time to ask a group of questions that you can't initially find answers to with your instructor to you can both concentrate on the subject at hand.

Good luck!

grpman

172 Posts

old instructor here: i have to tell you that sometimes you have done your damnedest and are at the end of your rope with a student who is anal retentive, who does jabber questions constantly with no apparent effort to discover answers herself (sort of like the posters on an who want you to do their homework and haven't yet cracked their med/surg books), is cheerful with the staff but when the chips are down is a total lightweight, and one day she asks you the same thing one more time (having conveniently forgotten everything you have tried valiantly to explain to her in the past) and you crack and say, "you are annoying and when you get out in the real world you'll get eaten alive."

and the fact is, she is annoying and she will be eaten alive. and the only side of the story you hear here is hers. i am here to tell you that there are some of these around, and somebody, somewhere is telling them that they will be wonderful nurses without a shred of evidence to support that opinion, so they cease listening to constructive criticism and blame the instructor for delivering the bad news when it inevitably comes.

just sayin'.

hmmmm. i saw an instructor in clinicals go off on a student due to not knowing how to perform a procedure that nobody else in the class knew either nor had been covered in lecture. i witnessed this same instructor have to be taught several times by another instructor how to turn the projector on in class over the course of several days. my point is that all is relative and none of us quite have it all together as we think. experience often masquerades as genius and sometimes those with experience forget the difference between the two.

there are always two opinions: the student's and the instructor's. each are equally valid and should be considered before we make conclusions or rants. however, grntea does remind us that the instructor's opinion matters the most in passing the class...even if they are curmudgeons. not grntea of course, but the instructors...wink wink.

grpman

172 Posts

i said, and don't mind repeating, that even otherwise calm and patient instructors, being human, can have their limits. i wouldn't pop off at every foolish or unformed student-- if i had, i wouldn't have lasted a semester teaching in any nursing program on the planet, nay, not a week. just shows what it takes to find out how far we can get pushed by exceptional cases sometimes. :D

i also stand by my assertion that we have been students, and we hear a lot from students who can have no perspective about what it takes to be an instructor. yes, yes, they will be willing and able to say at great length what they see and observe and how mean the instructors are, but it's sort of not the same thing as having actual experience as an instructor, is it?:idea:

grntea, i enjoy hearing the perspective of someone that was an instructor b/c it gives me a bit of insight into what they deal with. so, it helps me deal with the idiosyncrasies that an instructor has which i can relate very easily to because i have kids.

although it helps to walk a mile in someone's shoes to understand their delima, it is not at all necessary or even plausible. we don't have to be politicians, policemen, or nursing instructors to make judements on their actions.

Aliakey

131 Posts

Specializes in Emergency.

If I may play the Devil's advocate...

Not targeted to the OP... just some thoughts that (maybe) could help others: As a student, look at yourself from an outside eye. Your questions may be meaningful and appropriate, but are they being asked at the wrong time? For example, if you see a PVC on the patient's cardiac monitor, do you ask your preceptor about how the unfortunate and totally unpredictable timing of just one PVC in a patient with a prolonged QT might suddenly turn an apparently innocent blip on the screen to a run of Torsades, and now this patient is going to see the many faces of the rapid response team, ride the lightning of the defibrillator, and see the veil of death (or worse, the endotracheal tube) flash before her eyes??? And all this said right in front of the poor lil' ol' lady who hasn't yet decided who should be given custody all of her dear cats in her will? LOL! I would hope that this appears as an exaggeration of reality, but sadly as preceptor, I have experienced intelligent but highly enthusiastic students who are trying to do their best forget that the patient is right there... listening.

As another example, I just had a student this week see her first hypoglycemic diabetic with a BGL of 19 mg/dL... police followed this apparently intoxicated driver for about 4 miles until she finally stopped in the middle of the street. My student suddenly blurted, "What the **** was she doing driving with a D-stick of 19?!?!". Student was calmly motioned to remain quiet for the remainder of the patient's care in the ambulance, and after the call, she was reminded that the patient probably did not choose to drive (or could even walk to her car) with that low of a BGL, and secondly, that the sense of hearing is the last to go, and the first to return. This conversation was made respectfully and offered an opportunity for teaching regarding diabetic issues, but the damage was done.

Another example would be a student who watches a preceptor care for a patient, and then blurts out, "Oh my God! You can't do that! My book says put oxygen on *everybody* blah, blah, blah..." right in front of the patient. LOL! There may be a reason I am not putting high-flow oxygen on my 18 year old female patient who found out by text message that her boyfriend dumped her and now can't breathe (at her current rate of 42) but can't seem to stop talking about it on the phone long enough with her bff to answer my simple questions. The hand cramping and tingling to the lips/fingertips with a pulse ox of 99% on room air just screams for more oxygen? ;)

These were very intelligent students, and both with a good heart and intentions. It's hard to not be nervous during clinicals, but sometimes enthusiasm can cloud true appearances and how the patients perceive the quality of care they're receiving. Barring personal safety and outrageous requests, the patient comes first. The preceptor cannot forget that (retaining employment is a good thing), and the student sometimes needs a reminder. This education should be done respectfully and honestly by the preceptor. Maybe the OP just has an instructor that will never be accepting (it happens), or maybe this is a case where the student needs to take an honest look from another person's perspective.

Just my :twocents:

julieannp

3 Posts

I am too a recent lpn student.. I feel so lost right now in my 3rd day of clinicals, there is always those girls that ask questions all alllllll day looong. im not that way i try to figure it out my oen if i cant i make sure its a relevant question im asking the instructor at clinicals.. so for the most part i dont join the drama team and im fairly quiet but get my work done . I cant help but feel i get ignored by my instructor ..by she never check son me at all and when i do ask a question she kinda just answers briefly and blows me off where if someone else asks a question she will talk with them for a good amount of time..and i just cant grasp why?..is she wanting me to fail..or is she spending all of her time with students she feel arnt competent..im starting to doubt myself and i dont wanna feel that way at all..like i feel like im doing something wrong or maybe she just dont like me..why that would be i dont know... iv never done anything to her or anyone nor have i ever been out of line ..i guess i just feel ignored like i dont exist and kinda scared at grading cz really how can she grade me when she is never there to evaluate my work. iv worked so hard to get to where im at and i fell like if i dont act like im 2 and a drama queen and constantly ask annoying questions every 5 minutes like the other girls they think im not competent. im always getiing assigned to simple patients while the loud mouths are with more complex ones and i just dont get it..she spends her whole day with them and im just kinda left out to fend for myself. i just feel invincible i guess and kinda not wanted :(

bbailey305

2 Posts

I am currently with an instructor like this and in the past i had one like this also. the best thing you can remember is you did nothing wrong and that pretty soon she wont be your instructor anymore and you wont have to deal with her again.

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