Student Mistreatment

Nursing Students General Students

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Hello Everyone,

I warm you now I am writing this thread as a way to vent because I do not want to get depressed again about the professors abusive behavior.

I am currently a junior in college. Just got into the nursing program 1st semester.

For the sake of confidentiality, professor's name is Pac.

This professor, Pac, i have been having difficulty with since day 1 but lately i am at my limit with her. She publicly reprimands me and humiliates me in front of the class. Everyone says she is psycho. Sadly she teaches two of my classes Fundamentals of Nursing and Pathophysiology. Today I had her for patho.

This is what caused me to be upset today :crying2::

There was a professor, San, presenting today about the GI abnormalities. He has a minor Spanish accent and me being tired after clinical made it difficult to understand what he was saying. Another added factor was this is a subject the class has not even studied yet for the exam.

He, San, said something that was "eosinogapharengeal", sadly I don't know. I raised my hand and asked if he would spell that word. I was not going to say, i cant understand with you accent can you say that again?

Professor, Pac, says "Who said that? Own it. Who said that?" I raised my hand. Teacher, Pac, "You are supposed to write how it sounds than go home and look it up. Own it. You do not disrespect the professor. Go home and look it up."

Now I am highly upset. I just asked a simple question about spelling, even raised my hand so how am I disrespecting the presenting professor? Of course I stay quiet because if i say something back i get more in trouble. :mad:

Another student later asked a meaning of a word. That is a big big no no in the class. She NEVER wants you to say that. Yet!!! She does not reprimand this student.

Another time, a student spoke in my direction and I just raised the book to her face so i don't have to speak in class. Next thing i know is she says, Pac, "I will ask you to step out of class if you keep talking. This is the second time." Mind you I wasn;t even looking at her. :uhoh3: For the rest of the class I turned away from anyone that could possibly look my direction.

Now I sit away from people and stare at my desk. I don't raise my hand or even look at her. I am a wall, you do not see me - is my mantra.

I called my fiance to vent because I was so upset and he said pretty much to stop complaining if I'm not going to do something about it. I guess he's getting fed up about me speaking of school, teachers and my weight/body image issues. I don't even talk to him about my weight in a while because now he says the same thing to school.

I just got over my depression that I didnt even realize i had. I used to cry all the time, when i studied i couldnt remember anything the next day. I failed my first two patho test. My second fundamentals test. Enough is a enough. :crying2:

I finally passed the third fundamental exam yay!! :lol2: Clinical is the only class i'm doing great in.

I would never recommend this school because of my impression of this semester. Someone help me because she also teaches advanced patho (graduate), patho (undergraduate), critical thinking and another class.

Health: Hypothyroidism 100mcg, low salt diet, fatigue, limited sleep (always take an afternoon nap now), pain from back fracture (spondylisis ?? -> spelling), weaken right knee, sciatica, major allergies (to everything literally, took a test for it, recommend shots), messed up my reproductive system through stupid usage of electrode pads now my ovary area hurts all the time and i caused my cycle to come two weeks early. Right thigh and knee just aches. I know i have circulation issues because I wake up with swollen feet and leg cramping. :eek:

I can't wait for this semester to end!!! :yeah:

Specializes in med-surg, mother-baby.

I think its unfair that you imply we think she did something wrong. But unfortunately, in the real world, what it comes down to is that its her word against the teachers. I had to deal with the same thing, and even with witnesses, they still took her word against mine. She SHOULD definitely go to student advocates or wtv is available at her school, but all weve tried to say is that at the end of the day, she has to do what the teacher wants because the teacher decides if she passes or fails...

ok seriously?! your profs sound horrible, especially the psycho one. my teachers are great. they are frustrating at times, but they never ever make us feel humiliated for asking a QUESTION. thats the point of school, to learn and ask questions. i understand that the majority of nursing school requires your own studying and learning on your own, but come on. none of us signed up to completely teach ourselves, or else i would've signed up for a complete online class. anyway, thats ridiculous and i feel your pain. some instructors teach the way they were taught in school and obviously some were stricter than others. its crazy and i wish nurses wouldnt eat their young.

Specializes in Oncology.

I don't think anyone should have to just "suck it up" when it comes to people being openly and purposely disrespectful or rude to them, no matter what the setting or their power over them.

Personally I don't understand the attitude that nursing school HAS to suck. People who went through tough programs with little support from instructors seem to think that this is how it should be - why? My program is awesome - I can't imagine dealing with a teacher who told me class wasn't the place to ask questions, or a clinical instructor who actively attempted to fail one student per semester. Sounds crazy.

I don't think anyone should have to just "suck it up" when it comes to people being openly and purposely disrespectful or rude to them, no matter what the setting or their power over them.

Personally I don't understand the attitude that nursing school HAS to suck. People who went through tough programs with little support from instructors seem to think that this is how it should be - why? My program is awesome - I can't imagine dealing with a teacher who told me class wasn't the place to ask questions, or a clinical instructor who actively attempted to fail one student per semester. Sounds crazy.

I agree. People shouldn't have to suck it up, but nursing conditions people to accept the abuse.

I wish everyone had the chance to experience a program like yours. I have no idea what it is about nursing, but I can relate a LOT to what the OP wrote on here. It seems so common.

I'm so sorry you're having a rough time and I can't imagine how stressful it must feel to go through this. I think that there is no easy answer here. My guess is that this teacher has made up her mind that you are not cut out for nursing - most likely because you failed the previous tests. The fact that you're doing well in clinicals makes me think you probably have a lot of potential and that there is some other reason you're struggling with the material. Are you in the US? If so is English a 2nd language for you? If this is the case then the teachers should be trying to find a way to help you overcome this difficulty instead of being subversive. Regardless, the situation is what it is. So the way I see it you have 3 options.

I favor approaching the teacher directly and alone. I would say to her, "I want to be a nurse more than anything in the world and I know that you can teach me. I will do anything it takes to become a nurse, but I don't feel like I'm doing well in class. Is there any advice you can give me?" She may respond in a way that gives you some insight into why she is behaving the way she has been toward you. But if nothing else it will show her that you have courage (because it takes a lot of guts to approach someone directly when they are being mean to you) and that you really, really want this.

Good luck to you!

sorry I got back on this posting so late. I didn't see as the anything other than her personal attitude to me as unfair. I think the exams were .... difficult for everyone (78% of the class failed so the majority were given a freebie pass). It was her personal attacks that got me so worked up. It got to the point I started having anxiety attacks because it was always a Catch-22 situation with her. I dealt with my anxiety after the semester was over by seeing a psychologist. She even called me into her office and said "I" was the one concerning her with my "behavioral issues." Funny thing was, everyone can see how messed up she was except her. Being the star of the nursing teachers at my school and all her publications, no one dared to stand up to her. At the end of the semester, the whole graduating class spoke to the director of under grad nursing and asked her to develop a policy on preventing teacher bullying.

Thank you everyone to replied to this post :) this day was extremely difficult for me. The good news is I graduated from nursing school and avoided having her again as a professor. Others in my class were not so fortunate and I pitied them. this site is really helpful and supportive. my partner and family may never really understand but on this site, I have a whole community that really tries to help one another. Thank you

I had my schoo's Dean of nursing ( she was also my Med Surg 1 teacher ) tell my entire class "that if we didnt like how things were done in this nursing program then we know where the damn door is" " We were the biggest group of complainers they had ever had and that we were setting ourselves up for failure". All this was simple because we were worried about taking a test that 2/3 of the material was her material that was not taught to us (all we got were these measly handouts with VERY little info on them) because her mother got sick and she was not available for classs.

Secondly, I barely passed med surg 1 ( i got a 75.3, I needed a 75 to pass) I had her flat out tell me that I would not pass med surg 2 going in with a grade like that. Guess what, I didnt pass it and Im currently retaking it all because of her tellign me I wont pass. I gave up and stopped trying because I was constantly thinking about what she had said.

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