Tough Clinical Instructor

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I have been placed at a hospital with ANOTHER tough clinical instructor - I haven't met her yet, but apparently she does it military style. My previous instructor was quite hard too, and although i learned a lot and worked my butt off to impress & please her, I found the semester VERY stressful. Grrr... i'm on an acute surgical ward this time.

Right now, i'm in my 2nd year, 5th semester out of 10.

Can anyone offer me advice on how to deal with this? I get stressed out really easily and seem to work less well when someone is YELLING at me.

THanks for reading.

can some of that be attributed to her because english was not her primary language and because america was not her primary culture? i've lived around asians a good deal of my adult life. what i might think translates as aggressiveness to me as an american is directness in their culture or their struggle with our language. their tone of voice and facial expressions are different because they were around a different culture. they do not show open emotion in public as readily as we do and it unnerves some americans who believe some asians can be heartless. as far as knowing the indication, action, or side effect of a drug, how to hang an iv bag or being expected to be prepared and know this stuff prior to coming on the floor, well, that is universally expected of all nursing students by all nursing instructors.

for sure... i am quite aware as i am a chinese-born canadian with parents with personality traits similar to her's. and i do understand that she is an instructor and needs to stand her ground and be assertive, especially when there are 8 other nursing students running around making mistakes and putting their patients lives at risk.

i learned quite a bit from this instructor and developed quite a good back bone. and now that i think of it, she made all of us want and strive to learn.

her motive was: "if you want to be taken seriously, you needed to be an ass"

but there are also other instructors out there who have the whole entire complete package = friendly + motivating you to learn

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Take a deep breath in and a deep breath out. Excape your anxiety. Trust me it is MUCH BETTER to have a tough clinical instructor than an easy one. This semester I had a horrible and easy clinical instructor-I didn't learn anything from her. She didn't have any expectations for her students & was not a good example for us. Last semester I had a tough clinical instructor & I loved it. She set the bar high & expected us to reach it & go beyond it. I learned alot & was that much more prepared for...uh...everything.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
her motive was: "if you want to be taken seriously, you needed to be an ASS"

What do you mean by ASS?

Are you sure you're not harboring some envy? I've seen an awful lot of it among Asian women to the point that they can be awful vicious to each other when they are competitive.

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Specializes in Med-Tele, Internal Med PCU.

I think many of us are too thin skinned and tend to take one person's "teachable moment" and turn it in to an attack for incompetence. In other words if you did not know something chances are that others in your group didn't know it either, so rather than review a skill 10 times individually an example is made and the whole group is educated.

Personally, I enjoy these "tough" instructors (1) you always know where you stand, (2) whether you are trying to impress them, yourself, or group you are always prepared, (3) they are usually very detail oriented and don't let the little things slip by, (4) they are frequently very well prepared to lead a clinical group, and (5) when the semester is over you know you accomplished something.

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Be sure you are always well-prepared for clinical (always a good idea anyway!) and practice remaining calm in stressful situations -- a skill you will find necessary throughout your career!

Many of us have found, in retrospect, that it was the tougher instructors from whom we learned the most. :)

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

I echo elkpark...I learned more from the hard ones than I did the one who wanted to be your friend. I'm paying you to teach me, so TEACH ME. I already have friends...

There was one instructor, ex-army nurse, scared the pants off me. She was chewing me out about a careplan, and suddenly I realized who she reminded me of -- my dad, ex army, ex drill Sargent. I guess I smiled, and she snapped, "What are you grinning at?" And my mouth fired before my brain engaged, and I said, "I'm just hoping you'll let me give it another shot instead of telling me to drop and give you 20." I thought, oh, God, my mouth just kicked my backside out of nursing school.

Instead, she snorted on a laugh, coughed, told me, "Do it again, you all get one retry, one time, all semester." Now that I'm out and living as an LPN in RN school, she has been one of my best supporters, and occassional shoulder to cry on. You can always be friends, afterwards....

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I had an ex army nurse as one of my mentors and she taught me more in those 5 weeks then i learnt on any other placements. Yes she was tough and hard to please and was more than happy to call me out on my lack of knowledge.

But wait until you meet your mentor before making any judgements on them

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i had a very tough instructor my last clinical rotation. maybe not enough time has passed, but i still don't see the benefit.

i always try my hardest, so she did not push me to try harder.

i find it difficult to remember class, action, side effects, nursing implications, and interactions with someone staring at me, unblinking, with no expression on her face.

i can't improve my paperwork when she approves it the day before i turn it in, and then i get it back with no comments besides "unacceptable" and a refusal to elaborate.

i don't think it is fair to reprimand the whole group because one student is consistently late to post conference.

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

It's awful to say, but the things you're talking about, like her staring at you about a med -- that happens on the floor all the time with new nurses. We're not being hateful. We're trying to make sure you don't kill somebody by confusing digitalis with dilantin -- I will never, ever forget when I accidently said PRBCs instead of FFPs when telling my charge what I was going to hang...she handed me my backside. Didn't matter that I was on my 5th day of 12 hour shifts and was tired out of my mind......and if I had a nickel for every time a charge nurse had a nursing station tirade about tardiness (when it's the same RN who is the NM's pet, so that's never going to change...)I'd be able to retire. Unfortunately, I think she was probably giving you a good idea of what it's going to be like on the floor in terms of personalities, anyway....

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Specializes in Med-Tele, Internal Med PCU.

Worse than a NM or Charge ... how about when the patient asks you? and (gulp) you don't know.

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It's awful to say, but the things you're talking about, like her staring at you about a med -- that happens on the floor all the time with new nurses. We're not being hateful. We're trying to make sure you don't kill somebody by confusing digitalis with dilantin -- I will never, ever forget when I accidently said PRBCs instead of FFPs when telling my charge what I was going to hang...she handed me my backside. Didn't matter that I was on my 5th day of 12 hour shifts and was tired out of my mind......and if I had a nickel for every time a charge nurse had a nursing station tirade about tardiness (when it's the same RN who is the NM's pet, so that's never going to change...)I'd be able to retire. Unfortunately, I think she was probably giving you a good idea of what it's going to be like on the floor in terms of personalities, anyway....

Worse than a NM or Charge ... how about when the patient asks you? and (gulp) you don't know.

Yes -- I don't mean to sound flippant, but I'm always kind of amused when students complain about how hard their instructors are on them, because it only gets worse once you're out of school and on your own! :) I encourage students to think of this as "practice" for the real world of nursing.

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It has been over 30 years since my own "tough clinical instructor" experience. She also taught the class. I would leave class and head to the student health office with spastic colon. Rough semester.

Did I learn a lot from her?

I think it was the first time I had encountered such a personality, someone who needs to feel in control to the point of wanting everyone around them to walk on eggshells. But, now that I've been a nursing instructor, I know her behavior is more about fear. She is ultimately responsible for everything all the students do, for all their patients!

Keep her in the loop. Tell her when you are not sure how to do something, but also tell her you've reviewed the procedure first. If you can't find an anwser, tell her what you've done to try to find the answer.

You will surely meet other people like this in your nursing career. Know that much of it, is their issues.....not your performance. But you both have a goal of safe patient care! Good luck!

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