Vent: having a hard time with my clinical instructor

[NightNerd, MSN, RN]

I am a second semester nursing student, currently taking mother-baby. I was really looking forward to this clinical rotation. Although this is not a specialty that I particularly want to go into, I was excited about the chance to witness this exciting process in a family's life and to just learn the new subject matter. Now, I am dreading our last few days of clinical.

My instructor, also one of our lecturers, is so, so smart. She is excellent in class, providing all the big picture statements and details that we need to know to be effective, and she is great at questioning us to make us USE what we know. But in clinical, she is just MEAN.

There have been times where she has straight-up flipped out and yelled at students right on the floor - in front of the staff, in front of patients, in front of visitors. She has made a few of my classmates cry before due to such lengthy and harsh criticisms. Last week, she scolded me for several minutes straight because I didn't know the answer to ONE question she asked me - finally I apologized for not knowing the material and requested the chance to look it up so I could finish my work for the day. That at least got me out of the way long enough that I could compose myself and get back on track, but I'm not sure how to deal with this in the future. I am sure something similar will happen again.

I don't have any problem being told what I'm doing wrong and what I need to work on. That's why I'm a student - I need to learn it. But I know it's unrealistic for me to know everything and perform it perfectly, and I hate that because of this it's basically inevitable that I'm going to get yelled at. Plus, I just find it so unprofessional and inappropriate that she acts like this in front of hospital staff, patients, and visitors. It's bad enough that we are literally paying tuition to be treated this way, but those people shouldn't have to witness this.

I'm not going to let it ruin my shot at being a good nurse and at learning everything I can about mother-baby care, but I'm just peeved that I have so much anxiety and fear over what could have been an excellent learning experience.

What stories/words of advice/encouragement have y'all got in the way of dealing with strong personalities like this?

[Live.&.Learn]

It's an unpleasant situation to say the least. I tried to look at it as I will have to deal with all kinds of people like this both in my practice and in life. When I had a clinical instructor who I felt was difficult there was a couple things that I did. The first was just try to understand why she was the way that she was. In that case, I felt like she had a hard time letting us do things on our own, i decided that she was nervous, it maybe was a lot for her to be responsible for all of us and our patients, and that she was stressing herself out by trying to micro-manage 8 students and all of our patients. Another thing that I did was I simply had a conversation with the course chair and the director of my program. I tried not to place blame on her at all, I just wanted them to know that we were butting heads, to hear my side of things, and to know that I was trying to be professional and find ways to deal with the situation. Just put your head down, do the very best you can, and maintain professionalism at all times. You're almost through it, and if it's really bad than say something. Good Luck!!

[krisiepoo]

WE have a couple like this at our school. during the semester I kept notes of what she said/did and then presented it to the dean after I was done with her. Specifics will get you a lot further than generalities. If you can get the other students to do this as well, it will be helpful.

With mine, I did everything I could to avoid her at all costs. I answered other call lights, I spent time following nurses, helping CNAs, doing my charting in an empty open room so I was harder to find and be critisized. One time she saw me and asked what I was doing and let her know I wanted to be out of the way so the nurses could use the desk computers and she liked that answer.

There's really no good solution, luckily you're at the end with her so learn what you can from this behavior and make it help you be a stronger nurse

[smf0903]

I can sympathize...one of my instructors this semester is like that as well! Everyone has been so stressed out as far as this particular clinical, and it is entirely because of the instructor. We have learned to avoid her at all costs...like the previous poster said, keep busy, busy, busy so you basically don't have time for her and her for you. Other than procedures we need to have her there for (checking our meds, watching if we do a procedure) I have zero to do with her. I literally give report, walk out and go to my patients, I ask her to open the med room when I am ready to pull meds, I find her to check my meds, and then I keep busy with my patients and let the RNs and LPNs know that I will help with anything they need help with (and they usually will ask for help with their patients). Our instructor is very demeaning to students and expects you to already know everything (well, if we did we wouldn't be in nursing school lol) and can get downright nasty. So I just count down the days and remind myself that at least I don't have to live with her

Good luck to you!!

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

PP's are offering very good advice.

I just wanted to add - disrespect & disruptive behavior are NEVER acceptable, NEVER excusable. In fact, there is a huge amount of evidence the disruptive behavior (among clinicians) is a very serious patient safety issue, particularly if the out-of-control person is in a position of authority (physician, manager, etc). Your instructor is an 'authority figure', so this is applicable to your situation.

Think about it. In order to protect themselves from this harridan, students are engaging in desperate measures to stay under her radar. I'm sure they don't want to ask her any questions or seek her assistance for anything. This effectively destroys the 'learning environment' in your clinical rotation.

I know it's probably too risky right now, but be sure to include your negative feedback on the course evaluation. Whenever you are finally 'safe' from her... be sure to provide feedback to the course director also.