We took a stand against our Clinical Instructor...

Nursing Students General Students

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>>> Sorry - this is a big vent and may be very long!!

Today we took a stand against our clinical instructor (and now I'm a little worried).

Our CI is new to the school and new to the hospital. She was a last minute replacement, but claims she has 10 years teaching experience. We are half way into our rotation.

The earliest she has arrived was 15 minutes late - and that was on the first day. Since then, she insisted that we start clinicals 1 hour early (which put a strain on some of our schedules), and has been at least 30 minutes late every day.

When she does show up, she only has a list of patients on the floor. She does not check with the head nurse about who is getting discharged. She does not check the medication chart about what kinds of meds (and what time) the patient will get. She brings in her list and randomly assigns us a patient... AFTER we have already been waiting up to 45 minutes for her to show up! We usually do not hit the floor for 2-2.5 hours after our clinical started. Sometimes we end up with nothing to do (due to discharges and no meds to pass). She told us to bring our books to study, and to hide in the conference room:banghead:

There are other frustrations - wasting time talking endlessly about herself, her family, every health problem she has ever had, etc, etc...

Although I would not say she is mean to us, she can be condescending to some of the patients (behind their backs), primarily the overweight or mentally impaired.

Our professors that teach the theory part of the class are aware of the problems (heard it from the grapevine, I guess), but can't do anything about it. They have been supportive of us, and have given us some advice.

The official school policy is that a student must wait 10 minutes for an instructor to show up. Our professor said that certainly after 20 minutes we can assume they will be absent.

So.. today, we waited 20 minutes, then as a group, got up and left. We all went home. I really wanted to talk to her first (as a group) and then leave tomorrow if she is late again, but I agreed to go with the majority.

Now I am really worried. This woman will be writing our evaluations. I know she will be angry, and have no idea what will happen tomorrow. I think we have enough documentation to put administration on our side, but this could get really ugly.

Anyone ever had anything like this happen to them???

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Specializes in One day CCU maybe!.

I'm of the opinion the wisest thing would have been what you thought in the first place. To come to the teacher first (and maybe just a couple students...not the whole class). Now your teacher will be on the defensive and may decide to strike back. I would have done things a little differently but its easier to talk the talk than walk the walk. I'm sure you were all very frustrated.

The only thing in your favor at this point is that the entire class did the same. I don't think they will fail ALL the students. Your teacher will not want the attention she will get. Instead something tells me she will never be late again but will make this semester very hard on you guys.

At this point I would escalate it to the dean because it can only get worse. I doubt she will just sit back and allow her students to teach her a lesson in tardiness. JMHO.:(

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Wow, I can't wait to hear how this turns out!

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Wow, I can't wait to hear how this turns out!

Neither can I. DREADING tomorrow.

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I'm of the opinion the wisest thing would have been what you thought in the first place. To come to the teacher first (and maybe just a couple students...not the whole class). Now your teacher will be on the defensive and may decide to strike back. I would have done things a little differently but its easier to talk the talk than walk the walk. I'm sure you were all very frustrated.

The only thing in your favor at this point is that the entire class did the same. I don't think they will fail ALL the students. Your teacher will not want the attention she will get. Instead something tells me she will never be late again but will make this semester very hard on you guys.

At this point I would escalate it to the dean because it can only get worse. I doubt she will just sit back and allow her students to teach her a lesson in tardiness. JMHO.:(

I agree with everything you said. I think the next 3 weeks will be extremely difficult and unpleasant.

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Whoa... I will be looking for the update...(make sure your documentation on her is up to date!)

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I think I would have taken different steps to fix this problem; maybe talking to the correct person in charge at your college? I am interested to see what happens.

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I feel like I am waiting on the next episode of the Young and the Restless. Keep us posted and good luck!!

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Specializes in One day CCU maybe!.
I feel like I am waiting on the next episode of the Young and the Restless. Keep us posted and good luck!!

Me too!:coollook:

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Your education is a product which you have paid dearly for - it is your right to have a competent, PUNCTUAL, instructor. You have the right to complain - you are not getting your money's worth by a long shot.

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Specializes in ob/gyn med /surg.

you all got up and left clinical? so she came and no one was there? is this after you spoke to her about being late ? does she know why you all left ? i hope everyone spoke with her first about how she is late? ooh man she is going to mad with capitol letters.... ooh when do you have clinical again? have you heard from her?

see i would of waited for her wether she was late or not.. and spoke to her w/ 2 other students and not ganged up on her.. not that you were ganging up on her.. but she will see it that way....

keep me posted, i can hardly wait to hear

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I'm not sure that you all took the right approach but I agree that it is good that your whole class stuck together. I don't know what I would have done in that situation.

Then again, I don't think you or a few students going to her would have been a good idea either. I don't think she would like her "students" addressing her being late. And she can fail you or as we have seen in previous post, up to 50% of the class and that wouldn't be anything unusual. So it's proabably good that you stuck together so she cannot single anyone out!

Maybe she will be embarassed and address the issue and move on, lets hope!

Good Luck!

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