How My Instructor Affected My Life

My dear future nurse!

Ah, how your article reminded me of an instructor I 'experienced'. Not only did she 'attack' me the first day of clinicals when i expressed fear of the unexpected but she continued throughout the experience. She even lied about 'supervising me' when she was not even in site.

There will be many dysfunctional situations in your career as a nurse. There will also be many situations that involve individuals with integrity and an interest in the 'whole picture'.

Rest assured my friend that you are not alone; however, you read the signals correctly. You continued to forge ahead, learned to expand your abilities and in spite of her attitude you rose like the phoenix from the fire!

No one can keep a good nurse down. I see this happen to people even after they are licensed and working. This is a good experience to identify what to ignore, how to expand your knowledge and increase your self worth and forge ahead! Continue to use their negative energy to fuel your desire to provide good patient care. There are always going to be days that do not meet your expectations. Know this! There will also be days when you walk away knowing you provided the best care anyone possibly could provide.

There are bullies everywhere including education. They are eventually identified as no one can get way with this negativity forever. Keep that in mind next time someone tries to intimate you like this! You will eventually identify their method of operation quickly and realize 'IT'S NOT YOU'..!

I also had an instuctor that didn't seem to like me. My patient was a 20 year female who had a thyroidectomy and I was also in my twenties. The patient and I got along very well because we had a lot in common. Anyways, this mean instuctor told me that I was very unprofessional and that I didn't have what it takes to be a nurse and that I should just give it up right now. I wanted to start cryiing but I thought I'm not going to let that ----- see me cry. So it took everything I had to keep from crying! But when I saw my other instructor who was so sweet and was a nun I just lost it and told her what she said to me. 2 of my charge nurses at work were both told that they should do some other job by their instructor and they happen to be very excellent nurses! Thank God that we all hung in there!

Stay Strong... Some of these instructors out here are on serious power-trips! I've experienced something similar and after being so mad, sad, and feeling down, I realized that only an inadquate educator would believe that shattering one's confidence was adequate education. It's on her..not you.. Just do your best and document these things. If she did it to you, she definitely did it to others...Just keep a journal, time and date in a mini notebook you can keep in your notebook pocket, like a diary... then if you should have to defend yourself in a "grading situation" you will not have to rely on anecdotal recollection of what occurred.

I think that those of us who've had bad instructors should pat ourselves on the back. Nursing is tough, but trying to learn on a tougher environment created by the person who should be there to teach us is even tougher. None of us deserve this type of treatment, we wouldn't be in nursing SCHOOL if we knew everything already. We are not perfect we are trying to learn. Let us learn from these type of instructors to never EVER be like that, and that our "survival" makes us stronger and better nurses.

It is really irritating to find people who say they love to teach, treat students this way. Please don't give up, take a deep breath, take everything with a grain of salt (as it can be a learning experience), keep your head high... and smile (it'll give you instant confidence) Those who you are caring for will thank and appreciate you

Good luck.

[quote=raekaylvn;3371056]I sit in my car outside of the hospital where I'm doing my second term clinicals at. Tears are just rolling down my cheeks. They won't stop. In LVN school, we have 13 week terms. This is only week 7. The tears increase with this sudden thought. I cannot do this anymore. I want to drive to campus and quit this very instant. Instead, I drive home through the tears, remembering the horrible 7 weeks I've had...

OMG this was me last semester, it was a nightmare and believe me I came this close to quitting, every client I had for the first 4 weeks was handcuffed to the bed, med pass, every one else got thier meds the night before with me it was in the am no time for prep,

I passed but believe me I was preparing myself to repeat, she took all my confidence away, I am kind of scared of my new clinicals, however, I know whatever comes my way I will be able to do it, even if I vomit before every clinical (like last semester) The only thing that saved me was my maternity clinical instructor was a doll who made us all feel happy, confident and relaxed.

God save us all from these instructors and thier personality problems

As a clinical instructor myself, I vow NOT to be like the clinical instructor you wrote about in your essay. While she may have pushed you to stay on top of things and learn more, I do not for a second think that is the environment a student learns best in. I think a clinical instructor can motivate a student to learn and do a good job while also following the golden rule "treat others as you would like to be treated" There is no reason for anyone to cut a student down like that!! Congrats on carrying on and good luck to you throughout your nursing career.
Kacy

I think your instructor must've been the twin of a LVN instructor I had in 2000/2001. The sad thing is that I wasn't strong enough to report her. I let the situation get me down, and the old fashioned nursing school that I went to had demerits (three and you're out). Guess who gave me all three demerits by the end of January. I was at the top of my class and did well clinically. The final demerit was because I hadn't double-sided copied a piece of work. Very trivial. She even told me when she called me into her office to tell me about the third demerit that "it's a shame, as you'd make a really good nurse." Talk about mind games! (I'm a RN now, but what wasted time between then and when I started to re-train.)Well done again for enduring this. I bet you're a brilliant nurse now.

You owe your success to yourself. You were a hard worker before that instructor, and your natural abilities just bloomed.

We had a pair of nurses like that in my school. My nemesis had me on the carpet weekly for something-or-other (although she graded my papers totally fairly. I suspect she never looked at the names!) and one of my classmates, T, was told by hers that she'd never be a good nurse and that she (the instructor) would never want T to be her nurse.

The following semester, T and I were both still there and both instructors were gone! T went on to get her masters' and taught in one of the local schools of nursing.

OMG, that was my schools system too. CCAC, in PA, Pittsburgh. They were called "unsafe's", their form of a citation or a write up.

With my nemesis, I left a part out of the story. She was the psych. clinical instructor. It was during that rotation you might get to follow a case manager. We had five weeks on the unit, so five people could shadow a case manager. Problem was, there were six students in the group at the time. One person would have to go without the experience.

Me, I didnt want to shadow a case manager. Most of the people in my group didnt either, but welcomed the day to do it cause, well.........it meant no pt. patho. paperwork the night before. After talking to some of my classmates, I figured I'd let my lack of interest in the case manager shadowing be known. It'd make things easier. The plan was to draw a name out of a hat or something and that person would be the one to go without. I figured I could volunteer and everyone would be happy. This is how that conversation went:

Me: Could I talk to you after clinicals about the shadowing day?

Instructor: Sure. But I've got news for you. I've decided to bypass the drawing and you wont be given a day witht the case manager. It is a priveledge and not for students like yourself. Maybe if you improve another instructor will give you the opportunity to do it at another time.

Me: Oh, thats terrible, I was so looking forward to it. What can I do to make things right?

Instructor: Well, I've left notes (oh yes, and she did, pages worth) on your paperwork. Read them. But you still are not shadowing.

Me: OK, I promise to do better.


LMAO, not sure she ever found out that I was going to volunteer to not do the shadowing. Might have fueled her venomous personality if she had. Later, by an unbias instructor, I was offered the choice of working the floor or shadowing a case manager. I took another day on the floor. The instructor smiled, I think she knew the situation.