Advice on Obnoxious student...

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We have this "guy" in our class who makes his comments about anything and everything in class (an arrogant, egotistical, Mr Know-it-all)...such as when someones cell phone went off in class (they had it on vibrate, but you can still hear it sometimes) he loudly proclaims, "Ok everyone, I thought we were told to leave the adult toys at home!" which of course got a little giggle from some of the younger gals who thought it was cute. (I guess)

I have some difficulty understanding what is said due to his constant chatter throughout class (not to me, but to another gal who sits nearby). I can't have too much background noise, else I cannot hear clearly.

He "takes over" any group he is in, automatically makes himself the "spokesperson" and tells the others, "We'll do it this way, since I'm the oldest one here." (He's in his 40's I would imagine and I heard that from a member of his group last week.)

He is a decent student and does ask intelligent questions. But he just grates on EVERYONES nerves! And I just want him to be quiet!

I don't want to say anything yet to the instructors, simce school just started and I don't want to make an impression of being a trouble maker.

Any ideas folks?

Specializes in Pediatrics.
i also have a woman in her 40's in my class, i'm 50! but she acts like she knows everything because she works in a hospital dong charting. i'm a medical assistant for 15 years! i can also make remarks about some of the subjects because i've been in the medical field for so long, but i sit quietly and learn like everyone else. these people really get me steamed! they don't seem to realize that they are not special, ok they made it into the nursing program, but so what, so did everyone else in the class. everyone else worked just as hard to get accepted and they are here so they must be doing something right. there is no reason someone should try to show up their classmates because they think they are better then everyone else. so you should definitely speak to your instructor quietly and tell her how disturbing the noise is to you because everyone is there to learn not to listen to obnoxious people! best of luck to everyone!

i was in nursing school at 18, and those in my class with the big mouths were always the older ones, usually with some kind of 'other' experience (emts, cops, firefighters, lpns to name a few). i didn't dare add, question or share anything because i didn't know anything!! and i had just come from high school, where it was not cool to participate. :smokin:

as a future educator, i read these threads carefully (and fearfully), to get a feel of what the classroom dynamics are like, and how the other students perceive the trouble makers. i think when we reach the point of "adult"

education, it is no longer the professors job to police the class. i would not at all be offended by another student's attempt to put a big mouth in their place. of course, if it persisted, i would definitely intervene, keeping all complaints confidential. :)

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We have some of all the stereotypes in our nursing class - the girl who has a story from her personal life to go along with every topic ("my ex-boyfriend's stepbrother's cousin had a sore like that one time..."), the EMT to who most of our basics are old hat who tries to take charge/impress profs in class/clinicals, the young guy who disrespectfully questions the ethics of nursing ("how are we really supposed to treat ALL patients non-judgmentally, even prisoners?"). It's been interesting, to say the least. :)

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we have 3 in our class and surprising they are all men. One in his 20's, one in his 30's and one in his 50's or 60's. The 30yo has toned it down a bit so he is bearable. The other 2 try to be know it alls, but they really aren't. the 20yo will argue with our physics prof over stupid stuff. He will also talk and make comments while the prof is lecturing. The woman who sits in front of him has told him to be quiet twice and she finally ended up moving to a different seat. The majority of the class has shunned these 2, because we can not stand to listen to them in class, much less at lunch or instudy groups.

A

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Specializes in Pediatrics.
we have 3 in our class and surprising they are all men. One in his 20's, one in his 30's and one in his 50's or 60's. The 30yo has toned it down a bit so he is bearable. The other 2 try to be know it alls, but they really aren't. the 20yo will argue with our physics prof over stupid stuff. He will also talk and make comments while the prof is lecturing. The woman who sits in front of him has told him to be quiet twice and she finally ended up moving to a different seat. The majority of the class has shunned these 2, because we can not stand to listen to them in class, much less at lunch or instudy groups.

A

Do they get along with each other?

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well they get along, like our whole class gets along because we are stuck together for the next 2 years. but each thinks that the others are know it alls. hell, maybe they are the normal ones and the other 29 of us are the problem! :chuckle

A

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:uhoh3:

AMEN my friend, AMEN. I believe we are in class with the same person. :rolleyes:

I am so glad I am not the only one. The woman in our class is 50. She is a basket case. Not only does she do the same things as this other woman and she wastes our time when we are trying to move on by doing the same thing, talking about irrelevant things. We will be starting to work on one of our A&P courses and she says "I don't have that page", when she just had it like, 15 minutes ago. Oh man, totally unorganized and ditzy. She didn't bother me at first but now I am started to get really irritated. Especially after today when she rudely gave her unneeded opinion to two young ladies during lunch hour. One was already half crying about her life situation and this woman had the gall to tell one lady(right or wrong) that she shouldn't be living with her boyfriend that it isn't right and that it is all of our own faults if we had children out of wedlock or are on state assistance. Then she made the second lady cry because she bluntly told her that she does not need to adopt children(subject she was talking about) because it was a stupid idea. Needless to say she (50) got bit back in the but today. I told her she was totally insensitive and needs to think before she opens her mouth and then another one of our very outspoken ladies spoke out and told her just to keep her mouth shut that it doen's matter what she thinks.

I sure hope she mellows out because she really does waste a lot of our class time and I am here to learn.

Good luck everyone dealing with those annoying pests.:p

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Specializes in OR.

There must at least one in every class. A woman in her 40s sits right next to me in 2 classes. She talks endlessly about her problems and always says she is lost and doesn't understand and then tries to bring up examples of patients she has seen and different drugs (she is a CNA). After the 3rd week of class, I told her "I cannot concentrate in class when you are talking. I cannot hear the teacher or takes notes when you are talking." She got the hint for about 1-1/2 weeks and has started again. As someone else pointed out, she must have some type of inferiority complex because she is always trying to draw attention to herself in one way or another. I have heard her entire life history and all the tragedies she has been through. It is all about me, me, me with her. Tell the student in your class that his/her talking is distracting and could he limit it.

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I posted this in OB nursing but it fits here too.

Sorry to start a vent but I had to get it out somewhere...I am a nursing student in my 3rd semester (maternity and pediatrics). I have a particular classmate that always interrups class with personal stories and is very attention needy. The professors have learned to manage her somewhat decently but there are still many times that she derails lecture and we loose so much ground we can't finish (during our psych rotation we all felt as if she used class as group therapy). She is very attention needy and always has a story to top yours. She so desperately wants to be an ob nurse and it is killing her that she is in pediatric clinicals first (we rotate every 8 weeks so the class is split in 2 and we switch from maternity to peds or vice versa halfway.) She has many horror stories and lots of "someone told me" or "my son..." She had every possible complication during her own pregnancy and delivery and we have all heard about it 400 times. Today when she "ratted" on another "bad nurse" from a friend's delivery the instructor responded by saying "we don't want to spread misinformation so lets move along" . Most of the students in class, including me, bow our heads so we can keep from making faces or outright laughing at how out of control she is. Anyway the kicker of all this is that she told me " I hope I get a pre-eclamptic patient who's baby is frank-breech, and needs an emergency c/s...this would be my ideal patient because I could offer her so much since this was what happened to me and the nurses were just bleepity-bleep-bleep rotten." I was just stunned. I didn't know what to say. But I feel that I would never wish these things on anyone for my own benefit or whatever. I also just wanted to yell at her "ITS NOT ABOUT YOU!" and tell her to get some much needed therapy. Anyway sorry to bore you all but I can't help but feel that this person would not necessarily be a benefit to moms-to-be when she hasn't sorted her own issues out. Just looking for what other people's experiences have been...have you encountered these types and does it scare you that they may be ob nurses someday?

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I just graduated from UVA, we had one of those. It got to the point where when she opened her mouth half of us would start giggling and the other half would fume. It's best just to be able to see the humor in it... she was a truly nice person, just oblivious. Chatty patients'll love her!

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I posted this in OB nursing but it fits here too.

Sorry to start a vent but I had to get it out somewhere...I am a nursing student in my 3rd semester (maternity and pediatrics). I have a particular classmate that always interrups class with personal stories and is very attention needy. The professors have learned to manage her somewhat decently but there are still many times that she derails lecture and we loose so much ground we can't finish (during our psych rotation we all felt as if she used class as group therapy). She is very attention needy and always has a story to top yours. She so desperately wants to be an ob nurse and it is killing her that she is in pediatric clinicals first (we rotate every 8 weeks so the class is split in 2 and we switch from maternity to peds or vice versa halfway.) She has many horror stories and lots of "someone told me" or "my son..." She had every possible complication during her own pregnancy and delivery and we have all heard about it 400 times. Today when she "ratted" on another "bad nurse" from a friend's delivery the instructor responded by saying "we don't want to spread misinformation so lets move along" . Most of the students in class, including me, bow our heads so we can keep from making faces or outright laughing at how out of control she is. Anyway the kicker of all this is that she told me " I hope I get a pre-eclamptic patient who's baby is frank-breech, and needs an emergency c/s...this would be my ideal patient because I could offer her so much since this was what happened to me and the nurses were just bleepity-bleep-bleep rotten." I was just stunned. I didn't know what to say. But I feel that I would never wish these things on anyone for my own benefit or whatever. I also just wanted to yell at her "ITS NOT ABOUT YOU!" and tell her to get some much needed therapy. Anyway sorry to bore you all but I can't help but feel that this person would not necessarily be a benefit to moms-to-be when she hasn't sorted her own issues out. Just looking for what other people's experiences have been...have you encountered these types and does it scare you that they may be ob nurses someday?

Please don't suffer in silence. Tell her!!! When she starts running her mouth, interrupt her and say just what you said here. You'll feel so much better and your classmates will thank you for it. If she gets offended, oh well .

I value personal experiences, but when a classmate highjacks the lecture with these "personal experiences" it does get on your nerves, it gets everyone in a bad mood, and it makes the whole nursing clinical a big pain in the neck.

I like it when a professor exerts(sp?) control over her lecture/clinical. My prof. would cut them off in mid-sentence and say, "I appreciate/value your input, but I have to move along with today's lecture".

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Specializes in Telemetry/Med Surg.

At least one in every class if not more.

I have a guy in my class--the know it all, MOST annoying and a girl who works as a unit secretary in one of the hospital ER's.....her famous line is: 'well, in MY ER'....WTF? Always telling about what she THINKS she knows, interrupts the instructor, etc. etc. Yeah..you're definitely not alone!!!

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i think when we reach the point of "adult" education, it is no longer the professors job to police the class. i would not at all be offended by another student's attempt to put a big mouth in their place. of course, if it persisted, i would definitely intervene, keeping all complaints confidential. :)

that is how we handle it in our classrooms. on day one (or at some early point in the class) we discuss classroom manners and spell it out for them -- some profs actually have a section in the syllabus about it. they are made aware of the expectations -- one of which includes "holding one another accountable for our actions and speech", "bringing the best of each of us to the discussions while maintianing a positive learning experience for all involved." pretty huh!?:rolleyes:

we really do try to stay on track in lectures while allowing for input. monopolizing the feedback portion of class is not tolerated by the other students -- for the most part.

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