Hi I'm new on the block. I need some quick answers. I am in my second year of ADN, with less than one year to go. I really feel defeated! After clinicals yesterday I feel that no matter how much I put into this, I am inadequte!!!! I received a "needs improvement" for clinicals yesterday and have a ton of work due next week. I don't know if I want to spend any more energy just to get shot down again at clinicals next week.I live in Northeast Ohio and I understand that the nursing instructors are very much the same, at all schools here. They are very uncaring and are never encouraging. There were several students crying in post-coference yesterday and one was me! I figured 1st and 2nd semester they are trying to weed out people and I hoped 3rd and 4th semester the instructors would have a little more empathy. I thought there was a world shortage of nurses!!!! Must not be in Northeast Ohio!!! There was not even enough students that returned from 1st semester (spring of 2007) to warrant the normal 2 instructors at the Cleveland Clinic this semester! Are there any caring, compassionate, HUMAN, nursing instructors out there? If so, I'm thinking I would like to continue my education at that scool!!!!!!!!!! I am 48 y/o, have a 3.77 average and if all nurses are like the instructors in Northeast Ohio, I don't want to be a part of that!!!! I am a flight attendant right now (with 28 plus years), and I am beginning to like my job more and more after the last 2 weeks! I love caring for my clients but not at the risk of me being so stressed that it makes me sick. Thanks for reading and commenting. I really need some answers!!!!!!!!!
inre:military nurse......the ONLY instructor that i had ANY respect for when i finally made it through NS, was a light colonel in the air guard.....tough as nails, but honest and fair.....Judy, may you rest in peace
Specializes in Infection Preventionist/ Occ Health.
I agree that some nursing instructors could have more empathy, improve their communications skills, etc.
However, IMO students should be thankful for tough instructors in school. The instructor who gave me the hardest time was the one from whom I learned the most. (Once when a patient was practically comotose from a huge dose of phenobarb and I ran to her not knowing what to do, she grabbed my arm and said "Get a hold of yourself" in a not-so-nice tone.) Same goes for the preceptor who made me cry quite a few times- now that I have proved myself to her she is one of my biggest allies.
Many times, these instructors and preceptors are primarily concerned with students/GNs becoming safe and competent nurses. Yes, they could hold your hand, pat your back and tell you that it's going to be okay. However, what good would this do a new nurse who can't function in a clinical setting and ends up putting his or her patients in danger because of incompetence?
I learned the hard way that sometimes nursing is tough, that even 4.0 students (I was one) can still struggle in the clinical setting, and that the "meanest" teachers can sometimes teach us more than we realize at the time. There are instructors who engage in extreme behavior or resort to bullying, of course, and these instructors should be dealt with by their superiors.
This is the way I think about the situation: If your loved one was in the hospital, would you want his or her nurse to be someone who was coddled all the way through nursing school and given A's to satisfy his or her self esteem? Or would you want someone who struggled and was given negative feedback when necessary, but is now a better nurse for it?
Specializes in Triage, MedSurg, MomBaby, Peds, HH.
Hang in there, kprcio! After all, you've flown for 28 years; you know how to deal with difficult people. You've seen it all at this point. After doing something else for 28 years of course you're going to feel inadequate practicing all these new skills. Believe me, if you've been in-flight as long as you have, you can do ANYTHING. :)
I finished the LPN program in 2006 and I have to say I was very lucky, I had the coolest, smartest, most compassionate nursing instructor you could ask for. She never made you feel stupid and by doing that you didn't have the constant fear of failure. She realized that we were all human and learned in different ways and worked with us all. Her pass rate for the last 6 years is 100%, not from being authoritive or rude, but just being laid back and letting us learn and reinforcing the good, and mentoring what needed improvement on. I say the instructors who are as the initial person and others have described aren't doing it for the love of teaching but for another reason. Just like with any other nursing job, if you don't like it, move on to something else. JMO
I once had an instructor tell one of my peers, after a very competent clinical display that that they were "satisfactory". When some of the students confronted her about her lack of encouragement she replied: "You are a students not professional nurses- a students skill is only satisfactory or inadequate. You do not have the experience to warrent praise. I am not here to praise students for satisfactory care, I am here to teach you the skills you need to be a nurse". (possibly not an exact quote but pretty close). She was a little nuts but she taught good skills and demanded excellence. As far as I'm concerned praise is most usefull in training puppies- its nice, but people can get by without it. I sometimes think the instructors that are the most discourageing are trying to prepare students for difficult docs, hostile patients and ineffective management, and poor staffing. Are you OK with your skills?, do the RNs you work with give you good feedback?, are you keeping up with your peers? If so then you just need to learn to accept there are some people and situations that are going to be trial for your self esteem and you will get through them. Real world nursing often isn't much better.
inre:military nurse......the ONLY instructor that i had ANY respect for when i finally made it through NS, was a light colonel in the air guard.....tough as nails, but honest and fair.....Judy, may you rest in peace
I don't quite understand the...Judy, may you rest in peace. Will you please elucidate re: this statement. Thanks;)
First there is no "worldwide" shortage of nurses. There is a shortage of nurses willing to work in the current conditions for the pay.
Second, no matter whether there is a shortage or not, it does not mean that it should be easy to become a nurse. If it is hard to work as a nurse then nursing school will be hard. Much like medical school is hard for a reason...the work after graduation will be hard.
From what I understand, most nursing schools have varying degrees of what you are experiencing. Is it because nursing instructors are naturally mean people or underpaid? While some probably are, the vast majority have a tremendous responsibility on their shoulders. If any of their students screw up, a patient can be seriously harmed and it will be their responsibility. They begin evaluating students from day one, and if they see problems early on, they need to be corrected fast, when the tasks are simple. Even those that are good in classwork, may immediately excel as a nurse. Some very good academic students cannot adapt to actually working as a nurse - the instructors are the ones put in the unfortunate position of determining this.
Most are truly caring people...but they also have to care enough about the patients, safety and nursing to hurt the feelings of those that are learning, so that they go the right way.
Nursing school is not an easy journey.
The other thing to remember (and you find me saying this alot)
Life is not fair and neither is Nursing School.
When you graduate, you will find: unfair employers, mean patients, jerky coworkers, arrogant MDs, nasty supervisors, and and manipulative assistants. You will have to find a way of dealing with them, valuing their assets and dealing with their negatives....and work with them effectively. Better start learning now.
I agree with you that there really isn't a "shortage of nurses". There's much more behind this statement, e.g the working conditions are so stressful as to be barbaric. No wonder many RNs leave after a while: go to law school, become real estate brokers, etc, I know some who've done this. And when people tell me that nurses earn good money- I want to tell them that its a ludicrious statement-there is no amt of money to compensate for what we experience in a 12 or 8 hr shift. They haven't walked the walk!
Thanks for taking this subject on! Good luck in school. Some thoughts:
1. I have an MSN and while I would like to teach, I can't take the pay cut. However, I can see in 10 years or so, wanting to work part-time teaching. I hope that I will be kind and fair to my students.
2. When you get a "needs improvement" can you ask for specifics? That's kind of a broad statement. Without specifics, how can you improve?
3. Enlist the help of your fellow students. By sharing expereinces, you can as a group then improve. Maybe one of your mistakes is something that someone else thought was okay too.
I had both types of instructors, easy and kind and hard as rocks and tough as nails. Looking back, I wish all of my instructors were tough as nails. I'm wasn't in nursing school to be cottled along with atta boys. Nursing school is tough. I learned more from the instructors who were tough and didn't get me an ounce of leaway. But, you know what, I'm a great nurse because of that. I learned how to do it the right way, not to cut corners and what it took to be a great nurse. I wouldn't change my nursing instructors for anything.
You won't find many nurse managers or co-workers who are going to cottle to you either, so may as well get used to it now. Nursing requires a thick skin, a very thick skin.
You will do fine, keep going and keep working hard.
Tweety, BSN, RN
36,475 Posts
Best advice I've read in this entire thread. LOL