Bad Clinical Instructor

Nursing Students General Students

Updated:   Published

How much bad behavior should be tolerated?

What do you do when you have a clinical instructor who lies? These clinical instructors are something else. They think it's appropriate to put on an evaluation that's posted online everything the student does wrong, making it appear that the student is morally or professionally unfit, even when you explained what occurred such as the charge nurse was not involved with teaching the student - but the student gets all their work done and make sure the patient was taken care of more than the actual nurse. 

This to me warrants disciplinary action on the instructor. They end up teaching even though they have unsatisfactory evaluations from students. You don't get to choose your clinical instructor and, by all means, you'll never choose some of these instructors, not to mention you pay the  school for instruction.  The instructors will throw you under the bus, so it makes sense to,  in two seconds,  send them to the board of nursing for a complaint for unsatisfactory and immoral behavior. The reason why this is necessary is because you can't tell a nursing instructor your concerns or else you'll get a target on  your back (due to bullying). This is not tolerating bad behavior by clinical instructors. 

Thoughts?

1 Votes
Specializes in ED RN, Firefighter/Paramedic.

From your description, it sounds like there was an incident between you and the unit charge nurse.

If you want useful feedback on your situation, you’re probably going to need to divulge more of what happened. 

Otherwise, if you’re here to just vent, then by all means let her rip.  I am curious what you mean about your eval being posted online?  Certainly that’s something only viewable to you and your instructors, as I feel a publicly viewable clinical evaluation would likely be a FERPA violation.. 

3 Votes
21 minutes ago, FiremedicMike said:

From your description, it sounds like there was an incident between you and the unit charge nurse.

If you want useful feedback on your situation, you’re probably going to need to divulge more of what happened. 
 

Otherwise, if you’re here to just vent, then by all means let her rip.  I am curious what you mean about your eval being posted online?  Certainly that’s something only viewable to you and your instructors, as I feel a publicly viewable clinical evaluation would likely be a FERPA violation.. 

No incident between me and a charge nurse. The nurse didn't want to show me things, he was too busy.  What does that matter if clinical evaluations are only viewable to me? I still don't like the fact that it's lying, just posting evaluations because you can't find anything else to say. You've gone off in a wrong direction mentioning FERPA. That's not what I'm saying. 

1 Votes
Specializes in ED RN, Firefighter/Paramedic.
faithjohn said:

No incident between me and a charge nurse. The nurse didn't want to show me things, he was too busy.  What does that matter if clinical evaluations are only viewable to me? I still don't like the fact that it's lying, just posting evaluations because you can't find anything else to say. You've gone off in a wrong direction mentioning FERPA. That's not what I'm saying. 

1.  Because if it's only viewable by you and you're passing clinical, then chalk it up to just another "nursing school is needlessly painful" and move on. 

2.  Again it sounds like there was something that happened involving the charge nurse, this time you mentioned "too busy and not showing me things".  Whatever occurred was subsequently observed by the clinical instructor and documented from their perspective.  Without knowing what occurred over the course over this shift, it's hard to get behind your assertion of "lying".

Just out of my own curiosity, why were you asking the charge nurse for help and not your clinical instructor?

5 Votes
FiremedicMike said:

1.  Because if it's only viewable by you and you're passing clinical, then chalk it up to just another "nursing school is needlessly painful" and move on. 

I don't chalk anything up, I am paying for nursing school and if an instructor is going to betray, then I'm going to report it. They should be held to the standards students are. If they think they're big and bad and going to post 'everything' you did wrong and think that's normal, then they can chalk it up also and get reported to the board of nursing. Sounds like you ignore the truth and actually sounds like a fake way of looking at things.

1 Votes
Specializes in ED RN, Firefighter/Paramedic.
On 2/19/2022 at 2:40 PM, faithjohn said:

I don't chalk anything up, I am paying for nursing school and if an instructor is going to betray, then I'm going to report it. They should be held to the standards students are. If they think they're big and bad and going to post 'everything' you did wrong and think that's normal, then they can chalk it up also and get reported to the board of nursing. Sounds like you ignore the truth and actually sounds like a fake way of looking at things.

Hmm.. I don't think I really have any advice for you then other than to say that I would think long and hard about investing energy into a BON complaint.  I don't think that's going to be a worthwhile use of your time.

Have a great weekend, good luck through the rest of school!

10 Votes
2 hours ago, FiremedicMike said:

Hmm.. I don't think I really have any advice for you then other than to say that I would think long and hard about investing energy into a BON complaint.  I don't think that's going to be a worthwhile use of your time.

Thanks.  

1 Votes
Specializes in Customer service.
faithjohn said:

What do you do when you have a clinical instructor who lies? These clinical instructors are something else. They think it's appropriate to put on an evaluation that's posted online everything the student does wrong, making it appear that the student is morally or professionally unfit, even when you explained what occurred such as the charge nurse was not involved with teaching the student - but the student gets all their work done and make sure the patient was taken care of more than the actual nurse. 

This to me warrants disciplinary action on the instructor. They end up teaching even though they have unsatisfactory evaluations from students. You don't get to choose your clinical instructor and, by all means, you'll never choose some of these instructors, not to mention you pay the  school for instruction.  The instructors will throw you under the bus, so it makes sense to,  in two seconds,  send them to the board of nursing for a complaint for unsatisfactory and immoral behavior. The reason why this is necessary is because you can't tell a nursing instructor your concerns or else you'll get a target on  your back (due to bullying). This is not tolerating bad behavior by clinical instructors. 

Thoughts?

Your teachers have to evaluate your performance. Why you didn't correct the problems if they were wrong?   Most of all, the charge nurse will not teach you unless it's relevant to your clinical experience and its workplace. You're a guest in their facility. Be thankful that you have a clinical site. They can allow schools to be there or not. They don't need students. They are burdened to their workload.  Help is something you can do that you're allowed to do legally and ethically.  You're probably sensitive to criticism. What are your expectations?

My teachers are scary. I'm afraid I don't do very well with prescribed procedures, so I keep them away as much as possible. I get busy. LOL. I don't perform any procedure that's against school's policy.

1 Votes
Specializes in Customer service.

Hire your own private teacher and clinical instructor if you need a constant assistance. ?

3 Votes
1 hour ago, Honyebee said:

Hire your own private teacher and clinical instructor if you need a constant assistance. ?

I'm surprised at how 'off' these responses are. The truth is you both have no answers. And, I don't care if I have a clinical site, so me being thankful has nothing to do with it. I don't care if the nurse teaches me anything. I'm simply don't care anything about a clinical site. That has nothing to do with me. This is why nursing gets worse. Know it all students like yourself, Firemedic, have nothing else to say, so say negative things. Please respond with less deranged comments. 

1 Votes
Specializes in Customer service.
3 hours ago, faithjohn said:

I'm surprised at how 'off' these responses are. The truth is you both have no answers. And, I don't care if I have a clinical site, so me being thankful has nothing to do with it. I don't care if the nurse teaches me anything. I'm simply don't care anything about a clinical site. That has nothing to do with me. This is why nursing gets worse. Know it all students like yourself, Firemedic, have nothing else to say, so say negative things. Please respond with less deranged comments. 

Then how did you get a charge nurse in your topic? I'm not the smartest kid on the block, but I don't remember being told that I lack in independence to function as a CNA. I do need help in many things to function as a nursing student--I can't be alone passing medications or do other procedures--the instructor or nurse must be present; however, as a CNA, I learned to do some things without driving the nurses crazy. I also worked in private homes. I was alone with clients. Ultimately, if you're a nurse, your charge will not always be there to hold your hands.

You need to learn some independence otherwise you'll suffer in nursing. Ask any nurses you know. If you don't know any nurse, then get your CNA to see it yourself. As a CNA, you still need to function alone.

Are you pretending to be a nursing student?  I don't even know why I bother to tell you this. Nursing students are relatively smart and aren't asking dumb questions like yours. 

1 Votes
Specializes in Customer service.
3 hours ago, faithjohn said:

I'm surprised at how 'off' these responses are. The truth is you both have no answers. And, I don't care if I have a clinical site, so me being thankful has nothing to do with it. I don't care if the nurse teaches me anything. I'm simply don't care anything about a clinical site. That has nothing to do with me. This is why nursing gets worse. Know it all students like yourself, Firemedic, have nothing else to say, so say negative things. Please respond with less deranged comments. 

No, you reread what you stated. It sounded to me that you need an individual trainer/supervisor. Being a student nurse, unless you're the only student is left, then you're lucky. You will have your instructor for yourself. 

If you need extra time, I suggest you take a nursing program that is extended. 

1 Votes
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