Bullying by Professors in Nursing School

[Gracefulmic]

Greetings! I am a 29 y/o 2nd degree nursing student. I am currently working on a paper for my Ethics class regarding Incivility and Bullying in the nursing environment. I have opted to focus this towards the nursing school environment. I have found one terrific article that deals with academic bullying by professors, but I am having a more difficult time finding one focused soley on the nursing school student. Does anyone have any ideas or links they can share? THe more I can't find articles the more I know I need to do this paper. I have peers in my school that have physical manifestations of stress related to going to clinical for fear of being yelled out, told to drop out, and that they will kill their patients. Students asking for help pronouncing a 27 letter long drug name are being told they are 'stupid' and patients won't want tobe cared for by them when they 'aren't smart enough to pronounce a word.' Instuctors telling students to 'be careful' regarding filing complaints because 'professors talk and complaining will only make you time left here harder than it needs to be.' The worst part of this situation is that the directors know but call the complaints hearsay. My Ethics professor is thrilled with the idea as she has been an advocate for students struggling with these 2 professors for over 3 yrs now. I am looking only for guidance here. I feel like I NEED to do this paper. If not for the exact change I am looking for, but to at least stir the pot and start a discussion.

[valmor1984]

Meanwhile, I wanted to share with you some related information I uncovered in a city not far from that miserable excuse for a nursing school I recently attended. This story comes to us from the nursing department on the campus of the University of Arizona in Tucson. http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/Southwest/10/28/university.shooting/

As you see, the topic is shooting... Please follow this next link to read 22 pages of the gunman's own words detailing just what drove him to such desperate acts of violence. You may be surprised to learn that Mr. Flores was already a respected nurse and a Gulf War veteran. I don't condone what Robert Flores did, but after my own experiences with the BS you are researching, I more than understand his frustration with a system that lacks accountability from those who wield it's authority.

http://www.azstarnet.com/specialreport/

Jakesdad

Frustration does not justify the murder of three nursing professors. I am so glad you don't condone it, but would feel better about your ethical stance if you had not put a "but" behind that statement.

For you to suggest that Robert Flores was a "respected nurse" shows a breathtaking lack of research on your part. Robert Flores was mentally ill, and a murderer. Period. What he saw as "bullying" was a legitimate evaluation that he was mentally and emotionally unfit to care for vulnerable patients. Employers and instructors both came to that conclusion, and their decision to remove him from the academic and work environments fueled his anger and need for revenge.

http://wc.arizona.edu/papers/96/47/01_1.html

"At least two of the three professors murdered Monday expressed concern about Robert Stewart Flores Jr.'s "anger," one as recently as Saturday night, according to several sources.

Assistant professor Robin Rogers, Flores' first victim, told friends and family she had fears about Flores when he failed her class last semester.

Rogers reportedly voiced her concerns at a church service at Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church last Saturday night, according to nursing professor Joann Glittenberg.

Rogers asked that church members pray for her to be protected from Flores, Glittenberg said.

Roger's husband, Phillip, recalled that she had anxiety about Flores during the term.

"She had him last semester and she expressed concerns then," Phillip Rogers said. "And this year, when he failed the critical care course, she had concerns - She was concerned that he might act out in some way; but she didn't have any fear or premonition that he would do something this drastic."

I have always made it a policy to stay out of the student side of allnurses....students need somewhere to vent...but your assertions are too outrageous to ignore. Robin Rogers, Cheryl McGaffic, and Barbara Monroe...remember their names.

http://www.journalofnursingeducation.com/showAbst.asp?thing=35380

[metal_m0nk, BSN, RN]

To get the links to work in the preceding posts, just right click the link and select "Save link as", and select a directory. It will save a hard copy on your hard drive that you can read at your leisure. :)

[stripec30]

Dunno if anyone has mentioned it yet, but 'Google Scholar' may also help you with your search.

[latebloomer74, LPN]

There is a culture of fear in nursing school. It's not condusive to learning. It's a real shame:(

[elkpark]

There is a culture of fear in nursing school. It's not condusive to learning. It's a real shame:(

Let's be careful not to generalize some specific bad experiences to an entire discipline. I have been through a hospital-based diploma program, a BSN completion program, and an MSN program and have had only positive experiences. I've also taught in ADN and BSN programs where I never heard anything about students perceiving a "culture of fear" and relations between faculty and students seemed (as far as I could tell, as a faculty member) v. positive. There is wide variation among schools and, while I'm sure there are some "bad" schools out there, there are also plenty of good ones.

[decembergrad2011, BSN, RN]

I have encountered bullying in nursing school, but never so bad that I wanted to kill anyone. There's no justification for that, at all. That's a truly tragic story, and it makes me want to reach out to all of my instructors and tell them that even though their course content and exams and assignments made my life a living hell at the time, all of it was for a purpose that I now understand in the later phases of the program.

As far as it goes though, I do agree that bullying happens in the program. I wrote a course evaluation about my clinical instructor last semester that laid out the facts about her favoritism in clinicals, which included a huge disparity in skills (some students got to start 30+ IV's, we had one student that hadn't started any by the end of the semester and had to practice on an instructor) and bullying of some students (following them in ways in which to "spy" on them while they were in the room, hounding them about mistakes, being visibly angry and scary).

I don't think that it happens everywhere, but it still happens. If enough people are complaining about it, I think it's time to take it seriously. Nursing school is hard enough, this idea of "weeding out" the bad eggs by breaking them in half is ridiculous. We all know you can check if an egg is bad by spinning it around on the counter and watching it move, no need to crack the shell and let the insides seep out. And that's a metaphorical way of stating that those who will fail the program will do so of their own accord, and there is a greater chance that some great nurses are being turned off, dropping out, or failing due to these harsh ways of educating.

[Sleepy 7]

The bullying is being perpetuated by the adaptive testing and by certain "boards" . Their own publications denounces certain age groups and even racial groups as unfit.

[Sleepy 7]

The "rant" happened. The organization perpetuates profiling, discrimination, and mathematical manipulation of pass/ employment rates

[Sleepy 7]

I could tell you the story of 20+ individuals that would make you want to never attend college again...

[Sleepy 7]

I must certainly agree with those who say nursing is the most disrespectful "profession".

My nursing program tried daily to intimidate, disrespect, condecend and bully students. It had nothing to do with knowledge and everything to do with power and narcissitic, sociopathic problem with the "culture".

I must also add caution against anyone thinking of going to CRNA school, I am six figures in debt over 35 and have basically lost my entire future, not because of bad grades I passed my program with a good solid average, the problem lies in the exam that is now basically pay your money and guess which of 100 books we took the answer from. Multiple correct response questions that, mathematically are slanted toward failure, a published higher fail rate of 40+year old students, and a no review policy is ridiculous.

Think long and hard before you go, The job(clinical experience) is wonderful: the process and the exam are not, it has been the biggest educational mistake I have ever made. If i am selected to pass the exam I will never treat students the way I have been treated.

[RevolutioN2013]

Will be applying to NS in a month. What you all are describing sounds like a sort of boot camp. I can only assume that the bullying teachers are teaching the way in which they were taught much the same way an abused child grows up to be an abuser.

[Sleepy 7]

These aren't examples of Basic training, they are the Federal Gov'ts definition of hazing.