Clinical classmates hate me

[emilylizj]

I need some advice of how to handle some girls in my clinical group. Unfortunately by doing very well in class my instructor started referring to me as the smart girl and it started creating a divide among me and my other clinical classmates. I have gone out of my way to help these girls to succeed and helped many of them with their first medication administration. Now they have started mocking me and talking horrible about me at clinicals to the point of me crying on the phone to my mother during our lunch break (I have pretty thick skin). I am at a loss of what to do and how to handle these girls that I am required to work a 12 hour clinical shift with every week. Any advice?

[cracklingkraken, ASN, RN]

Personally, I would avoid them and immerse myself in pt care. There's always plenty for me to do on the floor rather than worrying about hostile classmates. I would also privately ask the instructor to call me by my name.

[emilylizj]

He has started to call me by my first name because he started to notice how the other girls were treating me. I try to stay busy and focus on the patients and what I can do to keep me busy but they will say horrible things about me in front of our instructor and the other nurses on the floor. I feel it has almost gotten to a point that I worry it will skew the way my instructor and the nurses on our floor will view me when I have done nothing wrong.

[sweetsthrnsass]

I feel like one of the biggest issues here is that your classmates are speaking negatively about you in front of your professor. Don't get me wrong, they shouldn't be treating you like that, but your professor shouldn't be condoning the behavior.

[sweetsthrnsass]

And also, don't worry about the nurses. They will see your actions and knowledge, and write those girls off. It happens to the best of us. :)

[TheNatural_Nurse, RN]

They are behaving this way in front of your instructor? I would go up the chain of command.

[BBboy]

In addition to the suggestions listed anove maybe you should look at the way you carry yourself, speak to others, and thee way in which you answer questions. Sure, my class and clinical group contains many smart people (why we are all in the program), but those that seemed to carry themselves with more of a "know it all" attitude or just being plain annoying have definitely had some stuff being said behind their backs. That or maybe you just have some immature students in your group, it's hard to tell when you can't see both sides in the scenario but having been the middle man in many disputes between fellow students as well as coworkers the issue often lies in one side not seeing the issues they maybe presenting

[lavenderskies, BSN]

He has started to call me by my first name because he started to notice how the other girls were treating me. I try to stay busy and focus on the patients and what I can do to keep me busy but they will say horrible things about me in front of our instructor and the other nurses on the floor. I feel it has almost gotten to a point that I worry it will skew the way my instructor and the nurses on our floor will view me when I have done nothing wrong.

Can you clarify "horrible things"?

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

I have gone out of my way to help these girls to succeed and helped many of them with their first medication administration.

I think this, just as much as the prof calling you "smart girl", may explain what is going on. You may not realize how you are coming off when you "help." It's really your CI's job to help them with med administration, not yours. Let him do his job, and you just do your own thing.

If students were saying "horrible things" about me in Clinical meetings, you better believe I'd have a calm, professional, but cutting rebuttal ready to go. Bullies like easy targets, not ones who don't tolerate it.

[IVRUS, BSN, RN]

I need some advice of how to handle some girls in my clinical group. Unfortunately by doing very well in class my instructor started referring to me as the smart girl and it started creating a divide among me and my other clinical classmates. I have gone out of my way to help these girls to succeed and helped many of them with their first medication administration. Now they have started mocking me and talking horrible about me at clinicals to the point of me crying on the phone to my mother during our lunch break (I have pretty thick skin). I am at a loss of what to do and how to handle these girls that I am required to work a 12 hour clinical shift with every week. Any advice?

Emily,

You have NO CONTROL over their actions. But you do have control over yours. DO NOT give up control to anyone. You determine how you are going to feel after the biting remarks they make. If they see you politely smiling and they see that it isn't phasing you, they eventually will become tired of trying to get you riled up. If they rebut your efforts to help them, shake the dust off your feet and move on. Your job is to always do the right thing, and let the haters fall by the wayside.

[bebbercorn]

Sorry about your awful classmates. Ignore them. Immerse yourself in your studies. Keep busy in clinicals. And, don't share your fabulous notes with the Mean Girls anymore. You may not always be friends with who you went to school with, and that's ok. Don't let petty poo get in the way of your learning and success.

[Wrench Party]

You can either ignore them and find something else to worry about, like your patient care and learning from the other nurses, or you can turn around and defend yourself with some cutting, sharp words. Some nursing students had the audacity to talk trash about their fellow student in front of me, and it took one time for them to learn. A simple

"excuse me, I'm your potential future coworker" or a "I'm sure your instructor would love to hear you talk like that" is enough to silence even the most obnoxious nursing student.