Clinical Groups? Please tell me they change!!

HeartsOpenWide, RN · Feb 5, 2007

The more I look at this thread, the more I think we have been treated to a troll. The OP has not responded to this or any other thread. I am thinking the troll got the firestorm he/she wanted and moved on....
Anyone else thinking the same thing?

Or they are too embarrassed to respond

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Feb 5, 2007

You teach people how to treat you, Samy.

I was much older than a lot of my classmates in clinical. They knew a lot about working in hospitals, but I knew a lot about life. Our instructor would pretty regularly get a few of them breaking down in tears with her criticism. She actually told a few of these hardworking students that they would not make it as nurses and they were becoming very demoralized by the end of the semester.

I didn't like what was happening. I thought that it was wrong for anyone to tear down those students the way she had. I thought about all the work they'd put into studying to get as far as they had. I thought about the dream that we shared and our willingness to sacrifice family, fun, sleep, and money to do it.

I got this in an email one day that semester and I decided to try what the class in the email did. I wrote one nice thing about each of my classmates.

One girl told me she cried. One girl told me she hung it on her wall to remind her that someone cared. In other words, it touched all those that it needed to touch, and everyone passed that clinical. We should all learn the lesson to treat each other well, because we really do not know the future.

Here is that email that gave me the idea:

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.

Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.

It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment and, as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.

On Monday, she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. "Really?" she heard whispered. "I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!" and, "I didn't know others liked me so much." were some of the comments.

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose.

The students were happy with themselves and one another.

That group of students moved on. Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student.

She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature.

The church was packed with his friends. One by one, those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin. As she stood there, one of the soldiers, who acted as pallbearer, came up to her.

"Were you Mark's math teacher?" he asked.

She nodded: "Yes."

Then he said: "Mark talked about you a lot."

After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.

"We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket. "They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it."

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notepaper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times.

The teacher knew, without looking, that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.

"Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said. "As you can see, Mark treasured it."

All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around.

Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home."

Chuck's wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album."

"I have mine too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary."

Then Vickie, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. "I carry this with me at all times," Vickie said, and without batting an eyelash, she continued: "I think we all saved our lists."

That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.

The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be.

Remember, you reap what you sow, what you put into the lives of others, comes back into your own.

MAY YOUR DAY BE AS SPECIAL AS YOU ARE.

nurse4theplanet, RN · Feb 5, 2007

Our clinical groups changed each semester. However, the instructors took up lists of car pool groups and student preferences for sites/days, etc. So actually, our clinical groups ended up staying pretty similar throughout the semesters for that reason.

I can get along with pretty much anyone and maintain a professional attitude, but I will admit that there were certain students that I preferred to be around and others that I did not. I would never call anyone a loser...that's pretty harsh.

If you are concerned about it, ask your instructor about your school's policy on clinical groups. And if it is a problem, perhaps they can move you into another clinical group. I think it would behoove you to get to know your classmates a little better first, however, and focus on their strengths rather than their weaknesses. Who knows? You may end up learning something from them and needing their assistance in the future, in school and afterwards.