clinical hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ginger58, ASN, RN · May 11, 2007

Please don't quite, but I do feel the heat from all those firery creatures! Who hasn't contaminated a pair of gloves a time or two? I think your "instructor" should have asked your permission to have someone in the room. Usually students watch a floor nurse. And who hasn't had trouble with those dang cotton balls. Your instructor could develop a little patience and support. Where has support gone these days????

I think her statement about so much more potential is a round about compliment. She knows you can do better (in her eyes) and she'll probably give you another chance.

Talk to her when you're calmer. Ask her for some examples of "doing just enough to get by." Tell her this isn't the way you feel about yourself. Get in that if you're doing a procedure you'd either like just one person in the room, and I'm sure that the patient also would be more comfortable.

Believe in yourself, stand up and send her good thoughts for doing a better job as an instructor. She's violated several things and yelling at you in the room is a no-no. Don't give up, please.

Thedreamer · May 11, 2007

It sounds like a self confidence issue. Practice till youre so confident the docter can watch you do it and you wont flinch! You can do it! Dont give up!

Daytonite, BSN, RN · May 11, 2007

. . .i am pissed. . .this morning, she counseled me about the whole thing and said i was not up to par and had to practice in the lab. . .she told me that she sees me as a student that just does enough to get by and no more, but she sees so much more potential (what the hell does that mean!!!!!!!!!! ( help , i need encouragement,,, i want to quit.

lose the attitude. it will hold you back. in order to learn, move forward and make changes you need an open mind, a willingness to change, trust in those who are teaching you and a positive attitude. is it hard? yes. does it hurt emotionally? yes. but it will make you a better person and a better nurse.
ask for some more time to sit down to talk with this instructor or another instructor to discuss specifics about your performance and how you can improve. get this out in the open and let the instructors know you are willing and open to working on it. fighting it shows you have a bad attitude about criticism, indicates an unwillingness to take evaluations seriously and a future employer can make the implication that you might be potentially insubordinate and therefore a potentially troublesome employee. your nursing school is going to be giving your first future employer a reference about you. most employers aren't stupid. the school won't reveal bad things about you, but employers can figure out what isn't included on a reference that should be there. if--if--there is a problem with this particular instructor then the school will be made aware of it, but you still need to make this about you, not her.
if you can't or won't do the above, then quit.
you are going to find that you are going to be easily aggravated by the same kind of frustration and upset as it comes up throughout your life and in any other profession you attempt if you won't do suggestion #1. once you establish a pattern of quitting, it gets easier to walk away from problems rather than face them. you don't grow as a person unless you face your problems and work to conquer them.

floridanurse924 · May 11, 2007

Don't let it discourage you. I remember my clinical days, having to do

things for the first time in front of an instructer who made the patient

aware it was my very first time!! And she was the meanest instructor in

the entire school!! I have to do my first IM injection in front of her and my

hand was shaking like crazy! You will get better with practice, always carry

an extra cath or sterile gloves with you incase you contaminate, or you can always call someone in to hand you something, it happens all the time.

No one is perfect, not even the instructors, they make mistakes too :)

Esther2007 · May 11, 2007

Focus on she sees more potential in you. She may be right.....just do your best and you should be ok. Good luck to you.

furturenurse · May 11, 2007

Please don't quit! You only have 5 months to go. You can do it! This is your future and you will look back someday and see it was worth it.

Monty78, LPN · May 12, 2007

I know its tough when you have someone over your shoulder. I am not a nursing student, but where I work while being trained it was the same thing. There's pressure on you, but you get better at it and soon its second nature. Don't give up, focus on that she sees more potential in you, that's a compliment.

athena55, BSN, RN · May 12, 2007

LPNHell:

I do understand about having others in the room while you, your clinical instructor and the patient are all there. Certainly doesn't help the nervous factor.

Ya Know, unfortunately that is what learning is all about. Having someone breathing down your neck, you feeling uncomfortable and as each minute ticks by you may feel less and less confident in yourself and your fledgling skills as a health care provider.

I never went to a LPN program, I went into a Nursing Diploma program but I would guess the stressors are the same, especially when you are dealing with living, breathing humans who happen to be ill and assuming the patient role.

I wasn't there with you, and it sure sounds like the Instructor should have taken a deep breath him or herself before grabbing the stuff out of your hand.

My advice: bite your tongue, take her advice and hang out in the clinical lab and practice your aseptic techniques. Practice inserting an indwelling catheter until you can do it with one eye closed. Know why you have to do things this way and "not that". I had a med-surg instructor tell me (in front of the whole class) that I made her BUN raise....Needless to say I wanted to jump into the nearest hole and stay there. (what happened was.....and please DON'T LAUGH OUT LOUD....my instructor told me to "flush the IV line" so what did bright light little ol' first year student nurse do? I took the IV line, went over to the sink in the patient's room and tried to flush the IV line by running the tap water into the little itty bitty lumen of the IV tubing. I happened to look over at my instructor and her mouth was literally hanging open. Sigh. You can bet I never repeated that again, hahaha. But the bottom line is.... I learned if I wasn't sure about something, to ask.)

You are not an idiot, or else you wouldn't have been accepted into the program nor would you have continued on. You are a student.

Oh and lpnhell, if you need more incredible silly student nurse mistakes, PM me and I would be oh so happy to tell you about a million more that I made or did or attempted to do.

athena

PS: at graduation from my Nursing School I won two honors: Ideal Student Nurse and Excellence in Clinical (Bedside) Nursing. The latter was given to me by the Instructors in the school. And I became (post graduation) fast friends with the "BUN" Professor.

justme1972 · May 12, 2007

hi! i am an lpn student with 5 mos. left. on wednesday, i had a pt on the floor and was ready to leave when one of the nurses asked me if i wanted to put a catheter in a pt. i said yes, because i hadn't had the time to do one yet. i went and got my clinical instructor and she asked me if i had reviewed the procedure. i said yes and she followed me down to the room with another student. first of all, i didn't want the other student with us because it was a distraction to me. i didn't tell her that because the girl was already standing in the room and i didn't want to hurt her feelings.
the girl started telling me how to do the procedure and that made me more nervous when the instructor told her to stop.. i messed up and put on the sterile gloves wrong and it went downhill fast from there. my instructor finally grabbed the stuff from me and helped me. we left the room when it was done and all of us went home.
the next day my instructor told me that she needed to talk to me. she told me i was not up to par with my skills and that i needed to practice in the lab. she also told me that she sees me as a student who does what they need to get by and that is it!!!! what does that mean? she told me that she thinks i can do better. we all need practice!!!!! i feel llike she singled me out and belittled me in front of the girl in the room and the pt.
i feel like i should go to her and tell her that. i feel i was treated unjust and she makes me feel like she thinks i am an idiot. what should i do???
i am so upset:o

this is what will drive me bonkers in nursing school...you read the procedure on paper and they act like you should be an expert the first time you attempt a procedure.

some of the those instructors...it would be very interesting to see if they were experts just from reading printed material.

Danish, MSN, APRN, NP · May 12, 2007

Deep breath....

You are half way through. This is going to happen. You arent going to get it all right every time. Just learn from it. Im sure you will NEVER in your life put another cath in and dirty your gloves or field now. So, you got something out of it. You cant take everything your instructor says or does to heart. My instructor always says, "DONT GET BITTER, JUST GET BETTER" :) You vented, now move on and forget about it :)

VIXEN007 · May 12, 2007

Kill them with kindness. Never let them see you sweat! You have to get through and someday when you are instructing, remember how you felt.