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Hello, I'm a nursing student in my last quarter of nursing school and I'm really excited to graduate since I've already passed my exit hesi. My problem lies in my clinical instructor and I don't know what do to. She has been extremely mean and intimidating to her students. How you may ask? She has been picking on me and the other students for no reason for the past few weeks and it's getting to the point where I can't stand it anymore. Let me give you an example. She pulls us off to the side at clinicals to drill us on different medications and what they do to the body. Well, I can handle that. Then when she asks, no one answers her because they're scared of her so I decided to try and answer every time she asked a question and no one else wanted to answer it. She turns to me and tells me verbatim "Shut your mouth, I don't want to hear from you anymore" and physically puts her hand over my mouth. My blood boiled because I know I can't say anything. Then later on the same day I was with my nurse following him around constantly and I was at bedside providing care so much that I couldn't do my paperwork for our care plans due every week. So I decided to sit down at the computer to get into the chart to look up patient history for exactly 10 minutes at the end of a 12 hour day. My instructor came over and told me to get off the computer because I had plenty of time that day and she "saw" me at the computer ALL DAY. Well, I asked my nurse how long I was on the computer that day and he said "maybe 15 minutes tops because we've been providing care all day" (He is in ICU so we had critical drips going). Then after I go to post conference, the instructor says that she'll send home the next person that she catches on the computer next clinical and give us a bad evaluation so we can't graduate. I know I can't say anything but she has been verbally abusive to me and my peers since day one. I have 4 more clinicals with her and I'm done but i dread it more than anything. I've had tough instructors but there's a line where you need to stop. I just need advice please, I feel so alone...
Holy. ****. I would document, document, document. She is not allowed to put her hands on you. I would put my head down, stay under the radar, do what it takes to get the heck out of her class, then skewer her on the instructor evaluation. And there is strength in numbers -- if she has treated others this way, they too should include that information in the instructor evaluation, making it less likely that a single negative evaluation would be dismissed as sour grapes. If the administration doesn't know about these problems, nothing will change. And as previously pointed out, nursing schools are very, very careful about maintaining their clinical placements (no clinical = no nursing school).
I would ask your assigned nurse to provide some type of written corroboration that you were providing care and not playing on the computer. I would also report the inappropriate touching. The only way I would ever touch my student's mouth is if I am performing CPR on them and need to bag them. Otherwise totally inappropriate. Keep a detailed log (date, assigned nurse, care completed, and any inappropriate behavior on the part of the instructor. If this gets worse, speak with the lead instructor, or if you feel you can't, see if your campus has a Dean of Students or ombudsman. You may be allowed to report yet maintain confidentiality? You can on my campus.
Quizzing about meds is fine. Telling someone to be quiet and touching their body is not. Document, document, document. If anyone else witnesses these events, have them sign a statement to that effect. Put all information on your instructor evals at the very least. If I could verify that an instructor in my program had done this (with facility staff and other students' statements) I would fire them so fast their head would spin. I disagree with staying quiet in the face of abuse. You are training to be a patient advocate. Start by advocating for yourself. A great outcome is never guaranteed. That doesn't mean we shouldn't stand up for what's right and protect ourselves. Most deans do care and want high-quality faculty. This entire incident disgusts me. I put everything I have into mentoring and teaching the next generation, and this type of "educator" is not worthy of the title.
Advice: You're in your last quarter... keep your head down and your mouth closed. Answer only those questions which are asked directly of you. Since the instructor doesn't want to see students "on the computer" then stay off of it. Figure out a way to gather the information you need in another fashion... perhaps by discussing it directly with the "your" nurse.
Your instructor sounds like a head-case but there's nothing that you're going to be able to accomplish by confronting her. As others have said, give her what she wants and let her win.
The stakes are much too high for you to do anything else.
You've gotten excellent advice. I would take it all and handle it when you graduate. It's sad that in 2014 nursing is still one of the few if not the only field where this goes on and the only recourse is to keep quiet and plow through.
Nursing school is the anti "If you see something, say something." We can only do that to prevent violent terrorist who want to kill people but not the terrorists who want to kill confidence and self-worth-especially if the instructor fails students and ruins their lives. This can lead to depression/anxiety/shame- the perfect ingredients for a suicide attempt.
Veronica.c
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