I'm in my 2nd quarter of nursing and in only just 4 weeks of clinicals my instructor gave me 3 clinical warnings.
The 1st one was reasonable because I didn't have my hair up nor had a pen and didn't bring my papers to orientation.
The 2nd one was because I forgot to do the Pathophysiology assignment for my patient (last quarter my clinical instructor didn't require it to be done on the day of care for your patient until turning in the assignment, only your plan of care for your patient and face sheet, but was reasonable because she said I was the only one that didn't do that).
But I don't agree with this recent clinical warning she gave me today which was because I didn't know how to give an IV bolus to my patient which was Pantoprazole (Protonix).
We have 2 times in successfully passing medications to our patients the whole day in clinical (which is 9 hours) and today was my first schedule to give out meds. to my patient with a pass or fail mark. I administered 2 medications today: Insulin and Pantoprazole. She passed me when I gave insulin SUBQ in the abdomen in my patient but didn't pass me when I gave Pantoprazole IV (I froze in the part where I had to disconnect the IV from my patient, I paused because I didn't want to hurt the patient and didn't know which port to disconnect it from which made me and my patient nervous/scared so my clinical instructor grabbed the medications out of my hand and administered them herself).
After that she told me to go talk to her post-conference alone and that's when she said she was going to give me another clinical warning because I didn't know what to do (even though I have 1 more chance to give meds. with a pass/fail grade in 4 weeks from now and that's why I pleaded with her to give me 1 more chance since my next/last chance in giving out meds. to redeem myself is in 4 weeks from now but she said that it was my responsibility to practice this/be prepared in knowing what I should do when my schedule for passing out meds. was today so I asked her if I can object to this clinical warning and she told me that I can see the head instructor of my clinical class and talk with both of them about it).
So my question is, is my clinical instructor set out to fail me from the course because in the first 2 weeks that I had her, I had already gotten 2 clinical warnings?
Is she biased towards me because of that?
I asked her if the others passed giving out meds. so far and she had said yes (but I think she's being a little more hard on me although she could've sent me home for not bringing my Patho sheet from the 2nd clinical warning).
It's too late now to withdraw from the class because last day from dropping classes was this week on Monday so is that why she's being more hard on me or am I just being paranoid)?
Any comments/advices/constructive criticism is greatly appreciated! I really can't sleep/study and I've been crying/worried since this evening today because I feel like this clinical warning is the last straw (in the 2nd clinical warning I already had a 10% reduction in my grade so I'm scared/worried that for this 3rd one she's going to do another -10% reduction in my grade again which I don't think is fair).
Specializes in Cath/EP lab, CCU, Cardiac stepdown.
I don't think the last warning was fair because you were nervous and that's normal. I feel like she should have asked you if you were ok and then talked you through it. Instead of being disrespectful to you and trying to do it herself because that wasn't helpful to you because you are still learning
Did you read the part where the patient was scared and nervous? Do you think that it is appropriate or therapeutic to let a fumbling student nurse to continue to fumble around a scared patient who clearly has lost confidence in the student? Can you imagine how this reflects on the school and hospital? While students are there to learn, they are not there to learn at the expense of patient care.
And please read carefully where it was stated many times that the last warning was more likely due to the fact the student was unprepared, again, and that she did not speak up about being unprepared prior to reaching the patient. You do not stand up at center stage and then fumble around. You speak up and say, professor, do you think you can walk me through this part or show me?
Specializes in Cath/EP lab, CCU, Cardiac stepdown.
I cannot believe how we are quick to judge this person. She asked a question, we could be do more to help her become a better nurse than throw her under the bus. Yes she messed up, her clinical instructor could be nicer..not everyone gets it together immediately..we all were students once before we became nurses with so much confidence.
What bus are we throwing her under? Are you insinuating that she is blameless? We are simply providing critique and pointing out that she made a mistake. That's hardly throwing someone under a bus. We pointed out what she should have done and helped her identify where she went wrong. She clearly didn't think she was in the wrong and we remedied that, if that isn't helping her become a better person and nurse then I don't know what it is.
And no one said the op should be perfect at her level. Other posters have said that if she doesn't know how to do it, which she stated she don't, then she should have spoken up to the instructor PRIOR to reaching the patient. It is not a confidence issue, heck it's not even entirely about knowledge deficiency, it's the fact that she would allow herself to provide patient care when she clearly knew that she didn't know what she was doing. Imagine how dangerous it would be if she was starting a heparin drip and she didn't know how to do it and decided it was ok to go wing it. Yea a student shouldn't be touching a heparin drip but that's the whole point of the clinical warning. To prevent this from happening when she actually becomes a nurse.
I don't think the last warning was fair because you were nervous and that's normal. I feel like she should have asked you if you were ok and then talked you through it. Instead of being disrespectful to you and trying to do it herself because that wasn't helpful to you because you are still learning
There is a difference in being nervous and not knowing what you are doing. The OP didn't know what she was doing. If she had questions, she should have asked questions before she went into the room with the patient.
I cannot believe how we are quick to judge this person. She asked a question, we could be do more to help her become a better nurse than throw her under the bus. Yes she messed up, her clinical instructor could be nicer..not everyone gets it together immediately..we all were students once before we became nurses with so much confidence.
I honestly with all respect was not trying to throw the OP under the bus. I have good intentions here and it seems like others do as well. We want her to learn from her mistakes. Like I said previously I got a warning for wearing clean, white long sleeves under my white scrubs. And I thought that was stupid and I still do.. But I never did it again because she had to pass me and she could have just kept "picking on me" but I didn't give her any more reason to. I knew she wasn't playing around so I prepared myself and Abided by all the rules no matter how stupid they seemed.
And the reality is nursing professors can be hard a** but they want you to grow tough skin. I don't believe in bullying students or trying to scare them and make them more nervous than they already are, but I get why they are strict.
OP do not be discouraged, you can do this.. Just take every little thing very seriously. Be prepared. Listen to the teacher even if you think she is the most ridiculous person ever!
You'll get through it.. Just be on your best behavior!
You said it soo perfectly. We are one of the few professions that eat our young soo quickly. We all forget the struggle that nursing school was. Like we have never done anything wrong or not known something.
You said it soo perfectly. We are one of the few professions that eat our young soo quickly. We all forget the struggle that nursing school was. Like we have never done anything wrong or not known something.
This isn't a case of nurses eating their young. This is a case of a student being unprepared for clinicals on three different occasions.
This isn't a case of nurses eating their young. This is a case of a student being unprepared for clinicals on three different occasions.
I am not so much referring to the clinics instructor as much as I am the way people react on here. There is a way of saying something without completely being degrading about it regardless of the fault of the person involved. As I stated in a previous post. Was the OP unprepared, of course they were. Could they have prepared better or course. However do we know exactly what type of preceptor they have? Do we know what the of prior clinical experience this person has? Do we really know any other details? No. Bottom line, they forgot some stuff and froze up first time during patient care. No one was injured and it was a mild mistake. Everyone one of my classmates got spoken to numerous times in clinical and received warnings, this instructor was clearly unprofessional in murmurous ways and later was almost booted out of the program due to her incompetence as an instructor. If this person deserves the verbal lashing that so many have dished out than in sorry for my post. People say thing online that they would never say in person.
Simply labeling someone else's post as "mean" or "degrading" doesn't make it so. Would you and the others who disapprove please quote the posts you find offensive and enlighten us as to exactly what you're objecting to?
It's starting to seem like all these unsubstantiated accusations, in this and other threads, are simply deliberate attempts to turn those threads into clickbait.
Specializes in Palliative, Onc, Med-Surg, Home Hospice.
As long as the person I am talking with is receptive, I talk about the love of God with them. And most people I have talked with has wanted to hear what I had to say. For example, a student began having difficulties in her life, and she knew that I was a Christian, so she came to me and asked me about the love of God. In my previous comment, I did say that I talked with people about Jesus, but, now that I think about it, many people I spoke with came to me themselves and asked me about God, or asked me for a Bible. Even my friend was wondering why people were asking for a Bible from me. People are desperate to hear what the Bible says; of how much they are worth. The price God set on us was the highest price that could be set. God paid everything in order to save us. And people want to hear this message of how Jesus died for them.
At my facility, you would be sacked. How do you know that people are "desperate to hear what the bible says"? Do you go around asking them? Or are you just assuming and they are being polite. You do realize that if you proselytize to patients, you have a captive audience. A lot of them might be too polite to say no or kick you out of their room.
Me, I'm not too polite. When I have religion shoved down my throat, I am direct about it. However, to be fair, if you are willing to listen to me talk about the Goddess, I will listen to you talk about God. Most times, however, I am just told that I am wrong and I am going to burn in hell. Basically, you need to keep your beliefs to yourself, when it comes to patients. IF you are in the US, it is a predominantly Christian nation, so most already know about the bible.
If and until you poll every single person in this country (or heck, you city) it is presumptuous to assume everyone (or even anyone) wants to hear you beliefs.
I'm sorry, but honestly yes, you deserve all the write ups. I understand you don't feel it should have resulted in a write up on your first med pass, but since you knew it was your med pass day you should have been prepared; have IV meds reviewed, steps to giving bolus meds, etc.
I'm not trying to mean, but honest. I'm surprised you made it past two. In our clinical if you don't come prepared, you are asked to leave. They are counted as absences and after two you are dismissed form the clinical class. This is nursing. It is mandatory for you to understand for accountability and after being warned once about not being prepared, again you showed up to clinical without a clinical prep done. I'm just astonished this is even tolerated.
This is a serious job and the fact you consistently fail to prepare and don't take any accountability for your own actions shows maybe at this time, you are not ready for this program. Maybe with age and little more maturity you will be ready. Good to luck to you.
oluwaseun
4 Posts
This is a nicer response, than the mean ones I read before.