constant complaining

I had a fellow student in Microbiology who was apparently an amateur immunologist and felt the need to correct the instructor on a regular basis. It would have been one thing if she would have been correct, but 99.9% of the time she was wrong. I finally snapped in lab one day during a group project when she informed me that “just because there is contamination on the plate, doesn’t mean that we can’t still use it.” I calmly looked at her and stated “Were you not paying attention the first day when the instructor told us NOT to use contaminated plates and tubes; and has it ever occurred to you that the logic that you are using right now is probably the reason you are taking this class for the SECOND time?” You could have heard a microbe sneeze after I said that. I’m not a mean person, I’m actually really nice, but sometimes you have to draw the line in the sand.

I think you nailed both of the factors involved. Best thing to do is to stay above the fray. Instructors know who the whiners are. Its unfortunate, but there is always an element that cries "Not Fair" if they think they have been slighted. If they think Nursing school is rough, wait till the real world...

I guess I'm lucky though, I haven't seen much of that in my class. Knock wood.

I know someone like that!!! He failed the RN Nclex 5 times.... stating he didn't agree with the answers (Nclex was "wrong") and that's why he couldn't pass.

There is a group like this is my class. They complain about clinicals, but when someone else shows any signs of stressing out and makes a "whining" type comment they attack and say to suck it up. They show up late for tests and finals and are still able to participate. They cheat and lie to get their way and several students have made this known to faculty and teachers basically tell us they will not do anything. They will make perfect scores in some areas and completely fail others - then you know what material they have been cheating with.

But I agree with pielegniarka, at the end of the day you'll probably pass NCLEX your first try... they will be several months behind you having to try 4 or 5 times before finally passing (waiting 45 days each time they fail). I think these girls are just in it because they feel the need (due to family or other outside source) or joke that they are just trying to find a doctor to marry and they really don't want to be a nurse at all.

That was pretty much my experience in nursing school, to a "T"

Thanks for the replies. I know at the end of it, those of us who just do what we're supposed to do are going to be much better off. They had a couple of people who graduated last year come talk to us a few weeks ago, and one of them said that the older students had a much easier time finding jobs than the younger students. He attributed it to the older ones being better at networking and I'm sure that's part of it, but I'm also sure that part of it was the younger students were expecting jobs to be handed to them without having to put any effort into it.

Anyway, I just needed to vent after a tough semester. We're back at it on Tuesday.

The vast majority of the time I come across students that complain about everything and annoy the rest of the class it's middle aged women.

The vast majority of the time I come across students that complain about everything and annoy the rest of the class it's middle aged women.

The older women in our class are just as annoyed with the complainers.

Nope. Ours are a group of about 4 or 5 blond bimbo's who think they are little princesses.

Does anyone else have to deal with this crap?

Yes. I immediately instituted a policy of "never complain." You never really win. If I see a problem I can help with and offer a solution, I do that, but I let my classmates do the whining.

And boy do they.

Yep- 26 years ago the U of A CON students were just as you describe now- It made me NUTS! Part of it isn't the silver platter attitude but rather a lack of consistancy and discipline in the C of N. It seemed at the time, that in Organic Chem, Western Cult, Economics..,- the tests would be well written, the answers made sense, there was only one "most correct" answer to each question. In the C of N there always seemed to be a general ambiguity about each instructors questions. It was more an opinion poll than an exam on the facts of nursing care. Thus the "review sessions" were where even people with "D" s had a chance for the honor role. Nurses are care givers and have only in the last 20 or so years begun to think of themselves as as a profession of science rather than a calling of service. Because of this, I think the cut-n-dry test making and taking skills will be another generation in the making for our profession.