My daughter is half way through her second year of BNS and is currently doing clinicals. She is stressed out, and having panic attacks and has been sent home by her educator on two occasions. This of course has convinced her that she really is a failure! At the moment she has been sent home from clinicals, I contacted her uni and she has spoken to her lecturer, apparently this educator has a reputation for being "tough". But, we all know, the real world is full of educators/supervisors etc who have high expectations and who expect you to meet them or exceed them. So, in an education system where mediocrity is seen as excelling are we making our kids unable to deal with this reality?
I am sorry she is experiencing this, but I know that she has not done any prereading before going on these clinicals and that she has not applied herself to her studies enough since she began her course. She has been bright enough to get by, now I believe "Her chickens have come home to roost".
But am I being too hard on her? I am also an RN and I remember my training, and I was often in tears while I was learning, but I never quit. Hell, my mother (also an RN!) would have sent me straight back. I worry that she has gone into nursing because she thinks that this is my expectation, because she would follow myself, my mother and my grandmother as a nurse. But it has never been my expectation, I encouraged her to look at alternate careers before she decided on nursing. But you never know what really motivates your children. Your children are full of surprises.
Here's the rub.....of course you need to arrive prepared....know your drugs, know what the plan for the day is, and take good care of your clients....HOWEVER, in the real world, you show up, get report and go.....this is highly emphizied in last semesters....stress to her that it is important to look up anything she doesn't know, but all she has to do is be aware of what to do and any special circumstances....students who try to skate by usually don't make it....and you are NOT any tougher on her than any instructor would be...I think the joke is that crack has the wonderful side effect of not making you care about NS anymore!
nursing school is not like high school and nursing school is not like working as a nurse
in high school i could slide through and i was always good a taking tests but in nursing school you have to learn skills..you have to know how to take b/p, you have t know how to how to do a catherter..there is no multible choice when you are presented with a live patient to care for..once she begans to focus on what she needs to do she will do fine
Specializes in ER, Occupational Health, Cardiology.
Joanne, I am with you on this. I had crackerjack Clinical Instructors in both my LPN and RN programs. My RN CI had been in the Army, and people were scared of her, and didn't like her. I was very impressed with her experience and her expectations were high, but not unreasonable. We did have several "whatever it takes to pass" students in my class, and they always frightened me. I would NOT want to be in a hospital bed and look up and see one of them. Yikes!
Your comment about mediocrity goes hand-in-hand with the PC attitude that we are encouraged to adopt by Society today. The attitude that everybody is okay in their one way is bull hockey! that attitude of smarminess is just what is making so many folks "settle" for less than their best "because it'll be okay anyway."
Not when you are dealing with people's lives it won't!
I agree with your encouragement of your daughter to pursue the career that SHE is comfortable in. Perhaps another avenue in medicine beside Nursing may be for her. Not everyone is cut out to be a nurse.
One of my clinical instructors was a previous army sargeant. She was tough , no doubt. I just ca;)me prepared and didn't take her style of teaching personally. I do realize everyone has to own their experence the best way they can. If it wasn't tough, I'd like to think we have a totally new breed of nurses.
I too admired the teaching method of the tough instructor, why? because I like t be challenged so i can do my best. I'm not sure if my comment about a new breed of nurses came across as I intended it too. My point is this, a great lesson was probably learned by her daughter, how did she learn his (hypothetically), by owning up to her experience in nursing school. Sorry if I offended anyone. I too hope she graduates and enters into this wonderful profession. We may be workers, but we should always be mentors.
She has been to see our family doctor today and tells me she feels more comfortable.
She reassures me that she does want to do nursing, she knows she didn't prepare for these clinicals, because she has been spending her time on the computer on internet dating sites and chat sites!
She has spent all of today, after being sent home, studying up what is required and she is happy to go back tomorrow.
So we will see how tomorrow goes.
I think it has been a wake up call for her.
i'm glad to hear this, joanne.
let us know how it goes at clinical?
and although most of us have stories to tell of our nsg instructors, it is now that i can appreciate everything that i learned, from them and in spite of them.
it and they taught me more than i ever imagined.
some day, your dtr too, will hopefully appreciate this.
locolorenzo22, BSN, RN
2,396 Posts
Here's the rub.....of course you need to arrive prepared....know your drugs, know what the plan for the day is, and take good care of your clients....HOWEVER, in the real world, you show up, get report and go.....this is highly emphizied in last semesters....stress to her that it is important to look up anything she doesn't know, but all she has to do is be aware of what to do and any special circumstances....students who try to skate by usually don't make it....and you are NOT any tougher on her than any instructor would be...I think the joke is that crack has the wonderful side effect of not making you care about NS anymore!