Difficult Clinical Placement-Suggestions?

[Lovethefall]

Looking for suggestions regarding my current clinical placement.

Briefly: Assigned to work with MD in family practice for this placement. Since day one has made inappropriate comments to the patients, myself-all offensive. He is rude to me and dismissive-even in front of the patients. Refuses to teach, blows off my questions when I ask, does not allow hands on interactions with the patients, the list goes on and on...

This is not isolated as his reputation precedes him as I have come to find out. I dread every day that I have clinicals.

Would you: Deal with it for the semester at the expense of your learning? Request another site? Attempt to find my own?

Your help is greatly appreciated!

:imbar

[llg, PhD, RN]

I couldn't begin to answer your question without a WHOLE lot more information. For example:

1. Is this placement a relatively small part of your education or is it a huge proportion?

2. Is there someone at your school (ie. advisor or course coordinator) who knows both the school and the local resources that you could talk to about this?

3. Are there plenty of other possible preceptors around for you to choose from?

4. How much of a delay would this cause in your academic progress?

5. Are there some other resources you could use to supplement your education to compensate for a bad experience with this guy?

6. Would you have to pay for the course twice if you quit this rotation and waited to find another?

7. If other students have had this same preceptor ... How have they fared in the long term? Did things work out for them in the end? Were there any serious long tem consequences for them?

etc. etc. etc.

You'll need to consider all of those things and more. I suggest you find someone who is familiar with the people, the school, and the local resources to help you answer all of my above questions and sort it out. Only then will you be in a position to decide whether it is worth it to quit this placement and seek another. Good luck!

[Lovethefall]

Thanks for your feedback-it has given me much to think about and to research. Very much appreciated.

[BCgradnurse, MSN, RN, NP]

I have to ask...why is your school still using him as a preceptor if he is known to be this way? If at all possible, I'd try to get a different placement. You're paying a lot of money to go to school, and your school (at least in my opinion) is obligated to put you in a quality placement. I know preceptors are tough to come by, but I think they need to be held to some standards. Several people in my program (I'm a May 2009 grad) had bad placements, and now that they're in practice they feel shortchanged, because they were not taught what they need to know.

Just my 2 cents....I wish you the best of luck....