Does your school have a clue?

LeesieBug · Jun 4, 2004

At our school, information is misinformation and you can't trust any of it from ANYONE unless you see it in writing. Once again we're between semesters awaiting further instructions. At the end of our first semester, we were told by our second semester faculty that we would have our August clinical assignments before final exams as we will be going immediately to clinical when we start up again. Final exams came and went and the info never came. A couple of days ago, I was on campus and stopped in to check to see if they were posted. I happened upon one of the program administrators. She told me we would not know this info till the first week of school and no one would have promised clinical assignments till then. Our county is huge. What will happen to the student who has to drop their kid off at school or daycare? With clinical starting two days after school starts, who will have time to rearrange or people dependent on public or arranged transportation? We haven't even been told what classes we have to register for and registration starts next month.
Is your school in a similar state of cluelessness? This is only one instance where we are forced to stumble in the dark. Sometimes I think they do this stuff on purpose just to watch our reactions. It irks me to no end that the last people considered in our nursing program are the students. :angryfire

:rotfl: As soon as I read the title to this, I started laughing. The answer is a resounding NO!!!!! Hang on, I have to read the REST of what you wrote. :wink2:

O.K. read the rest! Yes, ours is a lesson in CHAOS, most of the time. COMMUNICATION among admin and faculty is NOT their strong suite. I forgive them though, because most of our clinical instructors are the most organized, awesome people! And they know their stuff!

I think all of us are getting so used to the disorganization that we hardly notice anymore. It seems normal!

A friend of mine spoke to a nurse recently who said their floor loves getting new grads from our school. She said they turn out great nurses. We decided they like us because we are so used to going with the flow that we are easy to work with! Simply can't be rattled.

Hang in there, and continue with the deep breathing exercises when they make you NUTS!

RNNoMore · Jun 4, 2004

From what I've heard (don't know for sure because I don't start the first semester until Fall), my nursing school is very similar. I honestly think that they do it deliberately to 'weed out' some students or to see how they cope with the stress and disorganisation of nursing in general. It's going to be VERY hard for me, because I've no support system for childcare hardly at all. I've heard that it's quite common for my nursing school to change clinical times AFTER you've got to the site!!! I don't know how ANYONE manages to cope with this if they've got kids :angryfire

Paint

christinemj · Jun 4, 2004

I have to make a statement in defense of the schools. At one point early in this journey, I had an opinion much like the OP. However, I have had to opportunity to sit on several faculty committees since then, and have changed my opinion......

Being in the clinical setting is a PRIVILEGE given to us by the clinical site.. Hospital, LTC, etc. Many times, the school does NOT know which sites will accept students until the very last moment. Funding and staffing issues, along with a host of others..heck..CONSTRUCTION!!! are all so very dynamic and approval for our prescence on the floor isn't always easy to come by. (Especially when the behavior or performance of a SINGLE previous student may have caused ruffled feathers! It happens.....)

Before we start slamming our faculty and administrators, try to realize that "most" are doing all that they can to get us where we need to be... and notify us as soon as THEY know. (Of course, there is always the slacker that waits WAY too long to send out the letters.) BUT.... realize that most faculty and admin are doing all that they can for us. I guess it's all about perspective.... but until we have walked in their shoes, or seen the hurdles that need to be crossed for us, I think calling our schools "clueless" is a bit unfair.

wonderbee, BSN, RN · Jun 4, 2004

My assumption is that either the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing OR we are purposely being accused of being liars or simpletons for some grand reason which will not be shared with us. It is apparent that some faculty spoke misinformation to us and other faculty disavow that it could even conceivably have happened. Therefore, it must be us, the students, who are responsible for this phenomenon. This is not the first time students have been accused of being idiots or liars. This unprofessional nurse-eating-their-young behavior obviously begins in the classroom.

By the way, I'm not referring to the instructors. They work their buns off for us. And to the OP's thoughtful post in defense of the schools, I appreciate your position. I would probably feel like you if I knew what I was registering for next month and wasn't made to feel like a victim for asking for a clarification.

LeesieBug · Jun 4, 2004

I have to make a statement in defense of the schools. At one point early in this journey, I had an opinion much like the OP. However, I have had to opportunity to sit on several faculty committees since then, and have changed my opinion......
Being in the clinical setting is a PRIVILEGE given to us by the clinical site.. Hospital, LTC, etc. Many times, the school does NOT know which sites will accept students until the very last moment. Funding and staffing issues, along with a host of others..heck..CONSTRUCTION!!! are all so very dynamic and approval for our prescence on the floor isn't always easy to come by. (Especially when the behavior or performance of a SINGLE previous student may have caused ruffled feathers! It happens.....)
Before we start slamming our faculty and administrators, try to realize that "most" are doing all that they can to get us where we need to be... and notify us as soon as THEY know. (Of course, there is always the slacker that waits WAY too long to send out the letters.) BUT.... realize that most faculty and admin are doing all that they can for us. I guess it's all about perspective.... but until we have walked in their shoes, or seen the hurdles that need to be crossed for us, I think calling our schools "clueless" is a bit unfair.

I completely understand issues that come up with clinical placement. I can't even imagine how difficult it is to find placements for the 400 something students that comprise our nursing school. I don't know about others, but that is not the particular aspect that causes me to complain about organization and communication. THe type of things that drive me bonkers are, to name a few:

First semester, we could not get a correct syllabus to save our lives. They gave us "updated" versions at least five times, and each instructor seemed to provide differing information when we had a question about something in the syllabus.

We had a huge nursing process paper due...up until TWO days before it was due, we received e-mails every few days telling us to take out this part or that part of the guidlines provided, and change it to something else. Just when you thought your paper was written to perfection you would get an "update" from the instructors. :rolleyes:

Most of the time, we couldn't even get a straight story on who the heck we were supposed to turn a paper in to, clinical instructor, lab instructor, or lecture instructor.

They know how many students are in our class, yet EVERY lecture day they were short handouts and had to hold up the class to go make more.

EVERY lecture day they stood around for ten-plus minutes trying to figure out how to work the A/V equipment.

Those are some of the things that caused me to label my school "clueless", and cause me to vent now and then. Word is that the junior year runs much more smoothly. Most of the student I have spoken with say that soph. year is just like that for some reason.

Do I love my instructors and think they are a great bunch of nurses, YES. Do I, at times, think they could win the disorganized faculty of the year award? YES! :chuckle

jenrninmi, MSN, RN · Jun 4, 2004

I've heard some of our other students who say my school is unorganized, but so far...I haven't seen it.

As far as clinicals go, at my school, everyone's schedule is so similar. You have either Wednesday afternoon and Thursday day or Thursday afternoon and Friday day. The only difference is the locations. And to be honest, I don't think anyone at my school uses public transportation.

kids · Jun 4, 2004

Being in the clinical setting is a PRIVILEGE given to us by the clinical site.. Hospital, LTC, etc. Many times, the school does NOT know which sites will accept students until the very last moment. Funding and staffing issues, along with a host of others..heck..CONSTRUCTION!!! are all so very dynamic and approval for our prescence on the floor isn't always easy to come by. (Especially when the behavior or performance of a SINGLE previous student may have caused ruffled feathers! It happens.....)

My thoughts and experience exactly. My school did not publish clinical groups & sites until the first week of school.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Jun 4, 2004

We didn't know what TIME our graduation was to start until a week and a half ago.

mitchsmom · Jun 5, 2004

I'm not so sure if it's more disorganization or secretiveness about some things at our school.

They don't even discuss what our upcoming classes will entail, or they say things that are so vague it sounds like they are from Mars. That is one example of many things (including the clinical thing you mentioned). They send us emails about things that no one cares about and don't tell us anything about the things that are important to us. Reps from my program totally misled me about several aspects of the program in the first place (that I found out about little by little after I was already IN the program). I don't think the program is 100% terrible, there are strong areas - but I think the weak areas are very weak. I probably would have applied to another school if I had known.. but then again I guess I can give a final review when I'm all done. I usually try to suck it up and be quiet about complaints unless it is something really important to be and then I become relentless until I get my way with them. :devil: It seems like they just want us to walk around with plastic smiles pasted on our faces so I try to do that.

Altra, BSN, RN · Jun 5, 2004

Being in the clinical setting is a PRIVILEGE given to us by the clinical site.. Hospital, LTC, etc. Many times, the school does NOT know which sites will accept students until the very last moment. Funding and staffing issues, along with a host of others..heck..CONSTRUCTION!!! are all so very dynamic and approval for our prescence on the floor isn't always easy to come by. (Especially when the behavior or performance of a SINGLE previous student may have caused ruffled feathers! It happens.....)
Before we start slamming our faculty and administrators, try to realize that "most" are doing all that they can to get us where we need to be... and notify us as soon as THEY know. (Of course, there is always the slacker that waits WAY too long to send out the letters.) BUT.... realize that most faculty and admin are doing all that they can for us. I guess it's all about perspective.... but until we have walked in their shoes, or seen the hurdles that need to be crossed for us, I think calling our schools "clueless" is a bit unfair.

Yep - I agree 100%. My school is pretty good about administrative details, so I guess I haven't experienced the nightmares that some of you have BUT ... this is JMHO, but I think when you make this commitment you have to be ready to do what ya gotta do.

In the fall we start 8-week rotations through the specialties - peds, psych, L&D, etc. We've been promised that those groups will be posted by the time this current term ends in early August. Yes, it would be very helpful if I could know that info NOW - like when will I be at the Children's Hospital that's over an hour away, or when will be the weeks that I have clinical from 3-11 instead of during the day. (I'm especially stressing over that one, because I have a 10-year old and my husband has to work some nights) But, the bottom line is, I'm not the only one in the world, and my being p***ed off about it isn't gonna produce the schedule any faster - there are way too many variables.

Just my .02. I'm gonna go take a chill pill now. :chuckle

wonderbee, BSN, RN · Jun 5, 2004

Since it appears that I'm being a bit of a boob about this issue, I have to ask this one question: how would you feel if you were passed on information by those in the know, and then told that we are misinformed and it's because the communication couldn't possibly have happened as we say it did? See, this is the fire that's lighting the flame with me and my fellow students. I am pissed off about this because it's a continuing occurrence and it raises issues about integrity. It is no small thing to be identified as a liar. Do you believe that this is OK?