Failing Clinical... What is a friend to do?

missrebecca · Jan 4, 2008

Thank you all so much for all of your advice, opinions, and personal experiences. I have done what most you have suggested, which is be a friend, be supportive... but stay out of the fray. My friend was given the final say today, and she is indeed out.

There are, however, some other crazy things going on at my school (We've been through two DON, and now have a temp as a third until they hire and train the fourth!) and the campus president said that they will look into my friend's situation. Who knows, maybe she'll get to come back after all.

giftedRN · Jan 4, 2008

Not all Instructors are in the right to fail a student. I have knwn this particular Instructor who boasted about the number of students she has failed during clinicals and I was not impressed. Lo and behold I was next in line. I I was devastated but I know that she is not God and now I am happy where I am. I will be a great nurse. No weapon that forms against me shall prosper. My father died in the midst of all the chaos but I finally got over my emotional pain and moving on.

panamabrt · Jan 4, 2008

We have all tried to help at some point but the sad thing is you must focus on yourself and offer suppport only to your friend and not get directly involved nor discuss it much among your classmates...

Dunno? · Jan 4, 2008

Why do I sense so much bitterness towards instructors?
Why did your CI fail you? If you don't mind me asking you? It seems that you hold a lot of resentment towards your previous CI, but please don't take it out on me, I've been patient for the last two days, let's try to be professional about this.....

Why do I hold such bitterness? Because, I remember how clinical instructors favor people..There was a 55 year old woman in my class and she was my friend..One of the clinical instructors behind her back called her, "slow" and she was put on probation..

It is hard to hold clinical instructors in high regard when I tried my best, and the instructor came out laughing his head off when he failed me..

But you see now I am a nurse..I just think that some clinical instructors are not always right..

caliotter3 · Jan 4, 2008

It could very well be that your friend is being unfairly targeted. It happens often in ns. However noble it may seem, you are under no obligation to put yourself in the line of fire in order to help your friend, especially if you don't have anything substantial, and I mean substantial, to add to her case. I may sound cold hearted, but it is kind of like the oxygen in the airplane scenario. You have to take care of your own interests first. You will have a chance to help her in other ways in the future, after you are out of the line of fire of this instructor. You can help her to study when she repeats or gets into another program. You can help her to get a job. Believe me, there are ways to help her without sacrificing your own standing in the program. Getting on the bad side of a "killer" instructor is not something you want to do.

giftedRN · Jan 4, 2008

Please do not get on that Instructor's wrong side. She will fail you too. Some of these clinical Instructors are very vindictive and I think this is because they have a self-esteem problem. How could one be happy to fail a student? This is ridiculous. Some of these Instructors do not remember that they were students too. I would advise your friend to leave that school and find another. This Instructor will fight her to the end. If she were attending a private school this would not have happened without a rational reason.

God is good and this too shall pass.

missrebecca · Jan 5, 2008

If she were attending a private school this would not have happened without a rational reason.

Funnily enough, this is a private school that we go to :)

Tristan Young · May 7, 2010

man try to keep out of it... remember 6 degrees of separation... don't make waves for your self unless you have concrete evidence to back it up! why do you think we chart?

lostinthemix · Aug 14, 2010

I'll be the first to say that there's two things you MUST do in this situation:
1. Explain to your friend that you have no concrete evidence to add to their appeal, and you're not going to put your butt in a sling for abstract feelings of being targeted....
2. Also vouch for the fact that you are a friend, and you'll be there to offer support in their case, but that's all you can do in this situation. You don't want to be labeled and made hypervisible in the program based on someone else's problem....
And, for the record, I know a few students who failed clinicals.....one told off the instructor, and was never prepared for care....another never turned in the paperwork required....and yet another was unsafe to practice all the time...If you are prepared and friendly/professional...you won't give an instructor any reason to fail you....

I agree with the first two parts of this post, but don't think for one minute that you cannot be failed at clinicals unfairly. I have had a clinical instructor that I both highly respect as a nurse practioner/instructor and deeply care for as a person. She and I "clicked" from the first week of nursing school. All was fine when she was one of my theory instructors. Quite a few students did not like her then even, because she was so "my way of the highway", even if they were doing something exactly the way that one of the other instructors/her co-instructos had taught them, but I always voiced my great admiration for her. However, I ended up having her for clinicals during the semester that I just finished, and boy was there a difference in our relationship! I was told a week before clinicals were over, along with my other 5 classmates (it was an optional mid-program semester to obtain the clinical hours necessary to take LVN boards), that we had all not only passed the semester, but had exceeded the level of competency that she expected at the level we were practicing and that we were the strongest group of students that she had ever instructed at that level. The day before last of clinicals the following week, I had to ask her assistance in giving meds to a patient due to the method of administration (PEG tube), which I had never done before. I had already read the patient's history, checked (and re-checked) the doctor's orders/MAR, etc. and had taken report from the night shift nurse, so I was well informed as to the patient's condition/health status. My instructor went in the room with me, took one look at the patient's MAR and told me that he/she "did not need" to be on all of the meds the physician had he/she on. She looked me in the eye and asked me if I had intended to give the patient all of the meds that were scheduled to be administered. I thought about it for a couple of seconds, realizing that if I said yes that she was probably nail me later, but I chose to answer honestly and I told her that I did. She went straight to the charge nurse and told her that the patient was too sedated to receive the meds and that they needed to hold all but two of them. What I knew, that she assumed that I did not, was that the patient had a major stroke, severe seizures and had psych issues, was a mute and had a very low level, if any cognitive function at all. Nonetheless, the charge nurse went along with it (without contacting the physician) and I received a speech on how we could have killed the patient, everyone involved would have lost their jobs, as well as their license and that I was negligent in my assessment the patient's neurological status. She said had I done so competently, that I should have automatically questioned the doctor's orders and came to her or the charge nurse. I was not allowed to get a word in edgewise.

What's really crazy is that even after the doctor found out about the meds being held (all day, he wasn't even called), he chewed both my instructor and the charge nurse involved out and told them that they were nurses trying to practice medicine on his patient, which he had been treating for years. The patient was rejected by hospice, either due to his inability to pay or the nature of his condition, but was still basically expected to die any day due to his health conditions and was being given the meds to keep his seizures and psych conditions under control. The doctor also informed my instructor and the charge nurse that had the patient been w/o those meds for much longer that he most likely would've died. I not only did not receive an apology or a chance to explain that I was aware of the patient's condition prior to pulling the meds, but I was told that I was at serious risk failing my clinicals for the semester. She then went on to "pick" out every single miss-step that I had made during the semester and said that she had been doubting my competency level all along. Even though I had just finished two clinical semesters within four months w/two different instructors that found me perfectly competent, for my level of education, of course. I am heart-broken, shocked and confused! I am always careful w/my patients. I always check vitals before med administration (even if I checked them an hour earlier), I always know my drugs and what implications may be involved, and I give my patients and the CNAs, other students, nurses, etc. 110%; I never sit down, I always go above and beyond and I always help out others when I have my duties taken care of. The students that do the bare minimum, get their charting done, and then stand around at the nurses station seem to get put on some kind of pedestal by this instructor. I just don't get it!

So, right know I am doing all sort of extras just to "maybe" pass clinicals, which has been compromised of five weeks of 40-hr weeks clinicals, case studies, discussion boards, etc. I have to do "remediation" sim-lab time, even though I am competent and have been checked off on all of my clinical skill,s both during RN and LVN clinicals, I had to write a paper on warning signs and red flags to watch for while providing patient care, but most of all; I had to "suck it up" and admit that I was wrong and that I appreciated the guidance and the chance to still possibly get credit for the semester; even though I still do not feel that I was in the wrong.

If I go the the nursing program director about this situation I will just dig myself a deeper hole, we all know that! It doesn't matter that I caught a huge med error while helping a fellow classmate w/her meds, that I helped out w/patients that were not "mine" whenever asked, or that almost every single patient I cared for told me that I had provided them w/excellent care and that they thought I was going to be a great nurse.

SO.......failure in clinicals, even if you are competent and responsible is not only possibly, it happens all the time. I still greatly respect and love my instructor and I hope that this is all an issue of scaring me so that I am extra careful and to make me a better, stronger nurse; as I think that this may be the case, but it has still caused a tremendous amount of stress and heartache for me, as I watch my fellow classmates take their jobs already as GVNs and have already been able to apply to take their boards, while I still have an 'I' for the course.

I will without a doubt find this to be a learning experience someday, whether I receive credit for the semester or not, I've been praying a lot and crossing my fingers in the meanwhile!!!! :)) I know one thing for sure though; this experience was meant to be for some reason and that I will only be better for it in the end.

God Bless and Good Luck to all my fellow nursing students struggling to make it through to the light at the end of the tunnel! :crying2: :redbeathe