Malicious "pimping" in nursing / nurse practitioner school?

Nurses General Nursing

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I have been investigating both advanced practice nursing and medical training, and I get a bad feeling about medical training. I've mentioned attitude problems I've caught from doctors and medical students before, but now it's time to address one specific topic.

They say that in medical school, "pimping" is a common thing. Apparently there are two main types, each of which begins with a medical practitioner who is serving in the capacity of an instructor firing off a series of questions at a student or resident. The "beneficial" type is where the questions are legitimately related to something the student or resident should know because he/she will need to use it in practice, and if the student / resident gets to the point of saying "I don't know", the instructor will tell the student to look it up and perhaps do a brief presentation on it the next day they're together.

For the record, I consider this entirely acceptable. I teach (though not in a school) and I do the same thing to my students sometimes.

The second type is "malicious", where the point of the questioning is to humiliate and embarrass the student. As I've read, the questioning may or may not deal with relevant topics, but in either case when the student / resident reaches that "I don't know" point, the instructor will mock the person in front of his/her peers for not having that knowledge.

What makes it worse is that they seem to think that this is acceptable practice and that people should not rise up to stop it. (I suggested that they could rise up en masse to stop it if they wanted to, and some of them mocked me for that!!) Personally, I see no benefit in the mocking / humiliation / whatever you'd call it, because all that does is bring people down with no counterbalancing benefit.

So my question is: In nursing education, considering all levels from LPN up to DNP, how prevalent is the "malicious" form of "pimping"? And, if it happens at all, what is the likelihood of retaliation against someone who either returns fire at that moment (so as to save face if nothing else) or reports the abuse to the administration of the school or facility?

Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

Please look up the definition of "pimping".

Seriously

Trauma Columnist

traumaRUs, MSN, APRN

88 Articles; 21,249 Posts

Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

I've completed the following education: LPN, ADN(RN), BSN,MSN, 2 post-MSN certificates.

Nope - never run into "malicious pimping." IMHO you need to dive into nursing, medicine or whatever direction you are going. Not saying this doesn't happen but oh well, you put on your big girl panties and buck up. Education time is finite - its your career that counts.

Don't sweat the small stuff

cleback

1,381 Posts

I've run into jerks of nursing professors who are only looking to see who's not cut out to be a nurse, not teach them to become a nurse. There are jerks in all professions.

klone, MSN, RN

14,786 Posts

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

Agree with MMJ - you are using an entirely different definition for "pimping" than the rest of the world.

AceOfHearts<3

916 Posts

Specializes in Critical care.

I had a math teacher in high school who did this. Some people are jerks- just have to move past it.

RomaniGypsy

38 Posts

Agree with MMJ - you are using an entirely different definition for "pimping" than the rest of the world.

I get that, but that's what the medical community calls it. If y'all have a different term for it, that's fine, because all I really care about is figuring out how common it is for instructors to mock student nurses / NPs for what they don't know. After all, nobody is born knowing this stuff, so we all started out not knowing it.

klone, MSN, RN

14,786 Posts

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
I get that, but that's what the medical community calls it. If y'all have a different term for it, that's fine, because all I really care about is figuring out how common it is for instructors to mock student nurses / NPs for what they don't know. After all, nobody is born knowing this stuff, so we all started out not knowing it.

It would depend entirely on the personality of the nursing instructor. There are *******s in every profession.

Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.
I get that, but that's what the medical community calls it. If y'all have a different term for it, that's fine, because all I really care about is figuring out how common it is for instructors to mock student nurses / NPs for what they don't know. After all, nobody is born knowing this stuff, so we all started out not knowing it.

NO ONE in the "medical.community" uses the word pimping in this manner.

klone, MSN, RN

14,786 Posts

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
NO ONE in the "medical.community" uses the word pimping in this manner.

Actually, if you google, you will see that in medical education, "pimping" is known as the teaching method described in the OP ("malicious pimping" is redundant, though - it's just "pimping" because by very definition, the practice is "malicious" in intent, and is meant to belittle the student).

How to stop pimping at your medical school | Pamela Wible Reports

#learnsomethingneweveryday

psu_213, BSN, RN

3,878 Posts

Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
Agree with MMJ - you are using an entirely different definition for "pimping" than the rest of the world.

Actually, I did google 'pimping.' I did find it defined in the way in which the OP used it...i.e., asking petty questions to belittle someone. This was on Urban Dictionary. OP, you might be better served to you a more formal term to describe the practice to which you are referring.

klone, MSN, RN

14,786 Posts

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

I think the fact that so many of us were mystified by "pimping" being used in this context is a pretty good indicator that this is not a widespread practice in nursing education.

Or rather, it's called something different (i.e. nurses eat their young).

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