Out of nursing program cause i am smoker!!!

[misstaz25]

Help, I am at risk of being out of the nursing program because I am a smoker.

I really could use some advise on how to deal with a very unfair instructor. I am a first year PN student and we just started clinicals in Nov. I have an instructor that is absloutely against smoking. Of 18 students in the class only about 6 are not smokers. We were informed that if we as much as smelled of smoke during clinicals we would be docked in our grade.

One day another student and I got busted for smoking. Please no lectures on smoking and how bad it is. I really would like to quit. Anyway, our grade for the day was docked in every area it could. I would be fine with that. What I dont feel is fair is the way the instructor handled it after that.

A few days after the incident the instructor pulled me into her office when no one was around. She flat out asked me if I had smoked, and I said I will not lie, I did. She asked why after knowing her clear views on smoking I would do that, was I just that addicted? I told her yes, it is an addiction. This teacher than asked me about the other student and if she had smoked also. I felt uncomfortable about her asking me about another student, but I admitted she did also. I told her that I was sorry and would make sure it didnt happen again during clinicals. In fact I had just done another clinical the day before and told her in no way did I smoke before or during that clinical. This lovely woman told me that I need to think about what my punishment should be for disobeying her rules. Now remember my grade got docked for smelling of smoke. She also threatened to tell my mother about the incident. My mom works at the college but in a totally unrelated department.

A few days later she pulled me and the other student aside in a public hallway to lecture us and give us our punishment. She stated that we would write a 2 page paper with 2 references on how to quit smoking. Also we would write a 2 page paper on lying. Now I never did lie to her, she asked me if I smoked and I told her yes I did. If I wouldnt have confessed she wouldnt be able to punish us at all. Then to top it off she wants a 3 page paper on patient abandonment. She informed us, this is on the very last day of class before Christmas break, that we will have an incomplete in her class until she recieves these. I feel she is out of line and that she did this in a public hallway is just aweful. She wanted to make an example of us in front of the other students and I feel she handled this poorly.

I am furious. I have read the policies and procedures for the program I am in and nowhere does it say anything about smoking. In fact I dont think she can even assign extra papers because of it. My grade was docked as we were warned would happen. How can she make up extra punishment when I was punished by my grade? How can she make up extra assignments when we were told our grade would be docked. I earned a very hard A in her class. I got a 98% on her final.

Also this woman is a constant overeater and is constantly snacking on candy and other fattening treats. She flat out admits she cant live without candy. Yet she has the balls to judge anyone that smokes. She actually will pick out little things to dock grades on just because someone is a smoker when a nonsmoker can do clearly worse and recieve a better grade. I wrote in a letter to her that her behavior toward me and the other student was rude. In public to degrade us and ask us to write about effects of smoking and lying. How would she like it if she was asked to write about her eating habits and lack of exercise and how her fat butt is bad for her health? She can walk around with a jelly donut in her fat hand, but god forbid she smells smoke on a student.

She called me at home tonight to inform me that if she does not have these papers in hand by Weds of this week she will not let me continue in the program. I am considering taking her actions to her superiors and filing a greivance with the college regarding my grade.

Is it fair for a teacher to withhold your grade because of something like this? I have wrote her a letter pointing out how unfair it is and that I will not write extra papers for being a smoker. I admited to her I was wrong to smoke during a clinical, and said it will not happen again. My grade for that day was lowered because of it. I expect the grade I earned for the semester. I completed her course and than on the last day she throws 3 papers at me as a punishment!!!

I wrote her a letter that I expect the grade I earned and will not be treated like a child and will go to the board if she follows through on her threat. I feel I should add I am a president and deans list student. I have a print out of the points in her class and have earned a 96% fair and square. The class is over and I have an incomplete at the time deans and presidents list are being made, so she has taken that from me.

Please no lectures about smoking, if i could just quit I would. I want to know if her behavior is even justifiable? What are my legal options in this?

[DavieRN]

The student really didn't seem to understand the harmful effects of smoking where patients are concerned. If she did, she wouldn't have compared her situation to the teacher's eating too much junk food.

I agree that the smell of smoke is not harmful, but where there's a smell...

I am allergic to cigarette smoke. It makes me sneeze, cough and gives me a horrible headache almost instantly. Sometimes, my body reacts to the smoke before I smell anything. In fact, it happens pretty often! I could care less about the smell, itself.

I totally agree with this statement. I have a problem with cigarette smoke, some of the cigarette smoke mearly causes me to have a tight sensation in my throat, others (maybe a different brand) causes my whole chest to become tight and I have to leave the area ( or smoke smelling person) immediately.

The most important thing to consider is the safety of your patients. I am a very healthy individual with no other breathing problems, until exposed to certain brands of cigarette smoke. I don't know which ones effect me until someone exercises the right to smoke, and just happens to reek of the one that wrecks up my breathing.

I also agree that to a non- smoker or allergic person the smell does NOT go away because Febreaze, or some other spray is used to try and mask it. It only compounds the problem by adding more chemicals to the carcinogenics and causing in some cases an even stronger odor for the patient to react to.

To the original poster I am very sorry that your instructor chose to treat you in a childish manner. But I hope that you can continue without any more problems from this.

Good luck,

Gichasome

[jimthorp]

Does anyone not see the real problem here?

I do and thus my reponses. If we allow college instructors to continue to abuse their authority and make up their own rules to suit their own biases, what is to prevent one from coming along who has a stick up her/his butt for men with a gotee or pony tail... I could go on but you get the point. As students we should be judged by measured performance against clear objectives and not on whether we meet our instructor's personal perception of what a good nurse should be. Rules must be laid out up front and in writing.

We are paying customers of higher education, not pawns to be pushed around and bullied by power tripping, power hungry educators. Educators like this do nothing to advance the profession or foster professional behavior but in fact, create nurses with the same attitude.

Timothy is wrong! The instructor is not always right. I have successfully challenged several.

Having said all this, the OP has not yet said whether or not the rule she broke was laid out up front in writing. If it is then clearly the penalty does not fit the crime. Withholding a docked grade, public humiliation, and assigning extra work is clearly more penalty than this rules infraction deserves, i.e. abuse of power.

This whole thing smells of a problem with higher education in general and that is the existance of a heavy-handed and censorious climate of left-wing orthodoxy.

[LPN0608]

I think it's unfair that the teacher talked to you in the hallway(should have been in an office). Kinda creepy she called u @ home. Just weird to tell your momma on u.:uhoh21: I'm in the same situation. First year LPN student and I smoke. We can't smoke at clinicals or smell like it either. Matter of fact, down here in Mississippi, we have to smoke in the parking lot(at school) well away from the building or get a fine. I don't mind. Wouldn't want to have to breathe in someone else's smoke, if I didn't smoke. I agree with everyone else, Pt's could be allergic to the smoke. Besides if your smoking, who's watching your patients? I'm addicted to the smoke too but I just try to stay busy enough to not think about it. If I'm desparate for a cig., I go find something else to do. BTW, I think it's pretty childish that you broke the no smoking rule and u wanna sue? ***? Learn a lesson and write the paper. And please stop making all other Nursing students and newbies look immature and self-centered. Thanks.

[HuggyPuglet]

I believe that the issue is not really smoking. I believe that the sense of entitlement is the issue.

Good grief, you could write a two page paper in 45 minutes. Oh what a shame -- you had to get up at 5:30.

A lawsuit? Over this? My lands!

It would seem to me that the sense of entitlement that so many of the younger generation exhibit has undermined their ability to deal with adversity.

This response is totally off topic with regard to the OP's predicament, but your post brought to mind something that happened several years ago. Unfortunately Mavis we, the older generation, may have created this monster. Years ago when my son had just graduated from high school (mid 80s) we were surprised to find his former history teacher working at a gas station. During the conversation we were equally surprised to hear that he had quit his position due to a difference of opinion of how he conducted his class. Apparently he gave out an assignment...list the presidents, their vice presidents and the years they presided. This was in preparation for a longer, more intense study of the US presidential administrations but he gave it out to give the students the exposure to the very basics of the studies they were to embark upon. Some may think it menial 'busy work' but he must have seen some value in it. He gave the students a full month to complete the assignment, and gave the page numbers (all TWO of them) to the students where the information was already listed. Well, some of the students whined over all the 'hard' work they had to do, some of the parents complained to the principal, and threatened to take the whole mess to the BOE. The weenie principal then not only made the teacher rescind the assignment but also demanded that the teacher apologize to the students for it! The teacher chose to just leave his position rather than apologize to a bunch of whiners for such a 'hard' assignment. The only thing that happened was that the high school lost a valuable teacher who was able to connect with his students and bring history to life, and the students didn't have to spend not one hour (about as long as the assignment would have taken) doing that terribly hard assignment. I think he was simply burned out dealing with students who didn't want to do the work and parents who supported that and simultaneously complained about why their little precious couldn't didn't seem to be learning anything.

Again, this is totally off topic but I see where you are coming from, Mavis.

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

It was a part of our "dress code" rule that our clothes not smell like smoke. Our instructors made it clear that it wouldn't be tolerated.

(I know, i know, the OP did not say if that's written policy for their school...)

[jimthorp]

Actually, there has been research showing the harmful effects of second hand smoke breathed in from people's clothing.

I'd be interested in these studies. Could you point the way?

[MomNRN, BSN, RN]

I have scanned all posts and wonder why there are so many suggestions on how to keep on smoking and "hide" it.

A rule is a rule is a rule. You chose to go to nursing school just as you chose to take her class. I think attending school is a privilege not a right. She teaches the class, she makes the rules - it is that simple.

If you don't like the rules, you can always quit.

[jimthorp]

It was a part of our "dress code" rule that our clothes not smell like smoke. Our instructors made it clear that it wouldn't be tolerated.

(I know, i know, the OP did not say if that's written policy for their school...)

My school also has a smoking policy but it is not more restrictive for nursing students than for the rest of the student body and rightly so.

[Freedom42]

"We were informed that if we as much as smelled of smoke during clinicals we would be docked in our grade.

One day another student and I got busted for smoking... Our grade for the day was docked in every area it could. I would be fine with that. What I dont feel is fair is the way the instructor handled it after that."

Agreed: A rule is a rule. So why didn't the instructor follow her own rule instead of making up new ones after the fact? This student doesn't have a problem with being penalized. She's angry because the instructor has invented new penalties instead of the ones laid out at the beginning of the class.

By the way, I'm wondering if the OP depends on financial aid; if so, the incomplete grade the instructor insists upon could make matters much worse if her aid is withheld as a result.

[dmarie (GA)]

I'm a PN student and a smoker. I would never dream of going outside to smoke during clinicals. That's just crazy. It's unprofessional. Wear a patch, write the papers, and suck it up. You shouldn't have been smoking and you know it. Why are you now angry that you're in trouble? Why should you receive special treatment or be excused from the rules? Do you really believe that making waves in the program will further you along? Get real and grow up.

[jimthorp]

I have scanned all posts and wonder why there are so many suggestions on how to keep on smoking and "hide" it.

A rule is a rule is a rule. You chose to go to nursing school just as you chose to take her class. I think attending school is a privilege not a right. She teaches the class, she makes the rules - it is that simple.

If you don't like the rules, you can always quit.

This is a rather dictatorial view.

Even if there is a rule against smoking during clinicals, that rule does not apply to traveling to or from the clinical site, as another poster suggested is "the rule." Such a rule is beyond the boundaries of the school's authority.

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

My school also has a smoking policy but it is not more restrictive for nursing students than for the rest of the student body and rightly so.

Our clinical dress code was exclusive to the nursing program.