Overcoming for Mario

[mario_ragucci]

Hello Everybody! And I mean all the allnurses.com people here. Nursing, I found out well, is hard for potential nurses who are making the transition from civilian to nurse. I missed this board very much while I was away. You may remember me. I was so excited to get accepted to a 2 year community college nursing school, and then was failed in clinicals during my second semester, and there was no warning it was coming. Being failed for the clinical portion was under the control of a single nursing instructor. It feels good to say hello to everyone who may remember me because I learn so much from allnurses.com.

Well, the reasons sited for me failing this particular clinical assignment was that I didn't turn in a component of my paperwork due each week, and that I gave po med (percocet) without the instructor being there while I gave the med. (Percocet is a narc) Even though I was told to go ahead and give it by the nurses there on the unit, and even though I had given the same med to the same PT the day before with the instructor there, it cost me dearly.

I was/am working 24 hours a week during nursing school as a floor CNA (Med Spec) and was doing it, but when I was dropped from nursing school, it was so hard to tell everyone where I work what happened when they would all ask, "How is school going?" I just received my one year evaluation from the hospital I work as a CNA at and it was excellent. I love what I do (caring for people) and it shows through in all I do.

I was dropped during Feb, 03, and was told i could come back next year. I wrote a great letter to the nursing dean explaining my true and steadfast intentions of becoming a nurse. I didn't leave the school on a bad note, and always kept my cool and composure, even though I felt the instructor was particularly hard on me, and I didn't deserve to be dropped like that. So, for the last two months, i have been living with the fact that I have to wait another year to become an RN, and this is just a bump, and something that has happened to others, and I will go with it and be the model student next year.

Now the school has informed me that they will not be taking back any returning students because of the great influx of new nursing students. This is really hard for me to take, knowing how much I want to be a nurse and start helping people as a nurse, then having that process be shut down because of a single instructor. Now I am all the way back to square one, and it's very hard to accept. Has anyone tried to get a seat in a nursing program lately? Forget about it! The ones in my area are all so full...waiting lists...panic.

So here I sit...with all my prereqs complete with a 3.0 avg and I have been in school full time over the last 2 years to get all my prereqs complete...then got accepted to RN program last year...got clinicals in my second semester at a rough place for a second semester student (post surg)...had an instructor didn't help me...then failed me...school tells me i can come back next year...then 2 months later says there will be no room because of the shortage...ahhhhh. My CNA job...where I work with med/surg PT's >32 hours a week is the greatest place to work. The nurses there are very professional and tell me they know I'll be an excellent nurse based on what they see.

I can't stand thinking of myself as dead in the water, but thats what I am. I have all the potential to become an excellent nurse and all the prereq knowledge to enter a 2 year RN program...and I have no seat. It has eaten at me every day in a big way, and for all the folks who don't think I know what depression can mean....I have had one heck of a case of the blues. But i have not sunk, and I still want to get into another school for the 2 years to give me a seat at the NCLEX so I can start doing my best by providing the best nursing care.

So now I have to start getting myself into reality and climb ALL THE WAY back to start. It's so tough to get into a good school today. And now i am having to start completely all over again, after all I have been through.

I'm not looking for any sympathy. If anyone knows of a school accepting students for Fall for or Winter, I'd like to know.

What makes it hard for me is to see other students get the training and help needed to become a nurse, and then to remember what happened to me.

If there is a school somewhere in the US that would take an ambitious and caring student, I'd like to know. This is not easy for me friends. My intentions are all positive, and I am ready, willing and able to train to be a RN, but the shortage is in quality nursing schools, with quality instructors, with quality learning programs, and not in potential quality nurses. Thank you.

[ageless]

Some are saying we should shoot to kill all students for an interpreted error

What does "interpreted error" mean, Mario?

[Agnus]

Mario I screwed up badly not once but twice in nursing school. I was like you the first time and said, things simular to what you are saying now. The bottom like is I screwed up and did not do the work required.

I had to flunk out twice to really get it. So save the sarcasm.

Many of the nurses talking to you can tell you that they too have screwed up at times and made mistakes that they easily could blame on others. The point is no matter how tempting it is you must get over it and realize that. You and you alone have control over your life period. If you make a mistake it is yours. No one can make you do anything. You are not the only one. You are not special or unique. Your are not an exception.

I have not heard one person say they are perfect. What I have heard them say is we must admit we are imperfect. By refusing to accept the consequence you are in a way saying, I am special this was different I should not be punished. YOU are not. Neither am I.

[Agnus]

Originally posted by ageless

What does "interpreted error" mean, Mario?

Evidently Mario interpets that there was no error. Otherwise there would be no need to use such a qualifier word.

Yep, I am loosing patience here. My wall has a pretty good size impression of my head in it.

Mario, it is only when we care about someone that we try this hard to get through. I would not waste my time with you otherwise, as I do preceive a bit of concrete between your ears.

[Lausana]

Originally posted by mario_ragucci

Wow chigap, thanks, you shine.

It seems there are many water walkers who assume never having made a mistake. I read on this board where nurses seem like human. Some are saying we should shoot to kill all students for an interpreted error. Shoot to kill, as in zap them ass soon as a single mistake or deadline is met. I don't think nurses are Terminators. Making errors are, of course, serious events. But who can say they are following exact proceedure 100%?

Thats okay because I am happy to talk about behaviors, and by golly I do admit to not being perfect as a nursing student. Thank you for this wisdom and I am still going to join the ranks of you great people, all. No worries, please. :-)

Shoot to kill as soon as they make a mistake? No before you do. As long as you keep being so stubborn, you will not be safe

No worries? Not too many, but I don't plan on being in a hospital up your way anytime soon.

[Agnus]

Originally posted by mario_ragucci

What can I tell new schools? I HATE whining, but how can I communicate what happened quickly? What do I say? Should I frown? Nothing to it but to do it. Thank you for the words and spirit! No worries.

You hate to whine. It dose not become you. SO DONT DO IT.

What can you say?

First this is not something that happened to you. This is something you did.

Say I failed to turn in assignments on time and I failed to get my instructor when adminsistering a Narc. I was wrong. That is simple anyone can undrstand it. It needs no explaination and should not have one attached to it. It insults peoples inteligence to make excuses or say you were treated unfairly.

[CardioHeather]

Originally posted by mario_ragucci

Wow chigap, thanks, you shine.

It seems there are many water walkers who assume never having made a mistake. I read on this board where nurses seem like human. Some are saying we should shoot to kill all students for an interpreted error. Shoot to kill, as in zap them ass soon as a single mistake or deadline is met. I don't think nurses are Terminators. Making errors are, of course, serious events. But who can say they are following exact proceedure 100%?

Thats okay because I am happy to talk about behaviors, and by golly I do admit to not being perfect as a nursing student. Thank you for this wisdom and I am still going to join the ranks of you great people, all. No worries, please. :-)

Of course people make mistakes everyday. That is life. However, when you are a student, you work along side your instructor so that you, her, and the institution are protected. You neglected all three. If there were to been a problem with the med, your instructor's license would have been on the line. The hospital's reputation and future students going there would have been on the line.

When you are in nursing school, you are expected to follow the hard line, 110% of the time. Like I said in my last post, there are no heroes in nursing school.

By the way, what is an "interpreted" error? Is that one your instructor deems wrong and you don't? I really don't get it.

You were a student with no business in the med cart without your instructor's approval.

My daughter is a 4th semester nursing student (ADN) and she is still required to go over meds with her instructor before passing them.

You need the education and maturity before you can perform at an RN level. I find you are lacking both. You look to posts that tell you what you want to hear. I'm afraid, my dear, that you won't get it from me.

Heather

[tiredofthis]

Originally posted by mario_ragucci

Wow chigap, thanks, you shine.

It seems there are many water walkers who assume never having made a mistake. I read on this board where nurses seem like human. Some are saying we should shoot to kill all students for an interpreted error. Shoot to kill, as in zap them ass soon as a single mistake or deadline is met. I don't think nurses are Terminators. Making errors are, of course, serious events. But who can say they are following exact proceedure 100%?

Thats okay because I am happy to talk about behaviors, and by golly I do admit to not being perfect as a nursing student. Thank you for this wisdom and I am still going to join the ranks of you great people, all. No worries, please. :-)

Mario, why is it whenever you are challenged you start talking gibberish? Please understand:

1. It is not that nurses never make errors. IT IS ACCOUNTABLILITY WE ARE TALKING ABOUT. You didn't make an INTERPRETED error....you MADE AN ERROR IN JUDGEMENT PLAIN AND SIMPLE. Bottom line, end of story.

2. And don't start threads about this over and over and over and over and tell me NO WORRIES. I applaude your instructor for failing you. This profession ( we are civilians by the way, except for those in the armed forces) cannot tolerate individuals who are unaccountable for their actions.

3. No one here is looking to shoot anyone. Students or instructors or ANYONE. And no one here walks on water....except you...in your mind.

4. And get this straight sweetums. If you don't know jack ****about nursing. So don't be making assumptions about what you know NOTHING about.

5. My gut feeling is that you are not even a nursing student. I think most of what you say is fabrication.

Baseline

edited by Baseline for bad language.

[MissdonditaBsn]

Mario,

just a couple of things to say to you. First of all, as another person pointed out on this thread, you are not married, you have no family and yet you were unable to get your assignments on time. If I recall, and perhaps I am wrong here, but part of the reason that you were unable to get your assignments in on time is because you chose to work out and get 8 hours of sleep a night rather than actually do your school work. Also using work as an excuse is a copout and frankly, a slap in the face to all of those mothers and fathers who not only took care of children and worked and still managed to get their assignments in on time. To be quite honest is sounds as if you were unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to complete this goal that you say you so badly want.

Secondly, I cannot think of any nursing school in the world that would not have flunked you for passing a medication without your instructor present. I don't know about your nursing school, but at the nursing schools in my area, you don't even sneeze in your patients room without your instructor present, especially as a 2ND SEMESTER STUDENT. Medications, especially narcotics, are very serious buinsess and in no way should be taken(or in this case given) lightly. I don't care if a whole cadre of nurses told you that it was ok to give that medication, when you are in a clinical setting the instructor is running the show. You had no right to make a decison to go ahead and pass a medication without consulting you instructor first. If you had made a mistake that had caused harm to the patient, your instructor would have had to answer for this as well. There would have potentially been consequences for her as well. But then, that doesn't matter does it, all that matters is what terrible thing that instructor did to you, did I get that right? You need to think about your actions in this whole mess. You keep saying that you accept responsibility, yet keep going back to how unfairly you were treated. I have a feeling that if you check your rules of conduct (student handbook) for that nursing school, I suspect that somewhere you will find that passing a medication without first checking with your instructor is covered.

Mario, to quote a very corny phrase...Denial is not just a river in Egypt.

[Audreyfay]

Mario, Okay, what's done is done. Why cry over spilt milk. You've learned what you're going to learn. Where to go from here? You have school suggestions from several others. Why not write a letter of interest to a few other schools and go from there?

Good luck, my friend.

[bestblondRN]

Originally posted by Agnus

[b) Say I failed to turn in assignments on time and I failed to get my instructor when adminsistering a Narc. I was wrong. That is simple anyone can undrstand it. It needs no explaination and should not have one attached to it. It insults peoples inteligence to make excuses or say you were treated unfairly. [/b]

Mario....Agnus has a good point here. Take it at face value, accept/acknowledge your errors and move on. I think most of us have been very supportive of you and will continue to be if you show us some accountability and leave the dead horse lie......

Good luck to you.....and remember that it does no good to cry over spilled milk. Mop it up and go get some more!

[ShandyLynnRN, BSN, RN]

yet ANOTHER quote from you Mario--------It seems there are many water walkers who assume never having made a mistake.-------------------

*I* have made mistakes. I have been written up for those mistakes. The difference between you and me is that I OWNED UP TO THEM! I have made med errors. And then I filled out an incident report about them.

Yes, nurses are people, and we are human. I don't believe that anyone here has said that we are "walking on water" or capable of that. BECAUSE we are human, we also are able to realize our failures and mistakes and take the blame for them. This is where you are still "NOT GETTING IT".

It's great that you still pursuing your dreams. If that's what you want then by all means go for it. Noone here is trying to stop you from that. What we are trying to do is to show you where you are still wrong. It's not your instructors fault, OR anyone else's fault.

I'm glad that you were failed in school for your mistakes. I know that if *I* had made those mistakes in school, I would have failed as well. I would have deserved to be failed. Those are the rules. Even if no harm came from your mistakes, it could have.

One of the things, atleast in my program, and it sounds like it was in your program as well, that were taught to me from the beginning was rules and accountability. That is one if the biggest parts of being a nurse. Nurses are given quite a bit of autonomy, in the presumption by our employers that we learned how to be accountable for our actions in our training.

[mario_ragucci]

My point is that I really didn't know what was happening to me as a student at that clinical sight. I learned a great deal, and I would have appreciated the instructor being around more. hey, it is over, and I am headed back to a different school. But don't get all down on me. You all have said the right things to me, based on what information you have about me.

Many will not remember, but I started out at allnurses.com as a brand new student just accepted to nursing school and very excited about nursing. I still am, but having to change vehicles is not what I planned, but I am doing it.

It would be just as hard to lose face over a test score, and get dropped over a half point. Then you can really feel like a fool when the rest of your classmates pass and you are dropped.

I will do my best next time and alot more aware of my impressions. Making mistakes is not a part of nursing, nor is forgeting anything even if not physically mentioned. Being responsible is being responsible for everything.

Thank you all again, and remember I am not soured by this. i am beginning to smile better these days. When I am in the position to help other nurses I would pass along information often as to what is going on. Especially new nurses need communication with, and i can identify the communication level of people, and what that means to me.

Interpretted error is interpretted as an error. Nurses can interpret an error, or an error can be recorded.

Please, no more come backs about me not accepting and owning up to what happened. I do. And am just like everyone else out there who wants to care a make a positive difference in peoples lives and be safe and accountable. More power to everyone and thanks for the help.