Bringing your *new* baby to school....

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Problem here all....recent member of class had a baby. Now, so far our school has been VERY strict about pretty much everything. Now, I understand that this student is a single mother, on assistance and struggling (well, who isn't nowadays). But anyways she was recently told by our instructor that she can bring her baby to class with her so she doesn't have to miss time. We have class one night a week and we ALWAYS have a test that night because the rest of the week we are in clinical. A lot of the students are complaining that it is distracting, granted she is pretty quiet for the most part but she gets passed around from person to person to be held for the 5 hours we are there and it IS distracting! Plus there are people in class that have had to miss class time because of "children" problems, babysitter couldn't come or whatever....these students feel it is unfair that she was given the choice to BRING her baby to class but others missed time! Something just isn't right about this situation. I don't want to sound like a mean person because I DO want to see her succeed and finish school but at the same time COME ON!!!!!! :angryfire Am I wrong for feeling this way????

Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
I haven't read the entire thread, but whatever happened to grace and compassion? QUOTE] we covered that several pages ago---as "nurses" should we be held to a higher standard of behavior? Why? We are professionals-not saints.....
Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
I am surprised at the lack of caring by some students.

I haven't read the entire thread, but whatever happened to grace and compassion?

I'd like to point out that being against this, does not euqate uncaring or whatever.

I am not trying to perpetuate the "nurses are angels of mercy" addage.

I am saying that as a community we need to be respectful and tolerant of those in a situation that is different than our own. I find it hard to believe that a sleeping baby is such an imposition! If the mother needs to bring a quiet baby to class for a week or two, more power to her! I commend the girl for bieng able to multi-task in that way.She will make an excellent nurse!:twocents: I also commend the others in her nursing class that understand that humans do not fit into little boxes, and attempt to assist thier fellow woman.

i understand your sentiment...

especially if it affects your work...

for the best thing is that your class should advice her

to try of other ways like:

>if she has the resources, can't she get a nanny?it would really be awful for a baby to spend time in stressful place such as school.

>can her parents help out?

Specializes in ob, med surg.

If you go back and read the original thread, it says that the baby comes for EVERY lecture. There is a test EVERY lecture. It also says that the lecture is 5 hours long. In the best circumstances, no baby is going to stay quiet for 5 hours. They get hungry, they get wet, and they get tired. The thread also says the baby gets passed around the class. I'm all for compassion, but lets say the baby does as babies do and some students get distracted and find it hard to concentrate on the test. Do they get to take the test again? Or do they just have to suck it up in the name of compassion. I don't know where you went to school, but almost 1/2 of my hand selected nursing class flunked out the FIRST year, and quite a few more were on the line, or just under it (79%). Who explains to those people that a single mother who got pregnant, while in nursing school with a man who is now in jail gets priority in her education over them? I have 2 kids and I make QUITE sure that I did not get pregnant while in nursing school. This student is not 'multitasking'. She is either a poor planner or impulsive. The other students in the class are the ones who are multitasking. They have to try to concentrate on lecture and testing, baby sit as the baby is passed around, and worry about the affect of it all on their grades. Oh, and guess what one of the questions that was asked of me by my employer? What was your GPA? Thank God mine was good. But I can imagine saying "Well it was really good until the baby started coming to class. But after all, you should give me points for my compassion!" Oh please!! This mom has other options, many of which have been discussed in this fourm.---Thanks! I feel better! :icon_roll

Specializes in Neuro, Critical Care.
If you go back and read the original thread, it says that the baby comes for EVERY lecture. There is a test EVERY lecture. It also says that the lecture is 5 hours long. In the best circumstances, no baby is going to stay quiet for 5 hours. They get hungry, they get wet, and they get tired. The thread also says the baby gets passed around the class. I'm all for compassion, but lets say the baby does as babies do and some students get distracted and find it hard to concentrate on the test. Do they get to take the test again? Or do they just have to suck it up in the name of compassion. I don't know where you went to school, but almost 1/2 of my hand selected nursing class flunked out the FIRST year, and quite a few more were on the line, or just under it (79%). Who explains to those people that a single mother who got pregnant, while in nursing school with a man who is now in jail gets priority in her education over them? I have 2 kids and I make QUITE sure that I did not get pregnant while in nursing school. This student is not 'multitasking'. She is either a poor planner or impulsive. The other students in the class are the ones who are multitasking. They have to try to concentrate on lecture and testing, baby sit as the baby is passed around, and worry about the affect of it all on their grades. Oh, and guess what one of the questions that was asked of me by my employer? What was your GPA? Thank God mine was good. But I can imagine saying "Well it was really good until the baby started coming to class. But after all, you should give me points for my compassion!" Oh please!! This mom has other options, many of which have been discussed in this fourm.---Thanks! I feel better! :icon_roll

Totally agreed!!! No one told her to get pregnant, and yes accidents do happen but there are ways to prevent those accidents!!! Like the last poster said, what baby is going to be quiet and content for 5 hours! There are other options for her and if she doesnt have options, well she should have thought of that before! I have very little compassion when it comes to my very very expensive education that I am trying to get the most out of. A lot of us have not had children purposely for the reason that we are in NS. NONE of the women in my class with children would ever bring kids to class.

Just bc I don't want a crying baby (and you cant tell me an infant wont cry at some point in 5 hours) interrupting my class doesn't mean I dont have compassion. Like I said before, a college classroom is NO PLACE for a child, in fact my handbook for my program that I am in now says anyone who brings a child to class will be dismissed from the class, it won't be tolerated. The CC where I did my Anatomy prereq did not have a strict policy and students would bring their 5 year olds into our A&P class! They would sit in the middle of the aisles and color and every 5 minutes it would be "mom this and can i have this" it was SOOOOO distracting.

If you go back and read the original thread, it says that the baby comes for EVERY lecture. There is a test EVERY lecture. It also says that the lecture is 5 hours long. In the best circumstances, no baby is going to stay quiet for 5 hours. They get hungry, they get wet, and they get tired. The thread also says the baby gets passed around the class. I'm all for compassion, but lets say the baby does as babies do and some students get distracted and find it hard to concentrate on the test. Do they get to take the test again? Or do they just have to suck it up in the name of compassion. I don't know where you went to school, but almost 1/2 of my hand selected nursing class flunked out the FIRST year, and quite a few more were on the line, or just under it (79%). Who explains to those people that a single mother who got pregnant, while in nursing school with a man who is now in jail gets priority in her education over them? I have 2 kids and I make QUITE sure that I did not get pregnant while in nursing school. This student is not 'multitasking'. She is either a poor planner or impulsive. The other students in the class are the ones who are multitasking. They have to try to concentrate on lecture and testing, baby sit as the baby is passed around, and worry about the affect of it all on their grades. Oh, and guess what one of the questions that was asked of me by my employer? What was your GPA? Thank God mine was good. But I can imagine saying "Well it was really good until the baby started coming to class. But after all, you should give me points for my compassion!" Oh please!! This mom has other options, many of which have been discussed in this fourm.---Thanks! I feel better! :icon_roll

:yeah: :yeah: :yeah: :yeahthat: :yeah: :yeah: :yeah:

Specializes in Neuro/Med-Surg/Oncology.

There's a difference between Being compassionate to your fellow man and sucker.

Conpassionate to your fellow man =

Sitter had an emergency and baby comes to class once (maybe twice)

(Not during a test either)

Sucker=

Baby is at every class (during exams no less) continuously at other people's expense

Yes, as a nurse you have to multi-task and work under pressure with distractions, but you're not paying for it. You're being paid. This woman is obvioiusly aware of and able to make childcare arrangements. She has another child that is being cared for during class. It's very selfish and uncompassionate of her to expect to be accomodated continuously at her other classmates expense.

'Nuff said

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

That's something i'm really not getting about this whole situation: how one child has someone to babysit, yet the baby doesn't. Makes no sense.

Specializes in Geriatrics.

WOW! I never imagined such a response to my problem!! I will do my best to update the situtation and hopefully address some of the responses.

The infant is now 2 and a half months old, no longer quiet and no longer just sleeping in class. It was the instructors decision to allow this, and basically we are to "deal with it". She was never given an alloted amount of time that she is allowed to bring the baby to school and I do think she is taking advantage of the offer. Her other daughter is watched by her mom and dad but the mother doesn't feel comfortable leaving the baby there yet.

I have a meeting with the coordinator of the program next week. For all those who say I (or we) as a class should be more helpful and willing to find a solution for her....I would have gladly bought her a condom for .50 had I know she was planning on having a one-night fling and not using protection! I think I (or we) as a society are helping her enough by paying her rent, paying for her medical card for her children, and paying for her food that she buys with food stamps! I don't have a problem with people on assistance that need it, this woman has her medical assistance certificate. There is no reason she can't be out there working like the rest of us. She has told us that her assistance would pay for her to take her children to daycare but she doesn't want to work!!! It is hard to have sympathy for someone who makes these statements!!:angryfire

it is very easy to say "have a heart, be more helpful and caring" I would challange those of you that say this isn't a distraction to sit in on a 5 hour class trying to hear your instructor and take notes with a crying baby sitting across the room from you. Yeah, it is real easy.

Thanks for all your support guys! I will let you know what happens with my meeting!!

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
The infant is now 2 and a half months old, no longer quiet and no longer just sleeping in class. It was the instructors decision to allow this, and basically we are to "deal with it".

Yeah, deny the rights of others to have a quiet, mature, professional learning environment for one person. No one in that class chose to have this situation they are in now, however, she did.

I'd be complaining, too. It's a ridiculous expectation be told to "deal with it".

Either that, or i'd just bring my heavy-breathing, drooling Basset Hound in, after she's rolled in a pile of deer turds. Hey, the classmates should just have to deal with that too, right?

Specializes in ER.
I don't understand how a newborn, especially if breastfed, is distracting. My newborns pretty much slept in their sling when I was out and about and as someone else said, when they got fussy I'd pop the breast in their mouth and people rarely new I even had a baby in that sling. Even for 5 hours.

I disagree with the baby being passed around for a variety of reason, I'm kinda old fashioned about things like that, but w/o the passing around it seems to me that its the adults that are the problem. If the baby is being quiet, then how can its presence be distracting? It seems to me that it is the adults that have trouble paying attention.

I hope that if you do have any compassion for this mother that you will first, very kindly and respectfully, address it with her while suggesting the excellent alternative of her being able to take tests in another room.

I think that this situation has a lot to do with how the mother is parenting the child. There is a HUGE difference between a newborn quitely sleeping in a sling and a mother pushing one of those 40lb travel systems into the room with a 20 lb diaper bag slung over her shoulder, now THAT is destracting:)

I have never had a classmate bring a child in but have had plently that regularly show up 15 to 30 minutes late for lecture and casually walk in distracting everyone. This bothers me a lot more than a quietly sleeping baby would. (they are soo cute though and it would be hard not to keep looking:)

Tracy

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