I am now on winter break, but this question has been on my mind.
On our last day of classes we had to fill out evaluations of the hospital floors we worked on and of our class curriculum and setting. Usually everyone in class does not fill out the evaluations pertaining to our nursing program honestly because it is well known that out instructors do not take constructive criticism well. But since they had envelopes that all the papers were being put into, I thought, what the heck, and I shared my true feelings about the class. The content does not always match what we are doing in clinicals and since the beginning we have been forced to move from classroom to classroom with inadequate lighting, temps that are too hot or to cold, and inadequate seating.
By the time I had finished, the envelope for the class content had "left" with another instructor, and one of our hardest instructors was collecting the last of the hospital evals. I told her I would take the eval sheet to the office to put it in the envelope, but she took it from me and said she would eventually read it anyway, so she would take it. I was upset, and told her that since it was supposed to be anonymous, she shouldn't take it by itself, but she said it didn't matter. I said "so much for anonymity" and left it at that. But Ihave been feeling like I should have stuck to my guns and took it myself to place it in the envelope. Now I feel like they are going to hold that eval against me next semester.
Many of us are unhappy with our program, but those that have spoken out before have been failed out of clinicals for what I would consider reasons that are insignificant. Most of us are waiting to give our true feelings about the program until the end of the last semester, when there will be no time for repercussions. Now I am just so nervous about how next semester is going to play out for me. Up until now, I have always been in the good graces of the instructors.
