Dilemma with the instructor

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Hi,

I am a first year nursing student and I am in my second semester of nursing program. I am having a dilemma lately with one instructor. She is the last instructor that I have in this semester for my last clinical rotation. Instead of playing her supervision role in the clincal days with me, she gave me a lot of hard time. She documented all the little mistakes that I did in the clinical area, and threaten me that I would fail the clinical if I didn't improve (that's mean fail the whole semester of program, even if I pass the tests in the class). She picked all my grammer errors from my holistic assignments and told me that my English is not good (English is my third language) and if I don't get improve during her rotation, she wouldn't think that I could pass her rotation. She told me about all my weaknesses during my clinical day (we were in the hospital starting from 7am-12am. At 8:15am, She asked me to go to a private room. When I reached to the private room with her, I saw there was another instructor, who was never taught me for the clinical rotations, in the room too. They started to talk about all my little mistakes that I did in the clinical area. They said that I tried to slip through the program. To me, this kind of statement was not fair toward me and also toward the other 5 clinical instructors that I had before.), and I was very upset. I explained myself to them, and I cried in between the talk. I told them that it was not fair which they could document all my mistakes and tried to fail me without giving the chance for me to improve. They said they looked out the safety for the patients. I told them that I have never harm any patient, and all the patients like me very much. Then, they said there were trying to help me, that's why they gave me 3 days to show my improvement. I was very upset during that time. I asked the permission for me to leave the hospital and to make up a clinical day later, because I was so upset and stress from all the things that they told me. They wouldn't let me. I explained myself that I wouldn't think I could take care of the patient since I was so down emotionally. They said they could help me to go through the day together with me. I believed them, and I asked the permission to stay in the private room for another 10 minutes to calm myself down. They left. I cried as much as I wanted just to hope to relief the stress inside me. My eyes were red and puffy because of all the crying. When I went back to the floor, I saw my instructor was talking to my nurse. (She was telling her I have problems with my English)(I got this information from my nurse. She told me not to give up). After that day, I thought she gave me chances to improve myself, but I was wrong. During that afternoon, she showed all her documentations about me to the nursing director (without me present), and they all agreed to fail me.(I only know about that at the end of my following clinical day) On the following clinical day, she told me that I showed some improvements, but at the end of the same day, she told me she had talked to the director about me and failed me. I was totally disappointed about how she treated me and how she handled her supervision role in the clinical days. I want to appeal. ( I am not the only one in the class that feel this way about her) Can any one of you help me with my situation? You can email me if you like ([email protected]). Thanks

Most of my English problems were in the charting. For example, I forgot to chart certain things about the pt. I used the wrong words to describe the pt's situation. This is the only clinical rotation that we first encountered to do charting. Can she understand that I am still learning? When she told me what I did wrong in the charting, I learned right away. That's why the clinical instructor is there for the students. (I told her about this, but she told me that "I have 10 students. All the students can do it, why you cannot?") I told her that "This is my learning curve. I need time to improve". She didn't want to accept. I want to appeal. I am on my way to gather information about her from the students. I have a strong standing on my side. The most difficult part that I face now is, I have a test on this thursday, and final on next monday. This is really not fair to me ;-(

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Charting is one of the most important parts of nursing. This is the legal document that describes what was done, etc. If not charted, then in a court of law, it ws considered that it was not done. I teach foreign nurses every day, and we spend quite a bit of time on how to learn to chart properly, how to describe things using the proper English, etc. These are things that are not learned in typical ESL classes. Did you ever approach your instructor in previous classes to say that you were having problems with the charting? What ever you do chart is under the legal license of your instructor...............

Please let us know what happens........... :balloons:

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Specializes in private duty/home health, med/surg.

Your instructor was very wrong in talking to you about such an upsetting subject in the middle of a clinical day, & then telling you that you had to finish up the day. It sounds like she had already made up her mind to fail you, so what was the point of having a very upset student care for patients? That was extremely poor judgement on her part. I'm sorry you had to go through this.

Since communication is such a vital part of nursing, I suggest you focus on continuing to improve your English. Perhaps you could take classes on conversational English. Don't give up--when you do finish nursing, you will have an extra edge when applying for jobs since you're trilingual!

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That was perfect advice rnmi2004! I agree :D

Your instructor was very wrong in talking to you about such an upsetting subject in the middle of a clinical day, & then telling you that you had to finish up the day. It sounds like she had already made up her mind to fail you, so what was the point of having a very upset student care for patients? That was extremely poor judgement on her part. I'm sorry you had to go through this.

Since communication is such a vital part of nursing, I suggest you focus on continuing to improve your English. Perhaps you could take classes on conversational English. Don't give up--when you do finish nursing, you will have an extra edge when applying for jobs since you're trilingual!

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Question: so I should just accept what she evaluated me, and drop out from the program?

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Have you spoken to your director yet? See what she has to say. I wouldn't want one instructor to influence what you do with the rest of your life, but get input from your director, or even another instructor that you have trained under whom you trust.

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Remember that there are some American nurses that have trouble with the program, and they are native speakers.

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Specializes in NICU- now learning OR!.
Most of my English problems were in the charting. For example, I forgot to chart certain things about the pt. I used the wrong words to describe the pt's situation. This is the only clinical rotation that we first encountered to do charting. Can she understand that I am still learning? When she told me what I did wrong in the charting, I learned right away. That's why the clinical instructor is there for the students. (I told her about this, but she told me that "I have 10 students. All the students can do it, why you cannot?") I told her that "This is my learning curve. I need time to improve". She didn't want to accept. I want to appeal. I am on my way to gather information about her from the students. I have a strong standing on my side. The most difficult part that I face now is, I have a test on this thursday, and final on next monday. This is really not fair to me ;-(

I have to echo Suzanne4 's post -

A pts. chart is a legal document.....we have been taught CONSTANTLY on the seriousness of proper charting/documentation ("If it wasn't charted it wasn't done")

I am interested in hearing more specifics on your instructors complaints:

(1) Poor English is only a problem in the documentation... you seem to be able to communicate fine.

(2) Clearly you were upset in the meeting - you probably felt attacked - and yes, perhaps the instructor was being harsh in not allowing a few minutes for you to compose yourself...however, you need to learn to control your emotions....you will wind up someday with pts. that may upset you very much....but it is important to still be able to provide competant care IRREGARDLESS of what you feel inside. You stated you could not give good care to your pt. due to feeling upset and asked to go home.....that would not go over well in my clinical class either...we are professional adults and are expected to act as such.

(3) You stated the instructor felt that the pt. safety was at risk.....what examples of that were given? Med error? Treatment error?

Good luck!

Jenny

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I do not know why all you people are siding with the instructor. The instructor is not always right. Clearly this person is communicating well from her writing. And this is not an English class, she is taking. I think the instructor is biased to people who are not native speakers because only she is giving her a hard time and not her other instructors. If there was a pattern of complaints by other instructors about her English, then there is something wrong.

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I do not know why all you people are siding with the instructor. The instructor is not always right. Clearly this person is communicating well from her writing. And this is not an English class, she is taking. I think the instructor is biased to people who are not native speakers because only she is giving her a hard time and not her other instructors. If there was a pattern of complaints by other instructors about her English, then there is something wrong.

I am not siding with anyone. She needs to speak to the Director of her program, as well as one of her previous instructors and get their take on this. You need the forces to be on your side. What ever we say here is not going to help her one bit at her school, only her previous teachers or the Director can offer some input that will actually matter.

It is quite also different when you are trying to describe a procedure that you did or what a wound looks like when you may not have had all of those words in oyur vocabulary. Routine ESL classes do not teach that.

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Be,

It is possible that this instructor is prejudiced and that she was determined to fail you no matter what. I've seen it done to fellow students so I know it happens. However, consider your own admission that you made some errors with the charting and that maybe the instructor's criticisms were valid. Even simple mistakes in documentation can be used by an attorney to rip the agency to shreads in the event of a lawsuit.

Here are my suggestions:

1. Never, ever, ever take it personally when a clinical instructor says anything to you. Stick to the skills. If you react by acting out, crying, or becoming defensive they will only use that negative behavior against you when they do your evaluation. You have to toughen up, be confident, show them how professional you can be, and that you've got what it takes to be a great nurse.

2. Accept criticism if it is constructive and learn from the experience. If they were pointing out errors that you made in your documentation, the issues they raised may be valid. Instead of insisting that you didn't make any mistakes, always ask the instructor to suggest how you can improve. Take note of the suggestions and follow through.

3. It seems to me that the trouble you had was not with your English but with the formality of documentation. Next time, tell the instructor that you'd like some extra coaching the first couple times you document patient data. Most instructors will ask students to write their assessments on a piece of paper and show it to them before it is transcribed it into the patient's chart anyway. They want to see what you're documenting and suggest changes to ensure accuracy and clarity because you're really practicing nursing under their license. Any incorrect or incomplete information you put in the chart not only reflects badly on them but also creates confusion and the potential for errors when other nursing staff or the physician read what you wrote.

4. Its unreasonable to expect that any instructor will keep giving you additional time for improvement with documentation while you're in clinical because that's time that you should be using to demostrate proficiency at all your nursing skills. There are nursing books on documentation that you can read on your own that will help you to get the language 'down'. They will give different patient scenarios and show different ways to chart assessments, observations, etc.

5. Don't think about nursing school in terms of fair and unfair. You have to have a positive attitude and show them that you can do this. Don't give up! Practice your charting and come again.

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But, this is the only clinical rotation that let us do the charting. I couldn't become like an expert right away. She is my 3rd clinical instructor in this semester, I never forgot to check the pt. wristband when I passed meds to the pt with the other instructors. With her, I felt a lot of stress. She wrote down everything you did. She specified every minor mistake that you did, and talked to you in a harsh way. There was one time in the pre-conference, she said "Not offense, but I told my daughter to take spanish class so that she can get her order faster in Mcdonald". I heard some of the students said that she is stereotyping. Unfortunately, the nursing director has the same type of personality like my instructor. I will still need to talk to the director on Thursday, I don't see it will help. Sigh! I am so near to the end of the semester. Only 1 week to go, then, I will be done. However, I think, this will be done forever. I am just so near to take the LPN class :-

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