Why do some instructors...

firstyearstudent · Nov 15, 2006

Heh heh. I could have written this post first semester. You are describing my first CI exactly. It has really affected my subsequent clinical experiences. The CIs I've had since have been great but now I'm completely terrified and paranoid. It's like I have PTSD.

DarciaMoonz, LPN · Nov 15, 2006

WOW!!! brings back memories of my first two rotations. I had to do my Geri rotation, and my med-surg two rotation with an instructor who literally struck fear in my heart. I can still remember crying on my way to clinical because I didn't know how much more I could take. I was used to get so worked up about NOT making mistakes, that I started making mistakes. LOL@Firstyear. It is like a sort of PTSD. I actually left the nursing program and went back this year to complete the last two semesters. The funny thing is I had alot of time to think over the year I was out, and have realized that some people are never happy no matter what you do. I just give her the biggest smile, and talk to her in my sweetest voice, and take pity on her that her life is sooo miserable. She has been a bit nicer lately, and that kind of makes me nervous. I don't know if she "senses" that I no longer fear her, or did something change in her life that gave her a "wake up" call and made her realize what she was doing. Either way, just bite your tongue and do what you have to do to make it through. And remember you don't have to go home with that CI lol.

augigi, CNS · Nov 15, 2006

People can only make you feel how you let them. Be confident, stand up for yourself and bullies usually back off.

nUsingsTudent021 · Nov 15, 2006

I can soooo relate. I have had a one really rude CI. The rotation I am in now the CI is also my lecture instructor. She is nice in class and will laugh, joke, and share stories with you, but in clinical it is like she is a different person. I can't stand it. She will snap at you but then in post clinical she acts like she is your best friend. I don't know if I can take it much more. thank god I only have 5 more weeks with her.

WDWpixieRN, RN · Nov 15, 2006

I think clinicals must be difficult for the instructors also...I have noticed ours tends to be very relaxed and helpful during class/lecture, but seems much shorter and spread thin on our clinical days...she sometimes pops off with stuff that makes me want to just give it up.....particularly if I have asked for help with something I am not sure of (I'm only first semester for heaven's sake!!)....but we've all noticed she tends to do this with all of us, so I just chalk it up to too many of us and too little of her to go around....I think it just goes with the territory of NS....

Hang in there....

Kiringat · Nov 16, 2006

Our second week of clinicals, I made the off-hand comment to another student that it was boring standing at the med cart until all the residents left the dining room. Murphy's law ment that my instructor had snuck up behind me during the conversation. So ever since then, she's been riding me pretty hard. I don't mind because I've gotten to see/do alot of neat stuff that the other students haven't. I've been kept on my toes with meds and procedures because she always calls on me for tricky questions (and makes me feel like crap when I don't know the answer). There has been a good amount of stress and such associated with it, but overall, being singled out by my instructor has done more good than harm. If nothing else, the snarky comments from the RN's I worked with about the instructor were worth it.

iHeartNICU · Nov 17, 2006

Sheesh, I wish I knew. My first semester I had a CI like this. I was so intimidated and thought nursing was surely not for me because of it. After first semester though I was so much more prepared because of how much I had really learned from her. I thought I could handle anything....then 2nd semester hit and this instructor was the same way. It was like if we had a question she would look at us like "How could you not know that?" HA. It made us never want to ask questions. Even the nurses on the floor thought she was too tough on us. Well, I have finished up 2nd semester and am going into 3rd in January and honestly can't wait. I'm so excited not only to be moving on and getting closer to graduation but I totally want to keep learning stuff....I'm not gonna let any CI instructor get in my way.

Natkat, BSN, MSN, RN · Nov 17, 2006

That sounds like my clinical instructor, sort of. She's kind of aloof anyway, but during clinicals she's a real task master. I don't mind though. I can tell by looking at her that she's pretty stressed out with her job so I don't hold it against her. I try my best to make her job easier. I try to be prepared when she gets there, keep myself organized and be ready to tell her what she wants to know when she asks. If she asks me something I don't have an answer for, I make darn sure I have the answer next time she asks. It's stressful but I've learned a lot faster. I'm so worried about her grumbling at me that I do whatever I can to keep it from happening again. I try my best to listen carefully and follow her instructions so she won't have to repeat herself.

I'm sure it's pain in the behind for her to have to deal with so many students. I really wouldn't want the job either. I try and understand where she's coming from and forgive her for being impatient sometimes. I know she's doing her best and I am too.

BSNtobe2009 · Nov 17, 2006

It's an ego trip, and I think it's a sign they need to get out of education altogether.

I took a history class as a sophomore and the Professor kept talking about Prague during a lesson. At the time, I didn't know it was the capital of Chekeslovakia, I also, had never heard of the city, and couldn't figure out how to write it down. So I asked him, "Can you repeat that city please?",

"Prague", he said. So I asked, "I'm so sorry, can you spell that for me please?".

He took a full 10 minutes out of his lecture, after he threw his pen half-way across the room in frustration, to tell me how much "trouble" my question was and how I disturbed the entire lecture. This was also a professor that was so lazy that he READ his lectures from a binder that he had been using for years...yup, he READ them.

Psycho!

*RubySlippers* · Nov 18, 2006

My first semester was Hell, I hated it, hated, I have never been so miserable in my life and I have went through difficult things. I was depressed so bad having to go every day to class, I had one instructor that was soooo old school, she tortured us all, she was intimidating, rude and expected us to know everything after one example. She was not flexible at all and giving meds with her was the worst, she was so snippy and you had to do it her way or no way. Thank god she retired last semester, I have two great instructors this semester, I want to do a good job with them, but, I also feel relaxed, they are easy to be around and very helpful. Although, I do have to say the instructor that retired made a learn and set the base for our nursing careers.

S.T.A.C.E.Y, LPN · Nov 18, 2006

Heh heh. I could have written this post first semester. You are describing my first CI exactly. It has really affected my subsequent clinical experiences. The CIs I've had since have been great but now I'm completely terrified and paranoid. It's like I have PTSD.

I had a clinical instructor for maternity/L&D who I just rode me constantly. Everyone else in my clinical group was just SOOOO into baby's and just wanted to sit in Mom's room to discuss the little baby's cute teeny tiny toes, and his/her little finger nails, and what kind of crib they were going to use, and just doing baby talk with the newborn all night with the parents. Personally, I'm not a fan of babies. I was always pleasant, polite, and answered the family's questions, but this wasn't enough for my CI. I think she was mad that I wasn't into babies 'cause she just went nuts against me once someone told her it wasn't my thing. I was the only one. When other people had clinical problems, she would just kinda brush it off as not a big deal, but any little thing I might've slipped up on or not known just compounded on top of each other.

That CI left me so paranoid for my next few clinicals rotations, that I would actually freak my new CIs out. When the CI would come around a corner I was always on-guard and ready for them to shoot some out-of-nowhere question at me, or ask me to do something totally random, or always checking everything three times to be sure it was done. I'm telling ya man, that one instructor left me with some PTSD for several semesters of clinical. Now I know the rule is to make sure you know your stuff, and to kiss A** to help them see it.