Help!!! Caught btw rock and hard place--Instructor sending students home early...

[meatballgirl]

Hi Everyone:

I need some savvy advice from some smart seasoned nurses. I'm in nursing school and a terrible situation has developed....

We are suppose to have clinicals from 3pm-midnight. Our instructor lets us out at 7pm, and we spend about 2 and a half hours total on the floor. The rest we are sitting and chatting about nursing stuff. But we get let out 5 hours early, every day. Today, she cancelled the whole day all together. We lost 9 hours.

Now I know some students are happy to play hookie and to get out early, I feel like I'm getting ripped off. I'm seriously not learning anything at all. And all the other students are not saying anything. We are pressured by the instructor not to tell the Dean who is very strict, but it's getting ridiculous.

WHAT SHOULD I DO?

I want to squeal.

Don't get me wrong, if we can't do anything on the floor from 7pm on, then I don't want to just sit there for 5 hours. I want to learn something, to do something.

But I feel like I can't say anything. The whole class will kill me. And I still have 9 months to go with this group. And the instructor will give me hell if she finds out it was me.

So what do I do, wise nurses?

Leave an anonymous note in the Dean's box? Any ideas that will not get me hanged by the class?

Thanks!

[meatballgirl]

I feel like a little rat. Oh well, maybe the dean will do something and I'll actually be able to give an injection properly. I can't even do vitals manually. (I'm so ashamed.)

[Sparrowhawk]

Get over it, report it.

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Sneak a note in the box or better yet mail it with no return address from off campus. I fear you will face retaliation if people know. I thought the insulin thing was funny, but I understood your point.

[meatballgirl]

Okay, dear esteemed nurses. I will tell the Dean. But if I end up getting injected with potassium chloride, it's all your guys fault. :) If only I could carry around syringes of antidote for everything...

[DemonWings]

If you are so intent on being annonymous, maybe you can create an email account "student2012@ gmail . com" something like that, and send a very detailed email to the dean, and to anyone else that you think might be able to help you.

[Songbird,RN]

You just MUST tell!!! Worry about passing boards!! Worry about your future patients, that is, if you do pass boards! This counterfeit instructor is stealing your education and you will have to pay for it. Wake up, don't even thing about it-TELL!

[LaughingRN]

I also found your sense of humor refreshing:)

A lot of times on this site, I think humor is a component that is missing and should be used more often.

As far as you issue, from a realist standpoint, I would only report this anonymously. Why? Because retaliation is a huge and real outcome.

If you happen to go up the chain of command in person, your clinical instructor WILL know it was you, and if you then remain under her instruction (especially if she is disciplined and keeps her position which is likely) you will not be her favorite person. Clinical instructors pass you on a somewhat subjective basis.

So, personally, I would go to a public place, make a new email address with gmail, and email the dean and cc relevant people outlining the situation without giving away any personal identifying information and then sit back and wait.

It may take a week or so, if they are going to investigate and verify, but hopefully you will notice a change.

Just in case though, you might want to buy some stock in amps of D50 :)

[meatballgirl]

Dear all esteemed and moral nurses: The deed has been done. Dean notified. (I won't say how or who or what methods.) Rest assured, the school now knows. Now all I need is one of you to walk around with me with amps of D50... Because I don't even know how to administer that to a patient, let alone myself. :)

[YouSmellLikeCDiff]

YAYY! Now we wait for corrections to be made. Clinical is the MOST important part of nursing school. It is necessary to have adequate clinical hours to help build you a firm, basic foundation in nursing. Before long, you'll be packing your own 50 cc syringe of Insulin to defend yourself... and you'll actually know how to administer it!

I hope things get better soon. Please keep us updated!

[anotherone, BSN, RN]

Thanks to all who have replied, but even my MOTHER has told me to keep my mouth shut. She doesn't want the instructor or the other students to retaliate against me. I'm so frustrated and scared. I can't run to the instructor and say, "hey, this is wrong. You are a lazy ass and are cheating us out of our education." She'll just make me sit there until midnight and let all the other kids go.

Someone out there, PLEASE help me. PLEASE, please, please. How can I tell the Dean without committing suicide (socially) or invite homicide upon self?

Don't talk to any one in your group about this. Pretend to enjoy being let out earlier also. Can you come in early or stay super late one day and drop a typed note under the dean's office or in his/her mailbox? that is what I would do. You are right to consider the repurcusions to wistle blowing even when you are 100% in the right.

[tewdles, RN]

A nursing instructor who starts out by encouraging her students to short themselves on clinical hours and then lie to superiors about it is a **** poor nursing education in my book.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

Now when the story gets out that instructor got reported, just prepare to act annoyed and surprised when you learn about it.