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!

[MoopleRN]

Okay, people. I grew a pair. And reported everything.

Now will someone please tail me with an amp of D50 in case I get accidentally injected with some insulin? :) Thanks. Will keep you all posted on outcome.

I know I posted "over and out" on this thread but I have to jump back in. OP, I take it back. You're not a troll. The VAST majority of the replies on this thread are the trolls and SHAME ON ALL OF THEM! I would consider it an HONOR to "tail you with an amp of D50 in case you get accidentally injected with insulin". Just in case you bottom out/die, I'll keep everyone posted on your "outcome". I'll make your funeral arrangements, console your mother, and update your Facebook page. My allnurses life is better with you in it and you will be sorely missed if you actually, you know, get homicided. PLEASE keep us posted with the pair you grew that enabled you to report everything.

PS keep a snickers in your pocket just in case

((((((((((((((((meatball girl, dead or alive)))))))))))))))))))))

[LaughingRN]

It's not refreshing, it's revolting. The so called jokes are referring to academic fraud regarding a "profession" I happen to care about. Giggle all you like, but don't pretend the rest of us are old sticks in the mud because we find it distasteful.

I don't think anybody was making jokes about the actual situation, it was simply the OP's style of writing. The humor was geared more towards how the OP felt when stuck in her situation....not the situation itself.

Her question was serious.

My reply was also serious....

So who is giggling at who?

Somehow, somewhere, my favorite site in the world is becoming a place I try to avoid.

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

What is wrong with humor? It does not detract from the seriousness of the issues. She took care of business and was able to laugh about a stressful situation that could have done her harm. I think the humor is healthy!

[morte, LPN, LVN]

I didn't get the impression ANYONE was laughing at the situation. I, personally, would be rip s.... Feeling I was being denied an education that I had paid for. The humor was about the OP's way of expressing her nervousness in reporting, which I can truly understand.

It's not refreshing, it's revolting. The so called jokes are referring to academic fraud regarding a "profession" I happen to care about. Giggle all you like, but don't pretend the rest of us are old sticks in the mud because we find it distasteful.

[merlee]

My concern would be two-fold. One, that you would all be dismissed immediately when this was discovered, and it will be. Or, two, that you will be expected to repeat the entire clinical experience, with instructors that are far more strict/ethical, and who will be at your elbow for every breath you take.

This is NOT a time to be anonymous - you can rest assured that the dean needs to know who is honest, and who should be dealt with severely.

You need every minute of your clinical experience - and you will start your first job wishing you would have had TWICE as much time at the bedside. In this case, less is NOT more.

If you are truly concerned for your well-being, ask for a transfer to a different clinical group. I wouldn't blame you at all!

I wish you all the best, you know the right path, now walk it.

[T-Bird78]

I'm sure there are other classmates that agree with you but are too scared to speak up also. This is nursing school, you will have to speak up against authority figures in the real world at work and it's harder telling the doctor or your manager that they're wrong. Speaking up against an instructor for not doing their job might get you shunned by your classmates, like high school kids used to, but speaking up against your boss could get you fired. It's not easy but necessary. You're, and your classmates, are getting cheated out of an education and your instructor is wasting the school's money by not working the job as assigned. I'm pretty sure there's a minimum number of clinical hours required, so either you'll be short those hours or your records at school are being falsified if they reflect full clinical hours. Speak to the head of the nursing program. If the facility doesn't have anything for students to do after 7 p.m. then they need a different facility. The head of the program may know about it and may be okay with it. When you do speak with them, stress your wish to remain anonymous. Who knows, maybe they'll show up to that clinical location after 7 just to see what's going on! Don't be afraid of doing the right thing.

[BlueDevil,DNP, DNP, RN]

This is not quite a Rosa Parks moment folks. It is not that difficult to simply speak up and tell the truth in this instance. And I don't think it is being too curmudgeonly to insist that we uphold nursing students to some minimal standards, say like actually attending nursing school. I understand wanting to "support" the OP, but she has been complicit in academic dishonesty for one-half of a semester. Do you all really think that is acceptable because she was too "scared" of her classmates to stand up and just go tell someone? We all know she wasn't really going to be assaulted. Come now. She might have been ostracized. Who cares? Is that too high a price to pay? It ought to have happened the first or second week of September and everyone on this thread knows it. There is no excuse for placating anyone involved in the fraud/deception. I find the jokes about the situation extremely distasteful.

Were the Dean, the instructor would be fired and reported to the BON, and hopefully lose her license. All of the students would be expelled from the program. If I got the tip anonymously, that would have to include the tipster. If the OP spoke up in the record she wouldn't get any credit for this semester since she hasn't put any actual time in the unit to speak of, but she would be allowed to start again next year. And that is the price you pay for being a liar and cheat in my world.

I know "a little" cheating is ok and apparently even funny to a lot of other people. I'll let you have the rest of the thread to roll your eyes and tell me how old fashioned and out of touch I am. I've made my opinion clear. Good luck if you ever find yourself working for me. I will report violations of this nature to the BON and strive to have your license pulled. You may get it, but you won't keep it long if these are the values you practice under.

If this is "between a rock and a hard place," it makes me worry about what one would do in a genuine ethical conflict.No wonder nursing is such a mess. No standards.

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Seriously? They shoot the messenger and you know it. She does not need to sacrifice herself.

And it would not be overt. they would find some sneaky way to sabatoge her. Anonymous is good!

[Altra, BSN, RN]

This is not quite a Rosa Parks moment folks.

Now that humor ... is appreciated.

I have to agree with BlueDevil, DNP -- I'm seeing more and more hyperbole and energy expended on creative wit and less and less actual backbone / approriate interpersonal skills demonstrated in many recent threads. Nursing is difficult. Adult professional standards are apparently difficult for some. It does make me wonder how some deal with situations in real time.

[LaughingRN]

Nobody can play judge jury and executioner here based off the limited pieces of information we have.

I think it is naive to think that there is not an unfair burden of penalty placed on someone who reports against an institution for wrongdoing.

In fact, it is such a well known phenomenon that we have a term for it.

Whistleblowing. Then there are laws that protect Whistleblowers.....we all know how we'll those can work.

In this case, the student is trying to report a large issue against the organization with no laws protecting her, although potentially facing the same consequences or ruined career, ostracization, ruined reputation.

This is not black and white, and surely the people who have offered suggestions and support are not the unethical and substandard nurses that some are trying to imply

[bleemadden]

If a patient was being harmed by a coworker, would you just ignore it and let their life be in danger because you were afraid of what your coworker would do to you for snitching? I'd certainly hope not! The only thing your coworker would be doing is leaving the building after being fired!

As many others have said, aside from you spending money on the class and deserving an adequate education, as a healthcare professional it's almost a requirement to be selfless and think about your future patients and how your lack of education could harm them!

I can't believe you're even questioning telling somebody. Remember, you're an accomplice and just as guilty if you're there, witness it, and go along with it.

[Altra, BSN, RN]

I think it is naive to think that there is not an unfair burden of penalty placed on someone who reports against an institution for wrongdoing.

In fact, it is such a well known phenomenon that we have a term for it.

Whistleblowing. Then there are laws that protect Whistleblowers.....we all know how we'll those can work.

Whistleblowing?

OP is discussing the actions of one member of the institution (the clinical instructor) with the appropriate more senior member of the same institution (the dean).

The presumption that there will be retaliation against the OP implies that you believe that the dean and possibly others in that college/university to be actively aware of the clinical instructor's habit of dismissing students ridiculously early on a regular, ongoing basis ... and that they are complicit in making a mockery of the contract that the college/university has with the hospital to allow clinical experiences and in falsifying documentation that graduates of the program have completed the number of clinical hours required for licensure in that state.

It seems to me it is far more likely that the CI is either unable or unwilling to commit to evening clinical hours for any number of personal reasons ... and instead of approaching the situation as a responsible professional, is attempting to slide by unnoticed.