Help! How to deal with catty classmates!

[nursingstudent555]

I need some advice and support! I am currently attending LPN school and I am starting to think that the classmates are more difficult than some of the professors! I always feel like odd man out, they make snippy comments behind my back, and they are rude with lots of attitude. Always in their little cliques. I am really feeling uncomfortable as its such a small class. The few times I stood up for myself were rebuffed and actually made things worse!I have never encountered a situation where such outward displays of rudeness and disrespect were so tolerated - its almost as though they enjoy the power play of it all! Its terribly backwards and I feel like its high school all over again, but with worse clothing and even worse attitudes! I am exhausted trying to always be nice and civil - but I am ready to explode!!! How do you cope????

[CoffeePlease]

It's often the same at my school and I understand it's the same everywhere... I just smile at everyone, be as helpful as possible and talk to as few people as possible. I have wonderful friends outside nursing school.

[Hanna0225]

It was like that for me during my 1 year at LVN school... But in all honesty, I never really cared for people who would act that way... I ignored any rudeness that came my way and if it woulda gotten way outta hand (which thank goodness it didn't) I would have gotten the administration involved. I am sure you have great friends outside of this program & you don't need these people's friendship... My mentality was to get in there & get out and to be the best nurse I could be... Hope this helps!

[kaiasunshine]

This might be easier for some people than others depending on how old you are or what kind of person you are, but eyes on the prize!! You're only in school for a very short period of time, and once you're out you will most likely never see any of these people again. Who cares what they say? Be as nice and pleasant as possible and you'll know that nothing YOU are doing is possibly making them act this way; that it's obviously their problem. You don't have to know these people for very long but once you graduate you have your education forever, so make your focus school. They can say whatever they damn well please but you're there to learn and that's it. That's all you're going to worry about while you're there.

Women can be nasty little ******* but you know why you're there and if you focus and do your best, that's all you need, my love :)

[NursinginProgress]

Yes, it happens in just about every program that requires a school environment. You have no idea how many students I see that has the potential to be a good student but fail miserably. My method of dealing is to NOT TIP!! As in Taking It Personal.

I've had and still have my share of class drama yet I manage to smile, nod in approval (even though not in my natural non-judgemental self, I wanted to punch the snot out of a few) and walk out each day with my good grades leaving all unnecessary stress behind.

Hang in there darlin', everybody deals with stress differently in school and you may be stuck in their crossfire.

Only advice I have is to take the negative feedback and use it to fuel your motivation to do better than these people book wise so you can have the last laugh when you have those title initials behind your name. Use it to your advantage!

Good Luck and Stay Smiling!! :redpinkhe

[MySonIsAdorable]

I would say, ignore them...you know my mom always said that. And it doesn't help always LOL... Man you would think that this kind of thing would stop eventually? But it doesn't and you will see in the work field also.

Keep your head up, you are there to go to school to become a nurse, not to make friends with these people. Take this as a chance to not have to talk to them, they aren't going to keep you from your class work because they want to take you out afterwards. So this is a good thing.

If they are making it harder for you then you might consider saying something, maybe just that your instructor can just look out for it and say something if it happens infront of him/her that way it's not like you singled them out. There is no excuse for their behavior, but maybe they just aren't smart enough for this and have to do something to distract themselves.

Be strong, and I wish I was there to hand it right back to them :)

[tripseven2005]

Just keep to yourself and if you need to discuss something with someone try and find a person that is fairly nice or that maybe doesn't talk much. If worse comes to worse talk to the instructors. Like has been previously mentioned, eyes on the prize. 1 year isn't that long. My instructor's phrase is "I can do anything for one year". This works in and out of the classroom. I would bring headphones and when no lecture was going I would listen to music while I studied or go to a different room. Wish you the best.