The school is a private school and this is what happened.
It was my last day of clinical (and last 6 months) and I was supposed to shadow a nurse in the emergency fast track (basically a department dedicated for non emergency care). When I was put there, there were no patients around because the department just opened. So what we did was just talk and after a while she started working on her paper work. This lasted for a good 20 minutes until our first patient arrived.
Unfortunately at this point, I was very tired and I came inside with the patient. Everything was fine, I told the patient I was very tired because I stayed up the night before working on a paper and that today was my last clinical. After that was done, the nurse again started working on her paper work. Again, I just sat there for like almost 10min.
Finally she got up, ready to give a shot to the patient, and I immediately followed her but she told me to stay. After this, she came back and that was the end.
We sat for another half hour doing absolutely nothing. I even went to every patient room to look busy and went to the bathroom to clean it but still I had a great deal of free time. I sat on my chair again, and again started looking very tired. After the shift finally ended my nursing instructor came down to relieve me.
Unfortunately, the nurse told my clinical instructor what happened. My clinical instructor was furious, and a long story short she than told the dean. And then during my clinical evaluation they failed me.
I still don't understand why. I was tired, that was all. They forced the nurse to write a report about what happened, and by force I mean the dean calling that nurse several times for nearly 2 weeks until the nurse finally wrote the report.
Under why I failed it stated because of inconsistencies in performance, and paper work. However, all my paperwork was fine. I passed with everything with at least B's. The same applied to performance. I argued and argued but no avail.
Last week the V.P. of academic affairs gave me my final appeal decision which was that the nursing committee decision stands. Her final decision is "had the POTENTIAL to put patients as risk".
This doesn't make sense. If I wanted to, I could have just told the nurse I am feeling very fatigued and I need to leave. We as nursing students have every right to do that if it may endanger a patient. But obviously that was not the case because I chose to observe that day rather than having a patient assignment, as did others because it was the last day.
I am furious. I want to sue under breach of contract, (nothing states I cannot come to clinical being tired) and being arbitrary and capricious in their decision.
Any advice?
What do I need to prove to win?
Please help.
Additional details
All charges against me have been false. From paperwork to performance (have weekly clinical evaluation forms that state I was performing well. I passed all paperwork as wel.
I was in the ICU earlier that morning, without incident. Under the watch of many medical personal. No one complained.
The nurse report stated "his eyes were closing, nodding off, and jerking himself side to side to stay awake". It does not say I fell asleep. Allegations which the department said I did.
I have other nursing students who wrote for me stating that they observed others being extremely tired to clinical. And displayed similar behavior themselves. But no consequences, because obviously it was a onetime thing. (Just like my incident).
I was never warned, it was out of nowhere. Previous landmark decisions in court have stated that students are entitled to be told of their inferior performance, in order to improve. I was not told this. And again documentation states I was progressing well.
Nothing is objective. Nobody say me physically sleeping. It's one nurse assumption that I was very tired. The school is interpretating the incident as me putting a patient in danger. Impossible seeing that I had no patient assignment.
They said it was a "potential" to harm a patient. Meaning, the way i take it, that although you did not have a patient assignment, you could have been asked to help in a situation that could have been critical, meaning, in the event you were asked to assist, you "could have" harmed a patient.
I am a last semester student, and in my school, simply saying that we were tired and didnt want to take assignment would be reason enough for failure..they dont take whining well. They expect you to suck it up and deal with it, and i have had to many times. Last semester, we had a major test every week, and many times 4-5 clinicals a week. Coupled with the fact that i am a mother of three..yes i was tired. But i dealt. If you want it you deal with it. It must benice to have an instructor offer an observation assignment. The only observation we ever got was in first semester when we got to sit in on surgery for one day. Otherwise, even if we had no patient assignment, we were expected to do something...bed baths, brief changes, linen changes, vitals..something.
We had a similar student a while back though..Notice the "had"..she was an opiate addict..she was constantly taking a pill for something..back pain, headache, whatever. It severely affected her. During an OB clinical she feel asleep several times, all sprawled out on the unit dest, sitting in the floor, wherever. Once she picked up an infant and was swaying while holding it. I was genuinely afraid she was going to drop that baby, so i took it away from her. The final straw was on an ICU step down unit where she was so messed up, she went in to give the patient her meds, and took them herself..in front of the patient, family and instructor. Not only did she put the pill in her mouth, but she reached across the patient and used the patients water to swallow it. She rationalized this by saying the she "blacked out and thought it was her pill, and instinct told her to take it". She was that used to popping pills. It was only potassium, so it wasnt that detrimental, but she was immediately whisked away and given a drug screen, which she failed miserably, and was dismissed immediately. She actually showed up the final weeks later, and because she was so crazy, we were genuinely scared she was going to shoot the place up. They escorted her off the campus.
SO, at least you didnt do something so detrimental that you will never be admitted into another program.
Specializes in OB, Gen. Hosp. Nursing, Staff Education.
Sounds like you got a raw deal. It is never a good idea to reveal to your patients that you were up all night, no matter what the reason, but to dismiss you from the program without any warning seems harsh.
Why didn't the nurse say anything to you and instead waited until your instructor came to mention it? That's the least he/she could have done. If it was me, I would have said to the student, hey why don't you take a short break to get some coffee.
Sounds like you got a raw deal. It is never a good idea to reveal to your patients that you were up all night, no matter what the reason, but to dismiss you from the program without any warning seems harsh.
Well, without any warning that we've been told about, at least. I suspect there's far more history here than we've been informed of.
I have just read the majority of posts on this topic and am surprised at the lack of support for this guy who made a mistake as well as at the remarks like "I would've failed you too", and other mean, vicious comments. In general, I am not sure what good it does to kick people out or fire them for mistakes (unless the mistakes are so severe such as violence or severe theft just to name 2 examples). Also, there were some pretty sarcastic postings...one said something like 'so now you've made it the school's fault; what an amazing skill'....comments like these are unecessary and unprofessional. I don't want to write anything here that I would not sign my name and email address to. Attacking each other is a waste of our time.
I've been in the working world for awhile now and have seen lots of people make stupid mistakes. I think it is rarely warranted to take someone's job away or in this guy's case, take away his student status. There are ways of having people pay consequences that help them learn from their mistakes but without driving them to lawyers and other extremes.
To the person who got expelled, I hope you find a good lawyer who will tell it to you straight. My university accepts transfer credits (Univ Washington, Seattle). I've seen people get targeted in clinicals due to persoanl issues with instructors and schools that overreact; sounds to me like your school fits this.
But I mainly wanted to say that regardless of whether or not we're getting the 'whole story', the responses on this stream have been very revealing of why we have the saying 'nurses eat their young'.
As an instructor's point of view: you were a safety risk. They probably thought you were on drugs. I am surprised they didn't ask you to take a drug blood or urine test. As a nurse you will find yourself in a similar down time occurance. But as a professional, you can not sleep on the job.
If you take this to court: The courts usually rule in favor of the Nursing Instructor. If you still want to waste an entire semester fighting this and not moving on....try reading Brent (2001) and Guido (1997) for information about specific cases. Rights of students that are addressed here are due process, fair treatment, and confidentiality and privacy. But are you leaving something out of this story.....Either way, get moving, time is a wasting!
Brent, N. (2001). Nurses and the law. A guide to principles and applications. Philadelphia. Saunders.
Guido, G. (1997). Legal issues in nursing. Standford, Conn. Appleton & Large.
Scanlan, J. (2001). Dealing with the unsafe student in clinical practice. Nurse Educator. 26(1), pp. 23-27.
I don't think the nurse could write that you fell asleep. She can only write what she observes and she couldn't tell if you were asleep or just sitting with your eyes closed. So she has to write- sitting with eyes closed.
It doesn't make sense. Something is missing. All nursing schools know that they put a heavy workload on the students and I would say all are tired! How else do they expect you to come to the second day of clinical after being up all night writing a nursing care plan and doing drug cards?
I would check into finishing at another college/campus, if you are still interested in nursing.
Friend, I think you carry some of the blame for nearly nodding off during clinical, but I do think you should have received a warning rather than expulsion from the program you were in.
My advice is if you were enrolled in a BSN program is to use the credits you already earned to advance yourself in a biology degree or another health-related degree at another institution. Many of my classmates who didn't continue in our nursing program continued on to get degrees and jobs that they are very happy in. Nursing students are known for their dedication, intelligence, and work ethic. If you do decide to continue on and are accepted into another nursing program, take the experiences that you have and excel in the new program.
Once you pass the NCLEX and get your first job as a RN, remember that you are going to be constantly watched during your orientation. The people you work with are not friends, and you are not really considered a "real nurse" until you've been there at least a year. Your professional demeanor and your aptitude in nursing safety and care are all you have to save you from being dismissed. Even then, you may be assailed by other nurses who will attempt to get you into trouble just because they can.
Reading what happen all I can think of why they would take extreme measures is the fact that it was you "Last" day of clinical and at the point they prob would want you to have a deameanor of a nurse and may be thinking if he's doing that then is he really prepared....and if you are willing to travel theres some school in FL like BCC/PBCC and one other state univeristy(maybe it was JU) that will take transfer credits from other NUR schools
The nurse report stated "his eyes were closing, nodding off, and jerking himself side to side to stay awake". It does not say I fell asleep. Allegations which the department said I did.
I have been skimming the responses in this thread. Your behaviour was indeed unsafe-while it may not be illegal to go to clinical tired, you are at higher risk for harming a patient because you just can't think as well when you have stayed up all night. If you were my student, I would have sent you home
However! I don't believe you should have been dismissed from the program IF this is your first problem-you should have been counseled and a contract developed with specific behaviours that you needed to demonstrate-if you cannot demonstrate those behaviours then you are dismissed
If I were you I would look at your school's progression policy-if they do not have one then they need to develop one. Part of GOOD nursing education is to help students be successful-if they need counseling, guidance-that is a role of faculty and you should have received that
I haven't read all the previous comments and I'm not sure anybody has mentioned this but- dude what were you doing staying up for a paper? that sounds like procrastination to me. I have clinical in the afternoon and I force myself to have a coke or something to keep me awake and alert if I didn't get enough sleep the night before.
Anyways, what is done is done. I don't think you really have legal recourse so I suggest re-applying to another school. If this new school asks you why you did not finish at the previous school tell them you were in disagreement with their clinical policies end of story.
For the future, be super nice and amicable to any nurse/tech you are working for/with/under because friendliness goes a long way.
I don't believe you should have been dismissed from the program IF this is your first problem-you should have been counseled and a contract developed with specific behaviours that you needed to demonstrate-if you cannot demonstrate those behaviours then you are dismissed
Mommy_of_3_in_AL..RN
214 Posts
They said it was a "potential" to harm a patient. Meaning, the way i take it, that although you did not have a patient assignment, you could have been asked to help in a situation that could have been critical, meaning, in the event you were asked to assist, you "could have" harmed a patient.
I am a last semester student, and in my school, simply saying that we were tired and didnt want to take assignment would be reason enough for failure..they dont take whining well. They expect you to suck it up and deal with it, and i have had to many times. Last semester, we had a major test every week, and many times 4-5 clinicals a week. Coupled with the fact that i am a mother of three..yes i was tired. But i dealt. If you want it you deal with it. It must benice to have an instructor offer an observation assignment. The only observation we ever got was in first semester when we got to sit in on surgery for one day. Otherwise, even if we had no patient assignment, we were expected to do something...bed baths, brief changes, linen changes, vitals..something.
We had a similar student a while back though..Notice the "had"..she was an opiate addict..she was constantly taking a pill for something..back pain, headache, whatever. It severely affected her. During an OB clinical she feel asleep several times, all sprawled out on the unit dest, sitting in the floor, wherever. Once she picked up an infant and was swaying while holding it. I was genuinely afraid she was going to drop that baby, so i took it away from her. The final straw was on an ICU step down unit where she was so messed up, she went in to give the patient her meds, and took them herself..in front of the patient, family and instructor. Not only did she put the pill in her mouth, but she reached across the patient and used the patients water to swallow it. She rationalized this by saying the she "blacked out and thought it was her pill, and instinct told her to take it". She was that used to popping pills. It was only potassium, so it wasnt that detrimental, but she was immediately whisked away and given a drug screen, which she failed miserably, and was dismissed immediately. She actually showed up the final weeks later, and because she was so crazy, we were genuinely scared she was going to shoot the place up. They escorted her off the campus.
SO, at least you didnt do something so detrimental that you will never be admitted into another program.