Horrible Clinical Instructor!! WHAT SHOULD I DO?

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Okay here's the thing. I'm in my J1(junior level1) semester of a BSN program and we had a really not so friendly clinical instructor this semester. She wrote a lot of my mistakes like I kneeled down to get my resident's BP (on my first day in the clinical, I mean, people make mistakes, right), or I wore a colored long-sleeve shirt under my scrub (which I immediately rolled up under my scrub so nobody could see the color), etc in my clinical evaluation. I don't know if my future employees can get a hold of those evaluations and see how "unprofessional" I was! I mean she's just the meanest, most biased instructor I had in my whole life! This semester is almost over and I don't know if I should talk to her supervisor or my advisor about this, cuz I live in a small town where...well, you don't want to be enemies with anyone since she may be the reason why you couldn't find a job after you graduate. I don't know what to do right now and patho final is approaching..and I'm looking at my evaluation and all the things that she charged me with...:cry:

Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.
No employer is going to look at a clinical instructor's notes from your first clinical rotation, or any rotation, for that matter. Forget that. But don't forget that floors are filthy and you don't want your uniform on them, and dress codes are, well, dress codes.

If this is what it takes for someone to be "horrible," honey, you is in fo' a big worl' of hurt in the rest of your rotations (and your career). Jus' sayin'.

Don't look at her criticisms as you being "charged" with something. Every time you find yourself being criticized, think to yourself, "What can I learn from this?" Feedback is a gift, even if you don't want it.

So... now you know that those little things count, so go back and reread the student handbook and go forth and sin no more. :)

Excellent advice! Always take criticism with a "what can I learn from this?" approach and it doesn't seem so negative. None of us are perfect and we all make mistakes. If you're not supposed to kneel on the floor or wear colored shirts, well....don't do it anymore. It's not that you're being "charged" with anything. Learn to take feedback and apply what you've learned going forward.

As far as a future employer seeing this "record", I wouldn't give another moment's thought about it. You're in nursing school to learn. Part of that learning is going to be critiqued. No one expects any student to be perfect. Future employers aren't going to go out of their way to read your clinical feedback. Relax :D

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No employer is going to read your evals from clinicals. That said, I wouldn't say anything about your instructor since the semester is so close to being over. If he/she was really awful your whole group should've said something much sooner. Just stick it out. You'll have more clinicals to come soon!

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Specializes in hospice.

Oh my gosh, the fragile young adults the "everyone gets a trophy" culture raises.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
No employer is going to look at a clinical instructor's notes from your first clinical rotation, or any rotation, for that matter. Forget that. But don't forget that floors are filthy and you don't want your uniform on them, and dress codes are, well, dress codes.

If this is what it takes for someone to be "horrible," honey, you is in fo' a big worl' of hurt in the rest of your rotations (and your career). Jus' sayin'.

Don't look at her criticisms as you being "charged" with something. Every time you find yourself being criticized, think to yourself, "What can I learn from this?" Feedback is a gift, even if you don't want it.

So... now you know that those little things count, so go back and reread the student handbook and go forth and sin no more. :)

To add to this......

"Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted" Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.
To add to this......

"Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted" Ralph Waldo Emerson

If there was a way to 'Like' this about a hundred times, I would.

(And for the uninitiated, Emerson used the term 'vulgar' in it's original meaning of 'common or base'. You're welcome.)

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Illogical. There is absolutely no way your are her enemy, so why make her yours?

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Oncology, Epic CT.

Take a deep breath. It's just an evaluation! Take both the good and the bad from it and learn to do better in the future and know your teacher is not out to get you, she is just stating what needs to improve so you can learn and grow.

That's what I've been doing with my evaluations for the last 3 semesters. It's helped me step back and analyze my own self.

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Specializes in Neuro, Telemetry.

"Horrible Clinical Instructor!! WHAT SHOULD I DO?"

Grow a thicker skin. Seriously. And I am not trying to be rude. I mean this in all seriousness. From what you are describing, this does not make for a horrible CI. Their job is to evaluate your. When you make mistakes, they get documented so that it can be used as a teaching moment. It is also a reference so if you continually make the same mistake or break the rules, you can be reprimanded accordingly. If you are passing your clinical and just have these minor mistakes documented and it has you all in a huff, you need to calm down and move on. You will likely encounter a much worse CI, or even an unfriendly nurse or two in your school years and will need to suck it up, learn from your experience, and keep on trucking. Also, I highly doubt that any future employer will want to see your clinical evaluations. They at the most will want to see your transcript or get a reference from an instructor. Just move on and don't repeat the mistake. We are aloud to make mistakes as students as long as we try our best not to, and learn from them when we do. Not complain about being called out on them.

ETA: DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOVER HER HEAD. It will make you look very silly and will not be taken seriously. And if it gets back to your CI, your clinical shifts will be much worse for you. She controls your pass/fail of clinical. Don't give her a reason to fail you out of spite. It shouldn't work like that, but t does sometimes.

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