Dear nursing students, nurses, and nursing instructors,
I have been around on this site for a little over two years now, so I've seen many posts. However, I always seem to see countless posts of nursing students getting kicked out of Nursing School, failing their classes, and being ruthlessly bullied by instructors.
I realize that Nursing school is very difficult and challenging. But for those of you who made it through without getting kicked out or failing- do you have any advice?
I have worked hard (just like everyone else) to earn a spot in the program for Spring 2016, and I am terrified to lose it!
From my personal experience, there is NO way to prevent negative events. You may be the sweetest, smartest, most compassionate, most helpful person in the world and be hated precisely for that or anything above, or for having "wrong" whatever. By "wrong" I mean, for example, eating lunch in cafeteria instead of break room.
Nursing world has just as many xenophobic, racist, anti-intellectual and just plain mean personalities as any other professional system. Only one difference is that in nursing world such personalities tend to climb career ladder much quicker than anybody else.
Hope for some good luck on your way, always have Plan "B", "C" and "D", trust your guts and nothing (and nobody) else and learn how not to cry over spilled milk.
From my personal experience, there is NO way to prevent negative events. You may be the sweetest, smartest, most compassionate, most helpful person in the world and be hated precisely for that or anything above, or for having "wrong" whatever. By "wrong" I mean, for example, eating lunch in cafeteria instead of break room.
Nursing world has just as many xenophobic, racist, anti-intellectual and just plain mean personalities as any other professional system. Only one difference is that in nursing world such personalities tend to climb career ladder much quicker than anybody else.
Hope for some good luck on your way, always have Plan "B", "C" and "D", trust your guts and nothing (and nobody) else and learn how not to cry over spilled milk.
Constructive criticism can definitely sound like something really negative if you have the wrong attitude. I just always remember that without making mistakes, AND without people pointing out my mistakes, I wouldn't learn much!
I'm definitely scared of failing out!! I know that only the smartest get through.... I'm very very hardworking, but definitely no genius The rest of those things I think are avoidable for me :)
Yikes!!! I can't believe some of those things actually happened..... Thank you for the list though. I think in list form, so that was really a great post for me to read! :) Failing tests definitely seems to be a common thing. I'm terrified of that!!!
Here's a quick rundown of things not to do:
1) Fail tests
2) Fall asleep in class and/or clinical (Seriously! Had a student get kicked out this week for this.)
3) Falsify documentation
4) HIPAA violations (They usually lose one every couple of terms at the school I'm teaching for.)
5) Not pay your tuition
6) Cause a scene at a clinical site
7) Threaten physical harm to anyone, ever
8) Get a DUI in school
9) Commit a felony
10) Post your patient's info on Facebook (Yes, seriously.)
11) Post rants about your school
12) Post rants about the teacher who was going to offer you help to get that one last point that was going to make all the difference
13) Commit a med error in clinical that leads to a sentinel event
14) Try to get through clinical without learning how to take VS or do an assessment
15) Turn in incomplete care plans
16) Try to hide your lack of knowledge on your care plan with illegible handwriting
17) Show up to clinical drunk or high
18) Do drugs, period
19) Divert narcs at clinical
20) Disregard written orders and do dressing changes the way your family member, the WOC nurse, does
21) Pick a med up off the floor and give it to a patient
22) Drop a patient
23) Plagiarize your papers and projects
24) TP the nursing school at Halloween
25) Play practical jokes at clinical
26) Pull the fire alarm unless there's an actual fire
27) Stick your patient's appendages together with butt tube glue and remove the skin when you try to fix what you just did
28) Redneck rig any tubing that you can't find a connector for, in case you're putting the feeding tube into the central line access
29) Forget to check your patient's allergies and insert a latex foley in a latex-allergic patient
And the biggest one of all: DON'T kill your patient.
Constructive criticism can definitely sound like something really negative if you have the wrong attitude. I just always remember that without making mistakes, AND without people pointing out my mistakes, I wouldn't learn much!
They were pretty hard on students in our first semester, but it loosened up after that. One strike = fail, and those reasons included being late, being there early but not being where you were supposed to be at start time, forgetting one requirement for uniform (watch, stethoscope, etc). They weren't the only offenders, but they were the ones that got caught. Others were lost that first semester from grades, and grades has been the primary reason since then. Though a couple of people later were almost failed over being late for an exam.
Some instructors are going to be more reasonable than others, and sometimes someone can just get on an instructor's bad side without feeling like they did much. Maybe that student reminds them of someone they didn't like, maybe they got off on the wrong foot. Instructors should check biases at the door, but they're human, they make mistakes.
Best you can do is be as prepared and professional as possible to minimize incidents. I know in my intro psych class we talked about the power of first impressions and I believe in that. If you run into problems, seek out help early instead of waiting before it's possibly too late. And beyond that? Nursing students have enough to worry about without stressing over things that might never happen.
They were pretty hard on students in our first semester, but it loosened up after that. One strike = fail, and those reasons included being late, being there early but not being where you were supposed to be at start time, forgetting one requirement for uniform (watch, stethoscope, etc). They weren't the only offenders, but they were the ones that got caught. Others were lost that first semester from grades, and grades has been the primary reason since then. Though a couple of people later were almost failed over being late for an exam.
Some instructors are going to be more reasonable than others, and sometimes someone can just get on an instructor's bad side without feeling like they did much. Maybe that student reminds them of someone they didn't like, maybe they got off on the wrong foot. Instructors should check biases at the door, but they're human, they make mistakes.
Best you can do is be as prepared and professional as possible to minimize incidents. I know in my intro psych class we talked about the power of first impressions and I believe in that. If you run into problems, seek out help early instead of waiting before it's possibly too late. And beyond that? Nursing students have enough to worry about without stressing over things that might never happen.
Thanks for your insight :) I'm terrified for failing the tests. I am a very hard worker, but definitely no genius I'm so scared!!! I guess all I can do it try my hardest not to fail out... Although I suppose you're right, I can't stress out over things that haven't even happened yet :)
The rest of those things I think are avoidable for me :)
happyinmyheart
493 Posts
Thanks to everyone for answering. I will definitely keep all these things in mind when I start Nursing School :)