I got placed on clinical probation today. sob sob

SoulShine75 · Oct 13, 2004

I have to agree...try to turn your negative experience into a positive learning experience. You need to stop wondering why and start improving your skills now so that you can prove to your instructor and yourself that you can do it. Don't give up, EVERYONE makes mistakes. You'll do better next time and remember...if you're ever in doubt, always, always ask!

Good luck to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bluesky, BSN, RN · Oct 13, 2004

I certainly don't mean to rub salt in your wounds, so to speak, but what you did *is* kind of a big deal. I don't think her choosing that for which to put you on probation was "just an excuse."
Was she aware that you turned *off* the NG tube? Under whose authorization was the tube turned off? Why would you need to turn it off for a bed bath anyway?
I also think you're going about the situation with the wrong attitude. You're taking it personally, and deflecting the responsibility by saying "Well, she must just not like me." How about reflecting on what happened and figure out where your responsibility lies, and what you can do differently next time? I think that would be a bit more productive.

Actually, what she did was completely right, my friend. You turn off the feedings so your patient WON'T ASPIRATE when you lower the head to do the bath. IT IS DANGEROUS NOT TO! Now if you left the pt supine when you turned the tube feedings back on that probably was a little mistake but honestly one that plenty of students before and after you have made. Did anything happen to the pt?

To the OP; it sounds like your instructor isn't a very kind person. Use this experience to show everyone how dedicated you are to being the best nurse ever... give them heck!

klone, MSN, RN · Oct 13, 2004

Actually, what she did was completely right, my friend. You turn off the feedings so your patient WON'T ASPIRATE when you lower the head to do the bath. IT IS DANGEROUS NOT TO!

Like I said, which is why I don't lower the head when I do a bed bath.

Purple Princess · Oct 14, 2004

I am a CNA and am quite familiar with feeding pumps working in a nursing home. We were always told to put the pump on hold first, then unhook the tube and then lower the head of the bed to do what was necessary. I would have to do this quite frequently to change someone's attends and do peri care. The only problem is it last 5 minutes which is usually long enough to get this done. Sometimes we didn't unhook the tube and if we needed more time we just flicked it back to running for less than a second then it was on hold again. But this may be incorrect as well. I'm all too aware of the risk for aspiration as it was common among alzheimer's patients who didn't even have a feeding tube. It's scary being a student nurse let me tell you. I had been in an RN program but didn't make it due to lack of experience and now am working my way up from cna and home health aide into an lpn program later and rn one of these days. If it's in a hospital always ask the procedure and also talk to your nurse instructor about those ng tubes.

sad · Oct 14, 2004

Actually, what she did was completely right, my friend. You turn off the feedings so your patient WON'T ASPIRATE when you lower the head to do the bath. IT IS DANGEROUS NOT TO! Now if you left the pt supine when you turned the tube feedings back on that probably was a little mistake but honestly one that plenty of students before and after you have made. Did anything happen to the pt?
To the OP; it sounds like your instructor isn't a very kind person. Use this experience to show everyone how dedicated you are to being the best nurse ever... give them heck!

The patient has aspiration/swallowing problems and his head of the bed needs to be up 30 degress at all times. Nothing happened to the patient. The instructor came up to me and said something like a person died before when a person turned on a feeding machine. The food got into their lungs or something like that. She said that she told the class that at clincial orientation which was 5 weeks ago. I do remember vaguely about it but it did not stick into my mind. Anyway, most of my other classmates turn it on by themselves. Today was also a clinical day, I know that she wrote the lists of improvements that I have to do like knowing how to do some nursing skills without constant supervision. Anyway, I was giving oral care to the same patient that I got into trouble with and she was like supervising me all the way to make her point that I needed improvement and supervising and I could not work alone. The thing about it, is that giving oral care is so friggen easy and I know I know how to do it by myself. Like I was suctioning the patient's mouth with a suction and then I dipped it into a cup of water to wash it off. She asked me, did I put it in the cup of water to wash it off? Of course I did. She was there. There was also other cases today that she constantly supervised me to do some simple stuff that I could do alone.

:crying2:

She even got me on washing my hands, and not using a towel to close the handle. I think I am screwed. I do not know what is going to happen to me. That is why the probation is there also, she thinks I need one to one supervision on doing nursing skills. But I do not. I am just new and sometimes, when I am unfamiliar with things, I need time to learn.

:crying2:

I do not know what is going to happen.

:crying2:

How many times have you washed your hands in clinical without using a towel to close the handle?

:crying2:

Purple Princess · Oct 14, 2004

it seems to me that this teacher is really testing you! do you think you gave her any reason not to trust you? I know it can be very frustrating in clinical and sometimes the staff can be mean too. but does she watch the other students like a hawk? that oral care thing would probably drive me over the edge. why are the other students allowed to turn off or on the pumps themselves and you aren't? I remember I had a lot of troubles in the RN program and eventually was forced into withdrawing. I would probably sign up for free lab period if they have that to " brush up" and talk with the lab teacher. I remember I had trouble with so many things from blood pressure, therapeutic communication, time management, everything. I just wasn't ready. I'm now a CNA and while I'm still learning I think that I'm better prepared for LPN school. The problem with nursing school is they don't always tell you eveything yet expect you to know what to do in a snap. ex. troubleshooting medical equipment! While being a CNA is good for general nursing exposure it doesn't always show you just what it is to be a nurse. Then again I've seen nurses change diapers too but not very often!

The patient has aspiration/swallowing problems and his head of the bed needs to be up 30 degress at all times. Nothing happened to the patient. The instructor came up to me and said something like a person died before when a person turned on a feeding machine. The food got into their lungs or something like that. She said that she told the class that at clincial orientation which was 5 weeks ago. I do remember vaguely about it but it did not stick into my mind. Anyway, most of my other classmates turn it on by themselves. Today was also a clinical day, I know that she wrote the lists of improvements that I have to do like knowing how to do some nursing skills without constant supervision. Anyway, I was giving oral care to the same patient that I got into trouble with and she was like supervising me all the way to make her point that I needed improvement and supervising and I could not work alone. The thing about it, is that giving oral care is so friggen easy and I know I know how to do it by myself. Like I was suctioning the patient's mouth with a suction and then I dipped it into a cup of water to wash it off. She asked me, did I put it in the cup of water to wash it off? Of course I did. She was there. There was also other cases today that she constantly supervised me to do some simple stuff that I could do alone. :crying2: She even got me on washing my hands, and not using a towel to close the handle. I think I am screwed. I do not know what is going to happen to me. That is why the probation is there also, she thinks I need one to one supervision on doing nursing skills. But I do not. I am just new and sometimes, when I am unfamiliar with things, I need time to learn. :crying2: I do not know what is going to happen. :crying2: How many times have you washed your hands in clinical without using a towel to close the handle? :crying2:

bluesky, BSN, RN · Oct 14, 2004

Like I said, which is why I don't lower the head when I do a bed bath.

Most people roll their pts to clean the back/sacral area, check for decubes and listen to basilar lung sounds and then reposition. You can't do that with the head up. I work with the sickest of the sick in our surgical ICU and lowering the bed to gain access to the back is STANDARD.

bluesky, BSN, RN · Oct 14, 2004

The patient has aspiration/swallowing problems and his head of the bed needs to be up 30 degress at all times. Nothing happened to the patient. The instructor came up to me and said something like a person died before when a person turned on a feeding machine. The food got into their lungs or something like that. She said that she told the class that at clincial orientation which was 5 weeks ago. I do remember vaguely about it but it did not stick into my mind. Anyway, most of my other classmates turn it on by themselves. Today was also a clinical day, I know that she wrote the lists of improvements that I have to do like knowing how to do some nursing skills without constant supervision. Anyway, I was giving oral care to the same patient that I got into trouble with and she was like supervising me all the way to make her point that I needed improvement and supervising and I could not work alone. The thing about it, is that giving oral care is so friggen easy and I know I know how to do it by myself. Like I was suctioning the patient's mouth with a suction and then I dipped it into a cup of water to wash it off. She asked me, did I put it in the cup of water to wash it off? Of course I did. She was there. There was also other cases today that she constantly supervised me to do some simple stuff that I could do alone. :crying2: She even got me on washing my hands, and not using a towel to close the handle. I think I am screwed. I do not know what is going to happen to me. That is why the probation is there also, she thinks I need one to one supervision on doing nursing skills. But I do not. I am just new and sometimes, when I am unfamiliar with things, I need time to learn. :crying2: I do not know what is going to happen. :crying2: How many times have you washed your hands in clinical without using a towel to close the handle? :crying2:

Clearly this woman is giving you a hard time Think about it this way. First of all, you are decent human being who doesn't deserve to be humiliated like that. Unless the administration has contacted you, you will still be in nursing school next year and she won't be your instructor. At least she's teaching you strong nursing skills ... so just learn what you can, try not to get too hurt by what she is doing. In the end, she is trying to help you become a better nurse, even though she's doing it the wrong way IMO. The problem is, that if that pt did have a history of aspirating, and you started the tube feeds with the pt still supine, she could have aspirated. On the one hand, that was a mistake that could have hurt the pt ( but it didn't). On the other hand, how do you think they found out she aspirates??? Clearly other nurses had to give her P.O. feedings or meds and cause her to.

Jo Dirt · Oct 14, 2004

Thanks for the encouragement. For some reason, I did not put up an argument on why she put me on prabation for a rookie's mistake. Geez, it is going to be hard now. Everything has to be done perfectly without error. That will be a very hard battle.
I was not hostile to the instructor. If she wanted to put me on probation and end my future career goal, it was up to her. :crying2: I would have problems anyway in the future clinicals if she seen me as incompetent. But maybe, she does not like me or it is my personality that she does not like and that is why she done it. If it was that, that would be super bad... :crying2:

The worst thing you could have done with your instructor is put up an argument. If I were in your situation I would personally check with the instructor EVERYDAY to seek feedback and further suggestions as to how I can improve. When she says jump I would ask how high? This isn't the time to worry about pride, right now I am trying to get through school.

When I was in LPN school the ones who ended up getting thrown out were the "smart" ones who challenged the teachers or thought they would slouch around or do things "their" way. And of course when they got thrown out it wasn't their fault, and they would complain to anyone who would listen about how the teacher had it in for them for some reason or another. Well, I just have to say, 99.9% of the time I don't believe that is ever the case. You will do as well as you want to do.

Good luck!

Imafloat, BSN, RN · Oct 15, 2004

Maybe, she knew that I needed improvement and had to pick something from me that I did wrong so she can list the improvements that I need done. I think my problems is writing a care plan with nursing interventions. Geez, I feel bad but under the circumstances that I was in, I did my best. Maybe I will be a goner soon since another instructor will evaluate my list of improvements that I need to make. :crying2: :crying2:

I am sorry to hear this. It amazes me that you are doing all of that in the first 3 weeks of school, I would make a ton of mistakes if I was doing all that right out of the gate. I am sure you will be fine, you know what you have to do and I know you can do it. We are here for you.

hypnotic_nurse · Oct 15, 2004

My instructor for clinicals in my third semester was like this (luckily not my first semester). I could do nothing right and she was always hounding me, which was so stressful that I could barely manage to get through the clinical day (even the other students on this rotation thought she had some personal agenda...and the school did not renew her contract to teach after that semester). Every other instructor I had was pleased with my work, and on one rotation I was the "outstanding" student.

Stick it out as best you can through this. If you have a skills lab, spend some extra time there if you can. Anything you can do to help your self esteem though this will make your other rotations so much easier.

rainbow · Oct 15, 2004

I had an instructor that seemed to single me out also. No matter what procedure I did, it was never quite good enough. I later learned that she not only had medical problems, but her mental stability wasn't very good either. I tended to discount the attacks on my performance, but I did listen to her recommendations for my improvement. I didn't know if I would make it through the program or not. Study hard and review your procedures. Try to always be prepared and hang in there.:)

I got placed on clinical probation today. *sob* *sob*

I got placed on clinical probation today. sob sob