I Have A Dilemma!

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This may seem like not that big of a deal but I would like to get some advice. My friend and I are in our first semester of nursing school. We have been through all of the hardships of getting accepted and so naturally we became partners in our assessment class. The problem is that she never likes to practice and I am the type of person that feels that practice makes perfect. She haven't been practicing and her skills are suffering. I have been practicing with other classmates and I am doing well. Should I ask the instructor to change my partner so I can do better or would that be wrong of me?

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If you're practicing with others and doing well, then why would you need to change partners? Not sure I get what the problem is. If she's a good friend, just keep reminding her that she needs to practice.

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Specializes in Pedi.

I don't understand the issue here and this far from something I would call a dilemma. If you're practicing and are doing well, her not practicing should not affect you. Being partners for assessment skills generally just means that you perform your assessment on her and she performs hers on you. If she does poorly, that has no effect on you.

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I am doing OK but I honestly feel I can do better with more practice with her. While practicing with others my time is limited because they are usually working with their partners. My problem is that during our class practice time we are not practicing most of the time spent is me trying to teach her and during returns she expect me to try and help her when the instructors aren't looking.

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I think you need to spell all this out for her. Give her a bit of a wake up call, since she is your friend. Going to the instructor should be a last resort, after you've tried everything possible to work it out yourself.

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Specializes in Pedi.

I doubt that the instructor is going to do anything either. I never had instructors assign partners for these kinds of things when I was in school. You said she was your friend and it seems like you chose to be partners. We're all adults in nursing school, address this with your friend.

If your partner won't practice and the others in the class are busy with their own partners, you can also practice assessment skills on absolutely anyone.

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.

Have you directly discussed this with your partner? I can promise you that will be your instructor's first question.

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