I go to a private ASN school that sort of recycles its instructors (you have most instructors twice.) I had a seriously BAD experience with a clinical instructor I have had as a teacher in another semester. I never had a problem with her before, she complimented me and I even received the highest scores in her previous class.
Well, the other day, I was at a clinical site and I'm no stranger to clinical rotation! I have done WELL every semester. So this instructor, we'll call her Sara (because Dear God, I'm even terrified that she might read this BOARD!!) hands me my assignment and like usual, I go about my normal routine. After about 15 minutes, she is breathing down my neck and yelling at me that I'm not finished with this and that and the other. I've only been on the floor for 15 minutes and I have more than one patient (by the way, I did prioritize and started with the patient who was the biggest concern). She's yelling about my documentation because I didn't do it the way SHE does it. She's making me NERVOUS while I'm signing off on the MAR because she thinks I should hurry up. She has only TWO students on the floor: another girl and me. But she is following my every step and telling me I'm doing stupid things wrong like the order I'm making the patient's BED!
But it gets worse...a medication error is made. For one, I don't have access to the medications. For two, Sara got them and handed them to me. And for three, Sara didn't allow me to check them against the MAR before administering the medication--she said "HURRY UP!!" when I attempted to grab the MAR to look. So, while I should have refused to give the medication without checking, I was terrified Sara was going to fail me (she has failed other students for less). So I gave it. It was double the DAILY amount the patient should have received. Another nurse (we'll call her Kate) caught the error because Kate saw that I had not signed off on another med (Sara took two of the same medication tabs instead of one tablet of each medication.) I read the back of the package and signed off on what was handed to me. When Kate was talking to me she said, "Didn't Sara hand you the ____ and the ____?" I said "No. Sara handed me two tabs of ____." Sara heard me talking to her and put it all together.
She pulled me into the back area and screamed at me that it was my fault for not checking the MAR when she wouldn't let me!!! Then to cover her you-know-what she gives the patient the dose of the missed medication. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue, except that the double dose of other medication with a normal dose of the missed medication could cause HUGE problems. Then she says "IN THE REAL WORLD, we would have to write an incident report." DUH! Clinical IS the real world!! My patient is a living human being!
I'm terrified about having to go to clinical next week to deal with crazy woman. I can't go to the director of my nursing program because back when I was in her class, she locked a friend of mine in classroom when everyone else had left and screamed at her until she cried. Then she told my friend, "If you talk to ____ it WILL get back to me." More or less, she has threatened reprisal. One girl I know went to tell the director today that she clocked in at the clinical site while she was teaching because she works at the clinical site. I'm counting down the days, but I'm afraid I'm going to fail and I can't talk to anyone about it at my school. I don't know what to do. I'm afraid to ask this woman any questions for fear she will start her routine of treating me like crap. I just don't know what to do.
