I received this email from a professor. I was a little shocked. Opinon?

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Greetings. I just received this email from a professor. I was blown away by the content. I found it unprofessional. I wanted to see what other nursings students had to say. Have you received similar emails before?

Hi NUR 150 Students!

First of all, I would like to thank the majority of students who took to heart the need to dress professionally at clinical this week. The faculty of NUR 150 appreciates your dedication to learning and professional behavior.

This email is aimed at the small number of students who were not in uniform at clinical this week. I wanted all students to read this email, because the unprofessional dress and lack of professional behavior reflects badly on all NUR 150 students. I do not want your clinical group referred to as: the nursing students with the one student whose uniform was so wrinkled it looked like they just rolled out of bed”; the nursing students with the one student with tons of earrings in their ear, it sure was not like that when I went to school”; did you see the fake nails, do they not teach infection control at that college, I am not sure about that clinical group doing anything on my patients”; or lastly WOW, what is with the tattoos that student had, I sure do not want them to be a RN on our floor, my patients would be shocked!”

Your first impression is often what you will be judged by for the whole clinical rotation and nursing school career. Being in a clinical group with students who do not follow the dress code and professional policy, does reflect back on you. Every day you wear your uniform you are on a job interview. You represent every nursing student at the college. Your dismissal of the uniform policy and/or professional behavior standards is a direct reflection on every student, faculty member, and alumni of the college.

I know that the uniform policy has been taught and enforced previously. I know students are sometimes counseled in their weekly feedback about how to properly follow the professional standards. I am also very disappointed about the dismissal of the policy, since this was discussed in the NUR 150 course and clinical orientation on Monday. I stated the faculty knows that you are able to effectively follow the professional standards and uniform dress code, since you have completed NUR 121. I clearly stated that student who are not in uniform will be sent home for being unprepared. I fully believed that this would be a non-issue, since you are all adult learners.

Next clinical day at the beginning of your clinical day, you will line up and your professor will inspect your appearance to ensure that you are fully following the dress code. Students who are not in their proper uniform in accordance with the policy will be sent home. This will count as a clinical absence. No exceptions or excuses will be entertained by the faculty. Dress code policy from the ADN program handbook has been added to the end of this email for your convenience.

Again, I would like to apologize the large number of students who were following the uniform policy this week. The college faculty thanks you and is proud of you.

Thank you,

Specializes in ICU / PCU / Telemetry / Oncology.

I totally agree with this email. If you cant follow simple rules such as a dress code for clinicals, you deserve to be sent home. Don't people realize how many rejected and compliant students would kill puppies to have been in their place?

The only thing I have issue with this email is the fact that it was sent to the whole class. It kind of stings to have to read this kind of blanket spanking as a student who is compliant with the rules. I agree that violators should be singled out and punished separately.

As someone who works with with students and instructors frequently- We don't notice how crisp and fresh your uniform is. If you're willing to learn and helpful- we remember that.

While it's important to appear professional, I think this email is a little much.

Specializes in MICU.

The only thing that I can see unprofessional is posting a professor-students email for the world to read!!!!!

This is unprofessional to the highest core.

Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.

Given that you have another degree/profession, I'm going to guess that you are a "non-traditional" (read: older) student. I was, too, and I was shocked at how college had changed in 25 years.

Education, even higher education, is often spoon-fed to students in this day and age. Have you noticed how instructors provide PowerPoint presentations before lecture, so students don't even have to take notes in class anymore? This email is just another example of that.

By pointing out explicit examples of the types of infractions that occurred as well as the reactions that these infractions elicit in a professional nursing setting, the instructor was spoon-feeding the entire class the information. While it does seem ridiculous that instructors have to spoon-feed everything to adult learners in a secondary education setting in the first place, the fact remains that this is the face of education in this country at this point in time.

Without the examples/quotes, students will think that the email doesn't pertain to them. Many people literally cannot see that having artificial nails is an infection control problem and a violation of the dress code unless you spell it out for them.

If the dress code were attached to an email that said, "Final warning, all violations of dress code will result in dismissal from clinical, copy of dress code attached!" you'd end up with 98% of the class not bothering to even read the attachment out of laziness / lack of commitment. Face it -- anyone lackadaisical enough to show up to clinical without conforming to the dress code is not going to be professional enough to click on an attachment that they know they've already read.

And as has already been pointed out by a PP, by sending the message to the entire class, including the ones who were in compliance, the instructor was being proactive in avoiding claims of both harassment and favoritism down the line. It's not harassment if the message was sent to the entire cohort. Likewise, if Jane gets sent home next week for having artificial nails, she can't accuse the instructor of favoritism "because Mary had fake nails last week and she didn't get sent home -- you like her and you hate me and it's not fair!!!!!!!" Because the email was sent to the entire class, the instructor can say, "Yes, there were some people not in compliance last week and that was addressed with them individually; additionally, an email was sent out to the entire group clarifying our expectations, so that everyone would understand that the infractions of last week would not be tolerated in the future."

Finally, before flinging around accusations of unprofessional emails, you may want to check your own house first. You have a typo in the subject line of this thread (opinon), plus another one in the body of your first post (nursings), plus there are several other posts where you did not capitalize the first word of a sentence. If you want to judge people, it's best to start with yourself.

(Note: I normally wouldn't point out typos/bad grammar/misspellings, however given the fact that this entire thread is about writing professionally and properly -- and judging how others perform in that regard -- I figured that my last paragraph was germane to the discussion. Hopefully the mods will understand my intent and realize that this is not my modus operandi.)

Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

Personally I find nothing out of line with that message. The students that are affected by it should be thankful for the warning that there will be harsh consequences for not following the policy going forward.

If this email "shocked" the OP and little things shake the OP up (can't recall how the OP worded it) then nursing school is going to extra long and the real world of nursing is going to be a short lived career for the OP. :yes:

Email ? Reminder to follow the dress code ? THAT is comical and a bit much. We were given the dress code in writing day one and if we showed up to class or clinical out of compliance we went home. We had ONE girl go home ONCE for wearing keds instead of duty shoes. All of this prickly coddling comes from an everyone gets a trophy for showing up alive mentality. I personally believe it is also a by product of the transition from "student" to "customer". I heard a student tell her instructor that she disagreed with her clinical grade and since she was paying her money she would contact the dean. She wasn't the least bit respectful. Things have changed and not for the better. I guess if I was paying 30k for my LPN I might be a whiny slacker too.

Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.

There is nothing wrong with the email. There is a uniform policy in place for a reason. If you violate it then you must face the consequences.

Are you the one with the wrinkled uniform, fake nails or visible tattoos? Is that why it bothers you so much?

Specializes in Nsg. Ed, Infusion, Pediatrics, LTC.

In my honest opinion, your professor was being extremely kind in sending out that email. My students know and expect to be lined up and inspected. They're also very well aware that they will be sent home if they are found to not follow the school's written policy that they signed as a contract.

As for your sensitivity over imaginary quotes and the professor's so called "unprofessional behavior", I think you need to get over it.

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses

It was professional. The hypothetical comments are most likely realistic as the professor has probably seen it happen before.

Do you by any chance go to Broward College?

Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.

I think it's AWESOME! I wish some of my clinical instructors had done this. There was ALWAYS a couple in the group "well I KNOW it says we're not supposed to have facial piercings, but they didn't say anything right to me, so I'm leaving it in" or "do you know what time I have to get up to be here? Ironing my pants is just not going to happen".

If you have people that act like babies, then they are going to get treated like babies. I hope this email goes viral! It's not just students that need to dress a little more professionally either. SO tired of looking at "chewed" up hemlines because nurses won't hem their stinkin' pants!!!

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