So, according to the clinical syllabus, our first care plan is due Oct 31st. (Next Friday...) However, in clinical last week, my instructor said that we CAN hand it in Oct 24th (Today) if we choose to. So I decided I had a lot of other things to do, so I'll hand it in on the due date.
Everyone else handed their careplan in today, because they "wanted to get it over with"...
I get home from clinical today, and have a voicemail on my phone from my instructor saying that she doesnt have my careplan and that if I dont hand it in, she'll have to fail me for the course.
SO I call her back and say the due date is Oct 31st, and everyone else handed it in early to get it out of the way. She is normally a nice woman who I have loved up until this point, but she had an attitude with me. Basically threatening to fail me if I dont email her my careplan tonight, or tomorrow AM at the latest. When I told her that on the SYLLABUS it says Oct 31st, she was like What paper is that?..... Uhh, the one you gave to us one the first day that has all the dates of when everything is due!!:angryfire
Strangely enough, she did not believe me. And said that she told everyone that it was due on Oct 24th, and that she repeated herself several times, and that I must not have been listening bc I didnt hand mine in. She didnt even think about the syllabus, apparently I was lying about it... according to her. I also told her that Oct 24th (according to the nonexistant syllabus) was when she was supposed to hand back Part 1 (5 priority nursing dx), which would help us DO part 2 (The careplan...) WHICH IS DUE OCT 31st. I never recieved my part 1 back, btw.... I could barely get my words out to her bc I was starting to choke up.
So I spent 4 hours (1.5 hours consisted of bawling my eyes out. The rest of the time I did the careplan..) And called up another clinical student and asked her WHEN the careplan was supposed to be due, and she said "Oct 31st, everyone just handed it in early"...
!!!!!! MY CLINICAL INSTRUCTOR DOES NOT BELIEVE ME, WILL NOT EVEN HEAR ME AND REQUIRED THAT I EMAIL IT TO HER TONIGHT BC ITS "LATE" WHEN IN ACTUALITY ITS FRIGGEN EARLY!!
I am beyond agitated right now. The syllabus is what ALL the nursing students follow, not created by her but created by the nursing department/professors. IMO, she has no say over when things/arent due... Thats what the syllabus is for. Even if in her mind she did change the due date (SHE DIDNT!!) is that even possible? What if she said "I fail you bc you didnt hand it on Oct 24th"--meanwhile, the due date is the 31st, what that be legit? Would I actually fail?
I cant wait to go to class, and talk to all the other students and hear them all say "Nope the due date was the 31st". I cant wait till next clinical day, when I show her the syllabus and hopefully have everyone else say "The careplan wasnt due until today"...
Ask yourself: is this the incident I am willing to stake my nursing career on, if I get into a tiff with this instructor? Probably not. So you suck your breath in, grit your teeth, vent and curse to your family and friends and you do it. You email it with a note that reads like this:
"Dear Professor Butthead [well, you just SAY the Butthead part to yourself],
I am attaching my care plan for your review, as we discussed. I am so sorry that there was a misunderstanding. Somehow, when I heard you say we can hand in the care plans on the 24th, I looked at my syllabus due date of October 31 and interpreted what you said to mean that you would accept them early if students wanted to do that. Obviously, I misinterpreted what you said. In the future, I will double-check due dates so that there is no misunderstanding. Please accept my apologies.
I am now off to go down to the batting cage and pretend you are a baseball.
Love and kisses,"
Just kidding about the baseball part; you can think that part, too. :)
Unless she gives you a failing grade or does more last-minute due date switcheroos in the future, your mental health will be better served by letting it go. I know how hard that is. When you're right, you hate to grovel! Or at least I do. But most likely, it isn't worth getting into an argument with her and then be designated a "troublemaker".
At least she called you to tell you it was late, and she didn't just give you an "F". (Trying to put a positive spin on this!)
Hopefully, by now you are exhaling and inhaling at a more natural pace.
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
Why is it my failure? If everyone else is saying "No its not due till the 31st", everyone else believes that they are handing it in early. They could have just as easily done the same thing, because our instructor was not clear if her intentions truly were to change the due date. The things I heard corresponded to the due date being the 31st, and there was no conflict or confusion. If I even heard ONE person say "Its due this friday", I would have jumped all over that. Not one person said that. I am going to confirm this in class, of course, when I speak to them again. I dont think I failed to act when I had no evidence to believe she changed the due date.
Because the minute you were aware of conflict you had a duty to clarify it. That is what it means to be responsible and a leader. That's what you are signing on for as an RN. Responsibility and leadership. The buck stops with you. Wait until you see what is in store for you on the job. This is a piddly problem next to what you face as a fully licensed and working RN.
Because the minute you were aware of conflict you had a duty to clarify it. That is what it means to be responsible and a leader. That's what you are signing on for as an RN. Responsibility and leadership. The buck stops with you. Wait until you see what is in store for you on the job. This is a piddly problem next to what you face as a fully licensed and working RN.
There was no conflict until she called me and said "Wheres your careplan?" There had been no signs that she wasnt following the syllabus. So apparently if this happened, I cannot be a functional & competent RN?
I think there are things on the syllabus subject to change. Theyve postponed my exams twice already. I never thought of it as a legal contract, since you really cant get around the presidential debate closing campus.
Did anyone record the class lectures? I would try and get a tape of that. Take it as a learning lesson thats all, and show her from this point forward that any preconceived notions she has of you (from now on) are way off. You are a dedicated student, just show her.
Its a clinical group, theres no lectures so no tape recorder either.
Ask yourself: is this the incident I am willing to stake my nursing career on, if I get into a tiff with this instructor? Probably not. So you suck your breath in, grit your teeth, vent and curse to your family and friends and you do it. You email it with a note that reads like this:
"Dear Professor Butthead [well, you just SAY the Butthead part to yourself],
I am attaching my care plan for your review, as we discussed. I am so sorry that there was a misunderstanding. Somehow, when I heard you say we can hand in the care plans on the 24th, I looked at my syllabus due date of October 31 and interpreted what you said to mean that you would accept them early if students wanted to do that. Obviously, I misinterpreted what you said. In the future, I will double-check due dates so that there is no misunderstanding. Please accept my apologies.
I am now off to go down to the batting cage and pretend you are a baseball.
Love and kisses,"
Just kidding about the baseball part; you can think that part, too. :)
Unless she gives you a failing grade or does more last-minute due date switcheroos in the future, your mental health will be better served by letting it go. I know how hard that is. When you're right, you hate to grovel! Or at least I do. But most likely, it isn't worth getting into an argument with her and then be designated a "troublemaker".
At least she called you to tell you it was late, and she didn't just give you an "F". (Trying to put a positive spin on this!)
Hopefully, by now you are exhaling and inhaling at a more natural pace.
That is more or less what I said in my message to her, minus the butthead & baseball comment. I certainly am not going to get in a tiff with her, I want to show her the syllabus and apologize again, I just dont want her to hate me now!
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
There was no conflict until she called me and said "Wheres your careplan?" There had been no signs that she wasnt following the syllabus. So apparently if this happened, I cannot be a functional & competent RN?
So, if this happens, you immediately take action and do something about it.
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
If I had known there was something to do, I would have.
Obviously I wont make a good nurse, so why am I wasting my time??
The "something to do" was to verify which information about the due date was correct. The best wasy to do that was go to the source of the original information, the originator of the due date. That is just using common sense.
If I had known there was something to do, I would have.
Obviously I wont make a good nurse, so why am I wasting my time??
I think you handled it just fine. Sometimes you can be right and still have to give in. I think you kept your dignity, but don't expect the instructor to give you an apology or admit she was wrong.
Don't dwell on it. It was a miscommunication, and it may have been your responsibility to follow up on it, just because it was your grade on the line. Even though you don't think you did anything wrong (and I would have to agree), just learn that it doesn't always matter whether it's your fault or not, and you HAVE to cover yourself! Just chalk this one up to a learning experience...
I recieved a response from her a few minutes ago.. She said that my careplan looks fine, that shes not sure how the miscommunication occured but that she's happy its resolved, and that she will see me on Friday. I can breathe now.
I am feeling better, because even though I knew she wasnt failing me, she doesnt sound aggrivated and I guess my careplan was okay! (I was worried it would suck because I was half crying and half typing...) I think thats all I really needed to hear from her.. Im still going to talk to her again & let her know that I am appreciative, and that I dont want her to think I am incompetent or that I dont take this seriously. I absolutely wholeheartedly do.
Im not wasting my time by trying to become a nurse as I mentioned in my above post. The reason I got so upset was because this is how badly I want to be a nurse and to hear the word "FAIL" and feel for a second that it might be possible..well, it ruined me for the better part of last night/today. I am not going to sit back and be the quiet observer anymore. Its good in some ways to be a sponge, but at other times, I need to just SPEAK UP! I am going to ask more questions. I am going to confirm everything. I cant allow the love I have for nursing to be stopped by my inability to take control. Regardless of when the darn thing was due (I dont even care about that this point!:uhoh21:), I should have had made it 200% clear.
Daytonite, thanks for being honest. I know that this conflict is irrelevant in the grand scheme of my nursing career, but of course it doesn't seem that way right now... I am going to take it as a learning experience, and be grateful that my instructor isnt ready to get rid of me. Its over & done with, she accepted my careplan, she doesnt hate me (I hope!), and I wont dwell on it anymore... I did that enough!
Its funny how throughout the program, you not only gain knowledge about nursing, but about yourself too...
Live & Learn. Thanks for all the wonderful responses! :redbeathe
MY CLINICAL INSTRUCTOR DOES NOT BELIEVE ME, WILL NOT EVEN HEAR ME AND REQUIRED THAT I EMAIL IT TO HER TONIGHT BC ITS "LATE" WHEN IN ACTUALITY ITS FRIGGEN EARLY!!
AtomicWoman
1,747 Posts
Ask yourself: is this the incident I am willing to stake my nursing career on, if I get into a tiff with this instructor? Probably not. So you suck your breath in, grit your teeth, vent and curse to your family and friends and you do it. You email it with a note that reads like this:
"Dear Professor Butthead [well, you just SAY the Butthead part to yourself],
I am attaching my care plan for your review, as we discussed. I am so sorry that there was a misunderstanding. Somehow, when I heard you say we can hand in the care plans on the 24th, I looked at my syllabus due date of October 31 and interpreted what you said to mean that you would accept them early if students wanted to do that. Obviously, I misinterpreted what you said. In the future, I will double-check due dates so that there is no misunderstanding. Please accept my apologies.
I am now off to go down to the batting cage and pretend you are a baseball.
Love and kisses,"
Just kidding about the baseball part; you can think that part, too. :)
Unless she gives you a failing grade or does more last-minute due date switcheroos in the future, your mental health will be better served by letting it go. I know how hard that is. When you're right, you hate to grovel! Or at least I do. But most likely, it isn't worth getting into an argument with her and then be designated a "troublemaker".
At least she called you to tell you it was late, and she didn't just give you an "F". (Trying to put a positive spin on this!)
Hopefully, by now you are exhaling and inhaling at a more natural pace.