I have an Unhelpful instructor

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I already know that nursing school is a lot of work (before anyone wants to preach to me about something I already know) but my instructor is extremely unhelpful. You can tell she's ready to be done teaching. She's an older woman. I think she's in pain everyday because she walks with a cane and is always talking about how tired she is and that she's "too lazy" to make any supplemental work for us. When she says that she acts like she's helping us with not providing extra work but it's actually hurting us! 1. We have a HORRIBLE book 2. We aren't provided with power points or study guides or anything to help us follow what we are learning. 3. She goes right along with the book when she lectures 4. She takes DAYS to answer any emails 5. If you ask any questions she makes you feel like you're stupid for not knowing. 6. Questions on the exams don't go along with the reading. There are questions that do pertain to the reading but a lot of them aren't and the whole class gets really confused where she's getting her information from. From what I heard is that there are 3 other instructors that are teaching the same term and they all give the same exam. It just seems like our instructor isn't giving us all the information or material to study like the other instructors are and it's really hurting my grade. The other students in class agree.... We have everything on ebooks and I'm just trying to get some study tips from some book learners out there. Any tips would be appreciated!! Thanks!

One of the issues I wonder that may be giving you problems is answering NCLEX style questions. There are many students in my cohort last semester that really struggled with that, and some even this semester. You mentioned that you did well in your A&P classes which overall is a lot of memorization and being able to regurgitate the information. If this is your first semester of your nursing program I am guessing that you are taking Fundamentals of nursing. There are some questions that are simply repeating back the information, however you start getting introduced to application type questions, something that is new to many people when they start their nursing classes. Few tips I would give is practice doing as many NCLEX style questions that you can, older editions of NCLEX review books are available on Amazon for very little money, one edition back from the current will work. There is also the success series books that people have found to be helpful, Fundamentals for Success was actually part of the required package for my program. Again you can get the edition back from the newest, the questions are pretty much the same as in the current edition. Khan academy also has a lot of helpful information available, NCLEX style questions, videos and written review information. Another thing I would suggest, which helped a fellow classmate last semester is if the tests are given to you in paper format, and you are allowed to mark on the exam paper, underline the important information in the question. This tends to help in making the test taker to slow down a little and helps with focusing on what the question is really asking. For select all that apply (SATA) questions the bane of all nursing students a helpful piece of advice that one of my instructors gave us, is to take each possible answer and turn it into a true or false for the question. Good luck.

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Stephy

Having gone to nursing school a few years back I believe I know your pain as I too had one instructor that was close to retirement and was not up to teaching as I am sure she once had been. She was in a great deal of pain and it was apparent that it affected her greatly. Like you her class/lecture did not accompany the test and it was very difficult to pass any of her test. I do not know how your nursing program works but my program had certain instructors teaching certain subjects. Like the instructor that I had taught Med Surg and Psych so what a lot of the students did was get other books some of the best ones that I got were a series of books called Med/Surg for dummies, its a very easy to read format and I will say once I got those book and could use them along with the notes I had for class I was able to do better on her test. Also, we used NCLEX study books because we found that MANY of the instructors used those books to obtain test questions from along with the fact that they begin to guide you into the correct line of thinking for taking your NCLEX as well as help with teaching during school. Nursing school is tough but hang in there and just take one day at a time and we will make it. Good luck,

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Yes! Exactly! I just need a new different approach of learning and studying. I like all of the suggestions so far! I just talked to my mentor and we are meeting after spring break to help tutor. I also went to the bookstore and bought a study guide book to see if there's different approaches I can take in there. Thank you for your reply! [emoji4]

I agree 100% with HouTx and here's a good youtube RN who can help you along.

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Don't come to this site for encouragement. I also have a horrible professor who is straight out racist. He gets a pass on this site because he's Chinese. I thought this would be a great place to vent my feelings but you will encounter many nay-Sayers here. Just use it for tips. Save the stories for family/friends.

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If you ever want to talk feel free to contact me. I'm going through similar experiences. My professor is not only racist but belittles and yells at us for not understanding concepts or his favorite, asking to repeat something. I once raised my hand and asked him to repeat something and he mocked me for it. He said, oh you have a question? You want me to repeat myself? You can't understand the first time? ...:then he repeated what i asked him and said, have you gotten the concept now? Do finally get it? Great I'm so happy for you.

I felt so so angry and wanted to punch him. He's won because I never raise my hand ever anymore. I only have a month and a half left and I'll never have to see his wimpy face again. I honestly think he was picked on as a kid or something, and now he has this power complex.

I wrote quite a lengthy prof evaluation on him. I hope he's fired. No one should have to deal with this racist jerk. I pay to go to school and learn about my profession, not to hear him say how he thinks Asians are genetically smarter. He makes Chinese people look really bad.

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Specializes in Nursing Ed, Med Errors.

I'm sorry you're having a hard time. As a nursing instructor, I do expect students to show the ability to read and learn accordingly, because that's a requirement for ongoing competency in the profession. However, you need a great deal of support as you work. I would approach this instructor with your listed concerns, then go over her head if you don't get satisfaction. Good luck to you. I will be here if you have questions.

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Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.

Whoa. Way to slam your ____ in the door. NOONE was being rude to you! Can't wait to read from here on though, because I'm pretty sure it's going to get quite interesting after your bonehead comment!

The ONLY reason I brought up the book was because since she ONLY teaches straight from the text it's not helping having an awful book on top of an awful instructor. I think I was pretty thorough and clear in my post so I'm not too sure why you're having a problem with "finding the issue" lol I made sure to explain the whole situation. I really don't understand the need for people to be unnecessarily rude for no damn reason. I'm complaining? YEAH because I'm trying to take my nursing career seriously and this lady is not doing anything to guide us or TEACH us. It's already hard transitioning into your first semester of the program let alone this. Out of all of my pre nursing classes I have NEVER had an instructor like this.

Also, people have brought it up numerous times that they are having a hard time understanding the text and need more clarity. She flat out doesn't care. She jokes around about how lazy she is and how she doesn't "feel" like doing anything extra. I'm not the only one who feels this way.

I feel like this site is for encouragement and you are straight up rude. If you can't offer the encouragement or help then don't comment. Thanks!

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Specializes in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.

I understand this predicament all too well. However, what I did to try and make my situation a little better was to use the supplemental materials that come with our ebook bundle. If you're using Evolve/Elsevier, there are free supplements that go with the books that include pre-chapter and post-chapter tests and chapter summaries. I've been using this to deal with a bad instructor and a fairly unreadable text book and it completely changed things around for me on the last test.

As others have said, though, it sounds like you all need to speak up to this instructor and let her know you guys are standing united and you all have the same problem. Maybe she'll work with you, maybe not. Our instructor has attempted (in the loosest sense of the word) to work with us and it has slightly helped but people are still really struggling. Just try and do what you can.

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Specializes in Critical care.

OP you never mention what class you are having trouble with- that can impact suggestions for resources. I saw you mention auditory learning. Check out the website simplenursing.com. You have to pay for a subscription, but can get some videos free on YouTube. It might be worth it for you. Sometimes hearing things explained in a different way can help them stick. I would even listen to videos while cooking and doing other chores after studying the material on my own.

I'm sure a lot of people could share stories of not so great instructors. I had one I didn't particularly like. She wasn't very good at public speaking and everything few words was followed by an "um" which was so distracting to me. I found the less I paid attention to her in lecture and read the textbook, the higher my grade went. I also used other study resources, the Davis Success series is a really great resource for practice questions. I went from failing the first quiz to having an A by the end of the course. I even scored a 99.99% on that subject's HESI (really shocked myself there). It is possible to succeed even with an instructor you think is subpar. My instructor was not the course chair and didn't make the exams. My instructor would even get the practice questions wrong in class (then try to quickly pass over them when we wanted to discuss them and figure out the reasoning for the correct answer) that the course chair would write.

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I have the same problem with the exception we get power points. But the instructor reads from straight out of the book so I find myself looking online A LOT. But the one bit of advice/help I can give you is go and register with QUIZLET.COM. Seriously. A lot of help can be found for studying your book and chapters on this site. You can even make study guides for yourself. L

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