Is it me? Serious disorganization in class and clinicals...vent

[DolceVita, ADN, BSN, RN]

OK second semester student here. My big deal is with the clinicals...

School started 3 weeks ago and we just had our first clinical day and been that was largely a waste of time -- we spent an hour in a conference room coming up with a team name, logo and motto. Argh!

The other semesters (3 and 4) and the other sections in my semester started their clinicals 3 weeks ago. Even this week we had no clinical on Tuesday -- no idea why. Half a clinical yesterday -- presumably because we had no data collection the day before (or whatever) and today we will be doing CNA stuff.

So essentially we start clinicals next Tuesday -- I am so annoyed. I mentioned this to a fellow student and she was thrilled to have to show up less.

So is it me? Am I supposed to be grateful that I have some 40 hours less hands on clinical time than other classes/sections? What happens when I get to next semester we have a different clinical instructor? Won't they have an expectation that we will have reached a certain level of proficiency?

I feel like this puts me behind. Aren't their a strict minimum of clinical contact hours required?

Of course I'd say something but apparently someone already wrote an anonymous letter to the Dean about this instructor already -- complaining that she changed the start time of one of our classes from the scheduled start time (true she did because some people had trouble with work commitments and such). The letter also had stuff about her being disorganized and changing a clinical site 24 hrs before clinical were due to start (last semester). The instructor told us about the letter and lectured us that she couldn't trust someone in the room. The ensuing drama and witch hunt has been crazy.

I am concerned if I complain she will think I wrote the letter too.

Oh yes and in class we do only case studies that get presented by my fellow students -- this is the way we will be learning this semester. I did not sign up to be taught by my fellow students -- love them -- don't want to be taught by them all semester.

Just needed to vent.

[9livesRN, BSN, RN]

You are not alone, I used to hate the time wasting thing!!! I want to get there and get going, clinicals are like a field trip to me!!! You learn out of class, you get to practice what you read, and i want as much of it as i can get, so when i graduate i can be more efficient and not hate my self for 6 months!!!

Some people get happy when they dont have to go, or when they will get to do some observation on another unit.

I have told my clinical instructors, that I do not want to observe anything! if I feel like doing so, i can always get in touch with the floor educator and go do some volunteer shadowing in the unit, ICU ED...

now it is time to learn how to be efficient, how to do my skills properly, how to get in and get done!!!

today i got a chance to do some cool stuff, i got to do trach care/suction, IV start, and a huuuuuuuuuge dressing change, unpack and repack post SX pt! (compartment syndrome) and some of my buddies were complaining to have to hang zosyn... and taking foreeeeeeeeeeeveeeeeeeerrrrr!!!

well mind you i got compliments from the Clinical Manager of the floor, and was asked for my resume!!!

clinicals = go, be professional, learn, help and make a good impression since they can be your boss tomorrow!

[kcochrane]

I'm still stuck on class motto, logo, etc. Wow!

But yeah you only get a certain number of clinicals and yes your next instructor will probably assume you have a certain level of experience. The problem is that in most cases complaining doesn't help and labels you a trouble maker.

I would see how next Tuesday goes. If you can at least get assigned a patient and coassigned nurse, you will have some experience. Do you have to have your instructor with you to pass meds, do treatments, or can you have a coassign nurse help you? If so, that would be great. Many don't mind taking you aside and teaching.

Hope things get better.

[caliotter3]

My first nursing program had us sitting in outpatient clinics for the first six or eight weeks while a group of faculty made trips all over the country recruiting new students. New students to lessen whatever flavor was there that offended those who had made complaints at the school. Political correctness at its finest. The lost time was never made up.

[Rednights]

We spent an hour in a conference room coming up with a team name, logo and motto. Argh!

I'd be venting too ... while I did get a chuckle out of reading this ... it's quite sad at the same time

[SAHMStudent]

team name, logo and motto? Barf. What the heck does that have to do with nursing? I don't blame you for being ticked on missing time. I'm bitter that MD went from 8 hrs day of clinical hrs. to 6. Total BS in my opinion. We should be getting more time, not less. I understand the limited number of facilities willing or able to take on students, faculty, other schools with students, etc. But it's still frustrating to know that I'll be applying for a job without as much experience as I think I should have. And the pts. you get are the luck of the draw (at least at my school), so if you have a pt. you either can't do much for, or gets' transferred, or spends half the shift in different depts you are sol.

I made the best of those situations by helping anyone I could, so made my own day, and own learning experience as valuable as I could. But you sound like you are in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. Sorry.

[RNROSER2011]

Aren't you going to tell us what the motto is??? Sorry, couldn't resist, I feel your pain.

[DolceVita, ADN, BSN, RN]

No I am not going to complain because that sort of thing always backfires. Plus, although she says she is "open" to feedback, she went spare when someone submitted anonymous feedback. I can only imaging she wouldn't react well to any feedback that wasn't positive.

So last night...our first full evening of clinicals?...nope! We finished at 7pm -- not that we were on the floor for those 4 hours. So that is another 3 hours shaved off. Let me see what that totals in time not spent in clinicals (that should have been) so far this semester:

37 hours

Ah but it doesn't stop there. In two weeks time, instead of clinicals, we get to participate in a health clinic -- but not doing the blood pressure screenings etc. - we have to go as patients. Then we have to state whether we would recommend something like that to our patients. We will do this instead of our regular 7 hour clinical.

What a joke.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

leaders do not vent to everyone else about their problems and then expect others to do something about them. they take the bull by the horns and move up the chain of command like one of your classmates has already apparently done to do something about them. you have a lot to learn about leadership and problem solving. if you are going to be concerned about what a wrongdoer thinks about what you are doing about them you don't belong in a leadership position and that is what rns are--in positions of leadership even if they are staff nurses or student nurses.

[DolceVita, ADN, BSN, RN]

Wow Daytonite -- I like you and normally have great respect for you. This post of yours is unusually harsh, insulting, unnecessary and unjustified. Perhaps you were having a particularly bad day. I have successfully led teams and a couple of mid-size companies for years.

It is not a hallmark of good leadership to send an anonymous letter as a fellow student did. Nor is it a hallmark of good leadership to take action without consideration to those it will impact like my fellow students -- and yes myself.

You would have me report this woman, who has already shown a highly irrational and emotional reaction to criticism, without consideration of the impact of my action on myself and others in the class. A woman who teaches all of my classes this semester. I would have thought someone of your self-reported experience would recognize that complainants, even when 100% justified, are frequently subject to retribution. So I only care about her reaction inasmuch as she has terrific power over my progression into this profession. As for the reaction of my classmates, should they have to reschedule nearly 40 hours of clinical work -- it would be extremely unpleasant and directed at me.

So I made the considered decision to vent here and suck it up.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

I had no idea of the circumstances surrounding how this fellow student reported this instructor. But it doesn't change how I feel you are dealing with the situation. I don't care that you led teams before. I wasn't there to supervise and see how you worked then. What I'm saying is stop talking and gossiping and take action. That's what leaders do. If you have time to stand around jabber jawing problems like this to death you have time to do something about it. Grow a backbone. Show what a person with a hallmark of good leadership would do and quit talking it to death. Action is what counts, not words. As an RN you will be expected to take action on problems or you'll find yourself being shown the exit door--I guarantee it. I would have reported her long ago. Why are you waiting? If her bosses are any kind of bosses, they will do something about her. If not, keep going up the chain of command until someone listens. In employment interviews I ask, "Tell me about some problem you encountered in school or work, how you handled it and what you learned from it." This is a perfect situation to bring up, but, seriously, think about the way you are handling it and how you would answer the question I just posed if asked of you in an interview. I don't like the gossiping about a problem. It creates a lot of havoc with everyone else involved and that only highlights and adds to the problem.

[DolceVita, ADN, BSN, RN]

There you go again. Now assuming that I am gossiping etc. or "jabbering" this "too death" which is inaccurate and further insulting. You are making up, in your head, an awful lot of behavior on my part. I have haven't gossiped or otherwise about this. You obviously have had some experience with someone else and are projecting it onto me. As you said "If her bosses are any kind of bosses" -- my observation is that they are not.

Insulting, throw away remarks like "grow a backbone" really aren't worthy of you.

I think they should probably close this thread. I can't imagine anyone else wanting to respond if they thought they would get berated in the same manner.