kicked out of school- failed professionalism!

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I've gone to two nursing schools and have failed in both! I was 10 weeks from taking the NCLEX-RN in both programs. I am starting to feel that God doesn't want me to be a nurse. I am male, 51 y/o, and I have graduate degrees (that is right plural) in other fields. It seems that nurses feel criticized when I ask questions. I don't mean to be critical; I am just trying to learn. I have been in both a graduate immersion program and a community college program. I have been kicked out of both. I managed to get my LPN before the last failure. Is there anyway I can combine the hours between two programs to get permission to take the NCLEX-RN?

I feel like I am in LIMBO! Stuck! I not bad guy, honest. :o

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

you may not be a bad guy, but to my way of thinking you have problems with control and wanting to control others. the vitamin k incident: you (you said "we") went over the head of a staff nurse and it is not a student's place to do that. even if the staff nurse was making a mistake--report it to their supervisor, end of the story as far as a student's involvement.

one of the things about nursing is that there is a lot of room for variety and creativity in the way things are done. no one likes to be told what to do, how to do something, or that they are doing something wrong--especially by a student. was this done in front of the patient as well? the worst bosses are those that hold a tight fist on their subordinates telling them exactly what they are to do, step-by-step and criticizing them if they don't do it the way the boss wants it. rns have to supervise the work of a number of subordinate nursing staff. you'd have a rebellion on your hands if you treated your future staff of nursing assistants the way you've treated staff nurses at your clinical sites. if a person has to stop someone because they disagree with the way they are cutting a crummy piece of foam for a wound--whoa!--that's just plain outrageous. that kind of precision is not necessary for dressing wounds. you can't treat other college educated professionals that way.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.

The preceptor at my last clinical was also in charge of student placements for clinicals. One of the things I have learned is how difficult it can be to get contracts with facilities and how delicate those relationships can be. If you were irritating the staff too much, and this was affecting the relationship between the school and the institution then the school may have decided to cut you loose because of that.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Cardiac, ICU.
you may not be a bad guy, but to my way of thinking you have problems with control and wanting to control others. the vitamin k incident: you (you said "we") went over the head of a staff nurse and it is not a student's place to do that. even if the staff nurse was making a mistake--report it to their supervisor, end of the story as far as a student's involvement.

one of the things about nursing is that there is a lot of room for variety and creativity in the way things are done. no one likes to be told what to do, how to do something, or that they are doing something wrong--especially by a student. was this done in front of the patient as well? the worst bosses are those that hold a tight fist on their subordinates telling them exactly what they are to do, step-by-step and criticizing them if they don't do it the way the boss wants it. rns have to supervise the work of a number of subordinate nursing staff. you'd have a rebellion on your hands if you treated your future staff of nursing assistants the way you've treated staff nurses at your clinical sites. if a person has to stop someone because they disagree with the way they are cutting a crummy piece of foam for a wound--whoa!--that's just plain outrageous. that kind of precision is not necessary for dressing wounds. you can't treat other college educated professionals that way.

well said. this is exactly why i think the op'ers being kicked out was for the best.

as i was reading this, i could just see the manner in which they "corrected'' these nurses. :nono: :nono:

what a potential nightmare.

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Specializes in Day Surgery/Infusion/ED.

This thread should be required reading before a student posts to bemoan why staff nurses don't seem to like precepting students.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Cardiac, ICU.
This thread should be required reading before a student posts to bemoan why staff nurses don't seem to like precepting students.

Amen.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

While I feel sincere sympathy for the OP, I think you need to completely reassess your reasons for going into nursing. It concerns me that two completely different nursing programs chose not to let you finish. Please talk to some truly impartial folks and find out what you need to change in order to be successful. Believe me, its better to find out in nursing school that nursing isn't for you, than wait until you have graduated.

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Specializes in ICU, Pediatric, Psychiatric, Med/Surg.

I agree. Nursing consists of more than a degree, or even multiple degrees. A bit of humbleness and the ability to communicate with others is a definite plus in nursing. Making a suggestion sound like the other person's idea is a wonderful way to go...and it works well on irate doctors at times.

Resist the urge to make your school recipe from scratch-the instructors want it done by their recipe only. I am an older student also. I graduate from LPN to RN in May. It is difficult at times to be quiet when I know the answer, but as it was stated before, "more than one way to skin a cat" allows you to learn a new recipe for something you think you already know.

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Specializes in Registry, all over the place.
Look ... life threatening events are one thing ... but telling an RN how to do routine tasks is another matter.

I did have an RN tell me one time to give six units of insulin when the patient was NPO and her blood sugar was all over the place. I said I wanted to check the sugar again, and the RN told me not to bother. I checked the sugar anyway and, sure enough it was low. I wasn't going to put the woman into hypoglycemia ... especially since she hadn't eaten anything ... regardless of what the RN told me to do.

Did I report the RN for that ... hell no because the sugar was running really high ... just as much as it was running really low.

When it comes to routine stuff I'm NOT going to tell the RN what to do. And I'll tell you why. A lot of times, I've thought an RN was not doing her job when, in fact, she had ten other crises going on that I knew nothing about. So ... unless it's a life threatening situation, I'm not gonna go there because, most of the time, I don't know the whole story of what the RN is dealing with that day.

When we're on our own, we're gonna find out how hard this job is. And sometimes we're going to be so busy, that we may even forget to wash our hands sometimes. Sorry but, I'm not going to get on an RN's case about that.

I've never gotten on any staff member's case of anything, that's not my place. But my instructor's have reported things, and habitually not washing one's hands between patients is unsafe. I'm a student, I know my place, but the point is tact, there is a way in which to speak to people which the OP and all who work with people should learn. Life threatening occurences are not always caused by big things, small preventable things are just as deadly. Patient advocacy is always our job no matter how hard it is.

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I've never gotten on any staff member's case of anything, that's not my place. But my instructor's have reported things, and habitually not washing one's hands between patients is unsafe. I'm a student, I know my place, but the point is tact, there is a way in which to speak to people which the OP and all who work with people should learn. Life threatening occurences are not always caused by big things, small preventable things are just as deadly. Patient advocacy is always our job no matter how hard it is.

C'mon ... the instructor reporting things is going to cause trouble for the RN no matter how much "tact" is used. And then students wonder why RN's aren't always student friendly.

Have you actually worked at a hospital? It's completely different from school clinicals. The fact of the matter is: there's not always time to do everything by the book. There are times when I've been so busy that I've forgotten to wash my hands. I wasn't deliberately trying to be unsafe ... I was just pulled in 10 different directions at once. If some student reported me for that I'd be furious.

You talked about reporting the CNA who was reprimanded. I don't know if you've done CNA work, but I have. Do you know how many patients that CNA had that shift? Because if they had up to 13 patients with a bunch of total cares (which has happened to me) ... guess what? You might not have time to change them all. Especially if you get patients with non-stop diarrhea with constant changes that will take up the entire shift. All it takes is one difficult total care patient and you can forget about being able to do anything else like getting the food trays out, much less feeding all the total cares. Oh yeah ... and then there's getting the vitals done, charting, running urine samples down to the lab, etc.

Maybe management made the RN's and the CNA's job impossible that day. Maybe somebody called out sick and they got double the patient load they normally have. Do you really know what the situation was?

When you're a student, you're not doing the real job. You don't know about everything else the RN or the CNA is dealing with ... and that should be taken into consideration. And unless I know ... which I usually don't ... I'm not going to report them.

:typing

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Specializes in Hospice, Med/Surg, ICU, ER.

My NS has taken GREAT pains to make crystal-clear that we are in clinical sites to a) OBSERVE working nurses to see the practical application of our didactic education, and b) to practice whatever skills the clinical site staff will allow us to practice, within the limits of what was discussed in didactic.

The point was stressed repeatedly that we were never, EVER to argue with a staff member, or to in any way insinuate disapproval with their methods or practices. Issues directly concerning pt. safety were to be communicated to our instructor ONLY!

I have asked many questions of staff nurses, but I am careful to not let my tone or attitude convey any criticism.

There is the real world, and there is Nursing School - any resemblence between the two is purely coincidental. ;)

As to the two toss-outs.... my dad (God rest his soul) had an expression that is apt, and I carry it with me to this day: (mods, I'll clean this up as best I can) If ONE person calls you an azzhat, ignore them and drive on. If TWO or more people call you an azzhat, a wise azzhat will reach for the toilet paper.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

If ONE person calls you an azzhat, ignore them and drive on. If TWO or more people call you an azzhat, a wise azzhat will reach for the toilet paper.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

(BTW, nice cleanup;) )

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Specializes in Registry, all over the place.

I understand you're point Lizz, I'm not trying to argue with you, people do get busy, but I being facility specific, I do know there is no excuse for the things that are going on there. And yes I have been doing LTC CNA work 4 shifts/week for the last couple months for extra money. Average 10 pts. almost all patients dependent, I usually have 5 rooms, 2 maybe 3 people per room and never have I been so busy I had to leave bloody sheets or a bloody chucks pad in place. But that's not what I'm talking about, I am speaking of when things are absolutely wrong, no doubt. People understand occasional slipup's, no one is perfect. But when things are wrong because staff aren't held to a higher standard and supervisor's don't want to take steps to increase low standards, these are the things that are unnacceptable. Hospice patient's with pressure ulcers not being turned every 2 hours because "they aren't going to be here much longer" is not an excuse. It's an excuse to be fired. A nurse doing wound care inspecting a wound with her bare fingers "I know Ms. Soandso, it's ok." And so far my favorite when my instructor asked the DON "what is the code procedure," "we call 911." "Of course, I mean what does the staff do?" "Call 911, the hospitals close." Are you serious?!!? This is what I'm talking about when people have gotten used to doing half a**** jobs. Not those who diligently try. So do I think these things need to be reported, yes, habitual things that are from laziness, not busyness. Do I care if someone who has been allowed to slack is called on it, absolutely not, they need to get it together. I'm not talking about the staff members picking up their slack.

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