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

Are you telling the complete story. Although, your behavior may have been seen as rude it was not enough to get kicked out of a program (my opinion). Most programs aloow you to fail one class. Generally you are kicked out the second time. Is this different for your school? Was this the second class you failed?

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Specializes in LTC, Psych, M/S.

I have been an RN since last may - but I will admit I had problems with a couple clinical instructors in nsg school. One incident - I would like an objective opinion if I was in the right or wrong.

Pt. had an order for IV push zofran - prn for nausea. I look at the order and perform the calculation for how much to give - it came to 2 ml. I go get my instructor to draw up the med and give it. I start to draw it up into a syringe and i was having a some trouble doing so - exuse me it is only like the second time and zofran is thick.....anyway, instructor starts to get really impatient that I wasn't holding the needle right and it did make me nervous that she was standing right over me. Anyway, as i pass the 1 ml mark she says "wait - what are you doing? You only need 1 ml." she made me push the 'exess' med back into the vial. I, at this point, am mad at myself b/c I assume instructor is right and I am wrong. "what is wrong with me that I cant even do a simple little med calcuation?" I thought to myself.

So as I get ready to go give the med, I look at the order again- it clearly states 2 ml. I thought to myself that I shouldn't say anything - somebody warned me not to cross paths with the instructors. But I didn't feel right about administering the wrong amt of med, so I just casually pointed it out to her in the nicest way possible, "It looks like this order says 2ml." She agreed, and so I drew up the 1ml.

This was a big mistake - that I 'corrected' the instructor - esp since it was only day 3 of a 10 day rotation. She made my life hell - ignoring me when she could and making a point to criticize me in front of coassigned nurses....I just bit my tongue and tried to overlook it. She gave me really bad evals....what is weird is that they seemed like very vague complaints to me and she didn't have anything specific to criticize me about.

At the end of the clinical, when we did the 'post conferences' she asked me if I had a problem with anxiety. I said yes...esp since I had horrible anxiety the past couple days d/t her....she then starts criticizing me over the syringe incident and using that as an example of my anxiety problem. I mean, yes, I am sure i looked nervous but part of that was I thought I was going to make a med error and it seemed to me that she didn't even care. I really feel that she criticized me to make sure she could cover up her own mistake. And what I really couldn't figure out - if I had such a problem with anxiety - why didn't she confront me before the clinical ended?

My gut instinct tells me she really wanted (and tried) to fail me but couldn't find a good enough reason to. After all, she seemed proud of herself that she had failed students in the previous semesters...

I tried to look at this situation objectively and maybe I should have confronted her....I basically wish I would have gone to another instructor about it and asked for a different clinical placement someplace else. I guess at the time I was like "I don't care if she doesn't like me - I will just put up with this so I can get my RN." Which i have.

I just still wonder if I was in the right or wrong on this situation.

I

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It is such a pain in the butt for nurses that they are expected to teach students every day on their already difficult, time crunched shifts. I think it is insane that it has to work that way. Jeez, atleast pay them more for it, you know, like a shift diff when you take a student??? Nobody likes being told that they HAVE TO do something.

Actually, at the hospital I'm working at now ... they do pay nurses more to take students. Not all hospitals do it, but at least some do.

:typing

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Specializes in critical care transport.
I have been an RN since last may - but I will admit I had problems with a couple clinical instructors in nsg school. One incident - I would like an objective opinion if I was in the right or wrong.

Pt. had an order for IV push zofran - prn for nausea. I look at the order and perform the calculation for how much to give - it came to 2 ml. I go get my instructor to draw up the med and give it. I start to draw it up into a syringe and i was having a some trouble doing so - exuse me it is only like the second time and zofran is thick.....anyway, instructor starts to get really impatient that I wasn't holding the needle right and it did make me nervous that she was standing right over me. Anyway, as i pass the 1 ml mark she says "wait - what are you doing? You only need 1 ml." she made me push the 'exess' med back into the vial. I, at this point, am mad at myself b/c I assume instructor is right and I am wrong. "what is wrong with me that I cant even do a simple little med calcuation?" I thought to myself.

So as I get ready to go give the med, I look at the order again- it clearly states 2 ml. I thought to myself that I shouldn't say anything - somebody warned me not to cross paths with the instructors. But I didn't feel right about administering the wrong amt of med, so I just casually pointed it out to her in the nicest way possible, "It looks like this order says 2ml." She agreed, and so I drew up the 1ml.

This was a big mistake - that I 'corrected' the instructor - esp since it was only day 3 of a 10 day rotation. She made my life hell - ignoring me when she could and making a point to criticize me in front of coassigned nurses....I just bit my tongue and tried to overlook it. She gave me really bad evals....what is weird is that they seemed like very vague complaints to me and she didn't have anything specific to criticize me about.

At the end of the clinical, when we did the 'post conferences' she asked me if I had a problem with anxiety. I said yes...esp since I had horrible anxiety the past couple days d/t her....she then starts criticizing me over the syringe incident and using that as an example of my anxiety problem. I mean, yes, I am sure i looked nervous but part of that was I thought I was going to make a med error and it seemed to me that she didn't even care. I really feel that she criticized me to make sure she could cover up her own mistake. And what I really couldn't figure out - if I had such a problem with anxiety - why didn't she confront me before the clinical ended?

My gut instinct tells me she really wanted (and tried) to fail me but couldn't find a good enough reason to. After all, she seemed proud of herself that she had failed students in the previous semesters...

I tried to look at this situation objectively and maybe I should have confronted her....I basically wish I would have gone to another instructor about it and asked for a different clinical placement someplace else. I guess at the time I was like "I don't care if she doesn't like me - I will just put up with this so I can get my RN." Which i have.

I just still wonder if I was in the right or wrong on this situation.

I

Yikes! That is what I hope DOESN'T happen to me. I hate the idea that I may find myself in the clutches of someone who is passively aggressive, when my future depends on passing. What a *you-know-what.*

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Some of my fellow classmates will talk about what they saw nurses do..."I never saw her wash her hands once" and other various things. The air of superiority in their voices is sickening. What makes them think that because they just learned sterile technique in Nursing 101 that they know more? I just laugh at that. The nurses that are out there and WORKING are in the real world now, us students are still just getting to "play". I say to them, "come back and talk to me in 6 months".....after they are in the real world. I mean, really, how can you criticize nurses in the field when you have never been there?????

I totally agree. I am a student, but working as an extern really changes your perspective. You really see how hard the job is for RN's ... I would never want to judge them.

Students have it easy when they go into the hospital. They don't have the same patient loads or the same responsibility RN's do so ... to me ... it's insane to be critical when you don't have the same burdens they do. Especially when students add to that burden.

:typing

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What do you mean by this? I am a CNA and I'm finishining up my first semester as a BSN student. We learned the same things this semester as we did in CNA classes.

In other words, we learned the importance of handwashing in both places. Actually, I became even MORE aware and paranoid of germs after Micro.

I haven't touched a door knob in 2 years lol. :lol2:

I do not feel that prospective nursing students should have to spend all the money that is required for admission to college before they find out whether or not they are really interested in nursing. If they have good basic skills that they learn in CNA classes, they can spend their time in college much more productively and busy RNs will be much happier to act as preceptors for them in their clinical experiences.

You ARE joking about not having touched a doorknob in two years, aren't you? That would interfere entirely too much with my daily life!

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...if we don't follow a nurse around all day--we take care of our patients by ourselves so we don't have to bother them. Any questions are directed to our instructor.

You aren't taking care of them by yourselves. LEGALLY that patient is assigned to a nurse there. It doesn't matter that there's a student and an instructor taking care of them, everything you do to that patient, is still ultimately on the employed nurse's shoulders legally.

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Specializes in Medical.
I've had the same problem in the past where people thought I was being critical when truly I was trying to learn by engaging them in the debate.

It's hard to tell from the OP, especially as he hasn't returned, but perhaps this was his tactic too. Unfortunately, as other members have posted, it's difficult as a student to get the whole picture of what the RN is doing (or see things other than as learning opportunities). Debate can be a fantastic way to learn, of understanding not just the what but also the all-important why (or why not). But it's way more time consuming that a didactic teaching method. My experience with students is that some of them just don't seem to have a sense of when asking questions isn't appropriate. If this is the case with the OP, I can see how the RNs he was shadowing would have been unhappy.

Edited to add: for some reason I've assumed the OP is male. I apologise for that assumption.

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Specializes in Medical.
The other nurse I questioned was cutting a piece of foam for a wound vac. She was cutting it too small and I told her to stop so that she could look at the wound again before cutting.

And that right there could be the problem.

None of my sins put patients in danger.

First, in your opinion the patients weren't in danger. I'm not saying that they were endangered, just that you don't necessarily know enough to know that.

Second, and this is not aimed at the OP, but is a general observation - not putting patients in danger seems like an insufficiently rigorous determinant of passing. There are other things that ought to be taken in to account. Don't underestimate the importance of interpersonal and communication skills - they're an essential part of being a good clinical nurse.

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Specializes in Happily semi-retired; excited for the whole whammy.

I think it is telling that the OP has been kicked out of 2 programs, for essentially the same reason. I wouldn't think it worthwhile to try again unless he is willing to make more of an effort to understand what the problem is and less of an effort to rationalize it. And I also assume he's a guy, due to the last line in the OP being ''I'm not a bad guy''.

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I have been an RN since last may - but I will admit I had problems with a couple clinical instructors in nsg school. One incident - I would like an objective opinion if I was in the right or wrong.

Pt. had an order for IV push zofran - prn for nausea. I look at the order and perform the calculation for how much to give - it came to 2 ml. I go get my instructor to draw up the med and give it. I start to draw it up into a syringe and i was having a some trouble doing so - exuse me it is only like the second time and zofran is thick.....anyway, instructor starts to get really impatient that I wasn't holding the needle right and it did make me nervous that she was standing right over me. Anyway, as i pass the 1 ml mark she says "wait - what are you doing? You only need 1 ml." she made me push the 'exess' med back into the vial. I, at this point, am mad at myself b/c I assume instructor is right and I am wrong. "what is wrong with me that I cant even do a simple little med calcuation?" I thought to myself.

So as I get ready to go give the med, I look at the order again- it clearly states 2 ml. I thought to myself that I shouldn't say anything - somebody warned me not to cross paths with the instructors. But I didn't feel right about administering the wrong amt of med, so I just casually pointed it out to her in the nicest way possible, "It looks like this order says 2ml." She agreed, and so I drew up the 1ml.

This was a big mistake - that I 'corrected' the instructor - esp since it was only day 3 of a 10 day rotation. She made my life hell - ignoring me when she could and making a point to criticize me in front of coassigned nurses....I just bit my tongue and tried to overlook it. She gave me really bad evals....what is weird is that they seemed like very vague complaints to me and she didn't have anything specific to criticize me about.

At the end of the clinical, when we did the 'post conferences' she asked me if I had a problem with anxiety. I said yes...esp since I had horrible anxiety the past couple days d/t her....she then starts criticizing me over the syringe incident and using that as an example of my anxiety problem. I mean, yes, I am sure i looked nervous but part of that was I thought I was going to make a med error and it seemed to me that she didn't even care. I really feel that she criticized me to make sure she could cover up her own mistake. And what I really couldn't figure out - if I had such a problem with anxiety - why didn't she confront me before the clinical ended?

My gut instinct tells me she really wanted (and tried) to fail me but couldn't find a good enough reason to. After all, she seemed proud of herself that she had failed students in the previous semesters...

I tried to look at this situation objectively and maybe I should have confronted her....I basically wish I would have gone to another instructor about it and asked for a different clinical placement someplace else. I guess at the time I was like "I don't care if she doesn't like me - I will just put up with this so I can get my RN." Which i have.

I just still wonder if I was in the right or wrong on this situation.

I

Did the order say 2ml or 2mg? Got to watch that. Most meds are ordered by grams and their parts, not by fluid volume.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Cardiac, ICU.
You aren't taking care of them by yourselves. LEGALLY that patient is assigned to a nurse there. It doesn't matter that there's a student and an instructor taking care of them, everything you do to that patient, is still ultimately on the employed nurse's shoulders legally.

What I mean is, we don't have to follow the nurse around all day or ask them for anything. We get our meds and verify them with the instructor then give them.

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