Management Clinical

[GenesisEve]

WOW, what a day in clinical. I graduate in December from an ASN program and just started in the rotation for the purpose of teaching us how to manage a group of nurses.

This week one of the students (she's been an LPN for 16 years) was a manager. She acted as though she was an instructor...was on a major power trip.

For instance, it's 7:30 and she comes to me at the med cart and says, "Are you gathering your meds?" I told her I was just about to start getting the 8am meds together and she said, "You had a 7am med to give." Well, I didn't and told her....she insisted I did....I offered her the MARs to look at and she realized her error and apologized.

THEN...she comes to me later and asked if I had charted another patients information, I told her THAT patient had been discharged, that I had given him the discharge information and he's gone. AGAIN, she insisted he wasn't gone and was in fact in his room . She then marches off to the room...and SURPRISE, the cleaning staff was cleaning the room :trout:

Dang, this woman thought she was to be in the role of instructor and not a nurse manager. I HAD to hold my tongue at one point when she came to me and asked me what meds I was going to be giving a particular patient, what were they for, what were the required assessments for them...of course I knew the information, but honestly THAT is information for me to give the clinical instructor. Who does she think she is?

OK :angryfire done venting and feel better.

[Achoo!, LPN]

You may want to gently mention it to your instructot. Buliding and maintaining a team is anhuge aspect of management, and she may need some direction in reagrds to that.

I was team leader this week myself and it was hard! Thank god my fellow students were very knowledgable and capable. I was very lucky to have such a great team, and I told them that!

[TakeTwoAspirin, MSN, RN, APRN]

Every class has AT LEAST one of them. It sounds as if you handled yourself very well given the circumstances and you should pat yourself on the back. She gave you a test, and a taste of what real life can be like once you graduate. You handled it! In a strange way you should be grateful to her because you now know you can deal with a difficult personality and still conduct yourself professionally and efficiently. Good for you!

[llg, PhD, RN]

I think you handled it very well. You didn't do anything foolish -- and you came here to a safe place to vent. The last step is ... learn something useful from the experience and move on.

Good luck to you.

[locolorenzo22, BSN, RN]

The catch is...some classmates LOVE the opportunity to "impress" the instructor and get all over you for meds, assessments, etc....as a manger of students...you should make sure your folks have given all their meds, done their assessments, caught new orders, and people are up to date......