My Instructor is discriminating against me

tothepointeLVN, LVN · Oct 24, 2011

Maybe spin it a different way. Maybe she'd hard on you because she wants to push you to be the best nurse you can be. Also she probably expects more from an A student. You've never going to click with everyone.

xtxrn, ASN, RN · Oct 24, 2011

And everybody has strengths and weaknesses. I loved some of my clinicals, and others were lousy. Some instructors teach differently- and maybe it's not the type of teaching that you are used to??? I don't do well when someone goes on and on about the same little thing forever. Others need a lot of repetition. :) Some instructors emphasize different things. It's not always about discrimination. :)

SummitRN, BSN, RN · Oct 24, 2011

I had one clinical instructor who was very hard on me. I was told that she often brought students to tears (not me). She was always on my case, peppering me with questions often in the middle of a task. I was always on my toes. I was told at the end of the clinical by my scholar that this nurse must like me very much because she complained about me less than any of her other student and actually said some positive things. What a strange compliment!

She wasn't pleasant, but I learned a lot from her.

ouyangxiaoxue · Oct 24, 2011

It would be wonderful if I could learn something from her. However, I didn't. All I got from her is self-worthless and life meaningless! She is new and never had clinical experience with students before, which is fine for me because we have to start at some point. But she always yells at me even she is wrong. For example, I prepared everything for an IV push before I went to my patient's last time. She yelled at me for I didn't bring a needle for it. I didn't understand that because I just needed to twist my syringe with the heplock on the patient's wrist. Why I need a needle? I asked her the reason for it, which just made her angry and blamed me for I didn't have basic knowledge for it. Then we went to the patient's room and I did the IV push without needles. It turned out that she was totally wrong. But that just makes her hate me more! The things I cannot stand most is that she makes dirty jokes with my patients in front of me, which makes me feel very uncomfortable. In the post conference, 95% of the time she talks about her family, kids, and even how to educate her kids for sexual activities, which is very unprofessional and we cannot share much clinical experiences with each other. All my peers complain about her everyday, and now all of them can realize that I am her biggest target everyday. To this point, I really appreciate the students in my group because they try to protect me and keep me away from her everyday. I am really stressed out now!

tothepointeLVN, LVN · Oct 24, 2011

Instead of asking your instructor what the reason was you could have said " I understood the rationale behind not using one is..." then she needs to explain why she disagrees.

You state your aren't learning anything from her but I think you're learning a lot more than you think. People skills are very important in nursing and so is dealing with nasty people.

I had an instructor like that expect whenever she was giving you a hard hard HARD time if you looked very very closely she had an impish twitch to her mouth.

Just reframe it in a positive way. Don't think of it as being an "asian" thing. I had a classmate that was like that "oh she hates me because I'm fillipina. NO she hates you because your late ." ( I know your not late)

P.S My classmates had an instructor that at Easter time gave them a lecture on the pathophysiology of the crucifixion

Band · Oct 24, 2011

I currently have similar feelings about my clinical instructor. The worry takes a lot of my time and energy, when I feel I should be doing productive things, but I can't help it. I took something personally when my instructor called me out to define this certain disease. I started talking, she was "glaring" at me, immediately shook her head "no" before I could finish my sentence and rolled her eyes, in front of the group. I let things go because I always think I'm taking it the wrong way, but when something is so obvious I can't help it. This wasn't a one time thing. Should I confront her? Should I talk to the chairperson? I don't know. I'm just looking at the grading policies and watching closely if she grades me fairly

PsychNurseWannaBe, BSN, RN · Oct 24, 2011

Its so hard to give advice since I am not there to see what is going on with the dynamics. I would say to all nursing students... just make sure you are well prepared for clinicals. Instructors can be hard on students, for whatever reason. I had one that I thought was very harsh but by the end of it, she turned out to be one of my favs. I can't believe how much I learned because she was extremely demanding. Try to stay positive and remember you won't be with them forever. Try to glean whatever education you can from them.

Do you have student managers? Each semester we did and if we had problems we could go to them and they would take it to the next person who was normally in charge of that semester. Some faculty listen... some don't.

Hang in there. It's going to be a bumpy ride but learn what you can.

I wish I could tell you to talk to your chair, but I have never seen that work out well. Stay busy and stay out of their way. How sad that I have to say that.

Wishing you the best!!

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Oct 25, 2011

I would certainly talk to the Dean about the inappropriate behavior/talk in front of patients. Very unprofessional and she is representing your school. As for the rest, keep thinking about the fact that soon she will be only a bad memory, nothing else.

ouyangxiaoxue · Oct 28, 2011

Thanks for giving me suggestions, guys! In the past several weeks, I was really in the darkness and even thought about suicide ------ you can imagine how much psychological distress has put on me! I wish I can see someone who is in charge of this nursing school now, however, I don't have time to do that because I have to move on to a new semester! I will talk to the leader of my nursing school later. The people who were with me in the same group observed the things our clinical instructor did to me, and they are willing to be my witness! Fortunately, I have my new clinical instructors now. After several day's interactions with them, I really like them: they are knowledgeable, professional, and have cultural sensitivity. Hope I will have good ones this time!

PacoUSA, BSN, RN · Oct 28, 2011

Thanks for giving me suggestions, guys! In the past several weeks, I was really in the darkness and even thought about suicide ------ you can imagine how much psychological distress has put on me!

If what you just said is true, I would suggest you speak to a therapist about your feelings. To consider suicide over something like this means you have serious underlying issues to resolve. You need to prepare to deal with bosses, colleagues, patients and families in the real world that will be harsher than your clinical instructor will ever be!

ouyangxiaoxue · Oct 28, 2011

Yes. I talked to my therapist last week. She gave me a lot of constructive suggestions, which make me feel much better about myself. I am 31 years old already but this is the first time I met the person who is so mean and insane. I worked before, and I usually could get along with other people including my boss well. Thinking of the people I get interacted everyday, good people more and bad guys less after all. Whenever I look at my kid's smiling, I just feel I am so blessed!