nursing instructor advice

[sarasmith805]

In the beginning of the semester my clinical instructor seemed to like me. In my midterm evals she told me I was a good student and I was doing well, but for the last couple weeks it seems like all I do is irritate her. It started when my med buddy forgot to document her meds and the instructor told me she was mad because I should have waited for the other student to document. That's fine, but I explained to her none of us wait for our med buddies to document because we didn't know we had to. To which she replied, " I asked around and other students say they do" (10/11 of us denied doing it)

Then at midnight one night she asked me what I was doing, I said, "im waiting for my classmate so she can translate so we can give my med (it was an eye cream for a baby and the mother was Spanish speaking), the instructor said, its midnight, you need a translator, nope you wont be giving that med. (this made no sense to me), so the next day I asked her about it and she said midnight was not the time to be doing pt education (I tried to explain I just needed the other student to translate the basic med admin stuff), the instructor later approached me and said "it seems like you have a problem with the policies around here" I was and still am confused by whatever that means.

Next, my pt had two bands on with the same pt info, one blue and one white. I checked both when I took a BS and they literally had the same info. When I went in with my instructor to give insulin I checked the blue band. when we left the room she snapped at me and said, "you never check the blue band, always the white band, the blue band is for blood", I replied I didn't know that and she said "how could you not have known that?" um.... I have never had a pt with a blue band and a white band that's how. I asked around and only one other student knew about the blood band and she knew because the instructor explained it to her when she did the same thing (she said the instructor did not snap at her)

She also snapped at me because in the middle of med prep of insulin she wandered off to talk to another student and snapped at me to "get it ready", I said "what?" she said, "get it ready" so I drew up my insulin. she came back and yelled "why did you do that if I haven't even looked at the order???" and she told me to throw out the syringe and get a new one. I replied," I had the order up and you were looking at it before you walked away, you said get it ready so I did" she finished up with me and just walked away irritated.

I saw the instructor today at school (outside of clinical) and she gave me the third degree and asked why my nurse from the night before gave one of my IVPB meds. I said I didn't see that med scheduled (when I checked the mar at 1830 the only thing scheduled was a bs and supplemental insulin, so the night nurse must have rescheduled the med that was not given earlier and not told me about it). She walked away rolling her eyes.

these are all really little things but they are adding up. I feel like I can't do anything right. I want to talk to the instructor about it, but at the same time I can feel her irritation with me and don't want to irritate her further. Any advice??

[mrsboots87]

There are so many possible reasons for why your instructor is acting this way, so it would be best to just make an appt to sit down and talk with her. She could be having a rough time outside of work and taking it out on you. She could be seeing things you do in clinical that concern her and she is trying to make you pay more attention (since we only have your side of the story, I cant judge if these minor things are the actual reason she is snippy with you). She could think that because you are such a good student that you can take her being more strict. The list goes on. Talk to the person who you have the issue with, not people who only know your side. You may find that just talking to her can solve all your problems. Maybe she doesnt realize you are taking it this way.