Nursing Instructors Would Rather see You Fail than Succeed

Ortho86 · Sep 1, 2015

My instructors were amazing and I honestly feel like I am a better nurse because of them

ixchel · Sep 1, 2015

Hey everyone,,,I just had a lightbulb go off in this feeble brain of mine!
I went to the wrong school! Thanks so much for all your answers and feedback !
I really appreciate it !

I love a happy ending!

NicuGal, MSN, RN · Sep 2, 2015

So you withdrew after the write up came to light...was it something that was going to get you thrown out? If not, then you failed yourself. And in the real RN World, are you going to quit every time someone's isn't "fair" to you or you are told you are doing something wrong?

Not every instructor is out to get you, there are that handful that are pretty bad but the vast majority are there to help you.

AspiringNurseMW · Sep 3, 2015

All of my instructors bent over backwards and sacrificed a lot of their personal time making sure their students succeeded.

I've been in nursing school all of 3 days and I already feel this! Cellphones and emails and availability galore!

One instructor says her phone is on silent, so we can text her literally 24/7. Our lab instructor says I am here to help you, I am available this and this time and I'd like to leave at this time but if you need me I'll work around that. She says her husband knows he'll see her in December.

It's by no means easy, they refuse to coddle you, but if you put in the work and demonstrate your commitment, you'll get theirs in return.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Sep 3, 2015

Wow....I can see that a lot of nursing instructors answered here and I guess I should not be surprised that they are of
the opinion that it really isn't them its the student.
well ...I had a nursing clinical instructor who was going to be removed from teaching clinicals due to
many, many, complaints about her.
So when there were two weeks left of clinical (for the semester) she told me she had seen me
do something unsafe a month earlier, and had the write up in her office waiting for me.
She was very pit bull like, and she was not interested in my side of things whatsoever.
I withdrew from class.
So to all you clinical instructors who took the time to answer this post, why don't you do me a favor and answer the following
question....How does waiting a MONTH to issue me a safety write up, benefit my learning? Is it better for me to be in the dark
for a month about my mistake and perhaps continue making the SAME mistake, than to issue me the warning the same day it
happened?
I imagine it is.

Your imagination aside, I can easily imagine a situation where a CI would make verbal correction, then verbal warnings, a student would ignore or forget them, and it would get repeated enough that the instructor would have that written warning prepared in advance because of the possibility of another occurrence. Formal written warnings are never a first notice according to the academic handbooks I've ever seen. I used to give suggestions about such issues in our weekly journal exchanges, but some people will not take a hint.

And you didn't say "some" in your headline. You said, "instructorS."

llg, PhD, RN · Sep 3, 2015

I have experienced this with almost EVERY nursing instructor I had.
I can honestly say they would rather see you fail than succeed.
Has anyone else experienced this ?

I agree that there are some bad instructors out there. I had one myself as a student many years ago -- and she scarred me for life. But your original post (quoted above) says "almost EVERY" instructor that you have ever had and suggests that they are pretty much all bad.

No ... I can't support that. Even though I had a bad one, I know that many instructors are good.

emmy27 · Sep 3, 2015

As a current student, I can say that I have not had one instructor that wanted me to fail. Clinical instructors included. I see a lot of people come in and talk about getting written up at clincial, is that a common practice? I have never heard of that. Do some schools not give students the support they need at clinical?
At the beginning of every semester, I get really nervous before clinical. I always wonder what the instructor expects us to know and not know and where we are skills wise. Some of the skills I haven't got to practice since Fundamentals last fall. And every semester when I talk to my clinical instructor they always make me feel great about their expectations with skills. They will be there to talk to us and we can ask as many questions as we want. They will never say anything negative in front of the patient so the patient does not lose confidence in us, that if they see us doing something wrong, they will stop us and talk to us but not in front of the patient. It's always reassuring to me as the student that our clinical instructors expect us to be students.

In my program, making an error (even an error that was caught before it reached the patient/had no consequences) resulted in a write up and three write ups in one semester (not one class- one semester- so they were cumulative across clinical courses) resulted in dismissal from the program with no possibility of readmission.

Now, when I say "error," it had to be something you were actually attempting to do, or not knowing a critical piece of information when asked by the instructor. You were fine to ask questions outside the room, before a procedure, and the instructors were very helpful if you were open about what you needed. Not knowing an answer in a general discussion of theory was also okay.

But once you started actual patient care... no med errors. No missteps in a sterile procedure. No not knowing a relevant vital, failure to identify the patient, or failure to communicate what you were doing and what potential side effects they could expect. Not not knowing what the med you were about to give was for or what you should assess related to it when asked. All potentially grounds for write-ups (not in front of the patient, but if the instructor spotted you in an error, they would simply calmly take over the procedure and then when you left the room, you knew what was coming). A handful of students were dismissed from our program on this basis while I was there.

Stressful? Hellllll yes. The learning method I would advocate for personally? Probably not. But we did have a 100% NCLEX pass rate and an excellent reputation with local hiring managers. When the stakes are that high for you personally- when screwing up could get you kicked out of the program you've struggled and paid to be a part of, with no takebacks- it quickly trains you in a very focused way to take everything you do 100% seriously, even though you're "just" a student. Which is good, because once you're in independent practice, the potential consequences are injury or death to a patient. And there's no takebacks there, either. And honestly, I think the kind of students who continued to make thoughtless errors, knowing their careers were on the line, after two warnings in one short time period, probably weren't cut out for nursing.

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Sep 3, 2015

And, just to point out something, I did not say every single instructor. I said "almost every instructor".

You actually said "almost EVERY instructor." Which implies a whole lot more than one or two, seeing as how you chose to put EVERY in all caps. It kind of implied you actually meant pretty much EVERY instructor.

Own your posts.

AspiringNurseMW · Sep 3, 2015

Wow....I can see that a lot of nursing instructors answered here and I guess I should not be surprised that they are of
the opinion that it really isn't them its the student.

I think you have an issue with generalizations. Out of the entire 3 pages of answers you had when you posted this, maybe 3 or 4 were from instructors. The rest of them, the vast majority of the answers, were from other students, all of which express the same sentiments.

NurseFifty · Sep 4, 2015

Its the nursing culture. For whatever reason, 'nurses eat their young' starts in nursing school. Until all of these old guards retire and with their their attitude, nursing wiill remain the same.

These instructors keep telling us Nurses are professionals, nbut I have seen a lot of them not carrying tjhemselves ina professional demeanor. The entire Nursing profession is so ridden with old school attritude of treating RNs as if they are rank-and-file employees. They bark orders at you, they yell at you, they do things in the workplace that elsewhere is called "harrassment" and "workplace violence" that a supervisor could get fired for. And it is pervasive in the hospitalsa nd the SNFs and wherever nurses work, so HR MUST know about it , but they do nothing to correct the situation. Why? they expect nurese to take the abuse.

Jensmom7, BSN, RN · Sep 4, 2015

Its the nursing culture. For whatever reason, 'nurses eat their young' starts in nursing school. Until all of these old guards retire and with their their attitude, nursing wiill remain the same.
These instructors keep telling us Nurses are professionals, nbut I have seen a lot of them not carrying tjhemselves ina professional demeanor. The entire Nursing profession is so ridden with old school attritude of treating RNs as if they are rank-and-file employees. They bark orders at you, they yell at you, they do things in the workplace that elsewhere is called "harrassment" and "workplace violence" that a supervisor could get fired for. And it is pervasive in the hospitalsa nd the SNFs and wherever nurses work, so HR MUST know about it , but they do nothing to correct the situation. Why? they expect nurese to take the abuse.

Gee, tell us how you REALLY feel...

Emergent, RN · Sep 4, 2015

Its the nursing culture. For whatever reason, 'nurses eat their young' starts in nursing school. Until all of these old guards retire and with their their attitude, nursing wiill remain the same.
These instructors keep telling us Nurses are professionals, nbut I have seen a lot of them not carrying tjhemselves ina professional demeanor. The entire Nursing profession is so ridden with old school attritude of treating RNs as if they are rank-and-file employees. They bark orders at you, they yell at you, they do things in the workplace that elsewhere is called "harrassment" and "workplace violence" that a supervisor could get fired for. And it is pervasive in the hospitalsa nd the SNFs and wherever nurses work, so HR MUST know about it , but they do nothing to correct the situation. Why? they expect nurese to take the abuse.

I hate to break it to you, but nurses ARE rank and file employees.

Also, as unofficial Allnurses post critic, your post is rife with typos.

Last, but not least, younger nurses can and do engage in obnoxious social behaviors in the workplace, not just us old guard.