Nursing Instructors Would Rather see You Fail than Succeed

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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 ?

Specializes in Hospice.
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.

You do realize that once the "old guard" retires (or dies, whichever comes first), YOU will become the old guard, and all the sweet young entitlement snowflakes will complain that you boss them around and don't give them the respect they feel they deserve?

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Specializes in Psychiatric/Co-occurring Disorders.

In my experience, the instructors that have been the hardest on me, are typically the ones who see great potential. I believe that these instructors push students when they see something special. Essentially, they are fairly certain that you can handle the pressure and desperately want you to reach your full potential. At least this is what I have ascertained.

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Never had this experience. A lot of my classmates who have problems with our professors tend to be the ones who blame the professor for not bumping their grade from a 81 to an 82 (82 = B ), accepting late homework, or giving them a better grade on a paper.

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My instructors are amazing, and have honestly alleviated most of my fears of being inadequate... Yeah, they show tough love. But they never leave out the "love" part. :up: If anything they do not want us to be an embarrassment to the college, or to the pt's facility.

My nursing school has a 100% passing rate, and my instructors intend to keep it that way.

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Specializes in Education.

A sample size of one does not a survey make...

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Specializes in Managed Care.

OP, can you provide some examples that help us understand your complaint?

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Specializes in Peds/Neo CCT,Flight, ER, Hem/Onc.
OP, can you provide some examples that help us understand your complaint?

He/She did. It was one instructor who wrote him/her up. Then the OP gave us a ton of attitude when we didn't give the answers they wanted.

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Not all instructors are cut from the same cloth, nor nursing students. However, if you experienced consistent negativity from your instructors, perhaps you might want to take an introspective look at yourself. I had tough instructors who were not nice or perhaps did not like me, but I never felt as though they wanted me to fail. When I did have "run ins", I found it best to address it with the instructor. Most of the time it was resolved with little to no fanfare.

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The manner in which people respond in this posts tells a lot. That is what I refer to as Professional demeanor. There is no need for ridicule, just treat everyine's response with respect. Don;t hide behind an anonymous handle to perpertuate the nurses' attitude that is being complained about by the OP in the first place.

All these reports about nursing instructors do happen. And you'd be disadvantaged in school if you closed your eyes. That doesnt mean you have to keep complaining about it. You have to work with it. Your goal while in school is to graduate and not be best friends with your nursing insutructors. They can act out the way they choose to, but think that in a few years you'd have the same RN license as they are!

As for RNs not being professionals and being rank and file, it would help if you look up the definiton of Professional Nursing. Be proud of your profession. Nobody will respect you if you do not respect yourself as an RN.

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Specializes in Peds/Neo CCT,Flight, ER, Hem/Onc.
The manner in which people respond in this posts tells a lot. That is what I refer to as Professional demeanor. There is no need for ridicule, just treat everyine's response with respect. Don;t hide behind an anonymous handle to perpertuate the nurses' attitude that is being complained about by the OP in the first place.

All these reports about nursing instructors do happen. And you'd be disadvantaged in school if you closed your eyes. That doesnt mean you have to keep complaining about it. You have to work with it. Your goal while in school is to graduate and not be best friends with your nursing insutructors. They can act out the way they choose to, but think that in a few years you'd have the same RN license as they are!

As for RNs not being professionals and being rank and file, it would help if you look up the definiton of Professional Nursing. Be proud of your profession. Nobody will respect you if you do not respect yourself as an RN.

So. I looked back at every single post and nobody ridiculed the OP. Most of the posters just disagreed with the original premise that almost EVERY instructor wants to fail students.

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Specializes in Community Health/School Nursing.
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 !

LOL Bless. Good luck. No, you picked the wrong profession. And you're welcome.

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Specializes in Hospital medicine; NP precepting; staff education.

One of my favorite instructors (whom I had for three rotations) would grill me and grill me. Gosh, if she hadn't been so "mean" I would never have understood the rationale behind my work.

This is in 1998 and I still remember the scene: Patient with a SBO on an NGT is receiving TPN and I am tasked with doing a fingerstick blood sugar. I was so excited! I get to touch the patient and perform an assessment! The CI asks me if the patient is not a diabetic why are we doing FSBS? I didn't know! I didn't understand! BUT, she guided me through the critical thinking of what was going on with the patient.

So many years later now I would not hesitate to answer that because the solution seems so obvious to an experienced nurse.

But, as a student, I was in a role of learning and learn I did.

Now, I am a person who loves to ask questions. One didactic instructor in class would roll her eyes when I'd raise my hand and went as far as to say, "WKShadow, I hope this is a meaningful question." It was embarrassing, demeaning, and belittling. It made me feel as if my inquiries were invalid and not worthy of consideration. That is why I developed the method to write all of my questions down and then if they did not get answered by the end of class, I'd ask.

The good CI from above addressed my exuberance and eagerness thusly: privately she pulled me aside and told me that her peers wanted her to bring an apple to their meetings, and that maybe I should bring one to class. "Why? Do you get low blood sugar?" I queried. "No, they think I talk too much. It will give you a moment to pause before talking and be less likely to annoy others."

I took that criticism much better than the snarky comment in class in front of my peers.

I remember both.

Which one made me grow? Each, actually but in different ways.

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