Nursing school Clinicals

[Trinity33]

I've been taking classes toward an RN degree and started my first semester of Nursing school. I am in my clinicals at a long term care facility where we were each assigned a patient. Our job was to create a care plan for them. In order to aquire more information about mine, I asked the nurse on staff that cares for her some questions. Apparently she told my instructor I had asked questions and he blew up at me after class. I am guessing she was annoyed by the questions.

My instuctor is now very upset with me, as I could tell he would no longer make eye contact with me, verbally began saying I don't know anything, and now failed my care plan. I noticed today that my classmates were discussing how he left them many notes but had not taken off points.

I am already under a lot of stress with a full courseload, and also work outside of school. My instructor has been very difficult to approach and responds to questions with questions. I feel as though I am now being subject to his emotions.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me? Was I wrong to ask the nurse? I was not advised not to talk to anyone.

(Another student had missed some work and was going to be sent home and mentioned too he would not look at her, so this is a behavior trend when he is upset).

I fear telling anyone will cause for problems but also very upset over this. I am an A-B student and do not beleive this is an issue of my not doing the work or knowing how to do it. I now face failing my very first clinical and not sure what that would mean going forward if I wanted to switch schools or how it might affect my standing.

[dream'n, BSN, RN]

Even though he is being difficult to talk to, I'd try again. Ask what he feels you need to work on and let him know that you are willing to work hard to succeed.

[Trinity33]

He is a loose cannon, and I never know when it might blow. I am honestly terrified to go to back to clinicals. He made me cry the very first day along with another student. I really want to finish up my clinical but it will be at some cost to my mental health for sure. I don't know how these people get to be instructors. I will try but it will be very very difficult.

[Sour Lemon]

3 hours ago, Trinity33 said:

I've been taking classes toward an RN degree and started my first semester of Nursing school. I am in my clinicals at a long term care facility where we were each assigned a patient. Our job was to create a care plan for them. In order to aquire more information about mine, I asked the nurse on staff that cares for her some questions. Apparently she told my instructor I had asked questions and he blew up at me after class. I am guessing she was annoyed by the questions.

My instuctor is now very upset with me, as I could tell he would no longer make eye contact with me, verbally began saying I don't know anything, and now failed my care plan. I noticed today that my classmates were discussing how he left them many notes but had not taken off points.

I am already under a lot of stress with a full courseload, and also work outside of school. My instructor has been very difficult to approach and responds to questions with questions. I feel as though I am now being subject to his emotions.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me? Was I wrong to ask the nurse? I was not advised not to talk to anyone.

(Another student had missed some work and was going to be sent home and mentioned too he would not look at her, so this is a behavior trend when he is upset).

I fear telling anyone will cause for problems but also very upset over this. I am an A-B student and do not beleive this is an issue of my not doing the work or knowing how to do it. I now face failing my very first clinical and not sure what that would mean going forward if I wanted to switch schools or how it might affect my standing.

What kinds of questions were you asking? And when? And were other people around when you were asking?

[Trinity33]

I explained that I am a student which they knew and putting together a care plan for their client resident, and asked for any input they could provide on things they noticed about their care. Nobody else really around and it was inside the nurse private area.

[JKL33]

What were his criticisms during the rant?

He probably wanted you to assess the patient and review the patient's record (to the extent you are allowed to do so).

I'm guessing he decided that the questioning was a short-cut. It was a very broad question that may have been received by the nurse as "tell me what I need to know." There are probably dozens of things that could be mentioned about any resident's care. But you are there as a student to assess the patient and to put information from your assessment together with information in the chart, and come up with your own nursing dx/care plans.

[Trinity33]

He just made it sound like they had complained about it. This as I know is typical in this type environment, since its very slow paced and not education based. I think he was upset because its his clinical site and they were complaining. Yes that also could be, I was just using all resources, since we only had 2 days to complete it. I had already completed the assessment while he watched me do it. I also looked in the charts and computer records. I just thought I would ask to see if I missed something.

[JKL33]

There are so many factors it's hard to say why he disagreed with your course of action. In any instance he shouldn't have blown up. I hope you will take this in the helpful spirit it is intended when I say that it doesn't surprise me that this incident has happened to someone who also became upset and cried on the very first day of clinical. I'm sorry, but I'm afraid stuff like that is irresistible to some people.

I think your best bet is to get tough, regardless of anything else. Do you want to war with this guy or get through this clinical?

I would commit to one attempt to rectify this before considering other options. I'd ask for a brief meeting with him (either prior to clinical or during office hours if he has them) and let him know you have thought about his feedback and have a plan to ____________ in order to do better in the future.

Yes, staff nurses are often resources - but not for something that broad. They have a job to concentrate on whether it looks fast-paced or slower. Your instructor is your resource for "here's what I came up with - can we talk it over to make sure I'm on the right track?"

Work hard.

Right or wrong, this is going to be one massive headache and emotional roller-coaster unless he understands that you want to learn and can't be so easily intimidated.

Good luck ~

[Trinity33]

Thanks I really appreciate all the advice! If this does not work, then what other options do I really have? I can walk out and recieve an F in the course to save my sanity, but I should not have to.

[FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN]

I'm going to be very straight with you and it might sound harsh, but if you listen objectively, don't get emotional, and take my advice it will help you.

Somehow, you broke a rule, possibly an unspoken, unwritten rule. This is not uncommon in clinical because nursing education has changed a lot. Nurses can have vastly different opinions on how students should behave.

You either came across a nurse who believes students should not ask the nurses questions, or you bothered her while she was busy. Either way, don't do it again. Do all of your own research when writing care plans. Bring your textbook to clinical. Don't ask the nurses for anything.

Apologize to the instructor for asking the nurse questions. State that you have learned from your mistake and it will not happen again. You are taking responsibility for your education.

You will not lose mental health from this, you will only gain knowledge, experience, character.

Your other options are to quit or complain to a superior, both of which would be a failure to learn.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Moved to general nursing student forum

[rnhopeful82, ASN, RN]

My first clinical (I feel a lot of people have first clincials) was in long term care. We never approached the nurse about anything as most nurses at the LTC places were super busy being the only nurse and trying to do med passes. I am assuming that was part of the issue. You *should* be able to glean any information needed for a careplan from the patient and the chart. Those charts should have so much information as the patient is a resident there. Use the information provided. Your classmates were able to complete their careplans without using the nurse. Even if they got points off, they did the work themselves. Clinical instructors tend to be quite territorial and protective of their clinical sites. If nursing staff complains, it can easily mean that site is no longer open to the school and schools have a tough time securing places sometimes. Keep your head down and get the work done.

Quitting now seems like a bad idea as 1. failing this clinical may end you up with the same instructor again assuming you are able to retake it or 2. you may not be able to afford to fail a class and retake anything. 3. Applying to another school is just going to diminish all of the work you've put into getting to here. One clinical group at my school had an instructor that made many of the people cry and have horrible anxiety. They pushed on and got passed it. Should it happen? No, but it does and you may have to rise above it. Hopefully the rest of the semester goes smoothly and you get better instructors moving forward. (Side note: the nurses at the hospital sites I have been to since then have been super friendly and have more time to help answer questions if needed, though never to complete the careplan, do that yourself). Good luck.