Nursing School Hazing Stories

pagandeva2000, LPN · May 28, 2008

I think that I was hazed by the program director. She hated people who were independent and didn't act like the crowd by running to her office to tattle about everyone. She was openly rude to me, hated the fact that I was doing so well without begging for her advice and would go out of her way to humilate me. We were the first LPN class in that school and I graduated top of the class and didn't show up for graduation. Never regretted it, and never looked back.

tanthalas · May 28, 2008

This story is kinda different where nurses were pranking med students.

One of the new med students was assigned a patient who was violent, aggressive, unpredictable, and suicidal. You could see this patient's second-floor room from the staff room on the first floor. On April Fool's, when the patient was elsewhere for physio, the nurses made a dummy out of pillows, tied a string around its "neck" and hung it from the ceiling. The med student, who was having dinner on the first floor staff room, saw a body-like shape hanging from the ceiling and went flying up to the patient's room.

Needless to say the nurses had a riot.

Bumashes, MSN, APRN, NP · May 28, 2008

I am so glad to be a Spring 2008 grad! I hated my nursing school experience. It was full of mean, petty instructors who went looking for reasons to fail you. Of course, there were some who actually were there to help, but even they got hazed for not being hard enough on the students.

Anyway, a good friend of mine, who would have been an excellent nurse, was chased out of nursing by these same ignorant instructors. In my school, you knew you were about to be ousted from the program once you started getting write-ups or Unsats for things that didn't make sense. Well, it began happening to my friend, and it all came to head one day. She did her assessment on her first pt and moved on to the other two. Afterwards, she charted and then made rounds to see if she could help any of the rest of us. During her absence, the instructor took it upon himself to ask pt #1 about what the student nurse had done with her that morning. The pt was clueless as to what had been done because, of course, most pts are unaware of what the meaning of things we do are, such as cap refill. Anyway, the instructor concluded that since the pt had no clue, then the assessment must not have been done, and therefore this girl was lying.

Now, I don't know about y'all, but that seems a bit stupid to me. The pt recognized that vitals had been taken, and said that the girl did other stuff, but she couldn't explain it. Anyway, instead of inquiring of the student to get her perspective, the instructor proceeded to tear the student down in front of the unit manager, and went on and on about falsifying documentation and other such nonsense. Unfortunately, this girl is a kind-hearted, soft-spoken, non-confrontational type. So she just took it, walked out of clinical, and never came back. Now she's going to school to be a social worker. I was burned up so badly about this incident that I wrote anonymously to the program director about this. I made the letter very professional, but made it clear that this instructor had been getting away with abuse for too long. Not that anybody gave a flying fart about the letter, but at least it made me feel better. In my school, to stand up against anything in the program is a quick way to not become a nurse. So, since I'm a graduate now, I simply smile when asked where I went to school and tell them where, and then I also say that it was the worst experience ever, and I do not recommend the program to anyone unless you like feeling ashamed 24/7 and groveling before the almighty instructors. There is not a day that goes by that I don't thank God above for getting me through that awful school.

TazziRN, RN · May 28, 2008

My experience was when I was a CNA student. The LTC was part of a really old building, the county hospital. It was old enough that some of the rooms had 8-10 beds, and the floor plan was weird. I literally had no idea where the pt bathroom was. One of my pts was a bedridden para, a very nice old vet who fulled a urinal throughout the night. This was back in the days when the first void of diabetics was tested for glucose. It had been drilled into our heads that we were to double check that the pt wasn't diabetic before dumping urine in the morning. I grabbed the urinal and hunted down a "real" CNA and asked her what I was supposed to do with it, meaning, can I dump it or does it get tested. She told me to dump it in the bathroom, then in a really loud and sneering voice she asked all of her coworkers "What does she think she's supposed to do with it??" I waslked around with this urinal looking for the bathroom because I was not about to ask her where it was.

Dolce, RN · May 28, 2008

This story is kinda different where nurses were pranking med students.
One of the new med students was assigned a patient who was violent, aggressive, unpredictable, and suicidal. You could see this patient's second-floor room from the staff room on the first floor. On April Fool's, when the patient was elsewhere for physio, the nurses made a dummy out of pillows, tied a string around its "neck" and hung it from the ceiling. The med student, who was having dinner on the first floor staff room, saw a body-like shape hanging from the ceiling and went flying up to the patient's room.
Needless to say the nurses had a riot.

Oh, thats wicked. :devil:

faith&joy · Feb 17, 2011

OK, all this pales in comparison to my clinical. The professor is cruel and bullying to the one student she hates, and its senior year-Spring semester! She has no intention of passing her. I am so sad. To watch and see the cruelty-it just like a horror movie. Did someone say they were writing a book about this topic back in a 2009 thread? Word needs to get out. I had no idea that this was happening. If I did, I never would have gone to nursing school. It is evil to destroy someone's hardwork and carreer. How do they sleep at night knowing they have caused so much emotional pain and suffering? Espcially to this student, who is a mom with children. My friend cries every night. Sadly, I think my professor would be thrilled to know that.

colzanurse · Feb 22, 2011

I remember being hazed by one instructor. Only one. The rest were very encouraging and supportive. I graduated with honors and awards. This one told me if she didn't already know me and how smart I was before taking her course, there was no way she would pass me through the clinical she was in charge of. Other instructors wrote me up for awards after they had me in clinicals. Go figure. She knew me from Student Nurse Association activities and from hearing good things from other instructors. I clearly remember how the hair would stand up on the back of my neck and I would get stomach aches when she would drill me about meds and disease processes, especially during med pass. That was the total worst. No one else in nursing school had ever made me feel that way. I really don't think the problem was me. She always seemed to fail some students in every clinical of hers. Some nurses (and instructors) do eat their young. Nursing school is for teaching and learning, not for hazing and humiliating. That's not what we pay those big tuition bucks for. I wish there was some actual recourse for this type of abuse.