I really hope this one can stay in General...I'd hate to think I unwittingly scared the bejeebers out of a poor undergrad.
Was rereading Echo Heron the other day, and her bout through nursing school made me remember (NOT fondly) my own school days. I swear, I think I'd rather have a gun to my head than repeat that experience.
One memory that stands out had to do with this teacher (still can not stand her) who was so blamed power-mad, every little thing became a stand-off. Our first week, she laughed at me (and anyone else who did the same) when I mispronounced a term. Me being me, when she goofed later that same week, I called her on it. (I am a bit vengeful, and no, normal lymph nodes are NOT hard and tender!)
We were in lab one day, and I started to not feel that great...so I excused myself, went to the bathroom, and passed out cold. Made it to the infirmary, where I was presented with a + flu test and a ticket home. Even with the head nurse's report that I was contagious, had a 103 fever and could NOT finish lab, that witch still tried to give me a U. A big U, at that.
I know it's not nice. I know it's not Christian, but I hate that woman to this day.
I am still a nursing student (graduate in December with ADN yay!) and after reading those I know just how lucky I am :heartbeat Our instructors genuinely want us to do well and they work so hard with us to make sure that we do. Nearly every instructor I have had has gone out of their way to make sure we get a great deal of experience. As sure as I say this though, 4th semester will probably be awful lol But honestly I would recommend my school to anyone out there. I have actually had a great experience thus far with instructors, nurses, and doctors. Occasionally I have run into one that would rather I not be there, but that is few and far between.
Actually, nursing school wasn't that bad. My instructors were generally pretty good and quite supportive. Of course, this was more than a few years ago.
My third semester I had this horrible instructor (Mrs. K). She started off the semester by telling us her name and her nursing hx.
"I worked on a med surge floor for 3 years and hated it. I worked in an ICU for 5 years and hated it. I worked home health for 2 years and I hated it. I worked in LTC for 5 years and hated it." Not kidding lol.
Well she had been an instructor for a few years and I think she hated that too. Because really, the kind of person you want to be teaching nursing is someone who hates it.:uhoh3:
She was so mean and hated me for some reason. She made fun of me all the time from my nurse's notes, to my technique, to how I talked to pts. I remember one time I asked her a question (nothing huge, just a quick question about a pt's dressing change) and she exploded in front of the pt. "YOU NEVER EVER EVER ASK A QUESTION IN FRONT OF A PT!!!!!" Because screaming at a student nurse in front of a pt is sooooo much better.
She followed me around saying over and over again, "You don't EVER ask a question in front of a pt." She followed me into the charting room/our meeting room, down the hallway, up the hallway. She humiliated me in front of my fellow classmates. Everyone was staring at their notebooks and she continued to harass me until I simply got up and walked out the door (to cry in the bathroom). She dropped it when I came back.
She was a horrible nurse and teacher. She wanted me to flush an NG tube and I was having a little trouble (because, you know, I'd only done it on a dummy before but should be perfect and quick my first time on a real human). She grabbed it out of my hand and then started screaming at me (again in front of a patient), "Hurry up! Hurry up! I'm getting stomach contents all over my hands!" (She refused to wear gloves and did not wash her hands after.) This happened the next day too. She refused to wear gloves, grabbed the NG tube out of my hands because I dared to take 30 seconds to start flushing it, and started screaming at me about stomach contents on her hands. And did not wash her hands.:barf02:
Anyone else ever have a clinical instructor who was called a f*cking b*tch several times by different pts who felt bad for me?
My end of the semester review was not kind lol. I wrote that she enjoyed humiliating her students and several pts had called her names because of how mean she was in front of them.
Then when I saw her the next semester for some reason she started talking to me, really nicely, and somehow slipped into the conversation that her mother was dying of cancer and her daughter was getting married to someone she didn't like. I kinda felt bad for her afterwards, but, still, you shouldn't treat people like that.
My final project as a senior nursing student didn't go very well. It was a public health class, and we were a group of 10 with massive senioritis..we just wanted to graduate already. We turned in a project that, frankly, we were not proud of, but we felt it met the minimum requirements and felt pretty decent about it. Our instructor disagreed. She spent two hours dissecting our project, berating us for every little thing. We were feeling pretty low by the end, when she announced our final grade..a B. To this day, I can't figure out the purpose of yelling at us for that long, only to give us a B. I guess it made her feel better.
Jeezzz, I guess I was really lucky, I went to school during the dark ages - '71-'72 and all of our instructors were good, some were scary because they were x-army nurses but they all were there for us in their own way. I loved nursing school and felt I was very well prepaired.
Of course back then the floor nurses helped out and were involved with our training too because they knew we would be their co-workers when we graduated.
Our whole class graduated and we all passed the boards on our first try!
However, back then we had to wear a dress for a uniform, white nylons (pre-pantyhose), granny oxfords and our nursing caps that were HUGE. So trying to do all the bending, lifting, crawling under and around beds while trying to stay "modest" was a nightmare:rolleyes:.
You can see said uniform in the uni-sub forum...I posted the photo of me in my student uni...akkk.
3rd quarter, I was on a med-surg floor. I had an easy patient and the day was going pretty smoothly. There was a very lazy nurse on the floor who passed all of her work onto the students without even bothering to check on her patients AT ALL throughout the day. I know we're supposed to assume the role of nurse during clinicals but not checking them at all is not smart. The junior students were there for their first day of clinicals, doing bed baths and changing linens. THe lazy nurse flagged me and one of the juniors down and asked if we could take her patient to the bathroom because she didn't have time. Right, you're too busy watching soap operas in the lounge, whatever. When we got her out of bed, we noticed the large amount of blood on her sheets so while she pooped, we changed her sheets. When she got off the toilet, the bowl was FULL of blood. She proceeded to tell us she should've been discharged that morning but the MD wanted to figure out why she was bleeding suddenly. We get her back in bed and go find her nurse. I told her "She is bleeding profusely, the toilet is FULL of blood and her sheets were soaked so we changed them. I did not flush the toilet because I want you to see it. You should really check her out." She completely dismissed it and said the pt would be fine. I notified my instructor, and she tried to find the nurse but couldn't and ultimately dismissed it because she wasn't our responsibility and she had to give meds with some students. 30 minutes later, people are flocking to the patients room to prep her for emergency surgery. She said she had to poop again so she was being helped up by one CNA. When she stood, she bled all over the floor and they slipped and fell. It was SO hectic! And the lazy nurse came running like "What's happening??" When the CNA explained the blood, the nurse said "I had no idea she was bleeding!" EXCUSE ME? We told you, I practically begged you to go down to check on her, you knew your patient wasn't being discharged because she was bleeding, how can you say you didn't know? I couldn't believe it. My instructor came back to me and said "You told her, right? I know you told me, but you told her too, didn't you?" I said yea, I told her first. And then she went on a rant about how she hates lazy nurses and that's why you should do your work for yourself because when something goes down, a he said-she said situation never looks good for you. I felt bad because I was thinking I should have done more. They took her down but she was brought right back up, I don't know why, but she was fine.
At our school, if you got 3 med errors, you were brought down a grade. If you got another 3, you were out. Well, I got 3 in one day.
1. Pt was going down for a cardiac cath. We can't give meds without our instructor. I had my meds prepped, in our cart, ready to go. The instructor was in a room with another patient giving meds when I got the order for her to go. It was a big rush so I pulled the cart from the room, ran down the hall, and started pushing the meds. Unfortunately, I didn't sign out of the previous student's name and it looked like she gave the meds. So there was a huge holdup while we tried to fix it. Med error 1.
2. The pt comes back and it's time for her meds. She was in pain and wanted Lortab or something. We get down the hall and I realize I forgot her Lortab so we had to go back. Med error 2.
3. We're in the room, she's taking her meds, she's talking to her family and us. I watch closely as she swallows the pills. She folds the cup over and puts it next to her. Now I've given her meds before and this is the sign that she's done. I didn't look in the cup, I just picked it up and tossed it. She says AFTER it's in the trash (it tooks me like 10 secs to slowly back over to the trash can and toss it because we were talking) "there's one pill left in there." My instructor says "Oh, i thought you took them all." So I get the cup out, my instructor says I can give it to her because the pt folded the cup over and the little trash can was empty anyway. Med error 3.
And then I got points taken off because I didn't document in the computer that I was checking her peripheral pulses. I was given a sheet that was posted on her wall and I was documenting it there, but not the computer. I should've known better. It was a horrid day lol. Then the next week a different instructor decided to tell EVERYONE that I had gotten 3 med errors in one day but I had had a much better day that day. So embarrassing.
A couple more..didn't happen to me, but I witnessed them!
-Nursing instructor D was a super "witch." She told a student that she didn't like her, no one liked her, and if she had her way she'd kick her right out of the hospital and the program. She told this to the poor girl first thing in the morning so she spent the whole day crying off and on, whenever she thought no one was around.
-Another instructor had a student change the dressing on a PICC line and the entire time he was saying "I don't know how to do this, I've never done this before." Poor woman was so scared and was threatening everyone saying she was gonna get her daughter to sue the hospital if anything went wrong. The PICC line team was SO mad!
-A patient had an elevated D Dimer and the student walked the patient up and down the hall several times and when he got back in bed he said he couldn't breathe. Oh nursing instructor D blew a gasket! Poor girl. She ended up failing the cardio test and failed out of the program.
Specializes in Peds Urology,primary care, hem/onc.
My overall nursing school experience was not bad but I had a couple of doozies.
My OB clinical instructor was horrible. For whatever reason, she did NOT like me. I had no issues with any of my other instructors throughout nursing school. I was the only one in my rotation that never got to see a live birth. I was assigned several patients that were in for preterm labor that had already been stabilized. 1 would have been a good learning experience but several?? There were plenty of patients those days as well so I could have seen a delivery, she just chose to not allow me to watch one.
When we were on the post partum floor, I had a mom/baby couplet that were about to be discharged. I had done all of my tasks on them and they did not have another patient for me to take once they were gone. I went about helping the other nurses on the floor, making beds, changing linens etc.
My clinical instructor came barging up to me and started berating me in the hallway in front of everyone demanding to know where I had been as she had gone in my patient's room and it was empty. I advised her what I had been doing (they had stressed to us the importance of always pitching in, keeping busy etc) and that I was doing only what she had been stressing was important. She then looked at me and said, "Oh, I thought you had left the floor for the day!". This was our last week of clinical 2nd year, I knew WAY better than that. Why would she immediately think I just left and jump to that conclusion. Why didn't she ask my classmates/other nurses if they had seen me. Oh it was a nightmare. Luckily, she was the only bad one I had. Everyone else I had was wonderful.
Our director of our program was a nightmare though. I remember, a month before graduation, she instructed our class that the similated boards we had to take at the end of the semester had to be passed the first time around or we would not graduate. I kinow this is more the norm now, but 13 years ago it wasn't and it was not in the student handbook of policies that we had to sign at the beginning of the year. We knew we had to take it and pass it but it was never, you fail it the day before graduation, you do not graduate. I remember standing up in class and saying something to the effect that she could not change policy 4 weeks before the end of the semester. I was very professional and polite but stood my ground. I had a 3.9 GPA and was graduating with high honors, what was she going to do, fail me? A couple of my classmates had their parents call her to complain and she was able to turn the parents on the their child (you know how some sniveling teachers can do that?). So, when my mom got wind of this, she called her (I was 21 at the time and my parents where paying my tuition). My mom was of the mindset, no WAY I am paying all this $$$ and you are going to threaten my honor student daughter she may not graduate! The bottom line of our argument was they were changing policy 4 weeks before graduation. If we had known all along it was a graduation requirement we would have prepped more for it. I warned my mom that she would try and turn her against me as she had my friends. My mom is very sharp and great in a confrontation. The first words out of the director's mouth to my mom was, "That RNsrgr8t, she is quite tenacious isn't she?". To which, my brilliant mother replied, "Yes she is, thank you, we raised her to be that way and stand up for what is right!". They ended up changing it so we had more than one chance to take it and pass it.
I did have one professor in grad school that drove me crazy. She was our research professor who was a gerontology APN. She made it quite clear she was not a fan of pediatrics (and there for all of us PNP students). We had to do a paper on theoretical frameworks so I chose Erikson's stages of developement and found a research study that used it as a framework (the goals of the assignment). She ended up giving me a C on the paper b/c she argued with me that may stages of developement were wrong. They weren't and I had the references to back me up but she kept insisting I was wrong. The ones she was arguing with me about? The pediatric ages. Oh well, what can you do. Was my only C in grad school.
i had really bad teeth when i was younger (many of them are porcelain now ) one day went into clinical with a huge bruise on my mental protruberance (point of my chin) from an apicoectomy (removal of the tip of the root) and some fairly extensive bone curettage, front and center, from osteomyelitis related to bad dental work the year before:eek:. my patient had had...pretty much the same work, plus some more. we looked at each other, smiled (slightly), and got along famously for the day. later my instructor chided me for not engaging her in enough conversation. i pointed out that neither of us were much up for it.
of course this was nothing compared to my classmate who was helping pass breakfast trays on our very first day of clinical and took one in to an old gentleman who was stone cold dead in the bed. she left and never came back.
I am a 3rd semester nursing student currently. I have mostly enjoyed nursing school. I love to learn, love clinicals, love to practice skills. My very first semester I was top of my class (in a class of 72 4.0 students I was quite proud of myself), I had one adjunct professor who was only with us during lab times teaching skills and watching us practice skills. Said adjunct and I would chat while they watched my partner perform skills. I thought they were sweet as pie and I never said a bad word about them or any faculty for that matter. I love nursing school!
Apparently said instructor did not feel the same way about me. (lol, love when that happens) so 3/4 of the way through 1st semester I get called into the head faculty office with a list, I kid you not, 2 pages long of my many lab mishaps...here's the kicker...NONE of it was true. I don't know if they got me mixed up with somebody else or if they just hated my guts and I was blind to it. But due to this one instructor that I dealt with for maybe 1 hour a week out of the 20+ hours we spent with faculty each week-I got written up...I also had the pleasure of writing a paper to apologize. I went to each faculty that I dealt with on a more regular basis to see if they found me lacking in lab or clinicals or theory and I got the same answer from each of them "Absolutely not!". I just wanted to apologize to them and ask for guidance if they felt I was truly lacking in some area. After writing my paper (which I was not very apologetic in, I will admit, because I used it as a way to explain that I wasn't sure what the allegations were about but that they were untrue) this adjunct instructor berated me in front of my entire clinical group, going so far as to make fun of my hair! Really? Because I care that you don't like that I have blonde highlights. OK! I took the criticism and avoided this one instructor for the rest of the semester like the plague because I had a really good relationship with every other instructor that I had. I got rave reviews on my mid-term and final evals, I ended my first semester with the highest grade in my class, and I gladly moved onto 2nd semester where I have had zero issues.
I don't think I've ever had someone who blatantly disliked me like that before. It was a new experience but I learned from it. Swallow your pride and move on because ultimately in the grand scheme of things, this one instructor was a very, very tiny blip on the radar of my life.
:uhoh3:
:barf02:
So embarrassing.
AndiSN
34 Posts
I am still a nursing student (graduate in December with ADN yay!) and after reading those I know just how lucky I am :heartbeat Our instructors genuinely want us to do well and they work so hard with us to make sure that we do. Nearly every instructor I have had has gone out of their way to make sure we get a great deal of experience. As sure as I say this though, 4th semester will probably be awful lol
But honestly I would recommend my school to anyone out there. I have actually had a great experience thus far with instructors, nurses, and doctors. Occasionally I have run into one that would rather I not be there, but that is few and far between.