partners for clinical-help!

[brokenroads27]

this is my first semester, second time around, and my instructor this year decided to give us partners for the first few clinical sessions. i dont mind this, in fact, at first i was excited because its good moral support IF you get along with the person. my partner this week though is REALLY frustrating. she acts like a know it all, but doesnt know what shes talking about at all. so i try to tell her the right way and she tells me no. seriously? i know this is a matter of being assertive on my part but how do i handle this? im not the instructor, so im not going to sit there and teach her how to do things. also, she is lazy and is ready to leave the floor after only being there for like 2 hours. she complains about everything. i just roll my eyes. i am just getting extremely annoyed and i dont know how to handle it. suggestions please!

[smartin13]

My suggestion is this do what you need to do, and take care of yourself since this is your second time around. If that involves ignoring your partner and proceeding as if she wasn't there then do that. I wouldn't let anyone else hold me back. Also you are going to encounter all kinds of people in our profession and some will be lazy, and complain about everything and you will have to work with them. My friends and I have a saying that we use to help each other get thru rough patches "You can do anything for X amount of time." Such as you can work with this partner for 4 clinicals. It puts things into perspective. Hope it helps.

[sweetiepeas]

I don't see a problem with talking to your instructor. This is supposed to be beneficial to you. You can talk to her without being a tattle tell.

Either that or I would just go about my own business. Do what you need to do and let her trail behind.

[cingle]

If you think she's a know-it-all, but you're trying to tell her the right things to do...hmmmm.

Whatever you are to do/perform in lab, maybe you could print out the instruction/steps or use the book they come from and use THAT as the guide for how to do skills correctly. Maybe say something like, "Would you read the steps as I'm doing the skill so I can be sure to get the steps down?" That way neither of you is "right" but you both learn what you need to learn.