Permanently Kicked out of Practicum

Nursing Students General Students

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Hi, nurses. I just made this account in order to write my second post. Despite a spotless record as a nursing student, an incident today at clinical may have forever crushed my hopes of ever becoming a nurse. So I'm not a nurse, and I may not even be a nursing student after tomorrow, but I had to come here and seek advice from people in this profession.

Specializes in oncology, MS/tele/stepdown.

This just sounds cray cray. I'm sure you're so incredibly frustrated, but you retaking and graduating a semester late is not the worst case scenario. Keep your nose clean and your chin up. Best of luck, and let us know when you officially finish so we can congratulate you!

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Specializes in Psychiatric and emergency nursing.
On 4/23/2019 at 5:29 PM, Susie2310 said:

I remember as a student that these standards of behavior were impressed on us before we even set foot at the clinical sites; we were cautioned that we were guests at the facility and expected to behave accordingly. I am pretty sure that if this situation had happened when I was a student that the nursing school would have taken a similar action. I think this situation is a stern reminder that as students we are expected to be on our best behavior at the clinical sites and to show respect for the staff and patients.

Your school would have allowed your clinical site to permanently remove you from a practicum...for talking in an OR...with other conversations going on around you? Really?

I agree with everyone else here in that it sounds like the circulating nurse just kinda had it in for you since she had already had to say something to you earlier in the surgery. Providing you weren't discussing any HIPAA-sensitive information in your conversation, unless your clinical site had a 'no talking during surgery' policy, I can't really see where you did anything wrong. The circulating nurse's reaction was over the top, and I agree that your school should have found another clinical site for you to finish your practicum, providing it wasn't found you were violating site policy or HIPAA. However, what's done is done. You'll still be graduating, just a semester later. Keep your head up and as Dory says, "Just keep swimming."

Sending you virtual hugs ?

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On 4/23/2019 at 2:38 PM, Horseshoe said:

Wow, what a harsh reaction. If I were your clinical instructor, I would have you apologize to every single person who was in that OR. I don't see the need for failing you from the class, however, especially if this is your first transgression.

In my experience, there is a LOT of chatter unrelated to the case in the OR. They play music, the docs and nurses often talk about the big game this week, their kids' doings, politics, current events, etc. Of course, any time a surgeon asks for quiet, he gets it so he can concentrate. But there is a whole lot of casual convo going on for the most part. As a student, it wasn't really very smart to carry on a conversation in there, especially after once being told to be quiet. The birth of a child is a very emotional, intimate time. I'm guessing that the circulator felt that your chit chat might well have detracted from the parent/baby bonding time, and that criticism is legit. But still, to fail you days away from graduation? An overreaction, in my opinion.

not certain that this is a harsh reaction or not since I wasn't there. However...as a former OR nurse, students should be SILENT. Never, ever, speak unless spoken to. The patient can hear more than you think or know in your limited awareness of anesthesia and surgery

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13 hours ago, twinsmom788 said:

not certain that this is a harsh reaction or not since I wasn't there. However...as a former OR nurse, students should be SILENT. Never, ever, speak unless spoken to. The patient can hear more than you think or know in your limited awareness of anesthesia and surgery

I think more than anything that the mom and dad baby moment is/should be a sacred time for them. The students' chatter was inappropriate no matter what, but doubly so if it interfered with that special time for the family.

I still think failing someone from a program of several years duration for one transgression is overly harsh. There was a slew of other consequences that could have been doled out instead, particularly if this was a first transgression. The only thing that might make me feel differently is if the "chatter" was actually a HIPAA transgression or something extremely inappropriate such as talking about their drugged out Saturday night or a profanity laced conversation. But the OP says they were just chatting about their schools. I'm giving the OP the benefit of the doubt that they were actually just making school related small talk.

The silver lining is the OP isn't kicked out of the program, just failed from the class.

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14 hours ago, twinsmom788 said:

However...as a former OR nurse, students should be SILENT. Never, ever, speak unless spoken to.

I think you are overstating the reality of the situation a little. There are some OR nurses who push students forward so they can see, who interact with them a little and explain what's going on; even entertain brief questions, etc., and there are others who expect them to stand in the corner silently whether they know what's going on or can see one dang thing. But without arguing whether your assertion is necessarily true 100% of the time, I will say that if it is the expectation, and if someone stands to fail a class/semester or get kicked out over it, it better be made 100% clear.

I don't think a conscientious, straight-A student who has previously given no one any reason to believe s/he is flippant about patient care or purposefully flouts important rules should be dealt with this way.

And, the outcome was way more about the school wanting to look hard-a$$ to the hospital than some idea that a student broke a hard and fast rule-which-may-never-be-broken.

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The fact is that the patient comes first. Not a "learning experience' for students who apparently were not paying attention to what they could observe and grow from. If students want to ask questions about what they are seeing in a very quiet manner, then fine, I was happy to assist them. But to stand there and discuss their school situations with each other is a serious matter. Very unprofessional and disrespectful.

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I do think the 'not paying attention to what they could have learned' is probably a factor that set off this situation/the OR nurse more than the need for absolute silence. I, too, find chatter during an educational time offensive and a little mind-boggling when it happens. Sometimes it is because the students are dismissive and overall jerky, but sometimes they have genuinely misunderstood the situation/expectations.

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44 minutes ago, JKL33 said:

I do think the 'not paying attention to what they could have learned' is probably a factor that set off this situation/the OR nurse more than the need for absolute silence. I, too, find chatter during an educational time offensive and a little mind-boggling when it happens. Sometimes it is because the students are dismissive and overall jerky, but sometimes they have genuinely misunderstood the situation/expectations.

Agree, yes, how would they know the expectations if no one had explained to them?

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That's a really harsh punishment for what happened. I would write you up for this, but if that was your only infraction it's absurd to fail a student over that.

Hopefully you've learned a lesson from all of this.

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We had a girl fall asleep during clinicals and all she got was a stern warning ("one more time and you're history") after being kicked out of the site for the day

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On 5/2/2019 at 8:43 PM, twinsmom788 said:

...as a former OR nurse, students should be SILENT. Never, ever, speak unless spoken to.

What a crock. Get over yourself.

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10 hours ago, Luchador said:

What a crock. Get over yourself.

BAHAHA that will never happen!

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