Permanently Kicked out of Practicum

[FrustratedExStudent]

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.

[Rionoir, ADN, RN]

So no talking when you’re asked to stop talking isn’t clear to you somehow Tony? Or would you just think that if you didn’t specifically sign off on that rule just go ahead and keep talking?

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

5 hours ago, tonyl1234 said:

Which runs back to my original point that if the rule was not specifically communicated to her, then she should talk to a lawyer. Because you CANNOT just make up the rules as you go, that's illegal in employment law.

The OP was not an employee.

Dollars to donuts it is in the student handbook that all students must follow the directions of supervising nurses, doctors, and administrators or risk being evicted from the facility permanently and possibly expelled from school. They don't have to specifically list 15,000 possible acts that could result in failing clinical or being asked to leave the premises. Hence the "broad" language that can be found in any student or employee handbook.

Come on, tony. I think you know this is the case.

[Tacocat, ADN, RN]

19 hours ago, tonyl1234 said:

Because you CANNOT just make up the rules as you go, that's illegal in employment law.

FFS this is literally why you have orientation and get that huge packet of papers to sign. Even if it's unit policy, once again, it has to be clearly and specifically communicated to ALL students.

OP wasn't an employee. OP was a guest at the facility. Her "rights" were to listen to the circulating nurse and stop talking. There is no "right" to have frivolous conversations within earshot of a patient.

I doubt ANY nursing school or facility handbook doesn't include respecting patients and colleagues in it somewhere. OP was disrespectful to the patient and to the circulating nurse. Period. She was asked to stop talking TWICE, and did not. The patient was conscious and undergoing a procedure. It was disrespectful, whether or not any of us disagree with the outcome.

[Professor X, MSN, RN]

In the interest of full disclosure, I am a professor of nursing-classroom and clinical.

I am hearing your disappointment and anger. Let's all breathe.

Clinical agreements are made months or years in advance and are at the pleasure and discretion of the facility, so no, hurridly finding another placement to finish the practicum is not an option, even if the school wanted. I'm not clear why the school would, since you failed the practicum. Being banned from a practicum site is failing. So you have to repeat the class/semester. They would not re-place you in a site so you could finish a semester that you failed.

I have seen students get banned from clinical sites for 1) poor communication; 2) poor personal hygiene 3) unprofessional behavior and 4) "non-therapeutic presence" . The hospital does not need to provide an exhaustive list of what these things mean. By the time of your senior practicum they have a behavioral expectation of you that does need a checklist of rules.

Let's all stop this nonsense of hiring a lawyer.

No lawyer is going to fix this because you were not wronged by the hospital nor the school. You failed the practicum. You are now responsible for the cost of repeating the class and the loss of income. No doubt this is disappointing and will be a hardship, but it was due to your actions and now you assume accountability.

As for what you need to tell family and friends: "I won't be graduating in XXXX because I need to repeat my last class." You do not owe anything more than that. Of course if you want, you can add "I made a mistake, fortunately not a mistake that harmed anyone. I need to repeat the class without that mistake. End of story."

Of course, another option is to get together with your mom, your girlfriend, your BFFs and a big pitcher of margaritas and spend an afternoon talking about how mean the nurses are, how unsympathetic the instructors are, and how unfair life is. Get it off you chest. They will nod sympathetically and occasionally say "dude.....you were robbed".

Then, you re-enroll in school. You write another big check for tuition. You stand up tall and make yourself willing to be a learning opportunity for others. You learn from your mistakes, and grow a little.

[Lauragfa2000]

12 hours ago, Letters After My Name said:

In the interest of full disclosure, I am a professor of nursing-classroom and clinical.

I am hearing your disappointment and anger. Let's all breathe.

Clinical agreements are made months or years in advance and are at the pleasure and discretion of the facility, so no, hurridly finding another placement to finish the practicum is not an option, even if the school wanted. I'm not clear why the school would, since you failed the practicum. Being banned from a practicum site is failing. So you have to repeat the class/semester. They would not re-place you in a site so you could finish a semester that you failed.

I have seen students get banned from clinical sites for 1) poor communication; 2) poor personal hygiene 3) unprofessional behavior and 4) "non-therapeutic presence" . The hospital does not need to provide an exhaustive list of what these things mean. By the time of your senior practicum they have a behavioral expectation of you that does need a checklist of rules.

Let's all stop this nonsense of hiring a lawyer.

No lawyer is going to fix this because you were not wronged by the hospital nor the school. You failed the practicum. You are now responsible for the cost of repeating the class and the loss of income. No doubt this is disappointing and will be a hardship, but it was due to your actions and now you assume accountability.

As for what you need to tell family and friends: "I won't be graduating in XXXX because I need to repeat my last class." You do not owe anything more than that. Of course if you want, you can add "I made a mistake, fortunately not a mistake that harmed anyone. I need to repeat the class without that mistake. End of story."

Of course, another option is to get together with your mom, your girlfriend, your BFFs and a big pitcher of margaritas and spend an afternoon talking about how mean the nurses are, how unsympathetic the instructors are, and how unfair life is. Get it off you chest. They will nod sympathetically and occasionally say "dude.....you were robbed".

Then, you re-enroll in school. You write another big check for tuition. You stand up tall and make yourself willing to be a learning opportunity for others. You learn from your mistakes, and grow a little.

Thank you. In a few, very concise, words you put to rest what others have tried to. Fortunately the OP was seemingly very honest with her recall of the situation. Having graduated less than 10 years ago I can still hear those words of warning prior to beginning clinical rotation. I have witnessed classmates being denied entry to said clinical site due to background check red flags as well as two students being asked to leave after errors made on the floor. At that point it was party over. In the above noted situations there were no second chances offered.