Problems with instructors

tlc2u · Oct 13, 2009

When I was in LPN school we had one instructor who everyone would swear was Bipolar. The instructor was super nice one minute and blowing her top the next.

Another one of our instructors who had attended nursing school as an older adult, He was a great listener and sympathized with the students who were having difficulty with the Bipolar teacher. He said when he was in nursing school he had difficult instructors too and he had to be quiet and lay low. He advised students at our school to do the same. Just to say as little as possible to this instructor, to be thourough with our paperwork that we turned in to her and to care for our patient out of her view as much as we could. He understood that students had a better chance of not setting her off if they just stayed out of her radar.

Study hard, learn a lot, give good care to your patients and be thorough with your paper work AND stay out of the way of difficult instructors. Don't do or say anything that may cross their path or bring attention to yourself.

somekitties · Oct 29, 2009

thanks so much for the reply.

My frustration stems from the fact that i see myself as a customer. I am paying for their services. I am not pay to be treated like ****.

OK, keep my head down and fly under the radar.

thanks and peace.

DolceVita, ADN, BSN, RN · Oct 29, 2009

For a start I would edit you post and remove your location. How many community colleges do you think there are in Louisville? I am betting one. Hope your instructor doesn't post on allnurses.

sunflower918 · Oct 29, 2009

Have to say I completely agree with the fact that you ARE a paying customer...you are also an "adult learner" with different abilities/needs/experience as a student. I experienced the same situation when in nursing school...don't 'drink the kool-aid'-assert yourself as an experienced, intelligent adult student who is entitled as a paying customer to professionalism and respect from your instructors. It's their job!! Hang in there and good luck.

DolceVita, ADN, BSN, RN · Oct 29, 2009

I agree that you are a consumer but not in the same position of "power" as a consumer of another service. That is where I get frustrated -- I pay but they hold the keys to the nursing kingdom.

llg, PhD, RN · Oct 29, 2009

Yes, you are a paying customer ... but your relationship with the faculty is not one in which you are the boss and they must do as you say. It's very different from that.

1. You are the one who has chosen to attend that school and continues to stay there each semester. If you don't like the product they are selling, you can stop buying the product. They have other potential customers who would like to buy their product. That decreases your power immensly.

2. They are obligated by society (and officially by the state government through the Board of Nursing) to assure that graduates of their program perform at an acceptable standard. That means that they not only have the right to flunk students and to demand certain things of students, but that they have the legal obligation to do so -- and to sit in judgment of the students' performance. That changes your relationship with the instructors in a way that is different from other seller-customer relationships.

3. What you "buy" when you enroll in a school is the opportunities to learn from them and their certification that you learned the material. You do not buy a guarantee that you will learn or that you will enjoy the experience. You do not buy a guarantee that the teaching/learning methods will be to your liking, etc. All you buy is the opportunity to be taught and evaluated by them for as long as you pay their fee.

I realize their are some bad instructors out there ... just like there are bad accountants, bad firefighters, bad psychologists, bad bus drivers, bad students, etc. But be careful about fighting the system while you still want that same system to look favorably upon you. It can be done sometimes, but it has to be handled carefully.

merrywhiterose · Oct 30, 2009

There are some very hateful, mean nursing instructors out there. I had a clinical instructor like that. Just follow the guidelines and follow the rules and make it hard for them to fail you. Also, keep track of everything they do, and write it in the instructor review!!!