Professor Tardiness

Lissla · Mar 6, 2014

Having a professor late every time would frustrate me to no end. What happened to the idea of the importance of nurses being on time? Maybe she's testing you all to see who's brave enough to say something.

The professor I had for assessment had a 3 hour lecture followed by a 2 and a half hour lab. It was usually just her and another person (can't remember what she was but she usually just observed the lectures and helped with lab). We didn't have 30 students though, we had 18 so it probably wasn't as bad as what it sounds like for you.

We didn't have a skills check off at the end. We usually understood what to do after watching the professor demonstrate it in lecture, then 2-3 times in lab. Then if a few of us still didn't understand, we went online for videos.

I guess I can't really understand your situation though coz I'm on a branch campus and there's only one of each class (like 1 adult health class, 1 peds class, 1 fundamentals class...) every semester.

078207 · Mar 7, 2014

Oh? so in lecture the teacher would demonstrate how to conduct the assessment? Our method is very to the book literally. Read the book before class (which is fine), lecture consists of a teacher reading from their slides with the aid of anatomy diagrams - no interaction, then i'll watch skills video before lab, once in lab the lab instructor will talk about the skills we will perform in lab, and will preform a quick example.

I'm thinking it will be hard to wrap my head around until clinical starts, hopefully things will click more then. I'm having trouble figuring out land marks, what to feel for, listen for, and if I'm doing things right.

kcataldo31 · Mar 16, 2014

We have a two hour lecture, a five hour lab (well 4.5 with breaks) with tons of hands on time, and our skills checkoffs are done on our own time. We sign up for a slot (or 2 or 3 etc, as many as we need to get checked, then as many as we want to be re-watched) and are evaluated by someone other than my lab/ lecture professor. My lab/ lecture professor, and the assistant have never been late and the personnel in the skills lab are basically always there (or one of the four of them).

I'd be pretty upset if I wasn't receiving much feedback. I've never felt more responsible assure myself that I am getting the most out of my education, until nursing school. Can you ask an older student who's had your prof. and ask them if this was the consensus with them? It can be hard to bring this up, but I would definitely want the most out of my education.

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · Mar 16, 2014

As far as the tardiness issue goes, you probably have a number of options. You should look through your student handbook for the University about the tardiness policy first, specifically about instructor tardiness. You should also check whether or not the TA's presence there on time constitutes instructional tardiness or not. These are things you should do before you get further into this process. Perhaps the instructor has an agreement with the University to the effect that it's OK to be a little late due to some pre-existing situation necessitating a "tardy" from the published start time, in effect pushing the official start of lab back some number of minutes.

If you do choose to deal with this further, I'd suggest asking nicely why they're always running a little behind, or if the lab can start at a slightly later time? After all, that would give you all a few more minutes to go get coffee, snacks, quick meal, and whatnot (socialize?) before the instructor gets there to start the lab.

But first find out what the policy is before you go off complaining about the professor's tardiness.

Kuriin, BSN, RN · Mar 16, 2014

Generally you only should wait 15 minutes for a class to begin in university; after that, you may go home unless stated otherwise. If this is a chronic problem, her being tardy all the time, I would recommend you speak to her or go to the chair. That is a serious problem.