Serendipity33

Don't let her kick you out!! Prove her wrong and show her that you deserve to stay in your program. Don't give up. :heartbeat And about the following a nurse..... I have no idea why instructors would not support this! It really bothers me!! I feel like I can only learn so much from textbooks and lab demonstrations... there is a wealth of knowledge to be learned from watching nurses who have been doing this for years, see how they manage their time, how they interact with their patients, how they perform certain tasks, etc etc etc... Why in the world would anyone think this is a bad thing?? I have never been able to wrap my head around it. Maybe you can talk to your instructor... make sure she knows you're not trying to avoid work by following a nurse, but that you're just trying to gain a little real-world knowledge from her. Good luck with everything. :)

I've only had one instructor that hovered over my shoulder, watched me do everything (even things not directly related to nursing skills), and made me SO nervous that everything I did was with shaking hands. (I also have to mention, this instructor gave me an "unsatisfactory" grade in clinicals because they said I had no confidence and wasn't able to organize myself... and every other instructor before and after that one have said I have no problems with organization.... so.....) My other instructors have been great. They are always available and always on the floor - we can come to them any time and ask them for help. They'll come around and check meds with everyone, make sure we're doing ok, etc. They're willing to spend any amount of time with us, but only when we ask them to.

I'm sure she was just trying to be funny, and maybe try to be "friends" with her students rather than just a strict instructor, which is nice. But I can definitely see why you questioned it. Many of those I found funny, but I also found many of those offensive. Not necessarily to myself, but to patients. I'm a student too, and parts of this email seem to go directly against what we're being taught right now... "Be a good nurse! Don't judge your patients! If they say they're in pain, they're in pain! Med errors are unacceptable!" It's a little frustrating to know that nurses are thinking the same things we are, while we're being made to feel like we're terrible people for it and we'll never be a good nurse because of it. I guess we just have to keep in mind that we'll be in their place soon! (and we'll be great nurses too! )

wow... I can't even begin to put into words how IDENTICAL we are. In every one of your posts I felt like I was reading my own story. I too am wondering why in the world I chose nursing school - I come home from clinicals and cry, I dread even going to bed the night before clinicals because I know I will have to wake up and go to them. I am also quite socially awkward - I have trouble making friends and making conversation, and I just generally feel like I don't fit in anyone's circle. I have been told by more than one instructor that I have no confidence and really need to work on it - in fact I got an "unsatisfactory" grade in one clinical rotation because my instructor thought I couldn't manage my time and do everything I needed to do properly. That was SO MUCH of a blow to what little confidence I had, I can't even tell you. There has been lots of good advice in this thread, and I don't think I'm very good at giving advice anyway, so I'm not going to try. BUT... I do want to say, if you still have a decision to make on this - PLEASE don't let yourself fail out! Make it YOUR decision whether you stay or go. I understand if your grades are suffering - believe me, mine are too... while other girls are breezing through with A's, I'm barely clinging to my C's. But please don't give up and let everything fall apart around you. YOU should be the one to tell THEM what you want to do with your life. One last note, on the parents issue - mine are EXACTLY the same. I thought at first I wanted to be a pediatric nurse practitioner, and even though my ideas on that have changed dramatically, they WILL NOT let go of it. I finally broke down one day on the phone with my mom and sobbed to her that I hated nursing school, I didn't think I wanted to do it anymore, and that I wanted to look for a different major. That didn't go over well at all. BUT... my parents are finally starting to turn around. My mom is even HELPING me look for graduate programs in Anthropology, which I think is what I'd like to move towards after I graduate from nursing school. My point here is, while I know that it's terrifying to tell your parents something like this, you might be surprised by their response... even if it doesn't happen right away. I had to think long and hard about whether I wanted to stay in nursing school or not. Please, please, please make it *your own* decision whether you stay in it or you pursue other options. I don't know if any of this helped... I certainly hope it did. Feel free to PM me if you'd like to talk. Stay strong. :heartbeat

Oh, I feel you on this one - I always give myself the "I could have studied harder! I could have gotten that one right! I could have gotten an A! etc etc" routine. I'm sorry this happened! But at least you know what you did wrong - you KNOW that you know the material, and that you can do it. To me, that's the important part - learning the material and knowing it, rather than any designated letter grade. Hope this helped a little. :heartbeat