longbow.shelly

That's horrible! To me it seems like your "team" didn't support you in your learning curve time. I worked at a hospital that had a policy of eliminating the ZERO FAULT OR FIRED standard, which gave nurses opportunity to learn, opportunity to ask for help if they needed it, opportunity to prevent errors from guessing or from over estimating one's own skills, and allowed nurses to grow without necessarily eating their own. That you were fired is probably the universe's way of leading you to your dream job where you might be happier than EVER! Don't internalize it, for sure. And don't beat yourself up. If we were supposed to be INTUITIVE, PERFECT nurses, there would be no need for nursing school or even Preceptorship / Orientation in the first place. Hang in there!

***DING***DING***DING***DING*** I was chuckling when I read this. I know exactly what you mean. When an educator/clinical instructor shows up on the floor, it may not be on your radar as a nurse. It's not like they announce to all the nurses who will be teaching and when so you know what to expect. Also, they don't really ever introduce nurses to students so nurses on the floor have no actual "ownership" of the process that is happening in your education. To take a nurse out of her change of shift briefing to pair her up with a student or tell her a student will be working with her on a patient can be a cause for both JOY and WORRY. There's joy, depending on the unit, b/c the nursing students can take tedious tasks off your plate since they are working on their fundamentals (assessment, vital signs, running back and forth for incidentals like water refills and ADL's). There's WORRY to various degrees depending on the type of patients served, that an assessment won't be performed properly, documentation won't happen properly, or that there will be an issue with the patient that the student will fail to alert the nurse to that should actually receive immediate attention. On my unit, the instructor would approach the charge nurse, ask which patients might be good for students, and the charge nurse would help identify those with straightforward care plans, as well as those who might provide an interesting discussion experience for the unusual, but manageable issues they are dealing with. Then the primary nurse would allow the students and teacher to provide patient care, still checking with the patient as appropriate (some patients benefit from fewer rest interruptions, and cluster care is imperative), and following behind to ensure key tasks and key documentation were happening. And that takes energy but not as much as doing all the work for that patient yourself. If a nurse is charged with taking you under her wing, this might be an unwelcome "surprise" at the beginning of a shift when nurses like to manage their work with their "process, flow, routine." Also, the nurse you work with or around may not particularly enjoy investing her time in your learning experience. Like I said, they usually don't even know who students are or when they are coming. YES. Nurses have "been there." ALL nurses have been there. Some remember, some do not. Not everyone becomes a nurse for the same reasons. Not every nurse has a pat "nursing personality." It may not be helpful when you're a student to feel welcome in a shared space in someone else's turf. But in those cases, don't take it personally, keep a sense of humor, and consider it part of your nursing education. If you have Disney experiences all thru nursing school then you're not getting your money's worth! Now. What will YOU do when YOU'RE a nurse and new students come around? Will you mimmic what you have experienced or will you become an inspiration to some future nurse who will remember you for years?

Stan was still confused by the distinction between the floor's nurse "ANESTHETIST" and the nurse "AESTHETICIAN!!!"

"Which nurse volunteered me for your in-service?"

It was all fun and games before the Mock JC inspectors walked around the corner and caught Jenny without her safety goggles on!!!

"Thank heavens this isn't a Urology procedure!"

I had some goofy grades from 20 years ago but they were still RIGHT THERE on my transcript when I applied. My GPA when I applied was 3.82 for the college where I graduated from, 3.0 overall on graduation day with the bad 20-year old grades, and for my prereqs for entry were all at a cum 3.83. I was told in the Q&A orientation session that is offered to prospective students that if anyone has any "worrisome" grades, it is an option to write a brief letter detailing the circumstances at the time of that class. Some people may have a bad grade b/c they had a loss in the family, a serious medical illness, or something of the like. As long as you keep your letter more about the responsibility you take, for your part and what you have done since then, what you have learned from that experience, and not color the letter about how everyone else is to blame, it would seem that the selection committee takes these circumstances into account. I wrote a letter about my 20-year old grades and explained what was going on for me at the time, what I have accomplished since then in my personal, work, and academic life, and I was accepted. It is possible! Don't kill the horse before he gets out of the proverbial gate. Don't look back. Keep pushing forward. If you think the class will benefit you, even if they average the grades, then take it over. If you can get an A in it, even with the "average," you can say..."I'm not going to take failure," and that's a sort of character trait that they honestly admire....Then you can include that in your explanation letter when you send that in with your application. (Committment!!!) I know it sounds tough but one way to battle your sentiment of defeat is to take that bull by the horns and conquer it! You will fit right in to nursing school, however, since you already have "worrying to death" down-pat! Everyone in school does this...to the point of no return! Good luck and try to enjoy the process.

Hahahahah! FreakingoutAHHHH....You'll have to change your allnurses.com name to "FreakingINyaaaaay!" Congratulations! Hurray for you! Can't wait to meet you! Shelly:yeah::yeah::yeah:

HEY, YA'LL! NURS 507 class presentations and reading files are available for download on Blackboard if you log in! Get to it! Yay! (I haven't see anything besides this class there yet, though) Everyone ready?

LOL! Exlnt!!!! (Excellent, for those text challenged folks) Here's my take : It's good to be highly discerning and critical when it comes to saving lives and making important decisions. But I think being so "Type A" that you have to knock on others unnecessarily, just to prove that you take your communication arts seriously, is a bit excessive. I think that this forum is for communication. If some are fine with the texting then gr8! If not, then simply do what the originator of the post does, and shut the message and move on. It's just like television. If you don't like the show, turn the channel, don't call for an outright censure on everything you find disagreeable. Come on! Is this a peer-reviewed publishing site? I mean, we all review it, but this is an information sharing site, a site for "openness," not an Ivy League, or elitist pressure washer. Please try to be inclusive. Your experience, and articulate grammar prowess might really benefit (rub off on) someone! Cheers and best wishes to all!

WHOAH! Looks like I'm already behind! Let me go and get my act together!

Yes. Is this something that faculty finds "admirable?" ~~~Being the teacher that no one can learn from? How is this a virtue on a resume? All teaching and learning styles aside, it's the teacher's responsibility to TEACH. It's the student's responsibility to DEMONSTRATE. You can't have one without the other. Egads. I empathize with this situation. If it helps, someone also once told me, even if you have a difficult time learning from someone, it can still be a learning experience. In the real world, you will not always be working with (or learning from) easy personality types, or effective teachers. Even if those people were "A" students themselves (the professors) it may not necessarily translate to bang-up teaching. And I hate :anbd: this advice, but I'm gonna say it, "Adapt and master the situation." It's a lesson in succeeding despite the notion of futility. Best of luck to you and your classmates!:bdyhdclp:

LOL! Hall of Shame! Oh, I can't wait! LOL!

WOW! You are absolutely RIGHT! It IS hard to refocus after being sliced to bits. I mean, all that snapping is terribly distracting and invasive to the learning curve! I'm going to file this away under my "ADMIRABLE BEHAVIOR" section of my mind, and pull it out in the future so I don't freeze up after being verbally slapped around. Geesh! Great share! Thanks!

Awesome! I love it when people post resources! This is excellent team work! Right on!