sarasmith805

I go to nursing school in CA. Before I applied people would tell me I should find something else to do because the waitlist was 2 years. I found out that was BS. Our nursing school based our acceptance on a point value system. I scored A's in anatomy, physiology, and micro and I scored really high on the Teas test so I got accepted into our program right away. I noticed the only people who get stuck on the waitlist are those who did not do well in their classes and scored horribly low on the Teas. Good news is AZ and CA are similar so you can get your RN there and practice here in CA later. So good luck!! I would suggest going to school where you have the most family and friend support because nursing school is very challenging.

In the beginning of the semester my clinical instructor seemed to like me. In my midterm evals she told me I was a good student and I was doing well, but for the last couple weeks it seems like all I do is irritate her. It started when my med buddy forgot to document her meds and the instructor told me she was mad because I should have waited for the other student to document. That's fine, but I explained to her none of us wait for our med buddies to document because we didn't know we had to. To which she replied, " I asked around and other students say they do" (10/11 of us denied doing it) Then at midnight one night she asked me what I was doing, I said, "im waiting for my classmate so she can translate so we can give my med (it was an eye cream for a baby and the mother was Spanish speaking), the instructor said, its midnight, you need a translator, nope you wont be giving that med. (this made no sense to me), so the next day I asked her about it and she said midnight was not the time to be doing pt education (I tried to explain I just needed the other student to translate the basic med admin stuff), the instructor later approached me and said "it seems like you have a problem with the policies around here" I was and still am confused by whatever that means. Next, my pt had two bands on with the same pt info, one blue and one white. I checked both when I took a BS and they literally had the same info. When I went in with my instructor to give insulin I checked the blue band. when we left the room she snapped at me and said, "you never check the blue band, always the white band, the blue band is for blood", I replied I didn't know that and she said "how could you not have known that?" um.... I have never had a pt with a blue band and a white band that's how. I asked around and only one other student knew about the blood band and she knew because the instructor explained it to her when she did the same thing (she said the instructor did not snap at her) She also snapped at me because in the middle of med prep of insulin she wandered off to talk to another student and snapped at me to "get it ready", I said "what?" she said, "get it ready" so I drew up my insulin. she came back and yelled "why did you do that if I haven't even looked at the order???" and she told me to throw out the syringe and get a new one. I replied," I had the order up and you were looking at it before you walked away, you said get it ready so I did" she finished up with me and just walked away irritated. I saw the instructor today at school (outside of clinical) and she gave me the third degree and asked why my nurse from the night before gave one of my IVPB meds. I said I didn't see that med scheduled (when I checked the mar at 1830 the only thing scheduled was a bs and supplemental insulin, so the night nurse must have rescheduled the med that was not given earlier and not told me about it). She walked away rolling her eyes. these are all really little things but they are adding up. I feel like I can't do anything right. I want to talk to the instructor about it, but at the same time I can feel her irritation with me and don't want to irritate her further. Any advice??

I'm sorry you have to deal with that. Most schools have some sort of harassment policy. I would go through the chain of command starting with your instructor. These people who are harassing you should probably choose a profession that does not require compassion and team work.

I am a nursing student, and I was in my clinical rotation recently and a floor nurse says to me, "that girl over there is a cutter ( she was pointing to a patient)" with a disgusted look on her face. I wanted to say "SO?" Well, I have about 5 scars on my arms from cutting years ago that I hide with a long sleeve shirt. A few months ago I went to the school health clinic for a check up and the nurse gave me a nasty look when she saw my arms and said, "Are you done with all that???" She made me feel absolutely horrible and I just started crying. Here's my question.... why are these nurses so disgusted? Obviously someone has to be in some major turmoil to self inflict harm. I'm already ashamed and I live with it everyday when I look in the mirror. I had a classmate ask me about them as well when I was wearing a t-shirt, before I could respond she said "oh, you're one of those" I honestly don't like lying so when people ask me about my scars I usually just shrug and change the subject. Are colleagues going to think I'm mentally unstable?