McStewie

I know that the advice here doesn't sound very encouraging, and nobody wants to feel like they are whipped. I have been fired from a few nursing jobs and have walked away from a few, because frankly, sometimes work environments are just toxic, plain and simple. You will find another job, it will be a better job, and your life will end up being far improved when you bite bullet, face the inevitable, and take charge of your own destiny. There are essentially no commentators here who are encouraging you to stay around that place. Try to learn from your mistakes, get to a place where you can start off with a clean slate, and make yourself indispensable. Great things await, and a wonderful nursing career is just a decision away. Moving on can be a liberating act opening up a thousand possibilities that you never imagined. I think everybody here is rooting for you.

I never hear about this level of bullying in other fields. I really do not want to sound misogynistic, but I suspect it may be related to the female dominated nature of the profession. I hear a lot of women that believe the same. Having said that, I have definitely known men in nursing that were bullies as well, and female managers that were the salt of the earth. It is not universally women, or men, on either side of the aisle.

PIP is politically correct speech for "you are totally screwed"

Living well is the best revenge.

I have found that toxic managers are not generally the rule across organizations, but tend to aggregate in some organizations. Most places either work to eliminate toxic managers, or have such a toxic culture that these type of managers become endemic.

The advice here is pretty universal, and I support the general consensus. I have been in a few of these type situations, often due to a gender issue with anti-male managers. You need to abandon ship before the fantail starts sinking. This type of managerial style is geared toward only having in place those nurses who meet the personal proclivities of the person in charge. Your days are numbered, and you do NOT want to be looking for a job with a resume that has an employer who put you on the do not rehire list.

Thanx Rod. A lot of the problem I had with Patho is that there is an inordinate amount of biochemistry in the textbook that I frankly don't see translating into much practical usability. Trying to wade through that aspect of the material leaves me exhausted. I understand the requirements for the "fluff" content of the program, and I just bite the bullet and take the pill. It's part of what we sign up for. I had the same issue with my BSN and MSN programs and I still think nursing has a stick up its collective derriere about nursing theory and "science" a lot of the time. When it comes to advanced practice though, I think that there needs to be significantly more focus on the tangible, necessary preparation for candidates to deliver the goods to the public. This is, in the final analysis, a degree in nursing PRACTICE, not nursing theory or nursing research. I don't think doctors or physical therapists have anything like the percentage of fluff that nurses are subject to, and the woo factor just seems to be off the chart for nursing programs.

Thanx smiley. I have a friend that is studying for her NP exam after finishing the program. She says she doesn't feel like she learned anything in the whole 2 years. It is another school though, so maybe this is just the way the nurse practitioner programs go. She went to a B&M school so it seems to be endemic across the board.

How does the program at Walden work? Is it expensive? I get so little feedback or input from the faculty at South it is like I am going to school in a library. I almost signed up at Walden too but I think it was more expensive.

I have been a student at SU Online for a few months and so far, the program has done nothing to prepare me for the role of Family Nurse Practitioner. I cannot imagine that wading through the Pathophysiology book haphazardly striving to divine the necessary from the extraneous is a reliable means of developing into a safe, conscientious practitioner. I can't imagine that, if the program proceeds as it has, that I will be the type of FNP that is adequately prepared to deliver adequate or appropriate care at the advanced practice level. The program does not have any instruction involved. There should definitely be some degree of actual input from the instructors as well as powerpoints and canned lectures, at the very least. As it is, they assign you readings and papers and set you off on your autonomous way. I do not foresee this program producing viable candidates. The B&M counterpart may be an entirely different story.