Rant: Institutional disrespect of students

[canigraduate]

I am so ticked off at my school lately. We get lectures all the time about civility, incivility, personal responsibility, accountability.... YADDA, YADDA, YADDA. Well, all this stuff is well and good, and I am all about politeness and such, but DOGGONE it, why does it only apply to students?

They give us a myriad of things that must be done in a certain timeframe, some of it only referenced in the syllabus once and not even brought up in class. Woe to the student who doesn't complete everything to the T and on time. At the same time, if I make an appointment with an instructor, I have to email them multiple times and call them. And they still don't show up.

Two quick examples:

First, I scheduled lab practice at 3:00. On the instructor's provided sheet. I show up, no one's there. I call the instructor's phone. No answer. I leave a message. No reply (ever). I wait until 3:30, then decide I have better things to do and leave. Never heard from the instructor.

Second, I had to reschedule a test. I email the instructor and get an appointment. I email a week before the rescheduled test to remind her. I show up, no one's there. I call the instructor's phone. No answer. I leave a message. I have class with this instructor an hour later, and she blows me off with "I didn't realize the time. Can you stay after class?" Sure, I have no life.

Also, they expect us to be psychic and know things that are only in their heads. My clinical instructor decided that we need to do reflective journaling every time we turn in clinical paperwork. That's well and good, but I need to know about it so I can do it. She emailed us after we turned in our first set of paperwork and "reminded" us to do it. It wasn't in the syllabus, it wasn't mentioned in the 10 hours of lab prior to clinical, and it wasn't mentioned in class.

Aaaarrrgh!! If I did this stuff to them, I would get all kinds of grief.

Whew, I feel better. Thanks for reading!

[MN-Nurse, ASN, RN]

Welcome to Nursing School.

On the flipside, many students are incessantly whining during nursing school. At times, I was one of them.

That means even when you have perfectly valid concerns, your voice is just one among of caucaphony of absolute crybabies.

[BabyLady, BSN, RN]

I 100% agree with everything you said.

Our instructors used to throw a fit about students showing up on time...which I would normally agree with..but what I never understood, is why they frequently showed up 15, sometimes 30 minutes late to class themselves...without any explanation at all.

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

My best instructors were the ones who would spend five minutes at the beginning of class saying what was due in the next week. They maintained tight control over the class time, and no one had an issue with knowing what was expected and when. In a particularly heavy semester with many different assignments, we even received a detailed calendar by week in our syllabus.

On the other hand, we had a very disorganized instructor who would constantly be changing assignments, switching assignments around, due date changes, etc. every week. And she would take up a half hour of class time doing so. By the end of the class, my syllabus and personal calendar looked like a redacted Sarah Palin email. Very frustrating.

I understand adaptability and the need to make changes at the last minute, but it can't be done out of personal convenience when 40 people are depending on a certain level of consistency to get their own work done.

[caliotter3]

I would bring this to the attention of the department head once you leave the program. They should be aware that they have instructors who are not acting in a responsible manner. Not meeting an appointment is one thing, but never returning a call about it? What if you had been calling about something that was very, very important? I suppose they would claim the call was never received. Not acceptable.

[canigraduate]

..but what I never understood, is why they frequently showed up 15, sometimes 30 minutes late to class themselves...without any explanation at all.

EXACTLY!! That's another thing that they do that bothers the heck out of me. I'm always, always, always early and I can't stand it when I see instructors roaming around half an hour before class and then they saunter into the classroom late. Burns my britches.

One particular instructor this semester has personality issues, too. She makes snide remarks to students all the time and tries to redeem herself by saying that she's joking. Well, no one's laughing.

Grrrrrr....

[Certifiable, BSN, RN]

I have wondered about this myself, as it is the same thing here.

I find it interesting that NCLEX prep questions write "the Client" --- as in the patient.... yet to the teachers/proff/instructors etc' we are lowlife students, "lucky" to be accepted--- anything BUT a client. What happens in business if you treat your clients like they do us? They'd be shown the door... *SIGH*