Ready to pinch her head off!!!

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Specializes in med-surg, psych, ER, school nurse-CRNP.

OK, I am in grad school, working toward a NP certificate. One of my classes requires that we write papers in APA format, which is a huge pain. We have research groups of 5 members, and everyone has their role. At least, in theory. I happen to like to type, so I got elected to type the papers. Fine by me. Here is what makes me ill.

The other 4 members decided that it was not fair to me to have to research articles and type, too. They decided to research, summarize, and send me a summary with references, which I would then take and turn into a final paper. We had 5 weeks. Simple, right? WRONG!!!!!

This one biddy waited until they day before we had agreed to have the material to me to say, "I will have that to you as soon as I can..I have been busy, we had a test, and I work." WTH?!?!?!? So do I have all that going on! This is GRAD school, we are all adults, my LANDS, woman (she's 50 years old, not a kid), take some responsibility! She also had the nerve to blame another member of the group because "he didn't send me a sample". Grrrr.

OK, flash forward 2 days. I have the material, the paper is done, and everyone likes it, except this one biddy. She didn't even have the nerve to call ME, she called another group member to ask her to call me. The problem? "Our references aren't complete". How so? I didn't include the website she used to pull them up. I am so sorry. That is not part of APA format. The paper she sent me was 4 paragraphs with NO references until I asked for them, then when she sent them, she said, you will have to paste in these things here, I didn't have time. :angryfire:angryfire:angryfire:angryfire Now she wants to carp because I didn't include Google on a reference page.

I'm sorry, guys, but this just steams my clams. Any ideas? Am I out of line? I did not say anything to her about not having the paper done, BTW, just thanked her and went on, so this really chaps my hide even more so. She was the only one who could not be bothered to halfway do her work, and now she is the only one with a problem. Thanks.

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it sounds like you and she need to directly communicate w/ea other.

if she has concerns, let her go directly to you, and vice-versa.

as adults, one can certainly communicate expectations and disappoints, w/o it getting into a cat fight.

other than that, no, the paper sounds complete and good to go.

heh.

(some) people....:rolleyes:;)

leslie

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Specializes in med-surg, psych, ER, school nurse-CRNP.

Leslie, Leslie, surely you know me better than that. :lol2: I have talked with her, several times. She never mentioned it. And after I got the call from the girl she DID talk about it to, she won't answer her phone. Hmph. I did tell the friend to pass the message along that if she had a problem, I would have greatly preferred hearing it from her. Maybe she's embarrassed now, I don't know. I like the paper, but I'm biased. I am proud of the fact that I got it done in 2 days, however:D.

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This sounds like most of my group projects in undergrad school. Always one or several people who want to ride the coattails of those who do the bulk of the work. Then they have the nerve to act like they contributed and/or complain about the results that they gave little or no input for. Be careful, the biddy might also be the type who goes to the instructor with a complaint or two to bolster her position. This is the most hateful type. Be prepared to produce a fast and to the point rebuttal for any backstabbing efforts she might make. It has been known to happen. Otherwise, congratulations on a completed assignment! Hopefully, you won't have the luck of being in another group with this leech.

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yes, surprisingly angel, i do know you better than that. :bdyhdclp: (i LOVE these gals)

i think we've all encountered those 'types' you speak of.

you sound like me, waiting til the very last minute.

eternal procrastinor, here.

and i'm sure you guys aced it.

leslie

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.
this one biddy waited until they day before we had agreed to have the material to me to say, "i will have that to you as soon as i can..i have been busy, we had a test, and i work."

the paper is done, and everyone likes it, except this one biddy. i'm sorry, guys, but this just steams my clams. any ideas? am i out of line? i did not say anything to her about not having the paper done, btw, just thanked her and went on, so this really chaps my hide even more so. she was the only one who could not be bothered to halfway do her work, and now she is the only one with a problem. thanks.

you'll be a great np and she'll be a not so great np.

"if" she were to mention it again i think i'd have to be up front and tell her if she had gotten her work in on time perhaps you two would have had a chance to discuss the paper before it was turned in.

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Specializes in Addiction & Recovery, Community Health.

Always this way with group papers. Grit your teeth and think of the next class, maybe it will be better. I have noticed that some professors can figure these things out, BTW. (Who the slackers and pains in the butt are)

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OK, I am in grad school, working toward a NP certificate. One of my classes requires that we write papers in APA format, which is a huge pain. We have research groups of 5 members, and everyone has their role. At least, in theory. I happen to like to type, so I got elected to type the papers. Fine by me. Here is what makes me ill.

The other 4 members decided that it was not fair to me to have to research articles and type, too. They decided to research, summarize, and send me a summary with references, which I would then take and turn into a final paper. We had 5 weeks. Simple, right? WRONG!!!!!

This one biddy waited until they day before we had agreed to have the material to me to say, "I will have that to you as soon as I can..I have been busy, we had a test, and I work." WTH?!?!?!? So do I have all that going on! This is GRAD school, we are all adults, my LANDS, woman (she's 50 years old, not a kid), take some responsibility! She also had the nerve to blame another member of the group because "he didn't send me a sample". Grrrr.

OK, flash forward 2 days. I have the material, the paper is done, and everyone likes it, except this one biddy. She didn't even have the nerve to call ME, she called another group member to ask her to call me. The problem? "Our references aren't complete". How so? I didn't include the website she used to pull them up. I am so sorry. That is not part of APA format. The paper she sent me was 4 paragraphs with NO references until I asked for them, then when she sent them, she said, you will have to paste in these things here, I didn't have time. :angryfire:angryfire:angryfire:angryfire Now she wants to carp because I didn't include Google on a reference page.

I'm sorry, guys, but this just steams my clams. Any ideas? Am I out of line? I did not say anything to her about not having the paper done, BTW, just thanked her and went on, so this really chaps my hide even more so. She was the only one who could not be bothered to halfway do her work, and now she is the only one with a problem. Thanks.

Wow can I relate. :madface::madface::madface: In general I don't mind group work, but fortunately, I've been in good groups with a couple exceptions; one of them being this past semester. It was a community health clinical paper and I am the editor (as well as part of my own contribution to the paper). Well I either go to school with special Ed. students working towards their BSN and/or MSN or they are unbelievably lazy, or both--one student sent me 3 links and thanked me for all my hard work to which I promptly responded to remind her to write a paper.

One individual sent me a paper a little over a page long (and keep in mind this paper is 75% of our grade--it's the only paper for this entire 3 sem. hr. clinical experience). The paper started with a one sentence fragment paragraph (that's right, it wasn't even a full sentence that made up this paragraph). There were a couple other 2 or 3 sentence paragraphs, lower case proper nouns, etc.

Another individual submitted blatantly plagarised work, including a nice, colorful line chart with no citation (and this isn't anyone's first experience with APA, so ignorance wasn't an excuse). The quality of a couple other contributions were quite subpar as well. I, along with another group member, finally had to take the situation to the instructor because in spite of everyone's attempt to communicate, some folks just weren't getting it and I refused to turn in my work with theirs due to embarrassment. And I was really concerned because no way did I want my grade to match theirs; fortunately the faculty leader got confirmation that she could assign individual grades based on quality of work.

I will say this, though...after I submitted my part of the paper I washed my hands of the entire situation and enjoyed the next week on the cruise with my wife for our 1yr. anni./honeymoon.

As for APA...actually you are supposed to include exact websites in your reference list citation if your source is a webpage (e.g., entry from an online dictionary, WebMD website, or from the CDC website; see APA 5th Ed.; manual section 4.15).

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Specializes in FNP, Peds, Epilepsy, Mgt., Occ. Ed.

I went through my BSN bridge program with someone very like this student!

We had an all-RN group for community nursing and, of course, a group project. As all of us were working people with outside lives, we met and divided the project up. I volunteered to be the editor for the final paper.

Most of the group turned in work needing minimal editing- a word or punctuation mark here or there, but basically complete work. One in the group turned in a mess. I had to re-write the whole thing!

To top it off, she got upset with me because "this isn't what I gave you!" Well, no. I wasn't turning in a paper with numerous grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors. The rest of us really wanted to pass!

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Specializes in ER, IICU, PCU, PACU, EMS.
Now she wants to carp because I didn't include Google on a reference page.

Point out to her that a reference website and a search engine website are two separate things. Hopefully, you won't have to do many more joint projects together.

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Specializes in med-surg, psych, ER, school nurse-CRNP.

Oh, believe me, I explained to her about the article being from a journal and not having to cite the webpage she pulled it up from. Her response was "Well, how much APA have you DONE?" Grrrrrrrr. I asked her the same, she admitted she had done none. The paper is turned in, our group moderator has unloaded on the lady (we were all nice until she started throwing off), and all is well, except she has her nose out of joint. Sigh.......what can you do?

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Sounds like you will be relying on the Rolaids pretty heavy for awhile.

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