Sad, Frustrated but Ok.

[moog8746]

Hey everyone. I've just been nicked from the nursing program. I made it all the way to second year, first semester and I've been taken out by an adjunct clinical instructor that had some kind of personal rift against me. I've been thinking about this in great depth since Wednesday, and I'm going to fight. When I met with the dean of nursing yesterday afternoon, she said that she thought the faculty decision to boot me out of the program was unfair, and encouraged me to file an appeal and petition for re-entry back into the program next year. She's also arragned for me to enroll in the surgical tech program, even though they're two months in, so these last two years weren't for naught. First a little background on what has happened. I was stuck with a clinical instructor that had a problem with me from day one. I got a "learning contract" on the second day of clinicals. I immediately called my advisor, who told me to contact the course coordinator and told her what was up and requested to be moved to a different clinical with a different instructor. I was told to "hang in there". The next two clinicals consisted of me asking her for help and never recieving it. She was never clear about what exactly I was doing wrong, and she treated me with a "hands off approach" almost as if I were bothering her with a request for help. By midterm, I had recieved all unsatisfactories on my evaluation. In two years of clinicals, I've never recieved bad marks from a professor. Clinical has always been my strongpoint, and I doubt that this one was any different. When I discussed this with her, she was rude and defensive. I once again called my course coordinator and told her there was nothing I could do to change my fate with this clinical. I agreed to do an additional clinical day to figure out and resolve what it was I was doing wrong. I asked her if I could write key points in a memo book about my patient, and she stated I could. Later during clinical she said I couldn't do that. That was the last time I brought a note pad to clinical. On the extra clinical day and the remaining four clinical days, I had my meds dead on, didn't waver when she asked me information about them, had two difficult patients which i managed without her help or input, and all of my paperwork was flawless. On the final day of clinical, she assigned me a patient with end stage head and neck cancer that required total care. The patient had a trach, wound care and a peg tube, and I was informed by the instructor that I was expected to do it all. Another student in my same clinical group had this same patient the clinical before and was told to "let the RN handle all wound care changes and PEG tube medications", but I was expected to do it all. I succeeded. The charge nurse on the floor gave me praise with the way I handled this patient and the additional patient I had that day. At the end of the day, when I recieved my final eval, I again had all unsatisfactories. In the comment section, she wrote that she could not pass me because "student was reading the newspaper before clinical" and "student read meds off of note page". I'm still aghast. My entire future has been changed because of this woman, and I am so angry that I have been ripped off this way. I guess I needed to vent all of this stuff to people that would understand, and I want to ensure that this dosen't happen to anyone else. If you have a different clinical instructor and you are doing your best, but not getting the instruction that you paid to recieve, FIGHT IT!! DON'T LET IT GO! This whole "I have to kiss butt or I won't pass" mentality in nursing school has to stop. I'm not saying go out and cause trouble and pick fights, but don't let someone bully you out of your dreams because they don't like the way you look, or they don't like your accent or any number of silly things that cause prejudice. This is your future. Thanks for reading.

[GeminiTwinRN, BSN]

Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry you've had to endure this treatment from your instructor, and that she has been able to have you removed from the program! I'm glad you have documentation that you had asked for help from the beginning, and that you took it to another level early on can't hurt either.

Hopefully, the surgical tech program won't be a necessary route you need to take. I just can't put my mind around why this person felt it necessary to give you different tasks for the same patient..

I hope you get the results you want!

Good luck

[locolorenzo22, BSN, RN]

Some people just have it out for others and you somehow appear to have tripped the nerve in her. FIGHT IT best you can, and appeal, appeal, appeal! When they don't have a leg to stand on, there's no reason why they can't readmit you. It sucks to have to put it on hold though. Is there no way that the appeal can happen fast enough to keep you on track in the program, even if you have to do 2-3 extra clinical days to catch up? It's just ridiculous what some people will stoop to. When the actual professional nurse compliments you, there's no way the instructor could fault you! Geez. Sorry to hear about your issues and will offer up a quick prayer for your situation. Keep the faith, bro.

[RN_student2006]

That is unbelieveable! I think they should kick the teacher of the program! lol Yeah, I say fight it! And good luck...hope it works out! Keep us updated.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

i'm sorry this has happened for you. however, something doesn't add up here. the dean of nursing will always know or have access to all the facts of why you were dismissed from the program. dismissals of students from nursing programs are never a unilateral decision made by one instructor. a clinical instructor isn't normally that high up on the totem pole in the management hierarchy to have that much power, unless you are in a very small nursing program. and, then, i would still reinforce that the dean would be well aware of what was going on. no, this decision was also approved by others. the dean of nursing is in charge and your clinical instructor answers to her, ultimately. i would suspect that the dean knows what the truth is. she may have only been trying to soften the blow for you. my feeling is that something has been left out of this entire story. we've only heard your side and the instructor and dean aren't going to talk because it would be a breach of confidentiality.

if you really feel this strongly about being treated unfairly, hire a lawyer and see what recourse you have against the clinical instructor or the school. the school will have lawyers they can refer you to who work for very low costs for students to hire. beyond that, in hind sight, you might have insisted on a third person to be in attendance at all evaluations with this instructor in order to have a witness to her treatment of you.