Saw an angry clinical instructor...

[Bortaz]

For the last two weeks, as I was walking to my office in the hospital, I've passed by a clinical instructor and her students from a local university nursing program. She gathers them in a hallway that serves as a seating area for visitors.

this woman has, every time I've seen her, been literally ranting and raving at her gaggle of students. I've heard her call them stupid, lazy, slow-witted. Heard her practically yelling that they will never survive as a nurse. Seen her literally rip their care plans to shreds and toss it on the floor.

it is all I can do to not stop and put her in her place, but I'm pretty new at this hospital and am not sure how that'd go over.

Should I confront her about this behavior? Would there be a contact at the hospital that would deal with the college staff? Should I just mind my business? ****** me off to see this reprobate treating students like this.

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

I don't think I would "confront" the instructor about her behavior; for that, I would speak to the school, the liaison, the program director, etc.

I would, however, consider asking her to take her conversation (and I use the term loosely) to a more private area. As someone already said, family/visitors/patients may not realize who this is and they might think the instructor is staff on the unit--and needless to say, that doesn't look good for the unit. Not to mention, I don't think it fair to the students to be "dressed down" in front of a group of strange, which may include the patient a student is about to care for.

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

Wow, that's awful behavior! Going all stereotypical drill instructor on the students is bad enough, but she actually tears up care plans if she doesn't like them?? Now I haven't had to do one of those in years [thank the good Lord!] but as I remember they took hours to complete. I would be thoroughly P.O'd if anybody, much less the instructor, destroyed all that hard work. How demeaning! I would definitely speak to whomever it is in the hospital that coordinates with the school regarding clinicals.

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

Whatever you decide to do, please don't ignore the instructor brow beating her students in public.

Students are at the mercy of those nurses who teach them. You may someday find yourself working with one of them, after they've absorbed the idea it's ok to humiliate your colleague in public.

You don't need to go public. You could even remain anonymous. Though if I were the student I'd love to see that instructor get a bit of her own medicine.

[Cricket183, BSN, RN]

I had some really tough clinical instructors who had very high expectations. But they all acted completely professional and were fair to everyone. I hate that those students are getting such a bad experience. Nursing school was hard but I excelled because my instructors pushed and challenged me.

As as others have said, I would contact the hospital's liaison or the school's coordinator. Personally, I would not recommend approaching the instructor directly, but that's me. If you feel it necessary then please take back up.

[CT Pixie, BSN, RN]

If the instructor acts that way in public for all eyes to see and ears to hear..I can only imagine the abuse the students get when there ARE no 'prying eyes and ears!

[firstinfamily, RN]

Who ever is in charge of the approval for clinical sites for the college should be notified of this instructors belittling of students. It is not professional, and at the very least she is demonstrating how to not handle any outcome that is less than desired. This behavior can flow from her to her students and to their patients. A definite NO NO!! If she is having issues with all the students then it must be a teaching method that she is not applying to achieve what is needed from her students. Personally, I think she should be counseling the students in a private manner. I would not have wanted to be confronted by anyone in a public setting. That is very demeaning and not very productive. I would report her to both the college and the hospital representative. It does not look good for the hospital if this is being done in a public place where other patients and visitors are exposed to her behavior, and for all you know one of them may be reporting it to someone. I did have a nursing instructor who used intimidation to "weed out" students, after I had graduated this particular instructor was let go. I do think nursing instructors have it difficult in that they have to meet all the college's requirements along with the clinical site and have their license tested by their students. However, tearing up care plans instead of having an extra mandatory class in care planning is not acceptable.

[ceccia]

i almost thought for a second we might be working at the same place! because the exact same thing happens where i work - everyone can hear this nasty ******* yelling everyday for the past few weeks, she is so loud and obnoxious you can hear her all the way at the other end of the hall and in the lobby; even patients ask "who is that and what is her problem?"

last friday one of the physical therapists came out of the gym (which is right around the corner from the alcove where students go to be yelled at everyday), and told the CI off. He said she was making the hospital look bad, that if ALL of her students were so inept that she felt the need to scream at them every single day then obviously she was incompetent as a teacher in addition to her anger issues and lack of self-control, and that he would be contacting her department head at the school to recommend she receive counselling to improve her interpersonal communication skills.

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

Bortaz, I would definitely go above her head. If she is acting this unprofessionally, she needs to be reined in by someone who has some authority over her. I'd find out both the clinical site coordinator for your facility as well as the dean of the nursing program and notify both. Go for the big guns. If you have colleagues who are willing to go in with you and make some notifications of their own, so much the better.

I'm not sure what you should do at the moment you witness it, though. My sense of right and wrong feels like there's something that someone could/should do right then and there but my sense of practicality doesn't know what it is. Maybe just stop and stare with an OMG-I-don't-believe-this expression until she realizes she has an audience? That way you aren't actually doing anything, but you've also let both her and the students know you're on to her. I don't want you to get in trouble, main thing.

I managed to get through an entire undergrad program with zero CIs like this, and so far so good in grad school. Thank God. It's one thing to have high expectations and quite another to be abusive, which is what this sounds like just from reading.

[lindarn]

Do we ever see medical students treated like anything less than demi- gods?

We would never see a physician instructor, treat medical students like this, or PT students, OT students, etc.

Why would any instructor treat a student nurse like this? Is it that nursing culture that makes it OK to eat our young?

Nursing has a long way to go in the image that we hope to achieve, that we are licensed medical professionals, or potential licensed medical professionals if they are students. That we our worthy of professional treatments, salaries, etc.

When nursing instructors act like blue collar trailer trash in public, why should we expect the public to treat us any differently?

JMHO and my NY $0.02

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN (ret)

Somewhere in the PACNW

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

Do we ever see medical students treated like anything less than demi- gods?

When nursing instructors act like blue collar trailer trash in public, why should we expect the public to treat us any differently?

I don't see medical students being verbally abused, but they are certainly not treated like demigods where I work…I am sure some of them have, indeed, been treated like pond scum by some resident, physician, etc. when in front of a patient/family member.

As for the second statement, I totally agree.

(P.S., I'm choosing to ignore the NETY comment)

[llg, PhD, RN]

At my hospital, I am the person who is the liaison between the hospital and the schools. I would hope that anyone witnessing such behavior would report it to me. I would have no problem calling up the Dean of the School and reporting this unprofessional behavior and informing her that this instructor would no longer be allowed to come into our facility (unless some drastic action were taken to change her behavior -- maybe). Her removal from my hospital would be fast and firm.

For lesser offenses, I would hope that whoever witness the faculty member's transgression would either report it to me -- and if something needed to be done immediately, mobilize resources (e.g. Manager, Director, Nursing Supervisor) to take of it on the spot. For little things (e.g. students hogging computers or using a conference room that is needed for patient care or hospital business), I encourage people to handle it at the time, on the spot. For big things, I want to be notified.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

Let's not blame this instructor's behavior on "mental problems". Some people are just *******s.