Sent home from clinical :(

FutureNurseInfo · Jul 21, 2017

Hi, I am not a student nurse, but I can understand how you feel. I will not go on and on about how this is unfair, or not, but I will tell you this: do not feel defeated. Everybody once or twice in their lives have failed at something. The most important thing to do is to never let this negative experience hold you down. Rather, have a moment to cry but then get up, dust yourself off, and do what it takes to rectify the mistake.

I will say, too, however, that it seems to me that your clinical instructors were rather unprofessional. I will explain why I think so. At least based on your post, I see that CL should have approached your error in more humble way rather than just label you as "unprofessional". Also, is it a common practice at your school to send a student home for not following through his/her care plan to the T? I mean, it is not like you put a patient in grave danger. I may be wrong on this one, but I am simply guided by the common sense. All in all, I do hope that you were given some sort of a constructive feedback by your CI so you know what to do next time. Hang in there!

future-peds-np · Jul 21, 2017

Just to preface, I am only hearing this story from your perspective, so I'll try to be as helpful as possible.

I have never heard of asking too many questions in nursing school, much less being called "unprofessional." When I was in nursing school, they were practically holding us down to pull questions out of us. As for the care plan, I'm a little unsure exactly why you were sent home for missing 1 intervention. Care plans are not easy to do, and it sounds like you were taking it very seriously.

If for some reason you think that maybe your clinical instructor is intentionally doing this to you (not sure if you do or not), consider moving up the chain of command and telling them about the issue because your story seems very unusual. If you do not think so, I don't really have much advice to give you other than to persevere. You can and WILL get through this.

marin8campy · Jul 21, 2017

Thank you for taking the time to read this and comment... I appreciate this so much. This clinical instructor is very picky about how the care plans are done. I was warned about this by some previous cohorts, which is why I was so diligent in the way that I did it. It depends on the instructor as far as how intensely you must fill the care plan out. I would have never guessed that missing one intervention would lead to a clinical fail, though. She is also making us do a head to toe assessment, and being a 2nd quarter student, I've never done one before. Our assessment class is next quarter, so we shouldn't be doing anything other than basic vitals right now. It's been a rough clinical experience for our whole group because of this. Thank you for your kind words :) I'm definitely having a good cry or two, but you're right, I shouldn't let this hold me back. I feel bad about myself for failing, and I'm not sure I'll ever be okay with it, but I guess we do all make mistakes.

elkpark · Jul 21, 2017

Welcome to allnurses! For the record, plenty of people have failed clinical, some much more spectacularly than you describe, and survived and gone on. I'm a little suspicious of this business about charging you $400 to make up a clinical day. I've never heard of such a thing.

Hang in there! Best wishes for your journey!

direw0lf, BSN · Jul 21, 2017

The first part of my reply is purely meant for encouragement for you. The last part is suggestion on how to avoid this again if you want to read!

I am so glad you aren't failing the semester! That's something positive to try to focus on now! You are very hard on yourself, harder than I would say anyone needs to be. You know what? I'm entering my senior year and am in a nurse internship. I have straight A's in my nursing classes and a 3.98 GPA and also am majoring in biology. In my internship, I can do everything that an RN does under supervision. I realize more than ever in my internship that my A average won't make me any better of a nurse. A nurse who had a B/C average and a withdrawal or F who had to repeat a class, is the same as I will be. I'm not smarter, better, or a harder worker necessarily. When you get in there, for real in there, not just your school clinical which is so different from the real deal, your scholastic success or mistakes don't matter. What matters is if you try your best and do what's right, have common sense, pull on all the foundation knowledge you've gained, and use critical thinking skills. What I'm trying to say is that this one event won't hinder you unless you let it, you can let it hinder you if you continue to put yourself down for it and call yourself names like idiot.

"I'm not sure what do or what to think. I feel like there aren't many people that have failed a clinical before, and I feel like an utter failure" So when you start to compare yourself to "other people" remember that no one is perfect and remember what I said that in the end you will be an RN eventually if you stick with it, and your GPA whether it was a 3.0 or a 4.0 and your clinical dismissal won't matter.

This is the part about how you can prevent this from occurring again hopefully: When I read what you wrote I had to ask myself if you left out a large part of the story. For ex, when you asked many questions, did you do it privately or did you do it during your clinical post or pre conference meetings around your classmates, or in front of patients even? I learned in my early clinical when I asked the instructor "How am I doing?" during post conference, and she said "That's not the right question to ask in front of your classmates or at this time" she was absolutely correct. Ask your questions privately, if you don't. What was the intervention that you missed? Was it something the instructor stressed often? Be aware of others!

direw0lf, BSN · Jul 21, 2017

Thank you for taking the time to read this and comment... I appreciate this so much. This clinical instructor is very picky about how the care plans are done. I was warned about this by some previous cohorts, which is why I was so diligent in the way that I did it. It depends on the instructor as far as how intensely you must fill the care plan out. I would have never guessed that missing one intervention would lead to a clinical fail, though. She is also making us do a head to toe assessment, and being a 2nd quarter student, I've never done one before. Our assessment class is next quarter, so we shouldn't be doing anything other than basic vitals right now. It's been a rough clinical experience for our whole group because of this. Thank you for your kind words :) I'm definitely having a good cry or two, but you're right, I shouldn't let this hold me back. I feel bad about myself for failing, and I'm not sure I'll ever be okay with it, but I guess we do all make mistakes.

Sorry I replied to you on the General student forum, I am not stalking you, I just visit these 2 forums.

I would look at getting to do head-to-toe in addition to VS's as a great experience, not as something negative! You want all the experience you can get, since we get so little clinical hours during our education as it is. Cheer up girl, keep your chin up! Take some time out to do something nice for yourself, like go to the lake or whatever you like, a time out will give you better perspective.

MyAimIsTrue, BSN · Jul 21, 2017

What kind of nursing program are you in?! At mine, we would never get sent home because of an imperfect care plan. Sheesh. We might have to redo a portion of it, but being sent home is ridiculous, IMO. And paying $400 to reschedule? Also ridiculous. Is this a for-profit school?

ERnurse21594 · Jul 21, 2017

The program you're in may look down on you asking questions... but don't stop doing that. Always ask questions. Senior nurses still ask questions. In nursing you will never stop learning, and you will never know everything. If you have even the slightest bit of doubt - ask... you don't want to risk the patient's safety or your license.

I agree with everyone else... what is up with the $400 to reschedule clinical? Sounds fishy. Anyway, keep your head up and keep pushing forward like you're doing. Several people have failed clinical, classes, and the NCLEX and have gone on to be kick ass nurses. I know it is hard to not feel hopeless - but try and think of the qualities you already have as a student nurse that will make you a good nurse in the end. You are not a failure. You will get through this. It gets better.

I am not a student nurse, but I just graduated in May. I start my first nursing job on Monday, so I still feel like a student if that helps :)

meanmaryjean, DNP, RN · Jul 21, 2017

What kind of nursing program are you in?! At mine, we would never get sent home because of an imperfect care plan. Sheesh. We might have to redo a portion of it, but being sent home is ridiculous, IMO. And paying $400 to reschedule? Also ridiculous. Is this a for-profit school?[/QUOTE]
My question exactly!
And how is physical assessment not until the third term? I think something is missing from this story. Color me skeptical.

MikeyT-c-IV · Jul 21, 2017

Sorry to hear you had this experience. Keep your head high, reflect on this experience, and press on!

Asking too many questions shouldn't be a problem. I love it when students and young nurses are engaged in the topic(s) at hand. It's the timing and situation that could be a problem. Example, I teach a class in nursing orientation. I admit that I get annoyed when I'm constantly interrupted with questions about topics that will be discussed during the lecture. I prefer they hold questions until the appropriate time.

I'm curious about the 400 dollars to make up the clinical. Is this paid to the university so they can pay the instructor for an extra day? I've never heard of this before... my circle is small! :)

neuron · Jul 21, 2017

Were you warned about the care plan in advance? Maybe noting that if anything was left out, you would 'fail'. Were you warned about anything else this semester, like being late, etc..?