Hello, I've only posted a couple times so I'm not sure if this is the proper place for this post. I'm sad, embarrassed, and frustrated because I was sent home from clincals this morning. I'm a second year student in an ADN program and today was my first day to care for 3 patients (all meds, care, etc). I prepped at the hospital for 2 hours last night, came home prepped until midnight and up at 5 a.m. to get to clinicals on time. In preconference I was not certain why my pt was receiving an antibiotic. She was admitted with SOB, but I saw nothing in the chart other than that. When I truthfully told my instructor that I wasn't sure about the antibiotic she replied that pt has pneumonia. Keep in mind that 8 other students are staring at me and I buckle under pressure. I replied that I honestly did not see that in her chart. Mind you, that when I was prepping the chart was taken from me several times by other staff members and someone even took the progress notes out of the chart. Also trying to prep on 2 others at the same time. After the 30 minutes of preconference I went to the floor to begin pt care. My instructor pulled me aside and said that she was sending me home and I needed to make an appointment with my advisor and the director of the nursing program. I sense that they are kicking me out. The environment is one of total fear, no encouragement, waiting for you to mess us and never pointing out the good. The fact that I'm a single mom of four and I worked my tail off for this doesn't count for a thing. My grades are always 3.5 and above, but I have to work very hard to do that. I'm in my 40s so the menopausal memory thing is doing a number on me. I'm in debt $15,000 in student loans and I really don't know if I'll make it:cry:. Missing this clinical will mean that I get an incomplete for the quarter which messes up my financial aid so now I have that to deal with. Honestly, I don't think I can take much more of this. I realize that I'm rambling, using no paragraphs, just hoping that there is "someone" out there to encourage me. I don't know what I'm going to do if I get kicked out. Thanks for "listening"...
OMG! I am soooo listening. I am also a nursing student, divorced mom, almost 40, and limping along. For the life of me I CANNOT figure out why nursing students are treated so HARSHLEY in school! I understand you missed something on the chart, but instead of sending you home why couldn't your instructor acknowledge your honesty and your grace, instead of condemming you? I once made a REAL med mistake and thank goodness my instructor recognized that it is more beneficial when the nurse is HONEST and communicates mistakes, instead of trying to hide them, or worse act as if she understands something she really doesn't. I just don't get it! We are ADULTS for goodness sake, not irresponsible children running out into traffic! Don't punish us for mistakes, correct us and show us the right way to do it!
God bless you and please keep us updated. We are all pulling for you!
I am so sorry you're having such a rough time! I'm only a prenursing student so I don't have any experience with clinicals but it seems that kicking you out of the program would be extremely harsh. Good luck to you! I'm sending positive thoughts your way!:redpinkhe
Unbelievable. I thought the purpose of going to school was to learn. Are students kicked out of the program if they miss a question on a test? This is bullying and I would fight it.
It's times like this that you wonder "It it me or is this crazy?" ... the answer is it's NOT YOU!
No one can know everything. I think it's more important to recognize a discrepancy (antibiotics but unclear why) than to know why, especially when you don't have all the resources available to you and you're a student. The next step is figuring out why. I think the instructor would've done better to give you 15 minutes to go find out why. That would test your ability to problem-solve. And if you still had trouble finding a rationale for the med, then to use it as a teaching point about how to obtain such info. At that point, your overall performance would come into play. If you were consistently too apprehensive to ask questions or if you were consistently ill-prepared (clearly not the case with this day!), then there might be grounds for a serious discussion.
Unfortunately, nursing can be this way. So instead of railing at the unfairness and trying to justify yourself (both of which will make you look bad), focus on what you learned... which may be more about dealing with unfair situations than about patient care itself. As a nurse, you may find yourself being unfairly criticized for something outside your power. So it's useful to be confident of yourself (you ARE a good nurse/nursing student) and to be humble (you ALWAYS have something to learn) and to avoid the urge to automatically defend oneself beyond stating the facts and letting your work speak for itself. Sometimes you may lose the battle (if the person like an MD or an instructor continues to be unreasonable), but you'll 'win the war' if you are able to not let one or two people's negative judgements keep you down.
I am so sorry for your troubles right now. I don't really have any advice but I do hope this all works out for you. Surely they can't kick you out for not knowing one thing on one day can they? Nursing school is about learning, that's why they call it school. Maybe you could look at that chart again. I know sometimes where I'm at, dr's will admit with a diagnosis of shortness of breath, and then chest xray shows pneumonia ( done after admission ). So until the dr eventually writes it on there ( if they do ), someone else may not know. Also DID the patient have pneumonia? Your instructors seem to be so sure, maybe they could show you where they found it or who they heard it from??? Don't let them break your spirit. Hang in there.
Thank you for all the wonderful support and advice. It doesn't make any sense to me either. I did not put a patient in danger, I simply didn't see something in a chart. Most likely because being a nursing student makes me low man on the totem pole for access to the chart. If anyone else needs it, they take it. I get what I can out of it in bits and pieces. Why oh why are people that are so mean and obviously unhappy with life teaching us? Can it be that they love teaching so much? I doubt it. If I had any idea that this is what nursing school would have been like, I wouldn't have ever done it. I just wanted to learn about medicine, and more importantly, take care of people.... oh, and being able to support myself and my kids was a motivator too. I so appreciate all your responses. What a great network of support this site is. I'll keep you posted :)
I'm really sorry this happened. Clinicals are for learning and sending you home accomplished nothing. Your instructor really overreacted to the situation. My best wishes.
Just a suggestion but maybe for next clinical preparation, you could arrange to be there during shift change report and listen to report on the clients you are assigned. This may help you get started with your research. Hoping to hear that the school will give you a break.
Sorry you had a rough clinical. I think we all had things like this go wrong. And you worked so hard too. It seems like it would have been better if your instructor would have just passed the med herself and had you look it up. We learn the best from our mistakes.
Good luck, maybe your instructor was just having a bad hair day or something.:stdnrsrck:
Our instructor sent a student to the director once, and the director was very calm and cool about it all. So here is hoping your director also has a sense of proportion.
Specializes in Nursing Ed, Ob/GYN, AD, LTC, Rehab.
I would investigate your schools policy of failing, being kicked out and being set home. If they pull you into a meeting to disipline you it would be wise to have this information at your dispose to help protect yourself and at the same time be polite. I do have to say that 2 hours seems a little light for 3 pt research. I remember spending at least 2 hours per pt research at the hospital. In spite of this it does seem a bit over the top to send you home. Perhaps next time if you are faced with something you dont know you can egarly go look it up asap and be proactive in this sense. The biggest thing I learned to get through school was to keep my mouth shut, I noticed the more people talked the more trouble they got into, so sad, but so true.....
Im really really sorry this happend but whatever the outcome you can find a solution, good luck!
BerryHappy
261 Posts
OMG! I am soooo listening. I am also a nursing student, divorced mom, almost 40, and limping along. For the life of me I CANNOT figure out why nursing students are treated so HARSHLEY in school! I understand you missed something on the chart, but instead of sending you home why couldn't your instructor acknowledge your honesty and your grace, instead of condemming you? I once made a REAL med mistake and thank goodness my instructor recognized that it is more beneficial when the nurse is HONEST and communicates mistakes, instead of trying to hide them, or worse act as if she understands something she really doesn't. I just don't get it! We are ADULTS for goodness sake, not irresponsible children running out into traffic! Don't punish us for mistakes, correct us and show us the right way to do it!
God bless you and please keep us updated. We are all pulling for you!