Someone out there, please help!

[perfectpractice]

I've got a HUGE problem in clinical at nursing school (med/surg 2). I understand and take everything my instructor is teaching me very serious. The problem is that a typical session will go something like this: I'm being tested on assessments. I do all the necessary assessments and I'm down at the patient's feet, assessing color, temperature, capillary refill, pulses, numbness and thinking to myself, "O.K., now I have to assess edema." Before I know it, my instructor gets her greedy hands in there and starts to assess the patient for edema!! Afterwards, she wrongly accuses me of skipping edema and writes up a negative report! This is not the first and only thing. This happens over and over and over on many different things. She has already told me I am going to fail this course, $45,000 later, and powerless. Does anyone know if I have any recourse? I really want to sock it to this school if they fail me! Please help.

[ladylinton1]

Have you and the instructor talked about this? Does she/he do this to other students? I would try to get other students to back me up on her actions, to show a united front. Certainly if you feel her actions are unjust I would go to the dean of the Nursing program to discuss my concerns. You have invested a lot of time and money in this profession. I would not let that instructor try to weed me out the program. Hope you can use something from what I said, good luck with everything.

[tothepointeLVN, LVN]

I would try and prempt her in the assessment by explaining to the patient what your doing and say whats in your head.

She may be trying to light a fire under your *** by telling you you are going to fail I had an instructor in nursing school that everyone was scared was going to flunk them and that was just her way of getting the best out of her students.

[metal_m0nk, BSN, RN]

Ask her how you should order your assessment. Maybe it's just that she is prioritizing things differently and is getting frustrated because you aren't seeing her logic (whether or not she conveyed it to you). Get on the same page and go from there.

[Codjonaub]

Your stating that prior to you finishing your assessment that she displaces your hands from the clients feet and begin to take over the assessment? Im having a hard time following how this could have occurred in accordance with what you have stated.

[Seas]

Do you stop your assessment when you see the instructor is getting the rest of it? Maybe she is assessing patient for herself, not to share your work. I think you should finish what you are assessing regardless of what your instructor is doing.

[NCRNMDM, ASN, RN]

I would speak out loud to the patient, as if I was explaining everything, so the instructor could hear me and follow my line of thinking. I would say things like, "now I'm checking the pulses in your feet to ensure that you have good circulation to all the parts of your body," just general statements the patient could understand. When I got to the part where I assessed for edema I would say something like, "now I'm going to check to make sure you don't have any kind of swelling," or something like that. I would also ask the instructor why she didn't let me finish just to make sure there wasn't something she wanted me to do that I wasn't doing. Also, like someone else said, just because your instructor steps in and begins to do her own assessment doesn't mean you have to stop yours. I would continue with my assessment unless the instructor specifically told me to stop. I would also devise a method of doing my assessments and remain true to it each time so I made sure I got everything done, and so the instructor would fall into a pattern and begin to understand the way I did things. I would move from head to toe and cover all the systems as I moved down the body.

[Chapis]

i don't want to sound harsh, but if it has happen many times, why haven't you said to her that she needs to ask if you're done with your assessment, or wait until you tell her you're done to correctly give you your earned grade?

of tell her, i was going for that next then you jumped in. . .

have you said anything to her for jumping in like that and assuming you were done?

[Chapis]

In my program, they ask if we're done, then if we say yes, then that's it, if we missed something then that's on us since we said we were already done. Or for the most part, we say, I"m done with assessment. then if I forgot to assess something the instructor tells me you forgot this, or at times they give us one chance by telling us, you forgot something if you can think of it fast you'll be okay.

[perfectpractice]

O.K., Seas, here are some other examples. Me and the clinical instructor are reviewing my performance in a small lunch room. The RN assigned to our patient comes into the room and tells us our patient is back from a procedure. I say to her do you want to finish with this? And she bolts out the door. The next day she writes me up for not making the patient a priority and wanting to continue with the review. O.K., here's another; we change an IV line and she gives me an empty IV line. I know I have to prime it and I"m thinking about what I'm going to use to pour the liquid into, she pushes me and says I tried to hook an empty line onto the patient and I almost killed the patient. I don't know what to do. So then she tells me to go to the lab to practice using the pumps - I go to the lab and there are no pumps to practice with...go figure. I'm at my wits end.

[OB-nurse2013, BSN, RN]

I know it's hard, especially in nursing school to stand up for yourself but you need to. It doesn't have to be confrontational but you have to take hold of these situations.

The IV bag I would have said right away that yes I was going to do that and I was just looking for something.

The review where she said you didn't make your patient a priority I would say right remember blahhh blahh you know. You just have to be more assertive with her, I'm sure she'll just say well you should be thinking faster at this point and this and that but she'll probably at least get the point and lay off a bit.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

O.K., Seas, here are some other examples. Me and the clinical instructor are reviewing my performance in a small lunch room. The RN assigned to our patient comes into the room and tells us our patient is back from a procedure. I say to her do you want to finish with this? And she bolts out the door. The next day she writes me up for not making the patient a priority and wanting to continue with the review. O.K., here's another; we change an IV line and she gives me an empty IV line. I know I have to prime it and I"m thinking about what I'm going to use to pour the liquid into, she pushes me and says I tried to hook an empty line onto the patient and I almost killed the patient. I don't know what to do. So then she tells me to go to the lab to practice using the pumps - I go to the lab and there are no pumps to practice with...go figure. I'm at my wits end.

Your instructor physically pushed you?