First I want to thank you guys who post here. I have been reading and it's a wonderful web site for students and new nurses. So many questions answered and mysteries solved!
Second I need to ask if anyone has been in a similar situation as I find myself in now and what you did about it.
I have a leadership class and the professor is awful. She gave us no guidance or support with the clinical requirement - on our own, we had 2 days filled with classes to find a preceptor we could follow around for a total of 30 hours in 5 weeks on top of a full summer semester credit load. She wouldn't even give us the list of outside facilities we have a contract with - she read it to us in class so fast no one had time to write them down. We have to keep and submit journals and do endless ridiculous written assignments with final projects at the end.
I made the mistake of winding up with a preceptor in an outside facility who I don't know. It was the specialty I am interested in and there aren't many like it in my area.Everything was fine except that she is a head nurse and busy and seems sometimes to not want me around but her staff all seem to like me and I help them out a lot with tasks they don't want to do and I have been having a positive time.
I had to give the preceptor an evaluation for me and she gave it back and I looked at it when I left and she gave me 1 - on absolutely everything. - The grading is 1 through 5 points with 1 being the worst.
She has never let me help her - I took the initiative to write a note (not meant to be a nurses note) because after she left one day something occurred with cousins fighting over a client and no one was at the nurses station but me. I had no authority to get involved but I did listen and defuse the situation and gave my name and told them why I was there and told them I would inform staff. I got a nasty critical attitude from the nurse manager about my note the next week but no real feedback.
Anyway - when I told the perceptor on Friday I would be back her face fell and rolling her eyes and looking someone who was visiting her as if there was a big secret she said, "Are you learning anything here?!" She never asked me to do anything or gave me any direction on what I should be doing there - never gave me an indication I wasn't doing well in this clinical. I did feed difficult clients and spent time with them and talked to them and walked with them and the clients hug me and kiss me - so I can't be all that terrible.
I wondered she thinks I am planning to pursue a job there after graduation. I am not but they she asked. The director of nursing there asked me when I graduate and I am wondering if my preceptor is jealous and spiteful - I can't tell. (Her staff and the facility love her and she is one of the best they have there).
I want to ask you all...should I...Go back and speak to this woman? I really REALLY do not want to cause she is closed and stubborn (and I don't trust her) and I have already put up with too much.
Should I go to the student counseling office at school? They'll give me some standard counseling but they can't and won't get involved. My professor for this course would be more than happy to blame this on me and fail me - she is a mean person.
I am tempted to fake the evaluation form and hand in a forged signature copy and that thought scares me - why should I be dishonest and risk being thrown out of school and ruining everything when I feel the course and the people I should be looking up to failed, not me? I am graduating at the end of the summer with a BSN and this is really upsetting. Any feedback is very much appreciated. And Thanks Nurses! And best wishes to all of you who are suffering with professors and preceptors from Hell.
I think you have to try and find out where you are going wrong-As a preceptor one of the hardest things to do in the world is fail a student so when you have to do it you normally take advice, discuss things with other staff members before you go ahead and do it.
Unfortunatly there are more importants things than popularity, it is nice to be liked but it is more important to be working hard in the work place.
Actually, UK, I do like what you have to say - you gave me a lot of very insightful, mature, and practical advice I can truly use - sort of like snapping a new recruit out of an hysterical lapse - thank you! I avoided particulars of the situation on purpose because it's a small world. But I said enough to worry about being identified anyway, and really should not have posted what I did without being thorough and, also, worried about students in my class reading it. I will say that this clinical is for shadowing the preceptor and observation only. We are learning about administrative duties of managers like scheduling, paper work, meetings (we're supposed to accompany them to meetings), signing off authority, organizational protocols, and how units work and interrelate within the larger organization.
I made appointments today to speak to academic development and counseling so I can sort out and feel my best when I go back to face the mess and I wanted to thank you and everyone here for the information you gave me - I learned a lot about the working enviornment here. Best regards to you.
Hello- I would like to respond to even just one aspect. Please think before you decide to alter your evaluation. I have been a nurse for 17 years and I have seen things like that happen. If you get caught for something like that in nsg school, you will probably get disiplined. If you don't get caught, it will give you a chance to get in trouble after you pass boards. If you don't get penalized in school, and you pass boards, it will be easier to do while working. This is not something that the BON would look upon with favor. and if you get caught, you will have to appear in front of them and I would never want to have to do that. By the way, I'm not accusing you, I'm just saying if you get away with it school, no matter how small, the temptation will be there. Signing off meds or tx you didn't give or do, ect. I have seen nurses that got caught false documenting a tx or something simple, and then every time there is a question about something, their name comes up. As hard as you work in msg school, is that the way you want to start off?
Anne, RNC:banghead:
Thanks Busy, You are very wise and I'm going to talk it over with my academic advisor and counselor and then deal with it the right way. Thanks again!
I think you have to try and find out where you are going wrong-As a preceptor one of the hardest things to do in the world is fail a student so when you have to do it you normally take advice, discuss things with other staff members before you go ahead and do it.
Unfortunatly there are more importants things than popularity, it is nice to be liked but it is more important to be working hard in the work place.
Well I wish I went to school where ever you are cause the preceptors and the professors where I go to school do what ever they want - including indulging in laziness, jealousy, favoritism, abuse of all kinds and breaking with curriculums that are enforceable with accrediting agencies - no it's easy to fail at my school - especially if you are naive and not street-wise. I haven't failed yet - I am an excellent student and will be an excellent nurse, but I've spent more time dealing with nonsense than anything else and I hope the work place isn't like this. Also, good leaders are frequently liked because they have personal attributes people in general appreciate. This clinical is a management and leadership clinical and we are supposed to be observing leadership and management - no hands on clinical duties allowed.
With more information, we can give better advice. This clinical is not about patient care so stop doing it. No more helping the other nurses with tasks, feeding and walking the pt's etc.
Tell your preceptor that you need to stay at her side and will be doing so in order to learn the administrative side of nursing. If she wants you to be there or not, stay with her (apart from bathroom breaks.)
If she is actively trying to dump you and not take you to meetings then ask to speak with the nurse manager of the unit/floor. Everyone has a boss. Go up the chain of comand, which is another great thing to learn how to do as a nursing student.
Life is full of learning, even if it's not the learning that we wanted.
Well I wish I went to school where ever you are cause the preceptors and the professors where I go to school do what ever they want - including indulging in laziness, jealousy, favoritism, abuse of all kinds and breaking with curriculums that are enforceable with accrediting agencies - no it's easy to fail at my school - especially if you are naive and not street-wise. I haven't failed yet - I am an excellent student and will be an excellent nurse, but I've spent more time dealing with nonsense than anything else and I hope the work place isn't like this. Also, good leaders are frequently liked because they have personal attributes people in general appreciate. This clinical is a management and leadership clinical and we are supposed to be observing leadership and management - no hands on clinical duties allowed.
I must admit I did go to a very good university, where we had excellent preceptors and mentors, of course there were always the bad ones as there are in most walks of life-but I learned from them too I learned how not to treat people badly.
I have an always will be a good preceptor and educator to students, new members of staff and anybody willing to learn and have accepted constructive critism when it has been given. Recently I recieved some critism from 'management' although I felt it was unfounded I went away and reflected, I treat everything as a learning experience. Students ask for me to be their preceptor so I consider that an honor.
I am sure you are a good student but be careful that your over confience doesn't come accross as a 'know it all with nothing to learn' as that can sometimes be a turn off-I am not trying to offend you but we have all come accross student nurses who think they have nothing to learn and sometimes I find that dangerous.
We all have bad placements take what you can from the situation and learn.
Good luck If you are as good as you say you are, you have absolutly nothing to worry about and will able to laugh at this next year.
I have an always will be a good preceptor and educator to students, new members of staff and anybody willing to learn and have accepted constructive critism when it has been given.
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I hope I find nurses like you on the floor when I start my first job as a new grad.
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
The person to complain to is not your school, but the person who is the manager over this head nurse. Ask in the nursing office. They can tell you who this is. He/she needs to know that this head nurse took on a responsibility to assist you in an assignment, then turfed you off to her staff nurses and then criticized you instead of teaching and mentoring you. Then, on top of it, gave you a terrible evaluation which is going to affect your grade.
An alternative solution would be to contact one of the many staff/charge nurses you worked with and ask them to complete a copy of the evaluation for you.
And if none of that works, I know that this won't go over big, but I've been a manager for many years and know quite a lot about how this written evaluation process works. I would have made sure that I had made a blank copy of this evaluation. I'd "fix up" the ratings (the 1's through 5's, I assuming) on this form if my grade was depending on it, especially if there was no evidence provided to back up these low ratings. When someone takes the time to give someone bad scores then they also need to take the time to give them some extensive explanations as to why. If this wasn't done then there is something sadly lacking in the person's judgment. Did she handwrite explanations and examples to explain the scores she gave? Scores of "1" demand that. That is only fair. If not, then as I said above, I would have no problem doctoring this thing myself. It is unlikely that anyone is going to follow up on it and contact her. I've never heard of that happening. And if they did, it doesn't sound like she would care enough to do anything about it anyway as long as you are out of her hair--just deny, demand she produce a copy to prove what she's telling them, then is the time to reveal what a difficult and nasty person she was to deal with and claim she's the one lying. He said/she said situations are Mexican stand-offs and have no resolution.
Bad evaluations with no documentation to back up the claims are a pet peeve of mine. I got a great lesson regarding them as an employee and when I became a manager worked very hard to be fair in evaluating worker performance. Discipline for wrongdoing is a serious matter and an evaluation is not the place to be doing it.
Specializes in Gerontological, cardiac, med-surg, peds.
I am tempted to fake the evaluation form and hand in a forged signature copy and that thought scares me - why should I be dishonest and risk being thrown out of school and ruining everything when I feel the course and the people I should be looking up to failed, not me?
Please don't do this. This would be the absolutely worst choice you could make, because "hidden things" have a way of being found out in the end. Forgery is no light offense, and you would be kicked out of nursing school for sure, with not much chance of ever being readmitted. Think of all your hard work so far - don't risk it.
Instead, go talk to your leadership professor and explain the situation. Your professor, the preceptor, and you should have a face-to-face meeting to talk about her negative evaluation. Also ask your professor if you could arrange an alternate experience with another preceptor at a different facility. Best wishes to you.
And if none of that works, I know that this won't go over big, but I've been a manager for many years and know quite a lot about how this written evaluation process works. I would have made sure that I had made a blank copy of this evaluation. I'd "fix up" the ratings (the 1's through 5's, I assuming) on this form if my grade was depending on it, especially if there was no evidence provided to back up these low ratings. When someone takes the time to give someone bad scores then they also need to take the time to give them some extensive explanations as to why. If this wasn't done then there is something sadly lacking in the person's judgment. Did she handwrite explanations and examples to explain the scores she gave? Scores of "1" demand that. That is only fair. If not, then as I said above, I would have no problem doctoring this thing myself. It is unlikely that anyone is going to follow up on it and contact her. I've never heard of that happening. And if they did, it doesn't sound like she would care enough to do anything about it anyway as long as you are out of her hair--just deny, demand she produce a copy to prove what she's telling them, then is the time to reveal what a difficult and nasty person she was to deal with and claim she's the one lying. He said/she said situations are Mexican stand-offs and have no resolution.
Am I reading this right?? Are you actually supporting the idea of turning in a forged evaluation??
madwife2002, BSN, RN
26 Articles; 4,777 Posts
I think you have to try and find out where you are going wrong-As a preceptor one of the hardest things to do in the world is fail a student so when you have to do it you normally take advice, discuss things with other staff members before you go ahead and do it.
Unfortunatly there are more importants things than popularity, it is nice to be liked but it is more important to be working hard in the work place.