Student nurses why do we take it?

StudentSandra · Mar 20, 2002

Julie, I have to agree with you. I don't know of anyone ever being yelled at, belittled, or humiliated in any way at my school. Yes the course work is difficult, but I do not feel we are treated badly. Actually at the end of last semester, when a couple students ended up failing the class by a point or two, the instructors went back over tests, check & double checked all addition, and when the students still didn't make it, the instructors cried more than the rest of us.

I'm sorry some students are treated poorly, but this is 2002, if you are truely being harrassed talk to someone about it.

delirium · Mar 20, 2002

I have to say it makes me a little uncomfortable when someone tells me what to think or what not to think.

And as for seeing if I can keep this attitude after a year of school... well, I can and I have. I'm nearing the end of my second semester in the ADN program, have all my prereqs done, and still have a 4.0.

I maintain that I'm not anybody's punching bag.

If you can't advocate for yourself, how are you going to advocate for your patients?

fergus51 · Mar 20, 2002

I am not trying to say you shouldn't advocate for your patients. I am saying that you will find a lot of the bs is just too petty to get yourself worked up over. And I have seen students who get stressed about every slight (real or imagined) and they don't always do so well. I was always a little too outspoken in nursing school and it came back to bite me in the a$$ on more than one occasion. Just letting you know...

xantha31669 · Mar 20, 2002

Unfortunately at my school there is one instructor who singles out one or two each rotation to belittle and "torture", she usually picks one of either the quiet ones or the ones who aspire to be something more than she is. Everyone in the school is aware of this but no one can do anything because she has power over them. You have to just get thru her clinical (Maternity) and pray it is not you! She considers it her mission to weed out the peolple who wouldn't make good nurses (in her opinion that is)

meownsmile, BSN, RN · Mar 20, 2002

I wonder if this is really to "weed" out or is it to make sure they can think for themselves and utilize the knowledge they have. I have seen instructors stand at med carts, at nurses stations in front of staff and drill someone on things, but I think it is mostly to make you think. Iv'e had this done to me, I lived through it, little embarrassing when you dont have ALL the answers they want, but it only hurts the ego for a minute or two.

I look at it as they have to see if you are utilizing the knowledge and are able to apply it. Sometimes if you can dig the information out of our heads while under the pressure of the more experienced audience at the nurses station, they know you will be able to do it when you get out of school and are on your own.

Having the knowledge to pass a test is one thing, but being able to put it together out there on the floor is a whole nother story.

I still think if there are instructors out there that are seen as insulting and belittling it might be as much our lack of confidence making us feel that way as anything. It's when we finally answer their questions and give them what they know we should have stored upstairs in our way overtaxed brains that they let up.

Dont mean to say there arent some bad apples,, i know there are.

delirium · Mar 20, 2002

Point taken, fergus.

I think its important that each person learn to choose their battles and not create or provoke or get dragged into conflict over small things. That's just energy-wasting.

I'm actually not one of the more 'outspoken' students. I'm pretty mellow, laid back, occasional snide comment..... but if I feel like I'm being taken advantage of, or treated unfairly, I speak up.

Here's a question, though.

Do you think that those students who submit to the unfairness, the (maybe) verbal abuse, and the superiority complex of their professors are more likely to submit to the same type of behavior in doctors, nurse managers, administrators?

Food for thought.

Maybe that's why nurses have lower self-esteem than other professions (as I remember reading on another thread somewhere).

:roll

fergus51 · Mar 20, 2002

I can see what your saying, but I don't think it's the case. A lot of students realize that nursing school is just a bunch of hoops to be jumped through and don't bother with instructors who are pissy.

I have found that as nurses we have a lot more power over our situation, including docs, administrators, etc., than I did as a student nurse. Unfortunately a lot of great students can get ignored or brushed off because they are "just" students. People often can't stand taking suggestions, even good ones, from someone who hasn't paid their dues yet. It's sad really.

I completely agree with what meownsmile said too. It is often our lack of confidence that makes us think an instructor is belittling us, when they don't intend to have their comments thaken that way. I had an instructor I thought was awful at the time, but she turned out to be the one that taught me the most about nursing.

xantha31669 · Mar 21, 2002

how does having an instructor say to you, after getting the highest grade on her supposedly difficult exam, "You did good on the exam, do you just test well?" Would you consider that someone's lack of confidence? i consider it just rude and demeaning.

Lori

fergus51 · Mar 21, 2002

I would consider it rude too. I had an instructor say I must just have a photographic memory after getting the highest mark on an exam once. It obviously had nothing to do with me understanding the course concepts right? Just say that you are actually really smart... so, yes, you do test well. She may not have meant it to be rude, she just might be socially inept. Take your grade, congratulate yourself and forget about the teacher's comment.

mario_ragucci · Mar 21, 2002

You just take it, and stop complaining !! Who do you think you are? What gives you the right to moan about people? Do you want a "paint by numbers" environment where the people have "rotary adjustable" personalities.....all dependant on your mood?

(I'm kidding) + (I'm a student going through the same stuff) = I can be humorous

:-) :-)

delirium · Mar 21, 2002

Hey Mario:

That's kind of a creepy picture.

I would agree that what the instructor said was rude.

With me... I get such high scores on all of my exams that the instructors say rude little things like, "why don't we let Rebecca lecture today since she seems to know everything."

I just smile and say "Don't hate... appreciate."

Its irksome though. It calls attention to me and kind of isolates me from my peers. More importantly, I feel an innate pressure to perform and continue to achieve above a certain score on each exam.

This doesn't have much to do with this thread though.

Just an aside.

talkall · Mar 21, 2002

It is just the same in the uk and we dont pay for our training so we dont have as much comeback.

I have just finished a placement my mentor filled in all my booklet gave me a really good report and said that I had done really well, and that I had got on well with all the staff and noone had a problem with my work.

Only on the last day for the senor member of staff to ask me to get by booklet and have a final interview with them and proceded to tell me that my knowlage of basic anatomy and physiolagy was not aceptable, that I only half finished jobs and that I was did not put myself forward to do jobs I should have been doing and let other people do them insted of doing them myself.

This has tolaly ruined a placement that I had really enjoyed and felt I learned alot from.

These coments were from only two days actually working with me and the reason that my anatomy was poor was because whenever she asked me something she made me uncomftable and aprehensive and I would get confused and forget things I did actualy know. I'm just realy greatfull that I got my booklets filled in early cause I think that if I hadent she would have given me a realy bad report but she said she dident want to override what my mentor has writen.

But she spoiled a placement that I had realy enjoyed I feel that just cause she was senor staff she got to voice personal views which onone else (at least my mentor who has worked with me more) did not share.