The most annoying student

[Fruit Sucker]

There's this guy in my class who I need to rant about. He's just the worst. He always has to be the center of attention, is loud, and constantly interrupts others. He is a know-it-all and has to be right all the time. Today he disagreed with another student about a test question, and as the debate went on he melted down and yelled "I hate people like you! I hate your ********!" The other student was being surprisingly professional about it.

The thing I hate most that he does, is he dances around me air boxing at my head. Pretending he is an MMA fighter or something. He insults the people of color in the group by trying to suck up to them by "talking like them." It makes me cringe. He calls our professor "yo, teacher!" He comes in and pretends that he is teaching the class and says stupid things to everyone when the professor isn't watching, like "you're fired!" One day I was preparing medications and he whispered in my ear "I can't stand you." I said "what are you doing??" and he laughed and danced away.

He calls all the women "honey" and "sweetie" and is really condescending. He "corrects" people with wrong information and then says "don't worry, you'll get it sweetie." He's currently a CNA and he loves to tell everyone about his "years of experience" and how he is "on a different level than the other students."

He constantly screws up in clinical and blames it on others. He got ripped a new one by the CI for messing up a simple IV drip calculation, and meanwhile he turned around and yelled at one of the other students, saying she was talking and messed him up.

The worst part is this guy is in his forties. I just honestly can't stand him. My program is over in 4 more weeks and I can't wait until I never see this guy's face again. This guy is so bad that I think the world would be a better place if he dropped dead. I don't know if he has ADD or mania or something he needs to be medicated for, or if he is just a terrible person.

[kgh31386, BSN, MSN, RN]

Nope. If you would cry in front of everyone for being criticized, I suggest you get ahold of yourself. No way in **** would I cry in front of people because someone said something mean to me. We are not children.

You're missing the point...while you may not cry in front of others, I'm sure there have been plenty of middle-aged women AND men who have cried due to stress in clinical. In fact, search for it in the forums and you'll see. All we're trying to say is don't pass judgment on others. Like others have said, this kind of attitude doesn't reflect well on you. And honestly, as someone who interviews and hires new nurses, attitude like this is something that I really look out for. Resume, professional dress? Yeah we notice that, but how you really talk about others you've dealt with is what we focus on. Other managers feel free to chime in, but we really do care about your "retail job, or restaurant jobs" because that shows how you deal with other people, so keep that in mind.

[Fruit Sucker]

We had one of these, the best day of clinicals was the day he was goofing off doing his moonwalk, tripped over an empty wheelchair (no clue who put it in his path-haha) and skidded all the way under the nurses station.

Haha! Classic.

[kgh31386, BSN, MSN, RN]

Haha! Classic.

where's the face palm smiley face?

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

How on earth did he get this far to be graduating???? Hopefully the NCLEX will be the great equalizer for him and he can get taken down a notch or two.

Nah. The NCLEX is just a minimum competency standard, not an Idiot Meter

If he can get through an interview without being a moron long enough to get hired....I'd bet he doesn't keep that job for long at all.

[caliotter3]

If he acts like you describe this close to graduation and the school has failed to do something about him, I worry about the integrity and professionalism of that school. Students were bounced for much less from my program.

[Red Kryptonite]

If he acts like you describe this close to graduation and the school has failed to do something about him, I worry about the integrity and professionalism of that school. Students were bounced for much less from my program.

I was thinking the same thing. How on earth has the school and the professors allowed him to act as described for so long?

[rob4546, ADN, BSN, MSN]

We had a guy that was really similar and he didn't make it through to graduation. It was humbling for him to flunk the final class and have to take it over again. I am not one to wish bad on others but I was very amused that this happened. I get to see him in a couple months when he rotates through my unit while redoing clinicals. Not looking forward to this.

[Red Kryptonite]

Develop a blind and deaf spot. It's not likely you'd precept him, so just avoid, avoid, avoid.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

He sounds pretty horrible, and incompetent. But NO ONE deserves to be reprimanded in the presence of an audience. This was very wrong on behalf of the instructor. She should have called him aside and spoken to him without an audience.

In general, I agree with the "Praise in public, reprimand in private" dictum, but in this case, I respectfully do not.

This is somebody who's been offending, really offending, everybody.

He's probably thinking he's getting away with it, and if he gets reprimanded in private he can discount it or chalk it up to "The CI didn't like me because I was so much better than everyone else."

Also remember, the other students are entitled to expect a safe and professional learning experience, and the faculty is there to help assure that and protect them from this kind of gross misbehavior (as opposed to the usual skin-thickening experiences that appropriately accompany all professional education).

Calling this guy out in public on grossly unprofessional behavior isn't telling anybody he or anyone else didn't know, and has the benefit of having witnesses so every time he looks at anyone else he knows they know too. Sometimes this is the only thing that keeps people like this in check, getting their denial challenged.

And trust me, OP, your faculty knows about this guy, he is not getting away with anything, and I would bet dollars to doughnuts that your CI has discussed him in faculty meeting and has general approval for her approach that day. He won't last long unless he seriously shapes up, with therapy or whatever else he needs to do it.

[cp1024]

In general, I agree with the "Praise in public, reprimand in private" dictum, but in this case, I respectfully do not.

This is somebody who's been offending, really offending, everybody.

He's probably thinking he's getting away with it, and if he gets reprimanded in private he can discount it or chalk it up to "The CI didn't like me because I was so much better than everyone else."

Also remember, the other students are entitled to expect a safe and professional learning experience, and the faculty is there to help assure that and protect them from this kind of gross misbehavior (as opposed to the usual skin-thickening experiences that appropriately accompany all professional education).

Calling this guy out in public on grossly unprofessional behavior isn't telling anybody he or anyone else didn't know, and has the benefit of having witnesses so every time he looks at anyone else he knows they know too. Sometimes this is the only thing that keeps people like this in check, getting their denial challenged.

And trust me, OP, your faculty knows about this guy, he is not getting away with anything, and I would bet dollars to doughnuts that your CI has discussed him in faculty meeting and has general approval for her approach that day. He won't last long unless he seriously shapes up, with therapy or whatever else he needs to do it.

While I hear what you're saying, I'm still not seeing why public humiliation was necessary. Why not dismiss him from clinical? Why not fail him for unsafe practice? These are all standard rules of being in a nursing program. As said, surely this has been a documented issue. Why not end it without lowering the professional standards of the instructor, and quite possibly causing the entire nursing school to look bad? What if a patient had seen this display? Nurse managers? Surely they wouldn't want a school who allows such things (both the poor behavior from the student and verbal bashing from the instructor) to continue to have clinical in their hospital!

I just don't see how this display helped anything, or how it was professional. But maybe that's just me.

[OrganizedChaos, LVN]

I'm so sorry. I never had that problem but I went to a community college & there weren't very many of us in the class. I wouldn't count it out just yet for him to fail. There was a girl in my class who failed the last test in the last semester. He still has time to fail.

[LaterAlligator]

Jeez, and I thought the guy in my cohort was bad! All I can say is maybe when he fails at things, take that schadenfreude as some stress relief for yourself. And figure out which specific traits of his are alienating everyone so you can be sure to assess yourself for them.

That's what I've done with my jerk classmate so far, and it's helped me some.