The most horrible things instuctor's say...

WindyhillBSN · Nov 1, 2007

i had a clinical instructor make faces and roll her eyes when i talked and asked questions. of course, she treated everybody else great and i had no one to vent to about it. the syllabus we have says, "a student is allowed to miss a maximum of 8 hours of classes for the semester or, 2 class days." i came in 2 hours late one day, and she tells me she'll have to talk to the chairperson to see if it should be counted as an absence. i have no idea why she can't stand me.

SoonerTreasure · Dec 5, 2007

I love this thread. As a pre-nursing student who loves to hear the bad news first I feel more prepared for the future!

Thanks to all who posted.

This was not a nursing instructor, but a clinical educator at my hospital during my orientation.
We were practicing phlebotomy on each other and I let my classmate stick me. She had never stuck anyone in her life. Well the educator was doing a lousy job of guiding her (I'd done over 900 sticks by this time as a tech) but I didn't want to interfere. My classmate ended up hitting a nerve and was very upset that she hurt me.
The educator asked her what floor she was going to be working on so she could make sure that her mother would not end up there.
My jaw just hit the floor!
The next time I saw that educator, I told her about her remark and how it made that GN feel. She ended up apologizing, but by then the damage had already been done.

QuestGAV · Dec 5, 2007

I just wanted to say that when the instructors critisize you, or patronize you, it's a tactical method they utilize so that you do not become complacent. I am a United States Marine, and I just wanted all of you to realize that you have patients LIVES in your hands.....(Their life= your resonsibility). Just like Marines have eachothers lives in their hands. Complacency kills. If you mess up in your clinical, you deserve to be corrected. Remember not to take it personal. If you only knew some of things I was called in boot camp!!!! Understand, you are in training to save, protect and care for lives(which is a obligation for both our jobs)....You are constantly at war with death, disease and pain. When the instructors hurt your feelings, keep in mind that your training to be a warrior/nurse. One, day when you save someones life or have someones life in your hands, you will realize that your instructor did so for the patient's sake; with total disregard to how you feel, and your going to be thankful for that; and that's how it should be.
-Semper Fi

It's one thing to hold students accountable for their actions. It's another thing entirely to do so in a destructive way. In most of these stories, it seems like whatever message the instructor was trying to send was lost because the student fixated on the delivery of the message. Publicly embarrassing other people is not an educational tactic, it's a mean-spirited passive-aggressive way of getting back at all the people who have done that to you in the past.

elizabells, BSN, RN · Dec 5, 2007

Our psych CI did the following:

When she taught us to do psych assessments, told us we should ask a pt about their dating history. When one girl started getting sexually harassed by her patient, the CI told her it was her fault for bringing up his romantic history.

I was given an intractable schizophrenic, thought he was Jesus, the whole bit. Months of inpt treatment and even the team couldn't get through to him. I was told that I was too "self-involved" and that was why I couldn't get anywhere. I think she hated me because I had originally been placed on the eating disorder floor and asked to be switched because I have a history of ED and I didn't think it would be good for me OR the patients to have me there.

She then told the lecture instructor for psych that we were all engaging in splitting behavior and she shouldn't listen to anything we said about her.

Oh, and this psych CI, who is a psych NP? Doesn't believe in psychotropic medications for mental illness. :rolleyes:

MsLady06 · Dec 5, 2007

What is the most horrible thing a nursing instructor has said to you as a student???
Here's some of mine...
"After reading your care plans I was wondering if someone had beaten you all with a STUPID stick"
Suck it up and put your "big girl panties" on!!
""From the looks of your exam scores I see that the nursing profession might be in danger!!"

:lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

thats too funny!

MsLady06 · Dec 5, 2007

I would really like to hear more responses from the nurse educators on this forum.
What is to be gained by treating another human being so horribly just because one is in a supervisory position. This is just a general question out to anyone who cares to answer.

I had one at my school...I swear this witch is the devil himself. She would come in some mornings looking like **** and we all knew not to ask her anything. She would smile when she gave us hard ass critical thinking tests....she just knew the questions we all would get wrong...why set people up? She hates to be asked a ton of questions but always asks US!..."are there any questions?" She was nuts!!!! and I had her for clinical...and yes i got my ass chewed out plenty of days LMAO!!!

WindyhillBSN · Dec 6, 2007

:uhoh21:I just had an instructor write on my eval. that my skills met "minimum requirements." If she cared so much about the skills I don't have, why didn't she let me know this in clinical?

caliotter3 · Dec 6, 2007

Having a clinical instructor say that no matter what the student does or does not do, they are not going to pass clinical and then going into detail how they (the CI) do this "failing" function frequently and how much they enjoy it, etc., etc. Very sick person indeed. A functioning tape recorder could have given an attorney an idea of how to pursue a lawsuit against the instructor and the school. To fail a student because you don't like them and to tell the student that, among other things, is like I stated, just plain sick.

Aedana · Dec 6, 2007

I feel really lucky, I've never really had any CI get in my face and really rudely try to crush my spirit. They would make the occasional offhand remark to get under my skin, but the good thing is that I worked during my time as a student at a county hospital, so I'm used to insulting remarks from people and it just rolls off my back. Our clientele has a LARGE homeless and/or neuro and/or mentally ill population and while many are awesome patients, many are not always the most polite folks towards our staff. I'd also get sniped at from patient visitors who were nurses from non-profit chains in the area. They would assume automatically since we were a county hospital, our care was substandard. :trout: Fortunately, by the end of the day, they would turn their opinions around about us after observing my unit's kindness and hard work.

I did hear stories about other CIs that sent chills down my spine. The only thing that scares me more then negative, abrasive feedback is NONE whatsoever. My foundation semester was that way... None of us students could find the instructor and except for mandatory checkoffs, we never saw her stop in to observe us interacting with patients. I ended up getting a B (missed an A by the skin of my teeth), but I still have no idea what she graded me on since she was never there. :uhoh21:

But anyways, I sure am glad to have those days behind me! :balloons:

happydays352 · Dec 7, 2007

I cried when I graded your exams not a good sign.

CseMgr1, ASN, RN · Dec 7, 2007

I think that for some who hate nursing, and are not good at it, becoming an instructor is a way for them to still work in nursing, after having spent so much time and money on an advanced education.

My Fundamentals instructor in LPN school actually told our class on the very first day of school "I'm teaching because I'm burned out of nursing".

We just looked at each other, in the uneasy silence which followed. :uhoh21:

BoonersmomRN · Dec 13, 2007

OMG our nursing DIRECTOR told a fellow student that if he wasn't " so jewish" he wouldnt have needed to miss so many clinical days and that is why he failed in make ups.

COULDNT BELIEVE MY EARS