Things you would LOVE to say to your nursing instructors...

[Montessori Mommy]

If you could have an open, honest conversation with your instructors - classroom or clinical - what would you tell them?

Here are some of my thoughts:

(1) Please make sure that everyone follows the rules & meets the requirements. Don't let some students make their own rules while others work hard to follow every rule! While there are always times exceptions must be made, the same students are often getting away with everything.

(2) When I'm in clinical, please just step back and allow me to do the task I have to do. Don't stand over me asking questions! Your running commentary makes me a nervous wreck. As long as I'm doing my task correctly, observe & keep quiet! If I do something wrong, please explain it to me and give my another opportunity to prove I can do it.

(3) Please ensure your expectations are clear and consistant. If you want our weekly patient write-ups a certain way, tell us. Don't change your expectations without letting us know!! The bottom line: most of us are working so hard to do our best! Tell us what you want from us and we'll always do what we can to get a good grade!

Staff note: Also, don't miss the Things you would love to say to your fellow nursing students! thread

[Natkat, BSN, MSN, RN]

How the h3ll did you get a master's degree with your atrocious spelling and lousy grammar?I know you had to write term papers on graduate school. Were you graded for grammar and spelling?

Stop capitalizing words that don't need capitalized. The rules for capitalization are proper nouns are capitalized. Others are not. Trade names are capitalized. Generic names are not. Do not capitalize aorta, hypertension, heparin, aspirin, surgery, anemia, renal failure - or anything that was not named after someone. Crohn's disease is capitalized; heart disease is not. Learn the difference.

Oh, and peanut butter is two words, playground is one word.

Learn the difference between "everyday" and "every day". "Everyday" is an adjective that modifies a noun. "Ever day" is something that happens daily. If something happens every day, it is an everyday occurence.

Grrrrr!

[Ms Kylee]

To the Program Director: You're rude, nasty, and just plain mean. You've consistently proved you don't care about us part timers, except for the 500K we bring into the school so you can sit on your behind and act like the Queen Bee. You're not very professional when you tell us we "can come to you with any problem" but when we do, your pat answer is "read the book." Some things are just NOT in the book. We're coming to you because we have problems that you don't want to be bothered with so you blow us off. Your blatent favoritism toward the full time class is rearing it's ugly head. We're paying the same amount of money as they are, but we have to deal with your rudeness and "I am Superior" attitude for twice as long.

God help me.

Don't stand and lecture to me reading from the book. I can do this at home since I've been reading since I was 3, thank you very much.

Don't play favorites. You both do it and you know it. Some of us are actually there to learn, and want to learn.

When a student comes to you in clinical and says they can't get any tasks done because one student is hogging them all, please take that student aside and explain the value of sharing and working as a team.

And thank you so much for making me hate my program and school. If I could transfer without losing everything, I would have done it during the second week.

[APBT mom, LPN, RN]

To the school itself: just because we are the night class doesn't mean that we should be excluded from the schools activities because that's when the diretor of the program is there. When we are invited to participate in something or have and award ceremony for achievements stdents in the night class have made don't have the ceremony at 9 am and say "you can invite family" like that's supposed to make us feel better. There is a reason that we're in the night class, it's called a JOB!!! When you're sitting at work at 9 am so are we. Half of us are already on thin ice at our jobs just for the fact that we are in school and have to leave an hour early because of it. Then there are comments made about how the night class never participates in anything. Also, why are the bulletin boards in the hall covered in pictures of the day students doing things or their achievements in class but yet we have no room to show ours even though everyone says that the night class out performs the day classes. There's 5 groups of them and only one of us could that be the reason?

To the instructors: thank you for all that you have taught us the good and the bad. Thank you for standing up for us at clinicals when the facilities turned out to be less than descried during orientation. To one in particular I know your little game and I can play it just as well as you. Did you ever notice the more you threw your attitude at me the more I came up just to ask you a question when I clearly knew the answer by the way I worded the question or when we had our med pour I purposely had you because everyone else was avoiding you like the plague. You tried to fail me for having the wrong syringe even though you did not have the proper supplies out for a 1ml injection and I substituted with a TB syringe and explained to you why and then you allowed. What about the other 15 people in front of me who picked the same card and had to draw up the same med. I asked, you said nothing to them. You know the other things you did but once you realized that it wasn't bothering me you moved on and I bet you felt real proud of yourself when you had people in tears over the way you talked to them. We were in school for a reason too learn and you are their to teach. I can only imagine what it would have been like to work with you on the floor.

[twistedpupchaser]

A big thankyou to all of the good lecturers/instructors, you know who you are!

A little thankyou to the mediocre lecturers/instructors, you know who you are!

(On the day I finish the course) a full bedpan for the (two) really bad lecturers!

A question for the administrators, why do some students get their placements finished and are registered 6-8 weeks before other students have a "placement" come available to start?

[GeauxNursing]

thanks for all your caring and hard work, you made my first semester great!

[pengoo2008]

Most of my instructors/profs have been great...however to some of them...

1) Please, please do not lecture me on professionalism when you are the least professional person I have ever met. Mocking the doctors with accents in front of our clinical group, wearing jeans to clinical (when you yourself have told us to dress professionally, mentioning explicitly that no blue jeans would be tolerated), and generally being an *** make it difficult for me to keep a straight face when you speak about professionalism.

2) Don't tell lies. I learned that one in kindergarten...I wonder when you will stumble upon this important lesson.

3) Don't discuss who you think has "shifty eyes" in the cafeteria at the school of nursing for all the other professors to hear. If you really suspect a student is cheating, address it appropriately not in the most BS manner possible that gets NOTHING accomplished except shed suspicion on an unsuspecting student.

4) If you don't show up to class one more time, we are not going to call YOUR office to remind you when class is (and inform you that yes, we are sitting in it, waiting for you), we are going to call the director..ugh.

[lemonlimeEMT]

1) If you have to look up the answers for the example questions you gave us, understand that we need to look it up too.

2) Don't offer to whole class to look over papers before they are due if you aren't willing to actually look at the entire class' papers.

3) It's PERISTALSIS not percintalsis. I realize some medical words are quite difficult to pronounce properly, but please make an effort to learn the easier ones.

[Ms Kylee]

Chocolate IS TOO a PRN med. Just ask any nurse on my floor. We keep it in medicine cups at the nurse's station for days just like yesterday.

[future L&Dnurse]

1. Just because you would structure my sentence differently does not mean that my version is grammatically incorrect. Don't take 5% off of my grade for "grammar" when nothing is wrong with my grammar except that you like your version better.

2. I understand cutting everyone down to build them back up, but you could stop cutting and start building any time now. We're down enough.

3. (to one in particular) I want to be like you when I grow up. Thanks for everything.

[AnalegnaRN]

To my Peds clinical instructor:

THANK YOU so much for the vote of confidence, tools to go on, and someone else's belief that I can do it and end up a great nurse.

You were tough, fair, fun, informative and realistic... could you help educate the rest of your field some of them need some help

ASAP

To my Med/surg instructor:

Thank you for letting me take a makeup and having my side you knew it was a fluke and you knew it would never happen again

when the other instructor wanted my head I ThANK YOU FOR NOT ENDING MY OPPORTUNITY in its tracks when really I was having a bad time and couldn't tell you...

Thanks so much for seeing me really

[onyx77]

To my GOOD clinical instructors: Thank you for everything! You've taught me what it takes to be a good nurse and gave me great examples. Thank you for your patience.

To my 4th semester clinical instuctor: Next time you give me a bad clinical grade make sure it is not because of a fax that YOU screwed up!

[zaggar]

You know, I find strong, intelligent women very sexy...