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

Nursing Students General Students

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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

Okay I know that most of you are still in school, it looks like nursing school never changes.. you guys have given me a chuckle because I think we have all had those instructors that you want to beat over the head! Just remember.. Nursing school doesnt teach you how to be a nurse. They give you all the book learning, but you dont actually learn to be a nurse til your on the floor actually doing. This is just my opinion. I got way more out of clinicals then I ever got in lecture. And I got way more education as a Graduate Nurse actually working!

You are insane. That is all.

Specializes in Critical care, Pediatris & Geriatrics.

I like to say..

Marilyn THANK YOU for making my nursing experience worth it and for always stopping and showing me how to do it!

Specializes in med/surg/tele/neuro/rehab/corrections.

Was everyone else just as shocked as I was to not be treated as an adult?

Who here was treated as an adult in nursing school?

Specializes in Critical care, Pediatris & Geriatrics.
Was everyone else just as shocked as I was to not be treated as an adult?

Who here was treated as an adult in nursing school?

I have been Faeriewand! My Instructors are AWESOME. I must of been the lucky ones.

Amy

Please treat me fairly and with respect.

Remember: I PAY YOUR SALARY!

I wonder if the "nursing shortage" is actually caused from the student level?

Plastic Faux-people don't come close to the real thing...no matter how many thousands of dollars they cost or what types of perfect lung and heart sounds they can emit. I cannot practice on plastic and be expected to demostrate near perfection in reality. My patients haven't been taught to respond in black and white.

Positive reinforcemnt goes a very long way. What we lack is confidence not brain cells.

Specializes in 5th Semester - Graduation Dec '09!.

This semester, I would say "HEY! Just because a woman chooses not to breast feed, DOES NOT mean that she is evil, and that her baby will be overweight, sickly, and have a lower IQ.

If it were my last semester instructors, I would say thanks for teaching us SO much and being SO cool!!

Specializes in Rehab, Med Surg, Home Care.

Now that I am out of school, I recognize your singling out of me and belittlement for what it was, ie: bullying. Whether coming from a co-worker or doctor, or from an instructor who should be above this, I now call it by its rightful name.

Your being tough on me and having high expectations might have made me a better nurse; your bullying did not. If you did not have the resources to find alternative ways of teaching students without intimidation you may be in the wrong profession; there is no justification for bullying-ever.

I can say the scars you left did teach me how NOT to interact with others I have been privelged to teach or mentor. I have never forgotten how inadequate it made me feel.

Specializes in Telemetry/Cardiac Floor.

Since I actually am an adult , don't be suprised if I respond to you like one.

Specializes in ortho/neuro/general surgery.

would you just frickin' relax? if i didn't get to my patient's bath because i was busy with higher priority patients, it's not the end of the world.

why on earth would you make me do total patient assessment that we get graded for, twice when everyone else did it once? so i did everything a little out of order, but now i know that's just reality. with this large immobile patient, the posterior lung fields are usually the last thing assessed.

get out of my face, you're driving me absolutely insane!!! don't grab the syringe as i'm giving an im injection.

gee, thanks. thanks for nothing. just what did you teach us in school? the longer i work, the less i seem to know and the more there is to learn. when i walked onto the floor my first day of floor orientation, i might as well have been in france with how confusing, unfamiliar and intimidating everyone and everything looked.

yeah, that 3 hour class you spent on death and dying, it really wasn't any help the day i had an elderly pt pass and his family hadn't been expecting it quite so soon. it didn't help the day i had a pt my age on hospice, dying of a chronic condition. or t he day

we coded a pt who didn't make it.

Specializes in Telemetry.

I love my present nursing instrictors. This is what I want to say to them: I love you and thank you for making my dream a reality. I know you want me to succeed and you looked beyond my skin color and treat me like a human being. God bless you professors and I will continue to work hard to succeed.

For those professors who feel important when they torture students and kill their self confidence: You are absolutely not fit to relate to students, find another job. Your ego will not be satisfied by making students not realize their dreams. Let it go and fix your morals. Good morals always allow people to find themselves, you are lost.

Here's what I would say...

If we can all be on time, why can't you?

Do you really think "pre conference" should consist of us waiting for you to show up? And should it really take 90 minutes for you to write our names on the assignment sheet? Why can't you figure out our assignments before we arrive?

Do you really think we all want to hear about your personal stories, especially the ones that are completely irrelevant to nursing? Do you really think it is ok to mock the patients, especially the ones with mental impairments? Do you really think you can keep using the fact that you are new to the program (as a very last minute replacement) as an excuse for not knowing the policies?

Do you really think we all "love you" as much as your former students from the other college (that you keep telling us about)? Do you really think we even believe you?

Do you really think you are teaching us anything meaningful? Do you think any of us will be sorry when this rotation ends?

Do you have any idea how much we miss our last instructor?

WOW - that felt great! Thanks for letting me vent!

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