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!
Please don't tell me that the program is so difficult that when you went through it you had to study so much that you even brought your book to the hospital when you were suffering a miscarriage. Perhaps you should have booked into the mental health part of the hospital instead....
Don't act shocked when I have problems changing the tubing for IV's. Really, it's my first time and the old pumps in skills weren't even electric. With 2 days a week in Clinical and never getting the same thing twice, how can I possibly gain confidence in my skills when I never get to use them?
Why do you looked shocked when I tell you 3rd semester that I've only taken a foley out during skills? Your the ones who assign me my Clinical patients. Oh, guess what.... those rubber arms we learned to start IV's are the only IV starts I've had. Shocking hey!
When a patient asks me what the med is for...shut up. If I need help I'm more than capable of looking the med up and getting back to my patient. Usually, you've just finished grilling me on the same med. I think I can handle it.
Oh, feel free to not ride me like a bull in a fair all night long. Why do I have to tell you politely to back off before you actually back off. I'm really not anyone's whipping girl! There are plenty of other students to whip.
When you stand over me hovering like a mother hen, can you please stick a breath mint in your mouth beforehand?
Yes, I took my meds out and gone over them for the past 45 minutes while you were running with the other students. Yes, I'm sure that this one particular med is not in the drawer. Yes, I looked in the tubing drawer from pharmacy. The med you keep insisting is the correct med is not the correct med. I can't make it plainer than it is. Generic or Trade, its not the same med. After 5 minutes of that she gets the point. Can you apologize?
Don't assume when you walk into a room where I'm waiting to draw blood from a picc line that I'm asking the RN for the procedure. I've already looked it up just to make sure I know how much to discard and how much heparin to cap with. When you walk in and inject a line such as "she's feeling stupid because she has to ask you and she just had it in skills 6 weeks ago", you looked stupid. I didn't even bother to explain that the nurse and I were talking about something totally different.....
Please don't tell me that part timers don't do well. I've been part time my whole program and I manage to pass each class with little problems. I'm even lucky enough to spend some time with my children. Most full timers do it because they have to. I feel blessed that I can take my time and still be with my family.
And you've been out of nursing for how long?
Don't teach me that everything with IV's are needleless and then throw me into my first Simulation as an IV nurse and give me all needles! Really, I've never done it before. How realistic is that? I know that when I take a job, I will know that day what their IV's are. Are you teaching me, or trying to shake me up? Can you help instead of hinder? I am learning. I am your student to mold into whatever your thought of a nurse is. If you thought that would teach me anything, you are sadly mistaken. Oh, all you had to do was ask the lab nurse to make the system needleless and she would have screwed on the piece you couldn't find. Nevermind, I did it the very next day so the rest of your students would do better. I've heard its still needleless.
Thank you to my early instructors who taught what I really needed to know. You didn't overwhelm me with threats and you didn't get freaked out when I dropped a pill. I know that nursing is stressful with long hours and so much to do, but thank you for teaching me the skills I need to be able to handle the stress and running. I don't need an instructor who tries to intimidate me. It doesn't help prepare me for anything accept not taking you next semester.
Oh, feel free to not ride me like a bull in a fair all night long. Why do I have to tell you politely to back off before you actually back off. I'm really not anyone's whipping girl! There are plenty of other students to whip.
Thank you to my early instructors who taught what I really needed to know. You didn't overwhelm me with threats and you didn't get freaked out when I dropped a pill. I know that nursing is stressful with long hours and so much to do, but thank you for teaching me the skills I need to be able to handle the stress and running. I don't need an instructor who tries to intimidate me. It doesn't help prepare me for anything accept not taking you next semester.
I didn't want to take up a lot of space with your whole post, but wow, can I relate....
I know that nursing school's traditionally been similar to boot camp, but honestly, this is 2008 and while I expect you to have high expectations of me as a student in order for you to produce a good nurse, I also have high expectations of myself....allow me to LEARN what I need to know and TEACH me....don't belittle me for being a student and trying to learn the ropes...all that does is make me want to slink home with my tail between my legs.
I have NEVER had problems with bosses or supervisors in my entire life. I have always been a quick learner....but this is one business that I'm not going to experiment to see if I remember something right....if I'm not sure, I'm asking someone...I didn't get in this line of work to kill people...but I will tell you, the brain cells short circuit when I see you coming...panic sets in as does utter stupidity....you frighten me sometimes with all your "power"...at this point, you have the magic wand that determines whether I finish up in a few shorts weeks or have to repeat....we're overwhelmed, looking for jobs, worried about the upcoming NCLEX and starting a real job AND geeeez, some of us do have those obnoxious families, pets, friends and a life outside of nursing school....thanks for your contribution to all of this....
wow after reading the post on this thread i can honestly say i love my nursing program and all of the instructors even the ones who were tough because they never lost their professionalism.
to all the instructors (who also do clinicals) you guys have been awesome these past two years i can proudly say, i am glad to be a may, 2008 graudate of grayson county college.
i will beome a better nurse from all the things you guys have taught us from lectures and clinicals.
thank you from believing in your students even when did not believe in ourselves
thank you for all your support, guidance:redbeathe
thank you for your office doors always being openn to the students.
thank you for building up our confidence and not putting us down
thank you for being so patient, for i know it must be hard to stand in front of class of over a 100 students with different backgrounds, personalities, and attitudes and still manage to remain professional.:heartbeat
to my 2nd and 4th semester clinical instructors, you are awesome, if anyone wants to to know how to be a good clinical instructor you two are great examples.:bow:
I HATED you and your "holier than thou" attitude at the beginning of the semester. You were rude, condescending and lazy. You treated everyone like an inconvenience to your day. God forbid we interrupt your internet games during skills labs! You plopped your butt into a chair and stayed there and never walked around to assess what we were doing. You were useless to us.
Fast forward 3 months. I guess having the attitude tables turned on you made you realize how hateful you were being. Your attitude has changed enough to make class bearable. You are still too talkative and interrupt us while testing off on our skills. You still play on the computer more than you shoud. And you still act irritated when we aske questions. But on a good note, I now know you can smile. I know you can joke and appreciate a good laugh. Just show that side of yourself a little more often, okay? We don't hate you anymore, but we still don't really like or respect you either.
Thanks for at least making an effort. The first semester students next fall would appreciate if you keep up the effort!
I don't know if this has been said because I have not read the whole thread. I would say Thank you. I have learned so much from each and everyone of you.
Well Well Well.. Here Goes Nothing! :spbox: (sorry if this is incessant)
To Clinical instructor #1 this semester: I have to admit I dreaded being stuck with you for three weeks since you were an in class instructor
I had in previous semesters and you FALSELY accused me and a select few others of CHEATING. Then you didn't even apologize after making a spectacle of us. However, unlike class You were great clinically! With the exception of the one day my pt's husband comes to me and says after I administered a med, that he thinks I am doing a wonderful job and that he doesn't understand why my clinical instructor is being mean to me. (at that moment I had to take a breather b/c I found that man's words so touching and that was the nicest thing someone had ever said to me professionally)
To Clinical instructor #2: Thank you for making clinical into a drag.Thank you so much for constantly breathing down my neck like a rabid dog waiting for your chance to strike. Thank you for constantly putting me down in front of my patients and my classmates. Thank you for picking favorites and making it obvious that I was DEFINITELY NOT one of them. Thank you even more for making me question my presence in nursing. Thank you for almost causing me a nervous breakdown in the middle of my semester during midterms. But most of all (like others have said) Thank you for showing me what kind of nurse/ person I do NOT want to be.
To Clinical instructor #3: You are truly a pure compassionate and awesome being, who I had the pleasure of having in class/clinical. Thank you so much for your kind words of wisdom and building me up from my previous horrifying experience. Thank you so much for taking time out for me and giving me those mental/ confidence boosts I so desperately needed.
To clinical Instructor # 4: One word describes you: CONDESCENDING. You like to talk the talk but you cannot walk the walk. You tell us to be considerate of others but never are you considerate of us. You cannot give us constructive criticism w/o adding or making it into an outright put down. I really do not appreciate it it when you start a sentence with the following words; "You know you really look stupid when..." I come to you for help on a quiz I didn't do so well in b/c you are also a class instructor but the only thing I get from you is: "Wow that was the easiest quiz I ever made up." Thank you for also showing me what kind of nurse / person I do not want to be. And then you wonder why I don't show up when the clinical group decides to go out together with you the evening after our last clinical. Its bad enough when I get treated like crap during clinical I'll be darned if I am going to let such people invade my personal life.:angryfire
To all the instructors (who also do clinicals) you guys have been awesome these past two years I can proudly say, I am glad to be a May, 2008 graudate of GRAYSON COUNTY COLLEGE.
...
Thank you for building up our confidence AND NOT PUTTING US DOWN
Wow Thanks for letting me know where to go if I don't want instructors like the majority that I have had.
And congrats on your graduation. Hopefully this time next year I'll celebrating too!
Specializes in primary care, holistic health, integrated medicine.
Dear Mrs. J.
Thank you for being my guardian angel. without you I wouldn't have made it thru my senior year.
Actually, I told her this and gave her a Willow Tree Angel. She cried.
This is sooo cool. I was wondering if there was going to be anything positive on this post. I enjoy reading it, because it does give me some insight and I do like to know where students are coming from. I remember some of my nursing instructors the same way, and I remember the ones I didn't like so much. I think I learned from all of them. But what I did not know, had no Earthly idea of, is how hard they actually work!
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:bow:
saramorris78
8 Posts
I am often told there are no stupid questions.
However, I often find the teacher responding to me in a condescending tone that implies my question is stupid. Does this happen to anyone else??!?