throw me to the wolves

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is this normal? I am in my first year nursing. I have had fundies, psych and now med-surg. Our professor has 4 people divided onto 4 units/2 floors. I saw my teacher all of 5 minutes today. That was to pass my one med. I talked with the other 3 and they seen her maybe 10 minutes each. We are there for 6 hours.

Is this normal to be abandoned so we have to learn and do it ourselves? Is it throwing us into the fire to force learning? Where in the world does she go? We are convinced she goes outside and naps in her car or is reading for her masters class.

Any advice? I feel like i'm learning nothing except how to try to figure out what is going on. The nurses are so busy they dont have a lot of time for the students.

Is this even legal? we dont have very much experience.

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

I don't know about that. I thought clinical instructors were supposed to stay on the unit with the students. I had one crazy instructor who even brought her kid to clinicals. She was wacky. Showed up late to clinical, like two hours late, we never heard from her or the school and we didn't have assignments so we went to the diner and then she called one of the students and totally flipped out on us. She threatened to report us for patient abandonment and to withhold our grade for clinicals.

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Specializes in ALF, Medical, ER.

I'm not in the program yet, however there have been students that have been on my unit before. I see their instructor with them all day. Last time there was maybe 10 students and she would be checking with each one of them throughout the day. I was constantly seeing her with a student. I'm not saying your instructor is bad, I'm just telling you what I have seen from my point of view.

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she was late this week. We had to wait an hour before starting clinical. We were not even allowed to get vitals until she was under the roof. Not sure why since we never see her.

She brought her child to clinical? Did you say anything to the school?

I want to keep my mouth shut and suck it up...however i want the future students to have it better. I'm sure they cant do anything this semester. Its really crazy and it scares me.

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Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.

Our instructor was always with us on the floor. Why on earth would they have all of you on different units?

When we were in management we were split between 2 adjoining units. That was the only time.

That is bizarre.

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there is another instructor from the same school on the floor. She is with the upper level students. I see her ALL the time! but she cant help us, well we dont ask. We know she is there for all her students. its soooooooo frustrating.

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

My "wacky" instructor was hardly seen throughout clinical but she was nuts and I didn't care cuz I didn't want to deal with her. I know that some of the other clinical instructors thought she was crazy though.

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do you have a trusted instuctor you can discuss this with?

my ci's never, ever left the unit, and were deeply involved on the floor.

furthermore, it sounds like you're being denied valuable clinical experience.

how long has this been happening?

leslie

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Specializes in Assisted Living Nurse Manager.

When I was doing clinicals we were split between the different units. We were always on the floor with another student and our instructor checked with us often to see if we needed anything. If she wasnt around she was only a beep away. Our instructor did not have to be on the unit with us, but she had to be in the building.

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we've only been on the units 2 weeks. The problem is the units only have room for x number of students. Some of us go to observation which does not require the instructor. others are on med surg or a related dept.

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Specializes in Neuro, peds.

our clinical instructor is always with us. this doesn't sound safe at all.

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When I was doing clinicals we were split between the different units. We were always on the floor with another student and our instructor checked with us often to see if we needed anything. If she wasnt around she was only a beep away. Our instructor did not have to be on the unit with us, but she had to be in the building.
We were split between 2 floors, 3rd and 4th semester. Our CI was a phone call away, in the building, and checked with us constantly. If she absolutely couldn't make it to our floor, we'd ask our assigned nurse. Most times, the nurse would help. If the nurse was uncooperative, we'd tell our CI, she'd switch us to another nurse, more considerate of students.

I was left alone on the floor once, in 2nd semester clinicals. My CI and I didn't click at all. She spent all her time helping my fellow students on another floor. I'm not the type of person to waste opportunity, nor let a little favortism stand in my way. I'd talk to my nurse, they'd make sure I was busy, and learning tons of stuff. No way could I complain about my CI, she was the daughter-in-law of the Assistant Director of Nursing.

It's not normal to be left alone 1st semester. 1st semester is a critical time.

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