Too bad sweetheart, guess it's cold food for you..

[overit013]

I am in my final year of nursing school and am currently in my psych rotation. We just had our first week of clinicals + clinical orientation, and our clinical instructor seems to have some very strong opinions on things that have made clinicals very difficult for the students in my group. Here is a brief picture of what has occurred thus far. Keyword: brief.

We were instructed that while yes, this is a clinical rotation, she does not allow us to wear scrubs and we must wear business casual to all of our clinical experiences. Once in our conference room to go over orientation, she started the day by having each student stand up and spin. While we spun, she critiqued our outfits in front of the other students. It felt like the first day of 7th grade all over again- super awesome. One female student was wearing small heart shaped silver studs in her ears and was told that she must remove them immediately, as the shape of a heart may "remind a patient of a sexually traumatic experience and send them into a new psychosis". Another student was told that the muted maroon shirt she was wearing was "way too alarmist and could possibly send a sick patient into an even more psychotic state". (It was after this that I decided I would wear black muumuus and black pants for the remainder of our clinicals.) The absurd dress code rules continued for the remainder of the students, but this can give you an idea.

Now, the rule that has driven me to write this post.

During orientation, after slightly overcoming my newfound crippling self-consciousness problem, I asked our professor if there was a microwave in the cafeteria for us to heat up our lunch, or if we should use the microwave located in the breakroom on our unit. She looked at me as if I had asked her if we were going to behead the babies before tea, or after tea. "We don't microwave things for lunch", she replied.

Now, I am the type of person who can get behind most any rule you throw at me as long as you give me a solid, logical rationale for it. Wanting to be able to understand where she was coming from, I asked her in a very non-challenging, polite manner as to why we couldn't microwave lunch. She replied that if every person in our 8 person clinical group microwaved things for lunch, we would waste our entire time microwaving and not have any time to talk. While I can maybe see where she is coming from, only 2 people had even brought their lunch, and I suspected that this would be the normal trend. I then asked if we would be allowed to microwave our lunches when we no longer met for a group lunch and just stayed in our unit break room for lunch. She once again looked at me and said, "We do not microwave things for lunch". She would not offer any rationale for this, and called me and my fellow student petty for arguing the point.

This might not seem like a huge deal to any of you, but I absolutely hate cold food. I would choose hot soup over a cold salad even when it is 115 degrees outside. I just can't do it, cold food makes me nauseous and sick for the rest of the day. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle this, and the professor in general? I'm feeling pretty desperate at this point.

[Shagce1]

I have nothing regarding the professor. Sounds pretty over the top. Could you make soup at home and bring it in a thermos or whatever other hot dish you prefer?

[windsurfer8, BSN, RN]

Who are you to decide what is "absurd"? Are you an RN? Just because YOU feel something is "absurd" doesn't make it so. This is what being a professional nurse is all about..understanding that it isn't about YOU and that others have their view of things as well. When you are a nursing student you do what you are told to do. If you need freedom to do whatever you want their are careers with liberal arts degrees that allow you to wear whatever you want and don't require clinicals. Instead of focusing on your lunch focus on learning and becoming an RN. Adapting and successfully navigating different situations is what nursing is all about. If you are "desperate" because you can't use a microwave I don't even know how you plan to be a nurse. I have many 12 hour days with no lunch at all. Oh well. Good luck.

[smf0903]

The dress code and inspection is nothing new. No one around my area can wear scrubs to psych clinicals and everyone was "inspected" prior to going out on the floor on clinical days. If there's something they want your to remove or change, chances are they've dealt with it before. As for hot food, like a PP suggested, I'd use a thermos. We had certain things we were not even permitted to have in the break room on our psych rotation (such as soda cans,that's one I remember off the top of my head). While things may seem weird and incomprehensible to you, there are reasons the clinical instructors do what they do (usually, sometimes you get a nut in there though LOL). Good luck with your last semester.

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Personally, I see no rational basis for any of the examples given. Glad I am long done with nursing school.

[oceanblue52]

Totally over the top, but that's nursing school for ya. I do agree with your instructor about the earrings but for different reasons: bad idea to wear any type of earrings as an aggressive patient can grab hold and rip them through your ear. That is more common with dangly earrings but Psych hospitals have really strict requirements about necklaces and earrings because of these safety issues. It is a rarity but does happen. It's very hard to repair a torn lobe. Can't make sense of her other suggestions but sometimes you just need to put your head down to get through clinical :-/

[NurseGirl525, ASN, RN]

We had a similar dress code thing with one clinical instructor. We were at orientation for the facility and she walked around inspecting us for dress code. Piercings, shoes, socks, hair put up correctly.

I agree the lunch thing is a little over the top, but bring a sandwich. I often stopped at subway and got a sandwich before going to my clinical if we were not allowed to leave for lunch. I myself hate the taste of microwaved food.

You just have to learn how to adapt. I e had a couple hateful instructors. I kept my head down and just did my work.

[Emergent, RN]

My psyche rotation instructor was also nuts. I sometimes wonder if most folks specializing in psyche tend to have mental health issues themselves. It seems that way.

[la_chica_suerte85, BSN, RN]

I think this is common among psych clinical instructors. I think the bizarre experiences they have had have colored their experiences such that they really go to the extreme when demonstrating safety and just how far patients can go. It makes them seem pretty nuts at the outset. As for the microwave thing, I'm sure you'll find a way to microwave something when you're on your own. If not, I second the suggestion about taking a thermos or maybe taking something that neither needs to be microwaved nor refrigerated (i.e. an apple and a Clif bar did the trick for me). But, fighting the instructor on this is just not the way to go. Psych becomes a very strange animal unto itself and you can easily find yourself in tricky situations that suddenly seem to jeopardize your place in your program. It's a weird time.

[Kuriin, BSN, RN]

Who are you to decide what is "absurd"? Are you an RN? Just because YOU feel something is "absurd" doesn't make it so. This is what being a professional nurse is all about..understanding that it isn't about YOU and that others have their view of things as well. .

Uhh...sorry, but no. Not being able to microwave food when there is clearly one in the break room is absurd. May I suggest to you never be a clinical instructor?

[RNNPICU, BSN, RN]

The Clinical Instructor is defining the rules of the clinical. It is true if everyone in your clinical group microwaved something for 3-5 minutes you would be almost done with post conference. Even 2 people, 10 minutes + more or less, that takes away from any teaching moments. bring a thermos.

As for clothes, jewelry, certain colors can be triggers. You do not know the current population of the unit or the past medical history of the patients. it very well could be that patients are truly that ill and are daily in limbo from getting better to regression.

[AceOfHearts<3]

The no microwaving rule seemed a little strict to me at first, but after a little thinking it doesn't. As a student nurse you are a guest in that facility and on that unit. This is something that might not truly sink in until you are working as a nurse on a unit that gets students. You have no idea if there have been issues in the past- either at that site or another site your instructor teaches at- and to smooth things over the instructor instituted the microwave ban. Imagine being a nurse on the unit and not only in the break room taken over by students, but there is now a long line for the microwave. It's not always easy for nurses to take their breaks or their full breaks some days. Another hypothetical situation is that someone or some people would heat up something that the nurses on the unit found to be really stinky. Maybe that smell would linger for a couple of hours or even a couple of days. Now their breakroom is not inviting and smells because of a guest. Finding placements for students is not always easy and it can depend on staying in the nursing staffs good graces. Your instructor may have instituted the ban to avoid either one of these situations (or others that I haven't thought of) and/or smooth things over. Your instructor also does not need to explain this to you.