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.
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.
Everyone I work with in psych are just fine. I have to defend my people, lol! They come from many different backgrounds: medsurg, tele, ICU, ER, LTC, etc. They're in psych because, like a lot of nurses, they like to try their hand in different specialties. I'm not sure why they're suddenly considered "nuts" because they work psych. Maybe because psych is a whole different ballgame and it seems foreign. Psych nurses are not mostly nuts any more than bariatric nurses are mostly fat. On that note, I only met one nurse who became a nurse because of her own issues. She didn't last because she had crappy boundaries.
I will say OP's instructor sounds over-the-top, but there may be good reasons for what she dictates. If you you've ever had the side of your head forcefully smacked by a patient, you'll be glad you didn't have stud earrings. I've had patients freak out over my red hair. You don't know what's going to set them off. Besides, it's better to just go with the flow in clinical. It'll be over soon enough.
As for the microwave, OP needs to figure out how to think outside the box and let the petty stuff go.
Specializes in Leadership, Psych, HomeCare, Amb. Care.
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... [/quote']
This is everything I wanted to say. Clinical spots are very hard to come by, and one of the jobs of the CI to make sure that the "guests" are as unintrusive as possible, and not alienate the staff who are performing their primary task of caring for patients. Seems the lunches are all working lunches, so it does seem reasonable that the instructor doesn't want people wandering to and fro the microwave at that time.
The fashion pirouette does seem a bit odd, and I don't see the rationale for the heart shapes or colors, as long as it is business like. The dress code inspection could be more low key, but that the way your instructor rolls.
Specializes in Home Health, Mental/Behavioral Health.
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.[/quote']
Perhaps all this brainstorming and advice has given the OP that closure she was searching for. Personally, I know that when I feel like something someone is telling me to do or not to do is just way out of my comprehension and cannot get an explanation or rationale for why ... it drives me nuts. I think that this is what was most bothersome for her. I think that this possible reason is the most practical and makes it alot easier to accept the rule. Not that you alway have to understand a rule as a clinical student, to follow it, but I can relate to that feeling of wanting to know why.
I think knowing the whys and questioning rationales is a great quality for a future nurse! We're not being trained to just blindly follow orders, but to think about if they make sense for the situation. The previous poster came up with a great reason why the microwave should be off limits, and if that was truly the instructors reasoning, she should have shared it.
Perhaps all this brainstorming and advice has given the OP that closure she was searching for. Personally, I know that when I feel like something someone is telling me to do or not to do is just way out of my comprehension and cannot get an explanation or rationale for why ... it drives me nuts. I think that this is what was most bothersome for her. I think that this possible reason is the most practical and makes it alot easier to accept the rule. Not that you alway have to understand a rule as a clinical student, to follow it, but I can relate to that feeling of wanting to know why.
I can understand a preference for having hot food, but getting physically ill for the rest of the day if the food isn't hot? You never eat sandwiches, or fruit, nuts, trail mix, crackers and cheese, etc.? Could room temp food work? It has to be heated or you just can't deal?
Just get this rotation completed. There maybe a reason why the instructor does not want your class rotation to use the microwave. In one of my rotations we could not use the break room. The staff did not want us to join them in their break room, they needed a break away from teaching us nursing students and we really were not staff. Maybe the instructor is protecting you all from being "put off by the facility rules".
I agree with everyone else bring a thermos if you have to have something warm to eat.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
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.
Not to mention that if there are eight students microwaving lunch in the break room, the staff might not be able to use the microwave until their break time was over. Students are there as guests; staff come first.
I just wanted to say yes, your clinical instructor is nuts. That being said, try leaving your comfort zone for once. To get through school with perfect grades I had to starve all day without any food or water or stay up for two days in a row sometimes. It really builds character. I'd urge you to give it a try.
Ridiculous. I doubt very much that the staff nurses all bring their lunches and having a handful of extra students heat theirs would cause a massive delay. I mean... Has any RN here seriously experienced a wait more than 1 person deep? c'mon.
And no, you do not need to be an RN to distinguish whether a rule is over the top.
It sounds like an interesting semester for you. Head down and power through. Bring room temp pb and js.
Ideally they would have told you ahead of time that you wouldn't have access to the microwave. (And that wouldn't be unreasonable if the staff only had one, or if students aren't allowed in the sraff only breakroom) what if someone brought a frozen meal?
The color issue, I don't know what to say. That's ridiculous. Cornflower blue could traumatize someone who had once worn a burqa...beige could traumatize a soldier...a plaid shirt could traumatize someone who had been raped by someone in plaid. What makes maroon unacceptable?
And was dress code spelled out to that particular letter beforehand?
Hygiene Queen
2,232 Posts
Everyone I work with in psych are just fine. I have to defend my people, lol! They come from many different backgrounds: medsurg, tele, ICU, ER, LTC, etc. They're in psych because, like a lot of nurses, they like to try their hand in different specialties. I'm not sure why they're suddenly considered "nuts" because they work psych. Maybe because psych is a whole different ballgame and it seems foreign. Psych nurses are not mostly nuts any more than bariatric nurses are mostly fat. On that note, I only met one nurse who became a nurse because of her own issues. She didn't last because she had crappy boundaries.
I will say OP's instructor sounds over-the-top, but there may be good reasons for what she dictates. If you you've ever had the side of your head forcefully smacked by a patient, you'll be glad you didn't have stud earrings. I've had patients freak out over my red hair. You don't know what's going to set them off. Besides, it's better to just go with the flow in clinical. It'll be over soon enough.
As for the microwave, OP needs to figure out how to think outside the box and let the petty stuff go.