trouble with clinical evaluation

[SUstudent]

I'm a senior BSN student. I have done very well in both the classroom and clinical setting. At this point, we've completed 500 hours of clinical time, in med surg I, II and III, ob, peds, psych, preceptorship and community health.

One six hour shift during my community health rotation was at a center which focused on a chronic illness. I went and did whatever I could, but they had nothing for me to do. Being the busy bee that I am, I cleaned things up (after asking permission), refilled paper, and offered to help whenever and wherever I could. We had a class of four people that day and a one on one conference with a client that day. Each thing took one hour. The rest of the time, I tried to keep busy.

One of the things we have to do for this clinical is a midterm presentation. I was assigned to report on this clinical location. To do so, I had to ask several questions. The RN who was supposed to be "supervising" me literally didn't interact with me the whole day. She was hunched of the computer, didn't go to lunch and barely spoke to anyone. I tried not to bother her but had to ask her a few of these questions like "when did this organization start?" Neither she, nor the receptionist, seemed to know. They were very upset that I was asking any questions. It was a very odd experience.

Apparently, this RN, who I barely spoke with, wrote on my eval that I was "rude" and "asked questions about when the organization opened" and admitted she didn't know and said my behavior had been "rude."

M'kay. This was after I obligatorily went to lunch with the dietician, her husband, and her developmentally delayed daughter and the receptionist. It fell upon me to chat with the mentally challenged teenager, which I did, happily for about one hour, while they ate lunch. Then, when we got back, the dietician decides to open up and reveal a deep, dark secret--that she is going to quit soon and go back to school to become an LCSW. This conversation was two hours. The whole time I kept asking if I should be doing something helpful, if I could do anything. No response.

I cannot understand why this person wrote this about me. I am hurt, annoyed, and generally ticked off. This is the first negative comment I've received on a clinical eval in my entire nursing school career. Maybe if I'd gotten more, I'd be less upset. But the fact that it is a lie is blowing me away.

So many of my nursing school classmates sit and text during clinicals. I didn't do this. Didn't even bring out my phone. I was friendly, offered to help. I kept quiet most of the time because there was so little to do.

What should I do? My lab instructor quoted these comments verbatim onto my final eval. Only a few positive comments, but a lot on this one negative comment. She admitted no one else said anything negative about me, but she felt this was "concerning."

How important are these final evals? It's a pass/fail clinical. It doesn't affect my grade. But I fear that this may sit in a file and screw me up when I am job hunting. We graduate in less than 6 weeks.

Is this a big deal? Should I not worry about? I am supposed to sign this document and it goes in my file. I'm not comfortable with that.

Any ideas on this would be helpful.

Thanks!

[mursetudent25]

After you graduate/pass boards noone cares about the 'file' the school has on you. Thats what 1 clinical instructor told me at least.

[SUstudent]

Well, that's good news. Thanks for telling me that.

[Double-Helix, BSN, RN]

No potentail employer is going to comb through you clinical evaluations after they interview you. They have better things to do. So no, this is not going to haunt you when you're looking for a job. It certainly is annoying though.

Simply to make a point, I would refuse to sign the evaluation without first adding your own comments that you disagree with the comments of the RN, do not believe that you were ever rude, and were never corrected during clincals. Make sure you get to add details about how this RN behaved (objectively) and that you asked questions because you were required to for a project.

If you get the chance, I would definately go back in and talk to this RN and see just what her problem was.

[SUstudent]

Thank you. Yes, I told the instructor I wasn't comfortable signing it. I asked her if this RN's comments should be so prominent in that I was only there 6 hours out of the 72 hours for the community nursing clinical hours. She said she'd received no other negative comments about me and only positive ones. I asked if she could add some more of the positive to mitigate the negative.

I had to made a giant deal of this. But, the fact is: it's just not true. And I am pretty floored about it. I am sure if I tried to speak with this RN about it, she would perceive that as being "confrontational." She didn't want to have anything to do with students and sat in her office on the computer the whole time. I literally did nothing the whole day. I wouldn't even call it a clinical experience, because I did absolutely nothing. I thought it was really odd and noted all this in my write-up which was sent only to my instructor. All my other hours were really busy doing actual work and learning. So, this was very odd.

Thanks!

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

Sometimes the preceptor doesn't like a student. It's that simple, and it isn't necessarily a reflection on you. I had a similar experience when I was a student. Nothing came of it, and the instructor has the final decision anyway. Don't worry too much about the incident.

[SUstudent]

Good point. Yeah, unfortunately, my instructor thought it'd be a good idea to quote the whole thing prominently on my eval. She then told me, "I asked two other instructors if they'd had trouble with you in clinical and they hadn't so I thought it was just a fluke." And "no other clinical location said anything negative about you, just this one." And yet, she's giving it front page, above-the-fold prominence? I asked her to consider rewording the eval, considering those factors.

But thanks for the kind words.