Uncooperative Lab Partner

Jules A, MSN · Aug 30, 2006

Oh I agree Jules - truly I do. I'm a crochety old lady now though and when I went back to school - I truly decided that I was the consumer of this service and I needed to have a good experience in order to learn.

Dag, I'm a a crotchety old lady why didn't that help me when I complained? :wink2:

Trauma Columnist · Aug 30, 2006

Maybe because I'm a louder crochety old lady?? tee hee hee

puggymae · Sep 1, 2006

I agree - you are paying for an education - you deserve to be with a partner who is positive and can help you. I would talk it over with your teacher.

DaFreak71 · Sep 9, 2006

Can you be the third wheel while another team practices? At least you'd be able to observe and there's a possibility that the other team will let you practice on them. Maybe you could practice on a friend or boy/girlfriend? Don't let this person determine whether or not you will be learning the skills you need. Take the initiative to learn/practice without this person and outshine them when you have to check off with your instructors. If you're in the sort of situation where you have to practice with your assigned lab partner and there is no deviation from that policy, I'd try to have one more meeting of the minds with this person. If that fails, document your efforts and take them to the instructor you feel most comfortable with. The previous posters who pointed out that you are paying to learn have an excellent point.

I'm thankful that we get to pick our own lab partners in my program. I hope your situation gets better soon.

MMARN, BSN, RN · Sep 9, 2006

I am a first year student. We've just begun our semester a couple of weeks ago and we have our first assessment on Thursday (Aug. 31) on the Skin, Hair and Nails. I didn't know anyone in the class so I got partnered with a stranger that is not being very cooperative. She and I sit beside each other as well and all day long she goes on and on about how she doesn't need practice, she doesn't need study skills and she doesn't need test taking skills. She thinks she is a know-it-all and finds issue with everything; even the fact that I type my notes on the computer after class instead of keeping them handwritten. She is loud, rude, obnoxious and constantly complaining all the time. Just being around her is an energy suck and I am worried that her attitude is going to affect my ability to do well on my assessments because I do need to practice. I guess, what I would like to know is if I should approach my instructor and ask to have my lab partner switched or should I just suck it up. I don't want the instructor to think that I am whiny or hard to get along with but I also don't want to endanger my ability to do well because of who I am paired with.

Unfortunately, you will find this in every class. There will always be a person who "knows" more than the professor. My only advice to you is to try to distance yourself from her and ask your professor nicely to partner you up with someone else. A partner needs to be cooperative and understanding. You need to help each other. She's not helping. So, you need to take the best course of action and ask your prof for a change. It'll help you to be successful in the end.

natrgrrl · Sep 9, 2006

Most educators know that when bad and good are paired together, bad always prevails. If changing your lab partner's mind doesn't work (which it might not :uhoh3: ), talk to your instructor or find a different way to learn because it is your responsibility to do well in class. Right now is a good time to practice being confident and assertive.

A know-it-all is not likely to graduate anyway, IMHO.

Good luck on your decision! Let us know how things work out.

Amanda

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Sep 9, 2006

I'd speak to the instructor about it, pointing out how it's not helping you to learn, when this person is being deadweight.

emllpn2006 · Sep 10, 2006

I would agree with speaking up and talking to your instructor about your situation. In LPN school I was always very quiet infact in my first 2 semester evals the instructors commented that I needed to talk more to get a better school experiance. While I was quit and not talking much I had a lab partner who was quit also but was what I thought a very good student. We would practice all our labs together and even got assigned to our specialty clinical rotations together. Things were going well till the first day of the 3rd semester she did not show up and I did not know why. Once we were back in the class room another class mate said she had failed pharm and was put out of the program. Maybe if we had talked more I would have known this and could have helped her to study. Then I was assigned another lab partner who was new to the class she had completed part of a RN program and had to quit then tested out of the first half of our program. This woman was book smart but when it came to lab and clinicals she was terrible. She had only attended one day of clinicals for the RN program while we in the LPN program had already completed about 75 days of clinical and lab time. I pretty much fared for myself and practiced lab on my family members on the weekends. The only thing that I was missing out on was phlebotomy. There was no way I could get the supplys to practice on family and none of them would have let me anyways. (Not that I blammed them. I would have had to drawl the line there also.) Well I finally got the courage to go to my instructor and explain my situation. She was very nice and even volunteered to be my victim. She stayed after school one day and taught me the in and outs about phlebotomy and even let me stick for practice. Sorry this post is so long but I just dont want to see someone else make the same mistake that I did. Long story short when I finnaly got the guts to open up and let a instructor know what was going on she went out of her way to rectify the situation and make sure that when I graduated I would trained to the best of her ability.

Charmed3001 · Sep 10, 2006

First talk to your instructor. If that doesn't work, talk to a few friends and see if they'll let you practice on them before lab so you know the material and can get away from this situation as soon as possible. I had a friend who would let me perform assessments on her a couple of times a week for the practice.