What are your labs/clinicals like?

[daisybaby, LPN]

Hi! I'm considering applying for an adjunct faculty position in an upstate NY LPN program, and it would be really helpful to know about what goes on during labs and clinicals from a student's perspective.

I've always wanted to teach in some capacity, so I think this part-time gig might be the perfect fit, but I don't know anyone who's in an LPN program so I'm not sure what to expect. In nursing school, I had some ok instructors and some not-so-ok ones- If I go for this, I want to be the kind of instructor that students really learn from and respect.

So, I need your help. What kinds of things do you do in clinicals? What do you like/dislike about your assignments/instructors? Is there anything in particular you lioke or dislike about your instructors, or wish they would do differently?

Any help would be really appreciated. Thanks!

[beeenieweeenie, RN]

Oh have I got an answer for you!

I really, really hate the way that nursing instructors (or at least all of the ones I have encountered) feel the need to be so intimidating. I also do not like being yelled at like a child in front of the nurses station.

I am not a child, nor am I stupid. I can be told something once, and remember it. If I do a procedure, I will more than likely remember it the next time. I do not need to be intimidated for making a minor error the very first time I attempt to do something.

There have been many times in clinical when I have pretended not to know something, because I wasn't sure of my answer, and I didn't want to be yelled in front of the nurses station or my classmates.

I mean really, is this nursing school or boot camp?

I love nursing and patient care. I don' see why the need for instructors to be so awful. They are really ruining what should be a positive learning experience.

[NurseCubanitaRN2b, BSN, RN]

I'm a real stickler when it comes to PROFESSIONALISM....and I feel that my current clinical instructor lacks just that....She tends to belittle the students in front of others on the floor...We're not paying all this money to have her do that....

An instructor needs to be the model to us students....She must not whine and complain about how inconvenient it is for her to drive to the clinical sites when she expects us to make the long drives and EVEN THE DAY BEFORE TO GET OUR ASSIGNMENTS....Some of us have to drive an hour and a half and with gas prices (that's her excuse for not wanting to drive) going up us nursing students are struggling to get to the clinical sites......

I also have a problem with the scope of practice...I understand that we as LVN students have to practice w/in our scope of practice after we obtain licensure.....but please, keep the program to our scope of practice....Don't teach us RN curriculum unless we're going to get RN credit once we've finished our LVN program.....

The instructor must remember that we are just nursing students and we're not perfect, that's why they're there to teach us...not to yell at us for doing it wrong, or telling us that we should know this blah blah blah...because we're human and we do make mistakes....

I also have a problem with instructors who are always telling us to "look it up" if we ask them what a certain thing is.....I'm guessing that the instructor doesn't even know and that's why he/she tells us to look it up....it's frustrating, and that's what's being taught in nursing school at the moment.....

[daisybaby, LPN]

Thanks for your replies.....I promised myself early on I wouldn't be the power-tripping instructor who is "out to get" students. I don't like getting yelled at by docs, and I won't yell at students. No one learns anything that way, and it reflects poorly all around.

I loved tutoring nursing classes in college, and I love love love precepting students and new grad/RN orientees. I had a fabulous preceptor as a new grad, and I hope I can be like her. That being said, I run a tight ship- be on time, work hard, and ask thoughtful questions. No sitting around the nurses' desk!