When ill equipped students affect your grade...

[wahwahgerman]

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced a similar situation as myself...Here goes: I got docked 5% of my grade because I refused to hold an incompetent group member's hand during clinicals and there seems to be no recourse. Is this what nursing school is really all about? Do I just have to bend over until I graduate? I was under the false impression that we are all responsible for ourselves and that we should be working with a group of equal peers. Silly me.

[kcochrane]

I was just thinking more about this. A lot of us were struggling the last semester and dangled on the edge of failing (below a C). What if taking that 5% caused someone to fail?

[marshpit23]

I can't blame wahwahgerman for wanting to vent. On the other hand, WWG, you have learned a very important (albeit unfortunate) lesson about health care politics. Instructors, managers, people in power have their "pets" and many of them let their personal feelings get in the way of effectively supervising students or staff. Vent, stew, let yourself get completely peeved over this---and then learn from it. In the real world, you will, unfortunately, have lazy or incompetent co-workers who happen to be the darlings of the nurse manager and get by with murder. (That isn't unique to nursing, either...) The sooner you can learn to deal with that inevitable frustration, the sooner you can move on and learn to work through or transcend the political BS. I am sorry that your grade suffered and if it makes a difference in your GPA, you may wish to talk with the instructor first about your frustration and then discuss it with your adviser if you don't get a satisfactory resolution or answer from your instructor.

And in the future, if you run into this sort of problem when you are concerned about an instructor's fairness or another student's safety in the clinical setting---document, document, document. Keep a journal or a diary and write down what happened (making sure not to mention identifying data about any patients, of course).

I am sorry this happened to you.

Very well stated Moogie! I start school this fall and I hope to have instructors like you and Edrnbsn. Thank you for your wisdom and insights! I would also like to the thank all the contributors to this thread. Through your comments and thoughts I have definitely learned a lot. I can't wait for school to start this fall. I hope to become a patient first, business first, engaging, respectful and helpful NS! ~P

[nursenow]

I am willing to do alot to get a good grade whether or not I like doing it. Maybe one way to look at working with a student like that is just to view him/her as an unpleasant class assignment. Do your best to get the best grade possible on the assignment and hope the next assignment is more fun/interesting.

[CBsMommy]

I am willing to do alot to get a good grade whether or not I like doing it. Maybe one way to look at working with a student like that is just to view him/her as an unpleasant class assignment. Do your best to get the best grade possible on the assignment and hope the next assignment is more fun/interesting.

The only thing that I have to add to this is be very careful about looking at things like that. If the OP would've taken this person under their wing and couldn't get all of the things they needed done during the day because they were babysitting a fellow classmate, there might have been a failing grade instead of just a 5% mark down. You need to put YOU first in nursing school. I don't mind helping other people but there is no way I could've babysat this additional student with everything that I needed to get done in one 8 hour clinical day. Just put you first...the other students are not your responsibility!

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

You can take away my pride, my honor, my self worth but you will NOT take away my sarcasm, wit and humor. That is where I must draw the line!!!!!!!

[PhoenixTech, LPN]

Ok, I have to ask.

Who the heck emailed nanacarol? It's been a burning question in my mind since she mentioned it.

I want to beat whoever did it over the head with a stick. Public fights are much more entertaining than private ones cuz everybody can watch them...and stuff.

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

I have the grading rubric and I asked her to point out the part where she felt she could dock me points for this. She pointed out a loose interpretation of the personal and professional growth section. Yes, we are to help fellow students when we have extra time....my mistake was not focusing on her favorite pet NS. It says nothing in the rubric about "You need to pay extra special attention to NS ---"

I agree, she isn't doing this NS any favors. The program will only become more difficult as it progresses and this NS will not be prepared for it.

You just solved your problem...you said it yourself, the NS will not be prepared as the difficulty of the course progresses. Unless you have a program with only one instructor throughout [which is highly unlikely] that NS will not always have a teacher that favors her/him to the detriment of all other students. Sounds like your problem is more with a poor instructor than with a poor student. I suspect this student will either fail out of a future required class or if that student continues to get passed along she [or he since you didn't specify] will probably not pass boards. If by some miracle that NS does become a nurse any future employer will certainly discover that the NS is incompetent and act accordingly. Until that happens, continue to carry that student if needed during your clinical rotation because the health and safety of the patients entrusted to you now are far more important that worrying about the future decline of the entire nursing profession if that student enters it.