Worst/Best thing a nursing instructor ever said to you?

[CryandNurseOn]

What is the worst or best thing a nursing instructor (or preceptor) ever said to you?

My first clinical instructor told me to consider a different career because I cried too easily and wasn't assertive enough.

Ironically a later preceptor (after I teared up at my first delivery) said you were born to do this and you'll make an excellent nurse.

Both pushed me to keep going so I guess both good? Although I still can't stand that first nursing instructor.

[BSNbeauty, BSN, RN]

The best thing : I was hard only because you are gonna be an excellent nurse whom I would want to take care of my family

The worst thing came from a different instructor. In out last clinical rotation she told the group that none of us are ready to be nurse's. I guess she was wrong about me. I passed my boards and started working 2 weeks later

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

This possibly qualifies as both the best and the worst:

Retired spinster Army nurse/ director of our LPN school in 1977 (after dismissing the two male student from the room and closing the door): "Never, and I do mean NEVER wear your uniform anywhere but straight home. Men are aroused by white stockings and you could get raped."

I damned near bit through my tongue to keep from laughing- as those mid-calf dresses and grey pinafores made every jack last one of us look like a walking potato.

[HeySis, BSN, RN]

My clinical instructor asked me where I wanted to do my precepting and I told her in the ICU, but since they were limited I'm sure anywhere would be a good experience and she told me "you will have a great experience where ever you go because you have the right attitude."

And then my ICU preceptor told me that having me with her was like having a seasoned nurse and friend to work with, she had to remind herself I was a student.

The best teaching moment was when my instructor asked our class if we had ever jumped off a high dive into a pool and gone so deep in the water that we had a little panic attack, wondering if we were going to hit the surface before we ran out of air. I think all of us nodded, then she said... that's how a person with CHF feels everyday... with out feeling the relief of gulping the air at the surface.... so the crankiest patients you will have, can't breathe... remember what that's like and give them a break. I think of that with every respiratory patient I have and it helps me be a better nurse.

[cjcsoon2bnp, MSN, RN, NP]

The Worst: One of my lecture professors for Adult Med/Surg. (who I had only spoken to maybe twice the entire semester) told me that because I was overweight/obese that I was setting a bad example for patients and would never be taken seriously as a nurse. She then proceeded to ask me if I was making an effort at losing weight and what my specific plan would be to lose 50 lbs. by graduation (in 6 months). Her timing could not have been any more impeccable, she decided to confront me about this approximately 10 minutes before my Med/Surg. II final.

The Best: One of my Med/Surg. clinical professors (an NP who went back to school in her 50's after having lost her husband to terminal CA) told me that I would make a great nurse, that I should return to grad. school to become an NP, and if I return to become an NP she would be honored to serve as one of my preceptors.

While the first comment was brutal, isolating and made me disconnect from her as an educator it has made me relish the day that I can see that professor again after having lost 150lbs. and earned a graduate degree (in Oct.) in order to say 'Hello'.

!Chris

[amb218, BSN, RN]

Best: My Med-Surg clinical instructor told me during final evals that I was the most consistent student in my clinical group and then went on to say that my compassion and empathy for others, critical thinking skills, and "nerves of steel" were a true gift and would make me an excellent nurse. It really shocked me too, because this instructor was super tough all semester and gave no compliments until the last day!

Worst: I've been really blessed to have such amazing instructors and preceptors and so I can't really come up with one...but I do remember my last year of nursing school when another nurse had to fill in for my preceptor, I asked him a question about why a patient was on a certain medication (because after looking it up I still had no idea what the indication was for this patient) and he literally stopped what he was doing, stared at me, and then shook his head and muttered something about the nursing school I attended...it was so bizarre. When I told my actual preceptor about it she told me not to worry because apparently he can't stand nursing students....figures lol

[BSN-to-MSN, ADN, BSN, RN]

Worst: Called me "Chicken" in front of a class. I asked her right there if she means I'm dumb, because in my culture chicken=dumb. That was fundamentals, and cultural sensitivity was part of a previous lecture... Haha, did not get along with her AT ALL after that.

Best things came from clinical instructors, when they knew I was scared to do a skill, but were firm, and had me do it anyway.

[Lvn2timer]

Best response I ever got from a clinical instructor was, "treat each patient like they were your loved ones."

Worst: "I can't believe you made it this far, and I mean that in a not so good way."

& that's because I got to my clinicals 5 min late, but I thank her for saying that...I'm punctual everywhere I go now, 15 min early.

[Maevish, ASN, RN]

The worst thing is something I don't remember because nearly everything that that one teacher said to me was negative (but at least it was just the one teacher.

One of the best things was said when I got discouraged in a clinical because a doctor said nurses/nursing students were useless. As a nursing student, that was devastating because I'd just assumed we were all on the same side.

Admittedly I was more than a little frustrated as it was my 2nd time hearing that from that dude and asked my instructor what the point was of us being there is we were seen as useless? The little spiel she gave me mirrored something I was later told in a CCRN review a few years back and this is the jist: People don't come to the hospital because they're only in need of a doctor. If that were the case, they would just go to a clinic and stay OP. They come to the hospital because they need NURSING care round the clock so we are most definitely not useless or unnecessary.

xo

[KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN]

Said more that once that I woudn't make it, and even if I do, I'll never find work, because "nobody like people who speak with a foreign accent" and "such people make facility look bad". Another argument was "you're just too smart to be a good nurse".

I still have to bump into some of these people, and they make astonished faces when I completely ignore them.

[madricka, BSN, RN]

Best advice: "Watch your face". Patients and families watch you like a hawk and the sooner you develop poker face, the better. If you look stressed, frustrated, sad, grossed out, or worried they will absolutely pick up on this and respond x10.

Worst: Same instructor told me I should reconsider nursing because I was too sensitive (I was a crier in nursing school, like every single day LOL). I ended up working in oncology, palliative care, critical care/trauma. Go figure.

[bsyrn, ASN, RN]

On the very first day of nursing school, our lead instructor said " look around at your fellow classmates. We all looked at each other and smiled. She then said " half of you won't be here at graduation". She was right, only around 40% of us graduated but I still think that was a rotten way to start off our nursing school experience!

[Everline]

"You see what you are doing there? Yeah. I need you to do that...only five times faster."

That clinical instructor stressed me out with her constant "time management" lectures and snapping her fingers for us to "get going and get things done". It annoyed me at the time, especially since she would say it for skills I barely knew how to do. But when I actually became a nurse, I realized what she was on about...and boy, was she right. :-)