One of my instructors was a new maternity clinical instructor, she usually taught med surg as she was an ICU nurse. Before I was going in to wash my first baby with all of the family there, I looked at my instructor and said "I'm nervous, I've never done this before and she has an audience." She says "that's okay I haven't either," and walks in there like she's done it 100 times LOL. I loved her!
Specializes in Neuro/NSGY, critical care, med/stroke/tele.
Worst for me was our pediatrics instructor announcing to my clinical group that "Well at this rate, nobody's going in to pediatrics". After one day. And knowing us not at all. (She was also an NP and would look through orders and make comments like "well that's just provider stupidity"... ugh. Her whole mentality was much more look what I can do rather than let's see what you can do).
The best was my preceptor writing in my recommendation that she would trust me with our sickest patients. THAT was a good feeling.
"My students at ABC school are so much more experienced (than you)."
"You need to be more like (XYZ Student)."
"I think you're autistic."
"Patients won't like you."
"I don't know how you couldn't get that answer right. It's the easiest question on the quiz."
All that from one nursing instructor during my bsn program. She was a bully. She said I must be autistic bc I refused to give her the satisfaction by looking upset when she called me all but stupid.
I am in Nursing school now and my instructor for med surg told me every time she saw me that I was going to fail her course. EVERY TIME!!!!
I am a LPN in a RN school and I tested out of the 1st semester. The first day I met her she looked at me and said "Yes so I heard you tested out of our first semester. Do not think of bringing that LPN Mentality in here, it wont work!"
I was struggling in her class while working full time and going to school at night. Unfortunately, She was my advisor as well, so I had to see her to review my exams. I cried after every meeting with her.
I contemplated dropping out of the course as she had advised me to do after I failed her first exam.
Thank God for my family and friends who encouraged me.
Glad to say that she was wrong and I passed her course last month.
She makes me want to pursue becoming a Nursing Instructor when I graduate so I can be the exact opposite type of teacher.[/quote
In all honesty, your instructor comes off as some kind of sadistic miscreant. There is no constructiveness in her words at all. It distresses me to know that this kind of nut is still being allowed to work with students. I'll leave it there.
I recall my first clinical rotation many years ago. Many people expressed the usual anxieties about actually doing hands-on care for the first time. The instructor adeptly sensing our collective discomfort dispelled our anxieties by saying " I want you all to relax because you know you have to bend over backwards to kill somebody" while at the same time saying, "BUT DON'T MESS UP BECAUSE IT'S MY LICENSE ON THE LINE." Even at that time I found those two statements oddly incongruous but also strangely comforting.
I had an instructor who advised us to 'stay in our own boats' a lot. It meant slightly different things at different times, including:
Don't assume that someone else's situation is your own...just because MaryJane left the program after the first day of clinical doesn't mean you should, or will.
Don't drown yourself trying to save someone else.
Mind your own business.
Make sure all your business *is* minded, because she'll know if you skipped out on something.
Don't get caught up in drama that hasn't anything to do with you.
--
Generally, sound advice! (No, she never made it sound like 'withhold help from a classmate just out of spite.')
I had an instructor who would randomly shout "AIRWAY!!!" during our lecture on primary assessment. It made us all laugh, but to this day I hear her voice when I consciously asses the airway first.
I don't remember an instructor specifically saying anything awful to me, but I do remember the least clear and concise lecturer trying to teach us about blood gasses and how confusing and difficult she made it, until we got the "AIRWAY!!" lecturer to explain it to us in a way that made sense.
I love working with the elderly and I told MY teacher , "I take care of them like I would my mother. I will give them my time and care because they may not be someone's mother, but they are someone's baby" My teacher said it was one of the best things she'd heard and would tell future students this statement.☺
Best: When one of my teachers told me she was giving me an A, even though, at a 91.8% I had technically earned a B (a 92% was an A), because I did such a wonderful job.
Worst: Several teachers who suggested that I may not belong in nursing. One of them remarked, "You're a bright young lady, but you're going to struggle if you continue like this." Another one told me that she "could tell that I would struggle greatly" the first day she met me, and asked, "You're not going to try to be an ICU nurse, right?" and proceeded to tell me to go into something like research. Um...if I was going to go into research I could have gotten a different degree. People don't go to nursing school to go into research.
AlwaysLearning247, BSN
390 Posts
One of my instructors was a new maternity clinical instructor, she usually taught med surg as she was an ICU nurse. Before I was going in to wash my first baby with all of the family there, I looked at my instructor and said "I'm nervous, I've never done this before and she has an audience." She says "that's okay I haven't either," and walks in there like she's done it 100 times LOL. I loved her!