Worst teacher EVER award...

vaughanmk · Jan 25, 2003

I took an elective Medical Terminology course a few semesters ago. It was taught by a Radiologist Tech. that had graduated from the program only 1 year before. She was young and had never taught a class before. The downfall to this was that she didn't know what most of the things were. Much less know how to say them. To this day I still cant' say some terms properly all because she taught us wrong and now its habit. Luckily she made the class fun and easy. So it was worth it

Stargazer · Jan 25, 2003

Err...I'm honestly not trying to flame you here, but it was worth an "easy" class even if it means that you're graduating with a BSN in 4 months and still can't pronounce medical terminology properly? How much of an issue is it going to be when you're trying to discuss a procedure or an assessment with a doc, or another nurse, or a patient if they can't figure out what you're talking about, or are too busy snickering at your pronunciation to pay attention to your point?

If I'd paid good money for that class and attended regularly--I would be pissed off.

chelli73 · Jan 25, 2003

It is very scary to me to take a class and even though you know you might pass due to an inexperienced instructor--you won't learn anything!!!! I had three math classes in my college-- 110, 112, and then 118--118 counted! Our teacher was the worst--he gave us 8th grade worksheets and played games with us!!! I had a hard time in 110 and 112, but here when it counted, we were not being taught a single thing!!! I to this day use my 110 and 112 notes for reference, I cannot rely on that 118 class for crap!!!

NurseShell · Jan 25, 2003

We have an instructor who gives us an outline and the refuses to follow it! Then gets extremely upset with us for asking her to repeat so we can write it down...she says "come on guys you don't need to write down EVERYTHING I say" well...we learned after the first test that we DO need EVERYTHING!!! all the other teachers follow their outlines so we can just add stuff here and there as they speak...not her though!!! UGH she's tough!!!!

MT2RN · Jan 25, 2003

I'm a 48 y/o nursing student and just started last September in a diploma program. Our sciences are taught at two colleges in the city, one of which was my alma mater. I hold a B.S. in biology/medical technology from all the way back in 1976. I am the mother of three sons--two grown and one still in high school (he and I will graduate at the same time with any luck). So among the four of us, we've had our share of bad teachers.

But my original A&P instructor (who was fired mid-semester) has to take the award for worst-ever. He came into class in September, climbed up on the desk, and sat with his legs akimbo. Haven't seen anyone do that since my high school days when the wannabe hippie teachers were trying to "relate" to the teenage students. He told us outright that he was going to do everything he could to confuse us. "I don't ask trick questions, I ask tricky questions!" was his motto. He advised us we could get extra credit for answering correctly the name of his dog on a test.

(I would have guessed Rumplestiltskin, given the mission he set forth.)

So far he just sounds flaky, right? He decided to jump right into the business of the course and wanted to show anterior, posterior, and lateral views of the body. But he didn't just use hand-drawn pictures, or models with bathing suits on, but pictures of nude models in anatomic position. As one of the men in the class later said, it wasn't the pictures, but the way he presented them (like a leering flasher opening his raincoat) that was so offensive.

He then told us an anecdote about when he was a chiropractor (he only had a license for 7 years, hmmmm....) and had a disagreement with the way a patient was treated by a medical doctor. He used the word m*f*er to describe the doctor. At my age, I've certainly heard this word many times, but never in an educational setting.

In our lab that week, he brought a picture from a magazine ad by an animal-rights organization. It depicted a nude model sectioned off as would be a side of beef in a butcher's chart. He was so impressed with it that he displayed it in class the next week for everyone to see. He said he just thought it was interesting.... To which I interrjected, "Yeah, if you're Jeffrey Dahmer!"

When he was confronted by administration because there were numerous complaints that he was saying and doing things that were offensive, he took to wearing a button on his lapel. It was made to look like a street sign for "No left turn!" (the circle with the diagonal line through it). But in the circle it read, "Sexual Harassment." He was never much for teaching anyway, but he stopped all pretense of trying. One warm afternoon, he held lab outside because the air-conditioning in the classroom wasn't working. He lectured for an hour of our two-hour lab time, told us to take a break, and after break spent a half-hour doing gymnastics on the lawn of the campus with a student from our class who was formerly a cheerleader. "I am not making this up!", as Dave Barry would say in his newspaper columns.

Thankfully, he was replaced by a better instructor who spent the rest of last semester trying to bring us up-to-speed. We still have this semester to make it through A&P II, but if I fail, it won't be from a lack in the program's content.

annies · Jan 25, 2003

Nursing Fundamentals - the instructor (masters degree) read the entire chapter, every class. She didn't read well, lot's of stumbling, mispronunciation of words, etc. When she wasn't reading, she was threatening the class with what she would accept in clinical and how easy it would be to fail. It was boring, boring, boring. I think her goal was to get us all to quit school. Part of the admission process was to be able to read at the colege level....why?

Annies

MrsK1223 · Jan 26, 2003

My 4th semester clinical instructor was cut out of Satan's ass. She had a horrid reputation before I ever started nursing school...i had family to go to the same university and spoke of this one particular instructor. So when I started I kept that name in mind and to some extent was able to avoid having her for a clinical instructor...but by the time I reached my last semester...the witch changes her name and without knowing chose her clinical....we were devastated to learn it was "HER". She made my life hell when I had done very well under all other instructors. She was a tenured instructor with law suits pending against her from other students. I passed but she really chopped my confidence up and I am still recovering.

Gromit · Jan 26, 2003

I thought I'd had a couple of bad instructors, but nothing at all on the scale of what the rest of you have had!

So far, in nursing, my worst instructor was my fundamentals one, who spent more time talking about himself or his opinions (and what others were trying to do to him -paranoid, you think??) than he did teaching fundamentals. I scored an A in the class, but sadly, it was up to the next instructor to actually try to teach us most of fundamentals while teaching GI. Made for one hell of a tough class, but thang goodness for that GI teacher.

I understand that my fundies teacher no longer has employment there.