Worth complaining about or just whiny?

[melc0305]

Not sure how every school is organized, but in our program our cohort has the theory portion of the class together, then is split up into several groups with different clinical instructors. It is all considered the same class with one syllabus and one grade for the theory and clinical portion. The requirements should all be the same, but our clinical instructors grade some things and our theory professor grades the exams.

I have found out that some of the clinical groups are not being required to do some of the assignments. For one project, our clinical instructor is requiring an APA paper, ppt presentation, pathoflow diagram, and nsg dx and intervention diagram. So far I've put in quite a few hours on this and anticipate it will be 10-15 hrs when done. One of the other groups is not required to turn anything in and are talking about their findings informally only.

This is an accelerated program with exams weekly. Most of us work and/or have children. I don't want to sound whiny, nor do I want to cause extra work for any student who has already been told they're off the hook. But I'm finding this extremely unfair. Should I just suck it up or bring this up with the professor?

[Marsha238612]

Same set up in my school. You can't expect things to run smoothly and evenly for everybody, especially in nursing school. The professors run the show and if you vocalize your concerns the only thing you'll get is enemies who will want you out of the program.

I know I know, life is not fair

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

Our clinical instructors were our instructors, but they took turns teaching and then we were split up. There were some pretty big discrepancies between clinical requirements. I took it as a learning experience. Ones that had "informal" post-conferencing were not getting the education that I was. The ones who were not required to master the care plan and concept of a nursing diagnosis are going to look foolish when they don't know what their colleagues are talking about when they are working. Those that are getting the "easy" route, are they really, in the long run? I know it doesn't seem fair, but I would rather learn than cut corners. You are paying them to teach you. The ones requiring more work care about your education, the ones that don't have the time to grade "extra" clinical documents, don't. Be thankful you got the instructor that cares.

[Annachu512, BSN, RN]

This is pretty common actually. There has been complaining among our group since the very first semester that different clinical instructors require different paperwork. It seems unfair but it happens. It does little to complain about it. Chalk it up to life experiences and move past it. Someday you might be in the lucky group with a lot less to do.

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

Don't feel sorry for them either b/c they have very cushy jobs with great salaries & full benefits that don't keep them awake at night.

Yikes, the entire post was quite a diatribe. I quoted this line because it kinda struck a nerve. I have a close friend who was a nursing instructor...it was not a cushy job, required a lot of "off the clock" work, and she definitely did not have a great salary. You can think whatever you want, but don't paint all nursing instructors and their lifestyles with wide strokes.