Last day of classes

Well, Friday was our last day of classes. It was also a day of celebration at my particular SON so there were tons of alumni around. They also had a breakfast buffet that coincided with our arrival at school that morning. It was very nice, they even let us use real plates and silverware.

Exams start on Monday. Normally, we get at least two "reading days" between the end of classes and the start of exams (not including weekends). We didn't get any this year, so some have been scrambling to get studying. Some of the rest of us are a little disgruntled with school and don't really care.

A couple of things I learned this week:

1. We are not going to ever get any comments on the actual content of the papers we write for nursing school. We will apparently only get graded on our grammar. And if there is nothing actually wrong with it, they will just plain make something up.
2. I didn't do this, but if you are going to sit on the stage in front of class when you give a presentation and you don't want everyone to see your hoo-hoo, don't wear a mini-skirt.

I guess I should start studying......

Fair Winds and Following Seas

Captain James C. Edge, USMC, hard charging Devil Dog, you will be missed.

Semper Fidelis.

Response to Anonymous comment

I started this as a comment and then it got too long so I made it into a post. It doesn't really have any humor to it, but it does fit the "Pissed Off-ed-ness" of this blog.

The "nurses eat their own" is rampant everywhere. I too, have made that comment after some of my clinicals. I'm not sure what the reasoning behind the phenomenon is, but I have a few theories. I think that it is a combination of "I was treated that way therefore you must be also" and some bitterness over the physician dominated hierarchy many of them work in. I have noticed that in workplaces where the nurses really run the show, the "eat their own" attitude is less prevalent. For example, I did a ride along with our EMS helos. There is a medical director (MD), but the show is run by RNs and EMTs and it was a much more friendly atmosphere. More of a mentor type attitude. I also just did a rotation at a cardiac rehab site, also run by RNs. They were nice, accommodating, and eager to teach, not belittle.

I have also seen a difference between large teaching hospitals and hospitals that don't have med students. Teaching hospitals seem to be more in the "weed them out" business than non-teaching hospitals. But again, at a teaching hospital, the attendings are treated like god by the residents and med students who in turn treat the nurses the way their attendings do which pisses off the nurses and they take it out on the next in line: students and newbies.

Finally, I think a lot of nurses are intimidated by students and new nurses because they are afraid that they will not perform up to their expectations. I have repeatedly had nurses say, "Now this was how I was taught and it might be different" before showing me a skill. It almost like they were worried that I was going to call them out on poor technique. Nurses are often creatures of habit and don't want some new person coming in and telling them there is another, potentially better, way of doing something. So, it is easier to make yourself look better by trashing someone else rather than build your own skills. Also, some just aren't good teachers and would prefer to not have students or new nurses assigned to them. But, don't take any of this the wrong way, there are many, many extremely great nurses out there! They are also overworked and students and newbies present more work for them....

Interestingly, as I have said before, I have spent some time in the Marine Corps where we have taken belittling and "tearing down" to an art form. However, no matter how many times we were told we were crap and couldn't find our ass with both hands, we still felt some kinship in that we were all Marines. There was still a certain amount of respect for the fact that you had made it through the process to earn the title. There doesn't seem to be that camaraderie in nursing.

As a student, it is really annoying. I mean, we normally feel stupid enough as it is, we don't need fellow nurses reinforcing it. I personally think that if we are ever going to beat the subservient nurse stereotype we need to have strong confident nurses and belittling students and newbies isn't going to help.

Last Day!

Monday is our last day of community health clinicals. We still have a paper to write and a presentation to do next week, but we don't have to go back to the clinical site. I can hardly contain my excitement. Seriously. I'm looking forward to going only because it is the last time I have to go!

Spring is here, the weather is nice, only 2 papers and finals to go.....it's all good.....

Totally inappropriate behavior

I'm not really quite for sure where the actions in the following story could be considered appropriate, certainly not in an institute of higher learning.

I just found out that a few weeks ago, one of the nursing students ("Port Wine Stain, PWS, I've blogged about her before) flipped off a professor during class. She did it behind her back, but the TA saw it. Apparently she was asked to stop talking during class (a reasonable request) and she decided that she didn't want to and used her middle finger to express her dissatisfaction with the request. I mean really, how could you ever think that that was a acceptable response?? But this is the same person who is a bit overweight, especially in her gut, and still chooses to wear junior size low riders and belly shirts. Therefore, we are all often subject to looking at her flab, and quite often to her butt crack. In fact, I've seen more of her butt crack than some of my patients. It is gross. If you have belly flab, please don't wear things that let it hang out. I mean, I have cellulite on my thighs and I try to not show it off too much. I consider it a community service!

That is all.

She Quit

My clinical instructor, the one with the hat, quit. She resigned last week. No explanation given. We turned in papers to her like 3 weeks ago, we've not gotten them back and have no grades for them. We now have a new clinical instructor and our old one didn't do any type of turnover or anything. Nice. I have to say that this is one of the most screwed up operations I have ever been a part of.

Back to the grind....study questions to complete......