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and I have had to put out more fires than I have ever had to deal with at the start of the semester.
I can't go into a lot of detail, but man I need to vent.
First there was the student with a serious injury who wanted to go to clinic using an assistive device because she can't walk. Lacking an actual policy from the hospital prohibiting this, we were actually going to have to let her. Fortunately, the student really understood why this was a bad idea; she just wanted so desperately to stay in class (don't blame her--she's a good student and so close to graduating).
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Then there's the issue with one of our clinic sites. The hospital where I do ALL my clinicals (don't like the other hospital in town much) fired all their nurse educators a couple of years ago to save money. Their staff education department is run by non-nurses. They fired their liaison with us (for good reasons apparently) but the replacement is an admin assistant who is just overwhelmed and constantly being audited on account of her predecessor.
She wanted a very complex set of documents from us on each student, including some that had to be filled out by the students. We get this list over the Christmas break, when NO ONE is on campus . . . with the expectation it be done TWO WEEKS before clinic starts. If it's not done, we don't get our computer logins and the students can't chart or give medications.
I give the documents electronically to my students with strict instructions to email them to the liaison by last Tuesday. They do this. They followed the instructions to the letter.
The liaison gets overwhelmed with emails and decides the clinic instructors should have sent everything in by clinic group, even though her written instructions specifically said for the students to do this!
Then she tries to tell me I shouldn't have been in the hospital today because the orientation paperwork my students did wasn't sent by me directly and because she didn't have the health documentation (the program coordinator has sent it 3 times) on my group. I offer to leave. We have a meeting that lasts an hour (an hour I'm unavailable to my students) while she explains her problems but no she's not stressed (her hands were shaking)!
The idea I can't have my students in the hospital over this is just awful. We have a mandatory amount of hours of clinic the students must do per the Board of Nursing. We can't cut it. We can do make up assignments at home (for example when we have inclement weather) . . . but who wants to do 32 hours worth of busy work because some paperwork requirement wasn't met?
I told her I would happily comply with whatever she wanted . . . please tell me what you want. So now I'm spending my evening fixing that problem for next week.
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Finally . . . .
We gave a test yesterday. About a third of the class didn't read the directions and failed the test. I get an email from a student asking what her grade would have been if she'd followed the instructions . . . today's my clinic day. I'm not on campus. I don't have access to the test. Even if I wanted to figure it out, I can't.
She responds like a typical EW with a sarcastic, "sorry I asked" nasty gram . . . then accuses me of trying to fail her and the rest of the class on purpose. I sent a polite response telling her email is not the place for the discussion, she can bring up her concerns at test review.
More abuse follows. I get the classic, "I paid good money for this course!" kind of line, and how I'm the disrespectful one . . . . because I don't agree with her world view apparently.
We are so going to have a come to jesus meeting over this on Tuesday
ARGH!
I can't go into a lot of detail, but man I need to vent.
First there was the student with a serious injury who wanted to go to clinic using an assistive device because she can't walk. Lacking an actual policy from the hospital prohibiting this, we were actually going to have to let her. Fortunately, the student really understood why this was a bad idea; she just wanted so desperately to stay in class (don't blame her--she's a good student and so close to graduating).
--------
Then there's the issue with one of our clinic sites. The hospital where I do ALL my clinicals (don't like the other hospital in town much) fired all their nurse educators a couple of years ago to save money. Their staff education department is run by non-nurses. They fired their liaison with us (for good reasons apparently) but the replacement is an admin assistant who is just overwhelmed and constantly being audited on account of her predecessor.
She wanted a very complex set of documents from us on each student, including some that had to be filled out by the students. We get this list over the Christmas break, when NO ONE is on campus . . . with the expectation it be done TWO WEEKS before clinic starts. If it's not done, we don't get our computer logins and the students can't chart or give medications.
I give the documents electronically to my students with strict instructions to email them to the liaison by last Tuesday. They do this. They followed the instructions to the letter.
The liaison gets overwhelmed with emails and decides the clinic instructors should have sent everything in by clinic group, even though her written instructions specifically said for the students to do this!
Then she tries to tell me I shouldn't have been in the hospital today because the orientation paperwork my students did wasn't sent by me directly and because she didn't have the health documentation (the program coordinator has sent it 3 times) on my group. I offer to leave. We have a meeting that lasts an hour (an hour I'm unavailable to my students) while she explains her problems but no she's not stressed (her hands were shaking)!
The idea I can't have my students in the hospital over this is just awful. We have a mandatory amount of hours of clinic the students must do per the Board of Nursing. We can't cut it. We can do make up assignments at home (for example when we have inclement weather) . . . but who wants to do 32 hours worth of busy work because some paperwork requirement wasn't met?
I told her I would happily comply with whatever she wanted . . . please tell me what you want. So now I'm spending my evening fixing that problem for next week.----------
Finally . . . .
We gave a test yesterday. About a third of the class didn't read the directions and failed the test. I get an email from a student asking what her grade would have been if she'd followed the instructions . . . today's my clinic day. I'm not on campus. I don't have access to the test. Even if I wanted to figure it out, I can't.
She responds like a typical EW with a sarcastic, "sorry I asked" nasty gram . . . then accuses me of trying to fail her and the rest of the class on purpose. I sent a polite response telling her email is not the place for the discussion, she can bring up her concerns at test review.
More abuse follows. I get the classic, "I paid good money for this course!" kind of line, and how I'm the disrespectful one . . . . because I don't agree with her world view apparently.
We are so going to have a come to jesus meeting over this on Tuesday
ARGH!
She still has no explanation for the face she was supposed to have gotten this done last semester.
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