I am going to get on a soap box in this blog. Anyone who knows me and knows me well (which is very few people), knows that I have several soap boxes. Soap box number one being Leadership...this is like soap box 131 or something, but I am going to call it soap box two (a cute idea I picked up from NCIS...Gibbs has numbered rules, I have numbered soap boxes.) So without further delay Soapbox #2: Stand Up For What You Believe In!
So the meeting with the asst Dean I will call her Dr Diabetes (I know I had a different name for her when she was my peds prof but I cannot remember what it was so we will go with this one), did not go well. I was prepared. I had a steno pad with notes of my concerns, I wore a cardigan sweater! I expressed my concerns in a professional manner and Dr Fails Us All lied through her teeth the entire time!!!!!! Dr Diabetes ate it up. Apparently she did some "investigation" concerning psych lab and realized "it truly is an extension of clinical" HA!! What a load of crap!!! But what was I going to do? What was I going to say that I hadn't already said? I could only hope that the next two students with complaints would bring down the brick wall I had encountered. No such luck. Apparently it is school policy to follow the proper chain of command...and the underlying policy is to undermine student concerns, play political double talk and pray the students are stupid and defeated enough not to take it any farther. Well not me! They picked the wrong student! Unfortunately no one else has my fighting spirit.
And now again, another problem. We have four weeks left in Med Surg clinical and we have yet to venture further than a Med Surg floor. We were promised experiences in ICU and ER...part of the advanced med surg experience, but the Education b**** at our hospital has ignored our pleas and those of our instructor, while other less qualified groups have won accalades for their assisstance of advance care groups. Now I have discussed with one of my classmates about bringing this a matter to the attention of the b**** in person, but they would like to just bring it to her attention...nothing more. Here comes the soap box: RISE UP!! Stand up for what you believe in!!!!!!!!! We are paying damn good money and working our ASSES off to become damn fine nurses. I WILL NOT let the prejudice of some b**** get in the way of my learning. I let the whole Dr Fails Us All roll...this I will not. How long will we let these people walk all over us? How long will we stand for mistreatment? Think about this ladies...how long would it have taken for change to come to the nursing profession if Florence Nightengale had said nothing? Had not taken charge of a situation? What about Susan B Anthony and the ladies of the sufferage movement? You may not think that our situation is as dire or as important, that it is better to keep your head down let it roll off and just graduate. But what you do is not for just yourself, but for everyone in your class and for the classes behind you. I don't know about you all but my education is important to me and I worked f-ing hard to get here. So this is no small matter to me. I have always been one to stand up against injustice (and yes this is unjust) no matter how small...it starts small....with just one. So whether I get blacklisted or not I am going to stand up for my education and what I know is right and talk to the b**** if I am still on that godforsaken floor. Stand up for yourselves and quit letting these people mop the floor with us. Nursing school should not be this demoralizing.
Ok soap box sort of over... but I will save it for another day.
I truly hate psych nursing. We don't do anything! In lab all we do is role play. I have to sit in class with a blank stare on my face so Dr Fails Us All thinks I am paying attention. In all honesty I am practicing my zen meditation. No seriously, watch me in class I am counting my breathing and I am sitting zen posture. Clinical is not much different: preconference, paperwork, Mini mental on a crazy, post conference. Working with the mentally insane is kind of creepy. Like working in a horror movie, you never know when one is going to speak in tongues or turn a sickly grey puke and then attack you.
Lectures are not much more exciting. Nor is med surg clinical. Ever since I found out about the B52 I have been looking for excuses to give them to patients. Mine from last week could have used one.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Days 119-135: When in doubt "Tell me more about..."
I am going to start off by saying, in the brief time I have been in class I have decided I HATE psych nursing. Its not merely the fact that I have no interest in psych whatsoever, it is the professors that make it difficult for me to enjoy the class. The semester started out just fine, but then I found out part of my grade for major projects is based on how I am dressed. Seven percent of our presentation is in the way we dress!!! If we don't dress in the way specified by the professors we loose an entire letter grade. Anyone else think that is ridiculous raise your hand. I am sorry Dr. Fails-us-All and Dr. Sheep, but you are there to teach me psych nursing. Not how to dress for an interview!!! Oh and PS I am 27 years old and have had a TON of interviews I am capable of dressing professionally...thank you very much.
Now everyone knows how much I hate drama...I hate it. But it seems to follow Dr. Fails-us-All and Dr Sheep. They seem like sweet, innocent old ladies, but they harbor the mentality of the Wicked Witches...East and West. The horror started during orientation to the psych facilities we would be working at. While it was not directly related to me, it was related to an other student, whom I happen to like. She was singled out for her past history and told she would not be able work with a variety of patients and there were serious issues with her dress. Needless to say both professors made a judgement call about her without even knowing her for more than two hours....and in a group setting. As psych nurses, they should have acted more professional and not made assumptions about someone based on minute observations. They have succeeded in turning a class of students against them in one act. We are like an amoeba attack one of our appendages and we will attack you back. The horror for me and several others a week later.
We were to go through an experiment called "Hearing Voices". It is suppose to simulate auditory hallucinations that are experienced by schizophrenics. It started off like creepy horror movie whispers and manic laughing...it freaked me out. Then this loud voice started yelling in my ear. The loud voice was no problem, just tuned that one out, although it was shocking. It was the whispery voices that bothered me the most. We had to listen to these voices for 45mins while doing different tasks. By the end of the 45 mins I was done...mentally done. I started to have a panic attack. The way I deal with panic attacks is to exercise or lay down...since I was in my scrubs at lab, exercise was out. So during break, in the classroom, with other students, I laid down on the floor to calm myself down. While Dr Sheep had no problem with this, Dr Fails-us-All decided that I was acting unprofessional and demanded I get up. I got up slowly from laying down so I didn't antagonize the problem and she yelled at me again...thank you to my fellow students that were defending me. So Dr Fails-us-All drags me out into the hallway in front of other students from my class and in front of the Med Students I have to work with at my hospital. She proceeds to lecture me about being unprofessional and how I am representing the school and what not...IN FRONT OF OTHERS. She didn't give me a chance to explain. So I sat in class the whole rest of the time shaking from anger and anxiety. Every week we are given a grade sheet on our performance. When she handed me mine at the end of class, she had written and I quote "was lying on the ground, and refused to get up. was slow to get up and proceeded to do yoga stretches, made faces at classmates and smirking, looking in pockets" And she took points off of my participation!!! I shared her observations with another student and got yelled at for that too. Its my grade I can share it with whomever I choose! So I stayed after class (at her request) to discuss the comments that she made. It was then that I explained why I was on the floor. She asked me if I was on medication and how it has effected my clinical experience (I am, not like its any of her business, and no it has not effect anything else, again none of her business). Then she asked me what I could do to pay attention next time in class. Um.....I am in college....not second grade last time I checked. I told her I was not making faces and I was paying attention in class. Just because you look at something out of the corner of your eye or move the pencil that is poking your hip, doesn't mean you are not paying attention.
Well several other people in class had the same experience and so I decided to resolve the issue by going to the asst. Dean. I told her my concerns (along with Scion...she had an even worse experience). Now tomorrow we have separate appointments with the asst Dean and Dr Fails us All (divide and conquer right?). So I am going to take this time to share with everyone what I am going to discuss:
1. The unprofessional manner in which Dr Fails us All conducts "private" conversations. I happened to meet up with the med students that overheard our conversation, because they were in charge of my patient.
2. Kindly remind Dr Fails us All, I am not in the second grade, therefore because I am not looking directly at her when she is lecturing does not mean I am not listening, and I have had a professional career before so I do not need to be taught how to dress.
3. Do not EVER.....I repeat EVER insinuate I am a cheater! (Thats right ladies and gentlemen...that horrid woman had the audacity to insinuate that I am a cheater!!!!!!) Big line has been crossed. And that b**** is going to get an earful. In this city your reputation as a nurse can be ruined before you even graduate...long story but the student was justified in their actions that other b**** at my hospital (the education lady) overreacted and the student has a strong defamation of character case...I have lawyer.
Ok...so enough with psych. Research is taught by the peds teacher I had last semester...and is so boring. I am so going to fail the test. We had a review, and wow...for such a ridiculous topic its pretty hard, but I did get #4 in the top ten reasons why nurses should read research (So I can win at Trivial Pursuit)...its suppose to be a joke. Med Surg...what to say...I am excited about the class because its more advanced care, but the professor...I swear is perma-stoned. She talks really slow and quiet, and she forgets everything. I always have this feeling she is going to leave in the middle of class because she has the munchies. For clinical I still have Prof Trauma, but for psych clinical I have Dr. Sheep. Its going to be a long semester.
Now everyone knows how much I hate drama...I hate it. But it seems to follow Dr. Fails-us-All and Dr Sheep. They seem like sweet, innocent old ladies, but they harbor the mentality of the Wicked Witches...East and West. The horror started during orientation to the psych facilities we would be working at. While it was not directly related to me, it was related to an other student, whom I happen to like. She was singled out for her past history and told she would not be able work with a variety of patients and there were serious issues with her dress. Needless to say both professors made a judgement call about her without even knowing her for more than two hours....and in a group setting. As psych nurses, they should have acted more professional and not made assumptions about someone based on minute observations. They have succeeded in turning a class of students against them in one act. We are like an amoeba attack one of our appendages and we will attack you back. The horror for me and several others a week later.
We were to go through an experiment called "Hearing Voices". It is suppose to simulate auditory hallucinations that are experienced by schizophrenics. It started off like creepy horror movie whispers and manic laughing...it freaked me out. Then this loud voice started yelling in my ear. The loud voice was no problem, just tuned that one out, although it was shocking. It was the whispery voices that bothered me the most. We had to listen to these voices for 45mins while doing different tasks. By the end of the 45 mins I was done...mentally done. I started to have a panic attack. The way I deal with panic attacks is to exercise or lay down...since I was in my scrubs at lab, exercise was out. So during break, in the classroom, with other students, I laid down on the floor to calm myself down. While Dr Sheep had no problem with this, Dr Fails-us-All decided that I was acting unprofessional and demanded I get up. I got up slowly from laying down so I didn't antagonize the problem and she yelled at me again...thank you to my fellow students that were defending me. So Dr Fails-us-All drags me out into the hallway in front of other students from my class and in front of the Med Students I have to work with at my hospital. She proceeds to lecture me about being unprofessional and how I am representing the school and what not...IN FRONT OF OTHERS. She didn't give me a chance to explain. So I sat in class the whole rest of the time shaking from anger and anxiety. Every week we are given a grade sheet on our performance. When she handed me mine at the end of class, she had written and I quote "was lying on the ground, and refused to get up. was slow to get up and proceeded to do yoga stretches, made faces at classmates and smirking, looking in pockets" And she took points off of my participation!!! I shared her observations with another student and got yelled at for that too. Its my grade I can share it with whomever I choose! So I stayed after class (at her request) to discuss the comments that she made. It was then that I explained why I was on the floor. She asked me if I was on medication and how it has effected my clinical experience (I am, not like its any of her business, and no it has not effect anything else, again none of her business). Then she asked me what I could do to pay attention next time in class. Um.....I am in college....not second grade last time I checked. I told her I was not making faces and I was paying attention in class. Just because you look at something out of the corner of your eye or move the pencil that is poking your hip, doesn't mean you are not paying attention.
Well several other people in class had the same experience and so I decided to resolve the issue by going to the asst. Dean. I told her my concerns (along with Scion...she had an even worse experience). Now tomorrow we have separate appointments with the asst Dean and Dr Fails us All (divide and conquer right?). So I am going to take this time to share with everyone what I am going to discuss:
1. The unprofessional manner in which Dr Fails us All conducts "private" conversations. I happened to meet up with the med students that overheard our conversation, because they were in charge of my patient.
2. Kindly remind Dr Fails us All, I am not in the second grade, therefore because I am not looking directly at her when she is lecturing does not mean I am not listening, and I have had a professional career before so I do not need to be taught how to dress.
3. Do not EVER.....I repeat EVER insinuate I am a cheater! (Thats right ladies and gentlemen...that horrid woman had the audacity to insinuate that I am a cheater!!!!!!) Big line has been crossed. And that b**** is going to get an earful. In this city your reputation as a nurse can be ruined before you even graduate...long story but the student was justified in their actions that other b**** at my hospital (the education lady) overreacted and the student has a strong defamation of character case...I have lawyer.
Ok...so enough with psych. Research is taught by the peds teacher I had last semester...and is so boring. I am so going to fail the test. We had a review, and wow...for such a ridiculous topic its pretty hard, but I did get #4 in the top ten reasons why nurses should read research (So I can win at Trivial Pursuit)...its suppose to be a joke. Med Surg...what to say...I am excited about the class because its more advanced care, but the professor...I swear is perma-stoned. She talks really slow and quiet, and she forgets everything. I always have this feeling she is going to leave in the middle of class because she has the munchies. For clinical I still have Prof Trauma, but for psych clinical I have Dr. Sheep. Its going to be a long semester.
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