Okay...I know it has been a LONG while since I last entertained those of you who take the time to actually read this. But I now find the need to vent my head off about something that I had witnessed just a few short hours ago.
Today, I had gone over to my nursing class that I really did not have to go to day--of course I didn't find that out until actually I got there--but whatever. Anyway, the people out of our nursing class who did have to be there today, were the students that were getting orientation for a particular clinical site. Now, 6 of the 8 people in my clinical group--including myself--still went to the nursing building today. Though for me, I was just stupid to think we actually were still going to have class today. The remaining 5 were there for the soul purpose of switching out of the clinical group we were ALL in, for the sake of getting into the clinical at another facility.
Now, lets get one thing clear. This particular clinical group is made up with the people I had clinicals with last semester, and I regarded them very highly...until today. There were 4 clinical groups made out of our class of 30 students. Eight of us were to go to Saturday clinicals at a BRAND NEW facility(my group). Seven of us were to go to another facility on Sundays. Everyone else in the class would be going throughout certain days(and nights) of the week to the local facility--everyone, save for one student, has been to that facility at least once throughout our matriculation in the nursing program.
This is where everything starts to get confusing and slightly annoying. The facility that would have hosted the Sunday clinical decided to drop us; so, the people in the Sunday clinicals would now have to go to the local facility throughout the week now. The five students in my clinical group that came to class today didn't come because they thought we were going to have class--like my sleep-deprived brain thought. No. They came to switch out of the Saturday clinical (at the brand new facility) to the Sunday group that is now local. Why would they do this? Because the clinical instructor we had last semester--who is by all means AMAZING--would be instructing that group. However, we had already filled out our information and everything for the clinical facility that we would be attending on Saturdays. The issue arose when the 5 of them were denied the ability to switch. Then everyone got all pissed off at our teacher (whom I feel real sorry for to have to deal with immaturity like that).
What makes me so upset, is that this particular group that was trying to switch clinicals are some transfer students in their mid 20's and one person in their early 40's...Well, all of them except for one who was a regular fresh-out-of-high school grad that I had met freshmen year(myself also being a fresh-out-of-high school grad). So they all got extra pissed about and began acting very immaturely. Well except for my freshmen friend and myself. She had been indifferent about the whole situation of switching anyway. And then the other four tried to bring ME into this! Really?? Just earlier last week they were being all secretive about what there plans were about switching out and didn't want to tell me anything until just this week. I had even told them that our information from the Saturday facility's application had already been processed and that we had all been emailed our login IDs and passwords. Did they listen to me? Of course not. So they went on ahead with their plans of trying to switch out of Saturdays group, to the Sunday group. Need I inform you that the Sunday clinical was already filled. As a matter of fact, the whole class of 30 decided on these groups about 3 weeks ago AND we had already handed in our information and applications to our prospective facilities. That's tedious work that takes a long time to get processed by the facilities. So what would make them think that our teacher would even think of wasting more time by switching everyone's clinical groups, especially when our info had already been processed?
What they failed to realize was that the entire time, there would have been no way that our nursing teacher could switch out nearly the whole group from Saturdays clinical to Sunday's local clinical. For the sake of what? Having the same clinical instructor. Don't get me wrong. As I said before, she was an amazing instructor. As a matter of fact, she even took up doing these Med-Surg clinicals for the sake of our class because--guess what?--those same five students had asked and pleaded her to be a clinical instructor after she had already had us last semester for Mental Health clinicals. She will still be a clinical instructor the the Mental Health class this semester, too. So now she really will be overworked. However, on our nursing teacher's behalf that would appear to be favoritism. What would make them think that she would really switch them over for the reason of having the same clinical instructor?
Our teacher even said: "I cannot just switch over a whole clinical group like that for the sake of an instructor. Besides, are you not here for your education, not for the sake of keeping your same clinical group?" I absolutely agreed.
Then, one of them replied "That's not the point! It's the principle!"
ARE YOU SERIOUS??? You're wasting your time and money if your only here for the sake of making a few friends that you may or may not ever see again after you graduate. Of course, that was also a statement made in the heat of the moment so she probably wasn't thinking before she spoke.
Anyways, as it turns out, one of the students in the Sunday clinical group could not go to the local facility because she is a foreign student who does not have the correct credentials to do clinicals there, so someone of the six people that showed up today from the Saturday clinical group today would have to switch out.
That's when things started to get kinda bad, because the five of them were pretty much instilling the principle: "Well if one of goes, then we all go."
That's when I had to seperate myself from them: "Correction. I never wanted to switch out like you guys did. I just came here today because I thought we had class."
Then they all huffed-and-puffed about it. I just grinned and beared it. I mean don't get mad at me. I didn't say anything the entire time you guys had been arguing with the teacher, but I'll be damned if you guys try to drag me down with you when you didn't even want me to know in the first place. If you guys had stopped being all secretive about it (and failing at it) and had taken my advice from the start, then maybe you wouldn't be in this situation. So finally our teacher decided that she was going to pick the five names of them out of a hat to decide who would switch with the one student. She didn't get very far though, because the one student that I had mentioned (that I had known since freshmen year) decided to volunteer herself and act like an adult...the least could be set about our other four peers. Our teacher thanked her and the two of them went to the orientation that was taking place just downstairs.
After she had left, the librarian (who EVERYONE in the nursing department loves) had heard everything and tried to talk calmly to the four, now very upset, students that had continued to bad-mouth our teacher. Though they agreed with her very valid points(most of which were stated throughout this rant), they were all still salty about it. But all I can say is that I've just lost a little bit of respect for these particular peers. They acted extremely immaturely--thinking selfishly about themselves and what they wanted--that they didn't even think about how much longer it would push the whole class back from actually starting clinicals (which we are already late in starting)...Save for the one 22-year-old who acted like an adult amongst the childish mid-20 year olds and early-40 year old. Thank you...for acting your age.
Please keep in mind that all of the things stated in this post are things I wish I had half the mind to actually say out loud. Writing seems to be the only way to get these frustrations out of my head. I'm not a realy talkative person when it comes to conflicts but I will surely denounce myself from one if I dared be bought into it--like what happened in this particular situation.
Alright. I'm done venting now. Time to get some more work done.
