#Tough Teacher

I'm back for another #advicetobabynursingstudents on this lovely Friday afternoon! I hope that this one proves helpful to you, because it is something that rang very true to me in nursing school...

Typically, the most difficult clinical instructor is the one you will learn the most from. Don't complain that you have to do more work, just listen to the information they provide you with!

My junior year of nursing school, the class was split up into different clinical groups and we had our first "real" hospital clinical. It was acute care, and we all had different clinical instructors for each group. I'd imagine this is pretty typical for each nursing school.

I had no previous experience with my clinical instructor, and neither had any of my classmates. We went into clinical the first day with no real expectations, but a great amount of curiosity. When my clinical instructor walked in on that first day, I could tell she was tough. She looked tough, she had years of experience in the emergency department, and was all around no-nonsense. In previous clinicals, my group was placed with the most maternal instructor you could imagine. So, of course, we were nervous with this abrupt change.

Throughout the weeks, it only became clearer how tough our instructor was. She made us do twice the amount of work the other groups had, and she wasn't nice about it either. She told us every day how she had to do more work than she was giving us, all while taking care of her baby through nursing school. I looked at other clinical groups with jealousy, for they seemed to be living the dream.

By the end of the year, my group realized we had it best. We gained so much knowledge and experience through having our instructor, and we were admittedly thankful for her. I believe that it's important to recognize that the more work you do in nursing school, the better prepared you are for the real world. Although it's no fun at the time, it's all worth it when you rock your first job. If it hadn't been for that instructor, I don't think I would have as much confidence as I do now! Just because an instructor has a reputation for being "hard" doesn't mean that they're impossible. They want you to learn as much as they can teach you, and they will if you listen!

Have an awesome weekend, everyone! See you on Monday! Xoxo.