a community of practitioners

Problem students?

Or maybe that should read 'problem with students?' We've all had them. Maybe if we bounce the problems around we can hear new solutions from other educators. So go ahead, share your stories.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Nancy Wilde on July 20, 2010 at 12:26pm

I love teaching massage and I love working with my students. However, every group seems to have its problems. This seems like a topic with some "legs"!

Permalink Reply by Kelly Grounds on July 20, 2010 at 12:58pm

I have a problem, but not with a student. I have a problem with her boyfriend. He is extremely jealous and does not like her working on other men. This has been a discussion she and I have had for months. She also has issues with men in general, as she was sexually abused as a child. She recently had a client she felt was coming on to her. The staff and I investigated the problem and determined that the client was not the problem and moved him to another therapist, who happened to be male. All was well or so I thought. This client and his wife have been weekly clients for over two years. In the past three weeks, they stopped coming. I have learned today that this student's BF called the husband at home and told him to stay away from his girlfriend. I don't know what else was said. I learned this from another student. I confront the student in question and she confessed. Needless to say, I am furious. I'm furious at the student for breaking confidentiality and behaving so unprofessionally 1 I'm furious with the BF for being so unprofessional 1 Is he going to do this to all her male clients? Is she? I'm debating whether to suspend her or not. She swears she didn't give her BF the phone number, but she did tell him the client's profession and that he drove a van. There are only so many of this profession, with a van, parked in our school parking lot. If the student didn't agree with the school retaining this client, that's one thing. But this is an example of 'how not to handle' a problem.
Any thoughts while I breath and reflect? :-)

Permalink Reply by Taffie Lewis on July 20, 2010 at 1:10pm

A few resources for challenging students....or students who challenge us to dig deeper….check out www.abmp.com for regional instructor workshops focusing on classroom management tools and building resilient/accountable students! Also, there's a great “Teaching Massage Series” of webinars in the instructors section of abmp.com.

One tip I learned from an instructor at a recent ABMP workshop.....use technology to your advantage instead of constantly fighting it. Pop Quiz via texting! Ask a question and the first student to text the correct answer back to you wins!

Permalink Reply by Kelly Grounds on July 20, 2010 at 1:23pm

Thanks, Taffie. I have used both of these to keep my students from getting bored. It can be tough with a class that has 18 year olds fresh from HS and 40 something surgery assistants and nurses all together. But what I love is...that they all do come together. I love my school family, even the 'difficult' students. I want all of them to succeed and succeed BIG! :-)

Permalink Reply by Nancy Wilde on July 20, 2010 at 2:53pm

Kelly
I see red lights flashing all over the place for this student as well as for her fellow students and instructors and her future clients. It would seem that by giving her boyfriend information about a Clinic client she has violated boundaries, HIPAA guidelines and I am sure violated your clinic policies. She needs to be working with a qualified counselor to manage her history of abuse, the controlling relationship she is currently in, and her future ability to interact with her clients in an appropriate way. At many schools her behavior would constitute grounds for disciplinary action and perhaps withdrawal from the program. I fear she may be putting your program at risk by her actions. Plus we often see in our school that bad behavior from one student has various ripple affects on other students in the program. I hope you can work with your administration to manage this student in a way that protects your school and hopefully may lead her to better behavior and psychological health in the future.

Permalink Reply by Frank J on July 21, 2010 at 3:41pm

She has a few options. 1. Quit, if she has a problem with males she is in the wrong profession unless she will just work for herself and work on strictly femailes. 2. Break up with the BF, he is obviously a little too jealous and that could lead to other social issues 3. do both 1 and 2

As far as school is concerned, I would definately have a conference with the both of them and tell either she has to a. quit school b. he has to stop; that is simply not acceptable. I would also call the the couple to see if they would like to press charges against him.

Permalink Reply by Kelly Grounds on July 21, 2010 at 7:59pm

The big thing is this student is due to graduate in three weeks! I took over as director in March and wasn't aware of this student's history until recently. So it's almost a little to late... I am sitting down and talking with her on Monday. But I'm not certain that my superiors would agree about kicking her out of the program. There are certainly many red lights here. How she was allowed through the program this far, I really don't know.

Permalink Reply by Alexei Levine on July 23, 2010 at 11:52am

You need to report this to the police. An ounce of prevention...

Permalink Reply by Kelly Grounds on July 23, 2010 at 4:14pm

Why the police?

Permalink Reply by Alexei Levine on July 23, 2010 at 4:42pm

The students boyfriend stalked and committed assault against the client. He may go on to commit worse crimes, and he needs to be looked at by law enforcement before he does something worse, perhaps abusing the student.

Permalink Reply by Alexei Levine on July 24, 2010 at 7:07am

We've never had a problem student as bad as this one:

http://wbztv.com/local/tewksbury.car.into.2.1814600.html

Permalink Reply by Laura Allen on July 30, 2010 at 1:56pm

You are wrong. The problem IS with your student. She is violating confidentiality before she even finishes school. I have sympathy for the fact that she has been abused, but she has obviously fallen into a pattern of choosing another abusive person to be with, and as long as she chooses to remain with him, she is pretty much beyond help. I would personally dismiss her if she were my student and she is already in the position of being a candidate for having an ethics charge brought against her before she even gets started.