2nd Semester July - November
Towards the end of second semester, we had class from Monday thru Friday, (this day was a Friday) we were all working on paperwork that the instructor M had given us for one of our classes. My classmate B and I were sitting at the table when one of the other students L had gone and stood behind us. I was already a little aggravated with him because before that a student had told us that L and Christian, another classmate, had been talking about us. L started asking B to sign her name on a piece of paper for him. She kept asking him why and he kept telling her that he wanted to see her signature. After a while I was getting annoyed and I told him to go away. As I was turning away from him, he said “Jovani (me), you’re such a (Inappropriate Content Removed)”. I then turned to look at him and said “what did you say? ” he then said “sometimes you can be such a (Inappropriate Content Removed)”. At that point I was upset and I did tell him “get the (Inappropriate Content Removed) away from me Lawrence” he then put his hand on my should and said “don’t get mad” with a giggle. I shrugged my shoulder and said “don’t you dare touch me”, I then got up and went outside. As class was ending and I started to walk out, the instructor M stopped me and said “can I talk to you and L about what just happened” I said fine and stood there to wait. We then were informed to go into C’s office (another instructor) and the door was shut with M, C, L, and I in the office. M then started to ask me “what is going on with you guys, I see there is a lot of tension, you guys used to be good friends and talk a lot”. I said everything was fine until today and we were not good friends we would just talk like everyone else does before class. She then started to tell me that L had told her what happened and she then asked why I got so upset. I told her “when you don’t know someone you don’t just call them a (Inappropriate Content Removed) and I don’t appreciate it that he called me that because he doesn’t know me, we aren’t friends” M then said “ well people always call other people (Inappropriate Content Removed) especially girls” I said “ok but I was brought up not to call someone a (Inappropriate Content Removed), I was brought up to respect people” then she said “Yeah ok but I know he didn’t mean it and I know he’s sorry”, Lawrence then apologized to me and M then asked me if I accepted his apology. I was so pissed off that this conversation was going on and that I was the one in there. I just shook my head and M said why don’t you guys shake hands and be ok. I looked at M and said “are you serious?! ” and she shook her head yes. I shook his hand and asked if I could leave, and left. When I was getting home from school I received a text from M asking if I was ok. I replied saying no I wasn’t ok, I was disrespected and was put in a situation that was uncomfortable for me, and in the end had to shake the hand of the one that disrespected me and also that I wasn’t the only person in class that he had disrespected. Her reply was that she would talk to him about what has been going on.
That following Monday M said in class that there has been a lot of issues with attitudes, comments being made to other classmates and feelings being hurt and that come next semester we needed to leave everything that happened in the second semester. And that some of us had to fix our attitudes.
January
Towards the end of January I received a phone call at St Josephs hospital from C regarding my next clinical site. My classmate was next to me as I had a conversation with C. She started off in saying that my next clinical site would be the hospital in Benson so I would have to travel for 16 weeks to Benson four days a week. I started off in saying “C I am not going be able to travel because I am not financially able to pay for gas, traveling for 16 weeks, I just don’t have the money” she then told me Benson was the only site she had. I once again informed her that I was not going to be able to travel because of money. And then she said “you signed the travel consent at the beginning of the program that you were going to be able to travel when we placed you at a site out of town” I in turn said “yes I understand that but what happens when you just are not financially able to do that, when circumstances change and you do not have money? ” she then said she would see what she could do but that there were no sites and that Benson would be my site. That was the end of the phone call.
One afternoon at clinical’s, C showed up to test us on images and question us on anatomy. When we were done being quizzed she pulled me into the break room of the x-ray department and started off by saying that she did not appreciate the way I treated her during the phone we had about me going to Benson and then said that I was extremely rude to her. I responded in saying “I apologize but I don’t recall being rude to you, I was just trying to explain my situation to you on why I can’t travel”. She then stated that I was extremely rude the way I responded to me going to Benson, that I was unprofessional in the way I handled myself, and very disrespectful. I again apologized to her and said that was not my intention I just wanted her to understand why I was not able to travel. The conversation ended with her telling me that I would need to talk to S (the clinical director) about not traveling because I was already set to go to Benson. The Monday that followed, in class, I spoke with S and informed her of my financial situation and not being able to drive to Benson, she in turn told me that I would need to speak with C about that. I told her that C had told me the week before that I would need to talk to her to see what could be done. S then said she would speak with C and they would let me know.
February
Monday in class C was giving all the students our grade for clinical’s. When I went up to her to get mine the first thing she stated was “you know you’re not supposed to have any facial piercings on in class right” I replied “no one has told me anything about having it on and I do not wear it at clinical’s” she then stated “but you’re not supposed to have that on”. She then continued to inform me that my clinical instructor from St Josephs had not sent in the paper work to calculate my grade and that she would call me during the week to give me my grade over the phone. A little while later M came into the room, and for everyone to hear, she confronted me with saying “Jovani, when did I say you could wear that ring on your lip? ” I then replied in saying “I didn’t say you told me I could wear it, I said no one had told me anything about it before”, and she just walked away.
Tuesday or Wednesday I received a phone call from C saying she had received the forms from my clinical instructor and that I needed to go in to get my grade. I then replied in saying “on Monday you said you could give me my grade over the phone when you called” she then stated “it is school policy that I cannot give that information over the phone, and you have to sign a form”. I said ok and I would go in sometime that week.
C had called the St Joseph’s x-ray department requesting to speak with me. When I got to the phone she stated she had expected me to be in her office before then to go over my clinical grade. I informed her that I had things I needed to do and was not able to get there before clinical’s. She stated “when you tell me you’re going to be here I expect you to be here” I stated ok and that I would head over. When I arrived to class I was informed to sit in S room and wait for C. S, C and I were in the office when C started to say that she has had many issues with my attitude and her expecting me to be there to see her and me not show up. She continued to state when I replied with my remark about my piercing that I lied to her when I told her that M had not said anything to me about it. I then replied with saying that I have not had an attitude and I did not lie because I did say that no one had told me anything about my piercing, I did not say M had not said anything to me. She went on to tell me that the previous phone call we had about me going to clinical’s in Benson, I had a really bad attitude, I was unprofessional and rude and that I have lied to her. I informed her that I did not agree with her saying I had a bad attitude, was unprofessional and rude. I informed her that during that phone call I was trying to explain my situation to her as to why I was not able to travel and that she just continued to say that I singed a form at the beginning of the program that I would. She then started to give me information on the grade they had given me for clinical’s and the remarks that had been given on my performance. I told her I did not agree with some of the remarks that had been made and her response was “if you have comments about the remarks that were given you can write your comments on this form or you can speak with your clinical site instructor about them”. I just said I would bother and I signed the form. Then S started to tell me that I needed to fix my attitude because sites were starting to not accept PMI students because we students always seem to have an attitude at the site. When that meeting was over, I returned to St Josephs to continue my night.
5/4/13
On this day my vehicle had stalled and left me stranded in the middle of a busy intersection. I had called my father and he said he would come up the following day to fix it. This happened around 5pm. I then contacted my supervisor, where I would be for my observation site, and asked him if I could possibly go in earlier the following day because my father would be up here to fix the vehicle. He advised me to go in at 6 and I would be able to leave at 2:30 to get what I needed done. I didn’t think to call my instructors to let them know because it was after hours and they would not be able to tell me that I was able to go in so early. So the following day I went in at 6 and finished my day of observation at 2:30. As I was getting home, I got a phone call from my co-worker saying that my instructor had called looking for me. So I called her and she did not answer, I left a message stating that they had let me know she called looking for me and I was returning her call. About 15 minutes later my supervisor called me and said that C had just been there looking for me and had told him that it was my responsibility to be there till 4:30 observing. He informed her that it was not his business and that she would need to speak with me about her issue. He stated she then told him that I should have told her I was changing my schedule. He once again told her that she would need to speak with me and she responded that she expected to see me there because she needed to speak with me about the following week. I called her three other times and left her three separate messages requesting a call back from her. I did not hear anything or receive a phone call back from her. The following day when I was at clinical’s I called C and she finally answered. When she answered the phone call I said “hi C this is Jovani” and her response was yeah. I then continued to say that my supervisor had informed me that she had called looking for me and then stopped by the department looking for me as well. She said “yes and I expected to see you there”. I responded in saying that the night before I had contacted my supervisor to see if I could go in earlier because of the car issues I was having. She then responded “you contacted your supervisor late at night to see if you could go in earlier? ” and I stated yes. The phone went silent and I said “my supervisor told me you came looking for me to talk about next week” and she said yes but that M would take care of that in class on Monday. And I then asked “you came looking for me to tell me that M would talk to me about it on Monday? ” and she said yes. I said ok and we hung up.
5/6/13
As I was walking out of class C stated she needed to talk to me and for me to sit down and wait a few minutes. I waited about ten minutes before being called into her office. Within that wait time I went to M’s office and asked her if I would be meeting her at my new site the following day, she stated yes you will meet me there but sit down because we will talk about that in a minute. When I went into the office they closed the door behind me and told me to sit. C then started to say that they have had many issues with me and this time they needed to put it into writing and if it happened again they would take further action. She stated because I didn’t call in to let them know I was not going to be at clinical’s was the reason for the write up. I informed her both times I missed I had called in to let them know. She then continued to stat that I needed to be calling before my scheduled shift and that it was not acceptable for me to be calling at 3 pm to let them know I would not be there. M then stated that there was no excuse for me to be calling later than my scheduled hour, no excuse in the book would allow that. C then said that I needed to sign the write up and told me if I needed to comment on it I could but it needed to be signed. I signed the form and as I was doing so, M then stated that my grades have not been doing well since first semester and I needed to do something about it because I was not going to pass this semester. I told her that I have been have a lot of issues and was not able to focus all of my time on studying for tests. She then stated there was no excuse to not focus my time on studying and how did I expect to be out in clinical’s doing x-rays if all I was doing was failing tests.in which she then commented that I would be looking dumb not knowing what I was doing. She then went on to say that it was not my decision to change my schedule with my clinical site. That I needed to ask C beforehand and it would be up to her for me to change my times. Her next comment was stating who have you ever heard say that they have gone in at 6:30 in the morning to their site and us not knowing where you are at all times only makes the instructors look dumb when they go looking for students at their site. I was then told the conversation was done and that I could go.
5/7 at 0921
I called PMI and was directed to the radiography department to speak with the director, S. I informed her that I had made the decision to drop the radiography program and she asked why. I informed her that financially I am not able to continue and need to find a full time job and I do not enjoy being in the program any longer with the way I had been treated. She stated she understood and said that M had informed her that my grades were not good, that I had not been doing good since first semester and I would end up failing. I informed her that was false because first and second semester I did well but things that ended up happening from third semester on made me not want to care. She requested I go into the office to sign a change of status form and I informed her due to vehicle issues I would need to wait for my husband to get out of work. She then stated she would email me the form, I would need to sign the form and fax it back. That was the end of the phone call.
In conclusion, my decision to start this program was to advance in a career and to do what I love. Because of the experience I had in this program, I will not have the opportunity to be an X-ray Tech. The hopes I had to help people are no longer there. The feeling and thought of being a failure will always be in the back of my mind.in order to do what I love in a career that will be mine, I now have to start back at the bottom.
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