Problem:
Susan Sandstrom is a 21-year-old first year nursing student at a local community college. She consistently received As without having to study at length in high school, and continues to work 20-30 hours a week as a nursing assistant to avoid having student loan debt. Nursing is a much more difficult major than she expected and she has been overwhelmed by the amount of content that she needs to know and the hours of studying required. Despite using all available time in her schedule to study, Susan has been averaging 80% on her exams. If she does poorly on the final, she may fail the program. Susan has been increasingly frustrated by Joan, her current classroom instructor, whom she feels is the reason for her poor examination grades this semester. Instead of addressing her concerns directly to Joan, Susan openly shares her negative opinions of Joan to other students, as well as on her Facebook page. Numerous students share her negative assessment of Joan and "like" her comment that "Joan is the worst instructor ever who should go back to clinical practice where she belongs.