[NotTenured]

I have taught in more that one nursing education institution and with a variety of student populations. My experience everywhere has been that nursing students tend to be somewhat harsh and critical evaluators of faculty, as opposed to students from other majors. I have some theories about this, primarily I think we tend to admit students who are less well prepared academically than other majors and then proceed to expect them to perform well in an intense, rigorous, stressful program of study. Subsequently, students project their frustrations and anger onto faculty at end-of-term evaluation time. I have posted here to ask if anyone else has made note of this phenomenon and what opinions are. As a member of our faculty from another department said: "those nurses are a hard-sell, I feel like I'm in the cross-hairs all the time". The Dean of our college has pointed to the less-than-average numbers and commented on the data in regard to using it for decision-making about the viability of our program. Comments??

[Rebecca King]

I think when considering the sometimes negative tone of student nurse evaluations of faculty it is also important to consider the underlying nature of the student(s). The program in which I teach administers the NET to incoming students. One area of this exam assess the passive or aggressive nature of the student. Consistently this exam has shown that 70 - 80% of our students have aggressive tendencies. It may be possible that students finds anonymous evaluations the least threatening avenue to vent these aggressive tendencies.

[Cassidy Clark]

I have been teaching LVN students for two years in both the community college and technical school environments. I think that when multiple students have a gripe or complaint about an instructor's approach or attitude,the instructor needs to examine it seriously. For many years nursing has been known for eating its young alive. This begins in nursing school with the instructor breathing down the student's neck and increasing anxiety. Many (or most) of our students come from dysfunctional backgrounds and are already under a great deal of stress in their personal lives, which nursing school tends to compound. I think nurse educators need to start taking a humanistic and holistic approach to nursing education. For example, last semester I was teaching a group of LVN student's on their second clinical rotation. This time period is one of great growth...as they begin to pass medications, they have many opprotunities to focus on their patients as systems and they can begin to formulate a picture in their mind of what certain patient populations characteristics are. I had one student in particular who started off the quarter performing very well, demonstrating great capability and potential. As the semester wore on, she became increasingly stressed in clinical and was having difficulty passing the simplest medication...she had difficulty even accessing her drug book for med. info. In her mid-term evaluation, instead of being harsh and critical of her performance I related to her that I was gravely concerned with her performance, but I knew how hard nursing school was, especially with family responsibiliites. The student broke down in tears and confided that she was in an abusive situation with her husband and she saw no way out of it. I was able to contract with her to see the school psychiatrist.She started counselling and problem solving her home situation. Amazingly, her clinical and classroom performance improved dramatically. We don't need to be our student's best friends, but we do need to address them as holistic human beings. There must be some mutal respect. Perhaps your faculty needs to take a closer look at their philosophy of nursing education and their approach with students. If we are ever going to attract indivivuals who are qualified and capable of earning a BSN, we must treat them as qualified and capable human beings.If you are doing this in your program, it will be reflected in your student evaluations.

[ccolt]

I agree that we need to see students holistically. It seems nursing education has two major areas to consider the student and the client. It is difficult to meet all the student needs.. counselor, supporter, educator, and also the needs of the client. It seems like the students sometimes evaluate the faculty more for the care and support then the actual education. I teach in the area of psychiatric nursing. This course is especially challenging for the students because it brings up so many of their own issues. The students consistently evaluate the educators of this course very harshly. Have any of you seen this with your courses.

[mbailey]

What do you think of asking the students to sign the evaluations? This request seems fair to me as I must sign any evaluations I do of students. What purpose does it serve to have students lambaste faculty without taking responsibility for what they say? We are presently having discussions at our school about whether we should require a signature on an evaluation. This is how the real world works.