Originally Posted by llg
You might not even realize it was happening. The bias throughout the program would be subtle, "This is the right way to do this procedure. ... This is the best method of organizing the care." etc. If you are not doing clinical rotations at other institutions where they do things differently, you would "grow up" believing that you had been taught the best way. You would feel most comfortable practicing within the system in which you had learned to be a nurse. It would feel most natural for you to be there ... while students who do clinical rotations within a variety of hospital systems learn to be comfortable with a variety of ways of doing things.
It might not be a problem in your case. Not every diploma program has that build-in bias. But it is something to make note of, just in case it becomes a factor in your career.
I
usually agree with you, llg, but I must say I've never heard of anything like this in all my years in nursing. I graduated (many years ago) from a hospital-based diploma program that did have a tradition of employing its graduates, but there was no pressure on us to stay at the hospital; we were continuously reminded by our instructors that this was the way
our hospital did (
X), but it certainly wasn't the
only way and we would find, when we got out "in the world," that other hospitals did it different ways; and I would need to hear a reliable, first-hand account to believe that
any SON pays (has ever paid) its instructors a "commission" on students who take jobs at a particular hospital. We had plenty of instructors who had come from different schools and hospitals, so we got exposure to a wide variety of attitudes and experience.
As for skimping on subjects like OB and peds (for that matter,
any of the specialty areas), surely you're aware that most ADN and BSN programs these days offer only the bare minimum to meet the state requirement in those areas (at least, that's what I've seen in all the programs I've been involved with over the years)? So why single out diploma programs and imply they have some nefarious motive? This is a general trend in nursing education, not some sneaky trick the diploma schools dreamed up ...
Also, I would expect that procedures and equipment change so often in hospitals nowadays as a matter of course and the "onward march" of nursing & medical knowledge that it would be v. hard for students to
avoid having to become comfortable with adapting to new "stuff." I'm currently orienting at a new medical center, and, in several topics of our orientation, we've been told, "Now, when you get out on the floors, you'll find all the nurses are complaining about (
X), because we're just in the process of changing over to this new procedure (or equipment or form) -- it won't make any difference to
you, because you're not used to the old way, but we know there's a lot of grumbling going on 'out there' ..." I recall from my student days (when there was significantly less change in general going on in nursing than there is now!) that there was ongoing change -- new ways of doing techniques/procedures, new equipment, new treatments & medications -- being introduced in the hospital
all the time, and it was noticeably easier for us students to adapt (because it was
all new to us, anyway
) than it was for the staff nurses who had been doing things the old way for years. (In fact, I remember us doing, as students, teaching presentations for the staff nurses on various units of the hospital on nursing dx, care plans, and how to do some of the newer procedures and use some of the new technology/equipment that was being introduced).
I'm sure that there
may have been, somewhere, at some point in the distant past, a few schools with the practices you describe, but I have a hard time believing they were ever wide-spread and I have a
very hard time believing any school would still be doing that today and getting away with it.
Also, I grew up Lutheran and attended a Lutheran college for a while many years ago, and am aware that the Lutheran system of schools and hospitals maintains very high professional and academic standards (we're
really into over-achieving ...
)
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