Are Student Nurses Prepared for "Real Life?'

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Med- surg, Amb. Surgery, Recovery Room.

Many of the student nurses I have encountered lately appear to be ill-prepared for the real world.What is going on? What are these students being taught and prepared for? Ex: Student drawing up 5 cc of insulin thinking it's 5 units. What are they doing????

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Specializes in floor to ICU.
Many of the student nurses I have encountered lately appear to be ill-prepared for the real world.What is going on? What are these students being taught and prepared for? Ex: Student drawing up 5 cc of insulin thinking it's 5 units. What are they doing????

EeeeeeeeeeeeK:eek:!

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As a student myself, I do not feel completely prepared for the working world. Part of the reason is during clinical rotations there are a lot of things we are not allowed to do because we are not licensed. Nothing prepares someone to do things better than actually doing them. Also in clinical rotations some of the nurses my classmates and I have worked with won't let us do things we are capable of doing because we are conscientious and double check ourselves all the time. These nurses feel it is just simpler to do the things themselves rather than be "slowed down" by a student nurse. But 5 mLs of insulin for 5 Units: something is seriously wrong with that one.:eek::eek::eek:

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Specializes in ER/ICU, CCL, EP.

That whole 5 cc's as opposed to 5 units of insulin thing is scary. Wow.

Having just recently graduated, I am pretty sure that NOTHING would have totally prepared me for real life.

I will tell you that in my nursing school, we had to prepare meds off of a MAR several times before we were allowed to pass meds. It incorporated choosing the correct syringes for things, 'traps' with look-alike med names, etc.

We NEVER gave meds without our clinical instructor inspecting what we pulled out of the Pyxis and verifying it. We would have to know the side effects of the med, what lab values were pertinent (potassium and lasix for example) and what vital signs had to be checked or monitored when giving the medication. We also had to know HOW the med worked. I am glad that I was required to know all of that, though it was a pain in the behind at the time.

However, I think the practice of 'teaching to the boards' instead of teaching what the student nurses actually need to know has not helped nursing education. I don't feel like the boards were an adequate survey of my knowledge. I think that if your local nursing schools are good and have high academic stardards, the new nurses will be more prepared to practice.

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Specializes in geriatrics.
Many of the student nurses I have encountered lately appear to be ill-prepared for the real world.What is going on? What are these students being taught and prepared for? Ex: Student drawing up 5 cc of insulin thinking it's 5 units. What are they doing????

Hmmm...In my school, they would be failed out of the program - IMMEDIATELY!:no:

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Specializes in DOU.

I think nursing school simply qualifies us to work in a hospital as a trainee.

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Specializes in Cardiac Nursing, ICU.

I am a new nurse and feel as though school didn't prepare me thoroughly for the real world of nursing. I mean I don't think anything can prepare you for the real thing, except the REAL thing. The responsibility is great and there are times that I have to make sound decisions and not let anxiety cloud my judgement.

I came from a BSN program where clinical time didn't seem like the focus...it was more paperwork. There were times that I was up until 2am doing a care plan. I mean jee, this is overboard. Who cares if you can write a perfect APA paper and can recall nsg diagnosis at the drop of the dime. What really matters is if you know how to APPLY theory. On the flip side, I believe that care plans were issued to help SN start to think critically and apply the nursing process. I also believe that nursing instructors are so crazy about directions and details because as a nurse you have to know how to follow them. I can complain all day long about school but in reality I am responsible for my own learning.

P.S. 5cc=5units=No common sense

or just not thinking straight

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Specializes in Gyn Onc, OB, L&D, HH/Hospice/Palliative.

Yikes! That's pretty scary! In response to your post, I can honestly say I sure wasn't prepared 20+ years ago coming out of a BSN program, caring for my 1 patient during clinicals. Theory, theory, theory and little hands on, I'm not sure how the new grads feel today, but it seems to me at least the ADN programs jump right in and those students get a lot more hands on than I ever did. I'm pretty impressed with how the newbies are doing, considering the increased pt load and WAY increase in pt acuity then when I started.

On the other hand, I see a lot less direct pt care given by students these days :(. I've seen very few students wash/shower pts-- forget about bed baths. We were expected to do lots of bathing, back care/rubs, etc. But then again, there were no PCA's back then, so we had to do everything. I do think those are very important aspects of being a nurse that are much less the focus these days. It may be that the focus of the nursing programs has changed as the dynamics of pt care and staff mixes have changed.

Back to the main subject, I haven't really seen something as scary as you described, that may be an isolated incident. I have observed some new grads for weeks and months that still scare me, can't prioritize, rationalize, very little critical thinking skills, and it really makes me wonder how they ever made it thru school. Others, I think are just fantastic and I am amazed at how they have evolved in a matter of months to really competent nurses.

I think it may be more of a case by case/ individual thing rather than nursing schools 'these days' persay; JMHO :cool:

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Specializes in Trauma ICU, Surgical ICU, Medical ICU.

Well I hope that they were checking closely and it was caught. If this was a newer student these things can happen. We always had meds checked and had to describe everything about them before we were allowed to give them. I have been out almost a year now and I believe nothing could've prepared me for what I have seen and done. I also came from a BSN program and I also stayed up till 2am doing careplans. I also agree with the PP that they are important but they are a bit overboard. We had to complete 120 hours of a leadership rotation where we worked with a nurse--as in orientation. We worked 12 hour shifts with the nurse and I got to do night. I thought that was very beneficial as I got used to working odd hours and long shifts. There were some nights we were so busy that we just halved the assignments and I got to practice a whole lot. I just asked questions when I needed help and she checked my work accordingly. Still, nothing prepared me for being completely ON MY OWN till I was on my own and responsible for myself. I really hope cirriculums change for nursing students so they are more prepared when they get out.

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Specializes in Gyn Onc, OB, L&D, HH/Hospice/Palliative.
I think nursing school simply qualifies us to work in a hospital as a trainee.

Well put, BRAVO!:up:

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Specializes in L&D.

As a new grad I can say that I don't feel I was adequately prepared. I really wish I felt more capable than I do, it seems like I should after spending 2 years in nursing school.

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Come on -- we all know the answer to this. There is no way in heck nursing school prepares you for the real world of hospital nursing. Just the shock of taking care of more than 1 pt at a time and all the paperwork is enough to give anyone a heart attack.

I don't know the answer. It's just something you have to DO anyway to learn it, so there really is no answer, other than the 2 year or longer nursing "residency" we've all discussed here before.

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