Remember when.....

[NotMyProblem MSN, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN]

I just read a topic here regarding the requirement of 'needless' courses pertaining to nursing. That topic sent me back, wayyyy back down memory lane.

Back in the day of my nursing program, which was an LPN program, (I'm an RN now), we had to learn how to write in another language. That language was called Medical Terminology. Yeah, I know they still have it today but not to the extent that they did yesteryear. In my program, we were required to write complete sentences in a make-shift chart but could not use one word of normal English language except in verbal translation. For example, question one would ask about meds that you, the nurse, gave to the patient. Your response should have read something to the effect of: gentamicin ophth gtts 1 rx'd pt via o.u. per LA, SPN, @ 0900.

( I can't make the *|* sign that means 1 on this iPad). Anyway, remember that? Notations in the patient charts were short and sweet, using abbreviations only. When we were allowed to use minimal 'real' language, the notes read: resting quietly, no distress. The entire documentation for the shift was done this way; no more than four words per line. A blank sheet of nurses notes was set up in columns that allowed for vital signs and graphics, with the very Ed column left with JUST ENOUGH space to squeeze in four words per line. Any other words were grounds for counseling sessions for putting too much in the chart, thereby opening the door for potential lawsuits. Nursing instructors demanded abbreviations-only charting or else. We wouldn't dare write out 'three times a day'. It was tid, bid, qd, etc., if we wanted to graduate from nursing school!

If you didn't learn English in high school, it was not required in nursing school because we were about to learn an entirely new culture only known to the medical world. Oh, the fun I had with terminology especially when I learned what a gluteus maximus was. All I had to do was place the word 'kiss' before it and at the time, I had a HYPERgluteus maximus! Lol!!! Laypeople were clueless! Wow!!!! Those were the DAYZ!!!!!

Anyway, a nurse replied to another post by saying that he/she doesn't know how another made it through nursing school, based on the other's poorly executed use of the English language on a discussion board. My thoughts after reading that was that if she went to nursing school when I did, she didn't HAVE to know how to use the English language in writing....only how to read it. I know, i know....how can you read it and not be able to write it??? Defecation occurs! Lololol!

[SleeepyRN]

I totally get your point, but I bet the point the person was trying to make was lanquage/writing skills for research papers.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

No education is wasted. In college as an undergraduate nursing major, I took required courses in sociology (and learned a lot about dealing with different cultures), anthropology (and learned a lot about humans in general), statistics (and learned to tell real research from bogus), and economics (and learned a lot about health care finance, labor relations, and insurance). All of these might strike the uninitiated as "needless" if they focus on the lab check-off list and limit their professional understanding to the "we're all the same, we do the same job, we have the same license" trope, but I'll tell ya, all those courses have all been really useful to me in developing my career as I went along.

I was fortunate to have had excellent teachers in English, composition, and writing in high school, so I didn't need help in those. I read a lot of charts now apparently written by people who didn't have that advantage (or didn't take advantage of the offer when presented). They can't tell the difference between effect, impact, and affect; diuresis and diaphoresis; there, they're, and their; and a whole host of other basic errors that make my teeth ache. Yes, written language skills matter; it is not elitist or fussy to expect a higher level of competence in communication in a real profession where communication is critical in so many ways.