Can nursing instructors see who's got what it takes?

Nursing Students General Students

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Hey all, just wondering your opinion regarding a situation.

I'm in my second semester of nursing school (ADN), I found out that last semester, the clinical instructor said to one of my friends, "Maybe you should try physical therapy"

In my opinion, that is probably one of the biggest insults to a nursing student.

So it got me thinking, can nursing instructors (more specifically clinical instructors) see who has ''what it takes'' to be a nurse?

Do you think it was professional / right for that instructor to say that to this student?

Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.

I ran into this several times in my ADN and in practice. Not personally, but hearing it about other students/nurses. Personally I think instructors need to be cognizant of their students strengths and weaknesses and communicate about those, then let the students think about what is best for them. The problem with driving students out of nursing early is I think it is hard to determine if someone is on the right path or not. We only see the world for what we see it, and while experience is valuable, I don't believe you can determine someone's path with our experience alone.

There are all kinds of nurses out there. Some may go into practice and after contract realize nursing isn't for them, however with their experience they may go on to be amazing administrators, educators, or switch fields entirely. I do not feel that instructors need to recommend alternative paths, because honestly most of the time when people go through something difficult, they understand themselves and their limits better, than if they change course based on a suggestion.

One could argue "I am looking out for the future patients" or "I want to save them time and money" however in the end it really isn't anyone's place to determine the best course for someone else. Perhaps the nurse she chases off to PT (which is a fabulous and vital career) would have been the next nurse to determine the most effective EBP for increasing post-operative mobility because of her strengths in anatomy and physiology?

Tait

Excellent reply, thanks for that.

One of the things I am learning is that we never assume things about our patients.

Assumption seems to be a risky thing.

Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

As a simple response to the OP's original question - "Yes". Experienced educators have dealt with large numbers of students so their perspective is based on actual experience - comparison of different types of students. However - and this is HUGE - they have an ethical/professional responsibility to avoid expressing this opinion unless the student actually solicits their advice. Otherwise, it may become a self-fulfilling prophecy . . because of the effect it will have on that student.

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

While they have opinions about the likely hood someone will succeed....to say they posess an insight to tell someone to quit and move on is not right unless the student asks for guidance or is academically unable to compete/keep up.

My first year nursing instructor told me I would never make a good nurse because I was an independent loner and had difficulty delegating tasks.....that was 34 years ago.

Gives me a chill, for sure. I think the experienced instructors can spot the ones with talent, but they can also, alternately, just make life Hades for someone they personally don't like. The student needs to determine what the logic behind that statement is.

One on the things you must realize about medicine's training programs vs. other training programs, is that medicine seeks to deliberately hold down the number of new-grads entering the field. Part of that is a strategy to keep salaries higher (possibly truer for doctors than nursing, but nursing is starting to consider that glut of new grads that's sitting out there.) Another part is the keep the school's first-time NCLEX pass rate as close to 100% as possible. They want to cull anyone they thing won't pass it.

Another thing they will never admit to is it might be the school admits far more students than it ever intends to graduate, and really means to flunk out or drive out x% of them before graduation. The school has a larger class than it can possibly place in jobs after graduation. It sounds much better for the school's reputation to say that "we graduated 40 students and 85% of them had jobs as of graduation:, than "we graduated 65 students and only about half of them could find a job as of graduation." Going at a grinding pace practically ensures that not everyone will be able to keep up. ;-)

Tallying lost students as voluntary quits or as failed out of the program, shifts the blame to students and makes people not question the nursing school's curriculum or policies as much as they would if they saw the school could only place half of its graduating class. Remember that Nursing schools, like other schools, are run as a business. They know not everyone who starts will finish, but having a large number of students for a year or so helps pay the bills for the school. The same types of bean-counters who run hospital admin and seek ways to cut costs and increase revenues also run colleges and diploma nursing schools.

Another issue is "workplace politics." Women, in particular, seem to place value on "I want to work with people who are like me." I found nursing school to be disturbingly more autocratic than any other educational institution or workplace I have encountered. The world of nursing is still predominantly a women's field, and I do believe that some men and more hard-driving women are drummed out of it, because they do not exhibit the meek and submissive helpmate or follower personality that the nursing instructors want. Many nursing instructors want a certain type of person, and they will either haze or ignore the people that they don't like. If that's what's happening with your friend, then I recommend that student transfer to another nursing school. If he or she is already targeted as among that certain % that is to be culled, staying at that school and plugging away at it will not help. There's a personality fit between nursing schools and students, and it's possible to be in the wrong program for you, personally.

My area has diploma nursing schools, so I am writing from that perspective. The diploma schools are run by individual hospitals and they pretty much do as they darn please with curriculum and how they treat individual students. I know students who have failed out or quit one school, and they did fine at a college BSRN or the one good diploma school here. Or they enrolled in the Excelsior College? (the NY online program), studied at home, and became nurses.

I believe that nursing school, contrary to what the instructors will tell you, is not one-size-fits-all. There are differences in curriculum and differences in administration and differences in instructors, and some of the secret to making it work for you is finding the right program for you.

Streamline.........:yes::up: Standing O!

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