For the nursing school instructors....

[OBplease]

I have seen a couple of recent posts from instructors, asking students, what they could do to help their own students in their programs. I sincerely appreciate your interest in your students and applaud your initiative to ask other students what you can do to better serve your own students.

My questions for instructors are, what can students do to better exceed in their programs? What is it that really gets to instructors that might help students be more understanding of the instructor? Is the math really as bad as people believe it to be? How much A&P do you really need to know? How much study time should students really be spending on their program? Obviously it's dependent on the program generally, but generally what is a good reason for having to miss class? If our child has had to have an emergency appendectomy, are we really going to fail the program for missing three days? For pre-nursing students, what is the best thing one can do to prepare for their program? Do we really need to buy every last book on the list? Does it really matter if our pants come from the bookstore or our favorite scrub store down the street? What is the best advice you can give?

Thank you so much!

[JBudd, MSN]

1. Read the book and be prepared before class. Ask questions pertinent to the subject, no rabbit trails!

2. Don't think I can't see you texting under the table: if you are bored in class, well sorry but pay attention anyway.

3. Don't chitchat and disturb the students around you who are too embarrassed to tell you off, but tell me. I may not catch you at it in the back of the room, but you are a pain. And you just might need their good will in the future!

4. The math is basic logic, review your conversions and fractions. What throws people is the pressure to be perfect. Relax! Practice word problems .

5. Every program is different when it comes to absences. Do your best to have back up child care available for emergencies. You HAVE to have a certain number of clinical hours, and there isn't a way to make those up: space and time are usually very limited.

6. Book list: generally on there for a reason. Not always, but my classes only have one book each, so ... yeah, you need it!

7. Scrubs: if your school has a specific uniform, better be safe and buy it there or from a recent grad. If you only have to follow your clinical site's dress code, check out their codes first.

Good luck!