Life-Span class is shortening mine.

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I'm just whinning........certainly to a group of intellectuals that can somehow utilize this contradictory load of crap.

I'm certain this will be the only useless part of school, but I just can't get "up" for this.

I've been staring at it since early this morning. I can't see any content when I read it. It's like one of those pictures that you're supposed to look at and kind of let your eyes go out of focus and out pops a spaceship or some other such image that's not apparent by just looking at it. It's as if it's just someone talking about how thier day went or making casual conversation. When it does try to make a point, it only speculates, never settling on one thing, but presenting a range of possibilities.......all possibilities.

So they can never be wrong.....................how convienient.

I'm supposed to be writting a bibliography. I have to read and summarize ten papers.

I have to summarize speculation................beautiful.

Morons.:p

Originally posted by Peeps Mcarthur

I could probably get a "C" in any class that was ever invented to torment those that would pay the class fees.......................just the thought of a "C" makes me ill.

To obtain a higher grade I would have to be motivated by something about the material,but I'm having a difficult time just believing it, let alone,wanting to understand a more deeper meaning other that rote memorization.

I will pass.

but to me that will be a fail.

Are nursing classes like this?

I know where you're coming from Peeps. There's a lot of junk that's not interesting and it's very hard to get geared up to do that crap. I have a hang up about spending time on something that I can't see a "harvest" from. My Mom used to tell me that I had a hang up about Algebra. I didn't have a hang up, I just don't ever use that crap. I've been a builder for over 20 years, and I'm really good with fractions. This comes from using a tape measure, and plotting points and doing buider's math. Geometry is good to learn so you can figure angles and roof pitch or slope, but I have never had to use Algebra in my daily life. Don't get me wrong, I made an "A" in my Algebra course last year, but I haven't used it since. Try not to read into that Psych stuff, nor try to argue with your professors ( they're just too smart)(yeah, right!). Just memorize that mess, and beat them at their own game. Some of that Psych stuff will come into play, but you'll figure out what you really need to know by observation. I don't agree with a lot of those theories either, but I can't disprove them, nor do I have time to waste trying. I don't like the idea of having to settle for a "C" myself. Maybe if and when you take this course again, you can think of it as a game. It's not going to go away, and the sooner you get that burden out of your way, you can go on to courses that are more "real". Good luck Mr. Peeps. Darby:)

Help!.....................My GPA has fallen and it can't get back up!:o

The purpose of the thread was to find some meanng in psych. "There must be some reason that we have 7 credits of psych and only 4 credits of Microbiology" I pondered. Microbiology is very fundamental to a basic understanding of how to defeat microbes by understanding how they thrive,how to identify them and where to look for them.

As another example of the imbalance of credits for skills we actually use is Composition. Only 3 credits of classes promoting an understanding of critical reading and writing skills yet as nurses,we will write every day and be expected to effectively communicate something in that writing(whether anybody reads it or not). As nurses we also will absolutely need critical reading skills to understand the content of charts,tech manuals,drug lables:eek: ,reference manuals and patients communicating by pen when thier vocal chords are by-passed or diseased(reading dr's handwriting is an advanced course:rolleyes: ).

From all that I have read so far I can conclude that I have not found any meaning for psych as I have for other classes. The reasons for taking the other ones just jumped out at me in the first week but the question remains to dangle in regards to psych classes with exception to its popularity. 7 credits of courses that are very easy to find instructors for has got to be a cash-cow for the college. As it has been offered,having female equipment would probably turn it around for me. That has been my feeling also since I see such an overwhelming disparity of male students from any field taking these classes and I have observed none of them enjoying it as thier female counterparts do.

So,as we all can agree(I apreciate your encouragement)I just need to get through it,but will the rest of the nursing courses cater to the overwhelming female population of students or nursing practice. Will the curicculum be designed to train a great nurse or attract more of its main source of revenue?

I have to say that if the rest of it is such,I will not be completing it. I don't intend to just watch my GPA plummet while I try to understand nursing as a woman when I don't have any of that wiring.

Anyhoo,it's fun discussing it and I appreciate your encouragement.

Peeps, you're missing my point. You can never know what ANYONE is feeling. All you can do is observe, listen and make assumptions. I can tell you I feel a certain way, and act accordingly, so you think I have more feelings than a baby, but why? Why is verbalization the only way to judge whether or not someone has feelings (especially when you can't tell if I am being honest or not)? A toddler often can't verbalize feelings, but few people would argue that they don't have any. At what age do you think a person starts to have feelings? Something tells me it will be around the age they can tell you they do...

The point of psychology is to gain some type of an understanding about people and their emotions. Believe me, after you've been nursing a few years you'll see it is at least as important as microbi!:)

Specializes in Community Health Nurse.

welllllllllllll....if it isn't my old pal, peeps, up and at 'em again....you go man! :chuckle :kiss

i see there's a new twist to your thread, and you are still as stubborn as ever about the whys of having to take courses that you do not feel are worthy of your time???? :chuckle

all i can do is say "psych is what it is..............or to you.......psych is what it 'aint'........:lol2: ohhhhhhhh...the web we weave..........:kiss

"just when you think you've graduated from the school of experience, someone thinks up a new course." -- mary h. waldrip :rotfl:

BTW, I also LOVE how you phrased this: "soft tissue"!!!LOL!!!:D Hope your ob/gyn rotation is more fun than your lifespan class!

Peeps, you're missing my point. You can never know what ANYONE is feeling. All you can do is observe, listen and make assumptions.

You cannot treat assumptions.....can you? I think that you take assumptions too far. Treating something that isn't there(potentialy not there.....ok)could have consequences...........right?

BTW, I also LOVE how you phrased this: "soft tissue"!!!LOL!!! Hope your ob/gyn rotation is more fun than your lifespan class!

OH MY GAWWD!:eek:

OB/GYN ROTATION........That'll be fun..........NOT!

:roll Thanks for bringing that up,I had forgotten:p

A toddler often can't verbalize feelings, but few people would argue that they don't have any. At what age do you think a person starts to have feelings? Something tells me it will be around the age they can tell you they do...

A toddler has many more experiences and a more developed brain to process those experiences into information than an infant which has practicaly none and little chance of processing them for what they are.

Go all the way to adolescents who still have difficulty processing emotion for what it is and you see that it's a sophisticated learned skill.

I think we are all sophisticated enough however,to discuss gender and curicculum relationships.

They exist in my mind just as Eriksons theories exist in yours.

I can see that I'm going to have to be "fake" to get through school. I don't think the nursing world is ready to discuss possible shortcomings if it can't even admit that there is gender bias.

I knew there was a gender bias and that doesn't really bother me that much,it's part of the program. I do think that the curriculum has to be examined for it.............unless nursing wants it to always be dominated by its feminine side.

I think nursing needs to evolve,but I can never discuss it openly.

I think basic psych is plenty of backround to start clinicals,but I can never let anyone know what I think openly.

There is no argument that will stand up to "we just know". It is the perfect science.

In time I will believe as all of you do. I will have no opinnions of my own(except those that are approved) It will be "the way it is" and I will do as I'm told...........then the fear of change will be in my words as I try to explain how "I just know" to someone else.

Making it "no big deal" is the first step to confomity..............so I am on my way,thanks.

Just wait, you may love ob/gyn! You never know. I can't tell you how many students in our class had their specialties picked before clinical and so many changed it was ridiculous! One guy even (GASP!) liked OB and Peds best despite being one of those tough "I only want emerg, blood and guts"type guys.

I should tell you that I had similar feelings in nursing school mainly because I hated most nurse theorists, which was blasphemy at the time. I still do. But, I understand the necessity of jumping through hoops as a student. I put down my thoughts on our evals, but those wise nursing instructors get to make the decisions in the end. I know how it feels to be prostituting you personality at times, believe me!!! You'll make it through and laugh about it years from now (hopefully:))

I know how it feels to be prostituting you personality at times, believe me!!!

Exactly!!........A Grade Point Prostitute!:rotfl:

A guy in OB?.....Must be a glutton for punishment. A little like being Jackie Robinson playing baseball isn't it?

No thanks,I have enough trouble.:rolleyes:

So what do you all think about placing a diagnosis of depression on an infant? If an infant can be depressed can't they also love? That's what you want you know. You want to know the dog loves you,the cat loves you.................your car loves you.........................Ah,c'mon now you know you've patted your dashboard in gratitude when your car won't start to try to "encourage"it somehow.

Emotions other than survival instinct are just too complicated.

Sorry,but you dog doesn't really love you........................he licks you for the salts on your skin. Your cat needs somewhere to get rid of the hair(so they don't have to cough up much in your lap later). Your car is just a piece of crap so you might as well have your mechanic on speed-dial.

Isn't depression fairly complex? If not,why do adults seem to have such a hard time with it in differing levels of affliction?

Why are emotions so seemingly easy to diagnose when they are very complicated to understand?

Can infants understand thier feelings enough to be depressed?

Can you be depressed if you don't know what "not depressed"means?:confused:

Can you miss a mother if you never had one?

Isn't this a little like Regression therapy where they hypnotize you and then suggest your past?

I'll tell you what.....................................when I go to clinicals I will be looking in charts. If I see Erikson being used in an original way then I'll take it all back.

I think that I just need to learn to write in "psychologist".

Anyway,like I was saying.............................I'm so excited to be in psychology classes! I can't wait to apply it to patients. I just wish we got to take more. Psychology is so interesting. I have trouble learning it because I need to be more abstract,that is one of my weaknesses.

Does that sound about right?

OK, being of a philosophical bent myself, I propose (yet another) question in this ongoing debate, to wit:

Nurses have a culture and a society. What is society really, but an idea held by a group of people?

If all of nursing society is agreed on what constitutes human emotional nature and the contructs thereof are agreed as adequately translated by [Eriksen & Maslow, for instance], why not define patient behaviors based on this construct and whatever behaviors fall outside of that realm, just describe?

The constructs that they propose are admittedly deficient. However, there needs be some common-ground relationship for us all to tie the behaviors that we observe into some meaningful form.

So we ascribe meaning to babies' behaviors because we infer that, for instance: People have feelings; babies are undeveloped people; therefore, babies must have feelings. However indirect the reference, the provability is in the fact that at a certain point, babies do begin to have real emotions vs reflex, and it is better for their general well-being for us to treat them as sentient beings from their conception or birth, than to accept an arbitrary age --say age 7, which the Catholic Church calls "the age of reason" and the age at which one becomes responsible for the consequences of their behavior.

[PS a lot of what you will hear in nursing school has to be taken with this in mind--you are basically learning Nursing as a Philosophical Construct. Students shake their heads in disbelief at some of the wacky-sounding things they have to learn, and truly, out-of-context, in the classroom, some of this stuff sounds pretty un--meaningful, but once you are in the nurse's shoes and in the job, it develops HONEST, TRUE MEANING! One of my instructors called this the "Aha!" moment.

So in nursing school, yes, there is a lot of "go along to get along" and unfortunately, you won't see the sense of it til you're a nurse, but you hafta start somewhere]

Nurses have a culture and a society. What is society really, but an idea held by a group of people?

That's a good point

Isn't it nice to be able to have some thoughtful insight and not be flamed?:angryfire

The constructs that they propose are admittedly deficient. However, there needs be some common-ground relationship for us all to tie the behaviors that we observe into some meaningful form.

Exactly,however desperate the notion. The more complex the better.......as long as we all go along......uhmm?

I will go along,but I won't last long if I think nursing theory is dellusional. I'll be a phony.......That's worse than failing and being kicked out of the program. Being a phony is the lowest form of life.

Ya know,there is a possibility that I just don't belong in nursing. I have considered that.

Nobody can be all things to all people and I certainly seem to take a different view of psychology,but I will need a larger sample to draw from for a conclusion.

Honey, I think you'll make a real kick-butt nurse. But don't do it if you need your ego stroked by anything but your patient's (sometimes miniscule and impossible to measure) responses to your care.

A lot of nurses feel the same way you do about the theoretical stuff, but none of us has the energy to fight every stupid idea that comes across the desk.

Nursing is war; health against sickness, life against death. I "choose my battles," and the psychological mutterings and incantations of the few no longer not deserve my ire; I have bigger fish to fry.

Death, beware!

Long Live the Patient & Good Quality of Life to him/her too! :kiss

Originally posted by Sleepyeyes

Honey, I think you'll make a real kick-butt nurse. But don't do it if you need your ego stroked by anything but your patient's (sometimes miniscule and impossible to measure) responses to your care.

A lot of nurses feel the same way you do about the theoretical stuff, but none of us has the energy to fight every stupid idea that comes across the desk.

Nursing is war; health against sickness, life against death. I "choose my battles," and the psychological mutterings and incantations of the few no longer not deserve my ire; I have bigger fish to fry.

Death, beware!

Long Live the Patient & Good Quality of Life to him/her too! :kiss

D'ya think....

maybe this is why I've always been a loner??? :roll :roll

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