Things only a fellow nursing student would understand...

[leekaye]

Only a fellow nursing student would understand:

- How tired we are of the "fluff" homework assignments. Just how many papers and readings on history of nursing and cultural sensitivity do we need? Do we need to make a 50 slide PowerPoint on the different "theories of change agents" or an entire paper on how low lighting and noise helps calm the patient (Never would have guessed! ?

- How burned out emotionally, physically and mentally we are, especially those of us who are trying to work, raise a family, are older (with a lot less stamina) and overwhelmed by the amount of work in nursing school

- How you will be close to many of your schoolmates because you're going "through the trenches" together. They remember that horrible instructor, that first case of explosive C Diff, the nurses who didn't want you on their floor and the time you saw a bone biopsy and had to sit down before you passed out.

- How many times you will question whether you made the right decision going to nursing school and the times you'll get to hold a patient's hand and share a laugh and realize that you did the right thing

- How frustrating it is to check off 7 of the 12 "Select All That Apply" answers and miss it by just 1

- How often you will hear, "Yeah, it was correct, but it wasn't the most correct"

- How frustrating it can be to have one instructor teach you how to do something and have another instructor chastise you for doing it the same way

- How you will start your first day of nursing school with a spotless lab coat and five 400 page reference books and will end your first semester with handwritten cheat sheet notecards in your stained lab coat pocket

- How awesome it feels to get that hospital badge your first day of clinicals and how you happy you are to take it off for the last time the last day of clinicals

- How a lab bag can literally swallow up nursing supplies in a matter of minutes

- How you will never again think nurses are overpaid

- How often you will question whether you were ever really smart (You were valedictorian of your high school class, right? When did you become so dumb?!)

- How you look back from your last semester and see the first semester students having the same struggles you had and seeing that you've come so far since then

- How nursing school is exhilarating, frustrating, exhausting, interesting, boring, overwhelming, bonding, sad, funny, exasperating and fulfilling and you imagine being a nurse will be just like that.

[dt70]

This is why I love powerpoints - in my prior academic career back in the 90's into early 2000's, classes were still taught using overhead projectors and *gasp* chalkboards. We had to write down everything. So now in nursing school when I see all that information and it's all there at our fingertips (which really doesn't make it any easier - you still have to know the material), I'm sooo grateful.[/quote']

I remember those days also. I think there would be much less info now if the instructors had to write everything from their power points on the blackboard.

[bloodorange]

I don't know -- for me, writing everything down helps me learn the material so much more than just looking at the PowerPoint! And what's worse than a "lecture" in which the professor simply reads from the projector screen? ugh...

[springchick1, ADN, RN]

This is why I love powerpoints - in my prior academic career back in the 90's into early 2000's, classes were still taught using overhead projectors and *gasp* chalkboards. We had to write down everything. So now in nursing school when I see all that information and it's all there at our fingertips (which really doesn't make it any easier - you still have to know the material), I'm sooo grateful.[/quote']

Or you could be in a program like me where they don't give you the PowerPoint. You just scramble to write down as much as you can as fast as you can and hope you can read it later:)

[leekaye]

I like PowerPoints in class because I can use them as reference (along with recording the lecture, scribbling notes furiously and still hoping to catch it ALL!)

It's having to CREATE the long PowerPoints on silly topics like the importance of a "quiet environment" during recovery. Why do I have to spend 8 hours finding citations and enough text to fill a 40 minute presentation on why that's a good thing? Is that really something people don't already know? REALLY?! (Amy Poehler voice)

[LPN Guy]

This is great - I really wish that my family members, non-nursing acquaintances, etc. could understand what I and other students of nursing have to go through. And yes you really do question if you really ever were smart, even if you are

[JBudd, MSN]

It's having to CREATE the long PowerPoints on silly topics like the importance of a "quiet environment" during recovery. Why do I have to spend 8 hours finding citations and enough text to fill a 40 minute presentation on why that's a good thing? Is that really something people don't already know? REALLY?! (Amy Poehler voice)

I did a paper on writing good power points, such as use of fonts, color, amount of info etc. in my masters ed program. Got dinged for not using nursing sources, and since I couldn't immediately say which education data base I used (I went all over the net to find credible sources!), my challenge was dismissed.

If I had to sit through all 32 of my students presentations, at 40 minutes a piece, ye gods!...... ciitations and learning to find evidence based is one thing, but 40 minutes is a bit much for one narrow topic.

[DosmoRN]

Three cheers for Tom Jefferson! Is anybody in Washington listening to him?

[Pink Magnolia, BSN, RN]

Nice!!!

[Jaykalkyn, BSN, RN]

I don't know -- for me, writing everything down helps me learn the material so much more than just looking at the PowerPoint! And what's worse than a "lecture" in which the professor simply reads from the projector screen? ugh...

OMG! I'm dealing with that right now in my health assessment class. The instructor sits at the computer and basically reads the powerpoints. Really? Surefire way to put me to sleep.

[shamrokks, ADN, ASN, RN]

Well said!

[SuperRN_1]

#truestory What a great post!! Thank you for sharing!