Venting

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I'm typically not known to complain about much because I know that Nursing school requires time and tons of work put into it to be successful.... Now my lovely school of mine moved campuses this september which is great because now we have a bigger campus and tons of parking (only street parking at the last campus, leads to tons of parking tix)....

Ok so the semester began a week later than it usually does because of this move.... so we are shorted a week of academics... OK fine... Classes began on 9/9 and clinical began on the same day (never happened before)... Why am I heading to clinical without knowing what a fundus feels like or how to complete a physical assessment on a newborn (we didnt have a lecture yet at this point) WE all go in blind including my instructor because she didnt know that we had clinical until noon of that day. Theory is on Tuesday evenings for 4.5 hours... All in all we had 2 lectures, 23 chapters and then an exam.... How is one able to retain 23 chapters of new information???? Almost all of the class fails.. Wait can I just tell you that my instructor is teaching the wrong information in class and we got some exam questions and we all answered the questions wrong based on her lecture and nothing was done.. The other faculty sided with her...

MY FRUSTRATION LEVEL IS THROUGH THE ROOF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Feel a little better now that I've got it out....

I felt a fundus too :) Learned how to assess a baby, learned how to electronically chart (both hospitals I've been at have still been paper charters!), I got to insert a saline lock a couple of weeks ago (that was awesome! Got it the first time, yay for me! LOL), and did my first push med the same day as the HL. Been a great couple of weeks :)

We've had two clinicals that we started prior to any lecture. Just the nature of the beast, I guess! Personally I'd rather learn at clinicals...the labs are great but still nothing like a real, live person. Although our instructors post a LOT of videos and such to help out with knowing how to do things so that helps.

Good luck to you!!

Specializes in Trauma, Orthopedics.

Nothing you do in SIM lab is even close to what it's like doing it on a real patient. It's not hard to feel a fundus...I don't really understand the outrage at not feeling one on a dummy first.

23 chapters is a lot. ... But I'm finding it hard to believe it was 23 complete chapters. Focus on what is outlined for you in class and on the syllabus.... and look for frequent changes on the syllabus. Your teacher is not obliged to keep it exactly the same as the first day of class.

let me guess, this is a FOR PROFIT school.....?

I am not saying that I'd rather learn in sim then in clinical, however I would like to have an idea what Im looking for, what im feeling for... Example, my instructor says to me the 3rd week... assess mom who is postpartum and feel for her fundus... How am I supposed to know what it feels like if I was never told or given some kind on explanation what it feels like... I absolutely love the clinical experience but I dont want to walk in blind to every situation because my theory instructor barely spoke about it or barely talked about it... The way it has always worked in the past is we learn the new things for the secreter, whether it be how to prime an IV line, how to do a complete physical assessment on a pt, suctioning a trached pt.... things that are new to us for the semester.... My clinical instructor was too surprised and confused with us not having sim lab prior to going to the clinical site. There has not been at least 1 sim lab which makes no sense... I like to walk into clinical confident or at least have some kind of idea on what I am doing or need to to expect to do... We all went into this blind on what to do...

We are given learning modules which include the required reading, and learning objective of each learning module and it was 23 chapters on exam 1....

OH yea....and with the purchase of a new building guess whose tuition was increased!!!! OURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) (complete sarcasm)

ha... outline.. what outline... her PPTs are simply one words slides.... makes no sense!

You all dont understand the frustration of my class

My program was like that too, one sem the clinicals and lectures did not always match (like we were learning OB in class but some clinical groups were medsurg or peds settings at the time) a lot of times we "went in blind" as you said. I studied and prepared for clinical outside of school. I got pocket books online for peds/ob and asked a ton of questions at the hospitals. Nursing school is hard and not always fair but neither is life. Try to approach class not as a place to learn the material for the first time but to review and ask questions about what you already learned from the reading you did on your own. Get an NCLEX book like Sauders to review whats key about topics when you have a crazy amount of material on your tests, do the CD questions from your textbooks to practice, and try to enjoy the ride! It will be over before you know it. Best of luck to you!

Specializes in Trauma, Orthopedics.

If you don't know what you're assessing for, tell your instructor and ask them to assist you. That's what they're there for.

Specializes in Hematology/Oncology.

What would be the most therapeutic response?

A. Why are you upset?

B. You seem to be upset about nursing school

C. It will get better,

D. You should quit nursing school

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