Are Student Nurses Prepared for "Real Life?'

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Many of the student nurses I have encountered lately appear to be ill-prepared for the real world.What is going on? What are these students being taught and prepared for? Ex: Student drawing up 5 cc of insulin thinking it's 5 units. What are they doing????

Specializes in Med Surg, Ortho.
obviously there's a difference between adn and bsn:

just by virtue of 2 add'l yrs of schooling.

leslie

Actually one year of schooling for nursing......additional prereqs though such as more math, government, history, all that good stuff that makes us better nurses. But, I can bridge to my BSN in one year time....and this year will consist of management classes.

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obviously there's a difference between adn and bsn:

just by virtue of 2 add'l yrs of schooling.

leslie

:confused: I'm not sure that I can completely agree with that. This implies that those of us with B.S. degrees that get ADNs are placed in a different category than other ADNs?

What do you propose calling us?:D

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Well, I start my first day as an RN (BSN, second degree) on a med surg floor this week and I am FREAKING OUT!!! I feel underprepared an not competent.

I graduated in Jan '08, the boards were in april, was hired in june and feel like I barely know anything at all!! I took an accelerated 15month second degree program.

As for adn vs. bsn-it's a matter of critical thinking i think, and maybe stronger writing/comprehension skills and overall well roundedness (also can lead to an MS). But frankly, in this type of profession experience and an aptitude in science/bio are important. A high performing ADN grad trumps a BSN with a low gpa in my book.

HOWEVER, when I graduated with my BA in journalism I felt extremely well prepared and was ready to work with minimal additional training. We had plenty of real world writing assignments, very strict deadlines and strict grading/editing etc. I felt eager and excited to work and found myself more than competent to handle "real life" work-not at all terrified like I feel now!!!! Am I in the wrong profession now, is my fear normal??? :scrying:

Nursing school needs more SIM man scenarios and more "mock patients." I was sooooo annoyed that we'd sit and listen to lecturing during LAB. One video recorded mock pt scenario taught me more than half my lectures, and seeing how I acted on video was eye opening, cringe inducing, and a great training tool!

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just yesterday, i heard the opposite of what you say. my preceptor told me that rns, whether they have bsn or adn, are trained as critical thinkers, whereas lvns are more task focused and are not trained to look at the "big picture" and/or be "critical thinkers". i have my adn and we were most certainly trained in critical thinking.

oh, i agree with you 100%.

i was disagreeing w/what mikey stated.

i don't think there is any difference in bsn or adn other than the management classes offered with a bsn degree. and this is what my nursing instructor also said about the bsn vs adn role.

i honestly wouldn't know but have heard bsn courses revolve around community health, mgmt, theory and a couple of liberal arts courses.

regardless though, it is true that employers are preferring bsn these days.

leslie

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Specializes in Med Surg, Ortho.
Compare an newgrad ADN with a newgrad BSN nurse -- the ADN can run circles around the BSN nurse in terms of clinical skills. There are some BSN programs that try to integrate more clinicals but I have never met a nurse that has attended one.

There are students in my BSN program who have never put in a foley, an NG, or an IV and we are scheduled to graduate in a month. Nearly every ADN nurse I have encountered has put in numerous of all the above throughout their program.

I don't agree with you at all on this. Our program was very BIG on critical thinking. We had so many critical thinking exams in theory, we were also grilled by our clinical instructors on critical thinking. Management is the only difference from what I've been told by my previous instructors.

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Specializes in Med Surg, Ortho.
i honestly wouldn't know but have heard bsn courses revolve around community health, mgmt, theory and a couple of liberal arts courses.

regardless though, it is true that employers are preferring bsn these days.

leslie

okay, thanks. i was hoping you wouldn't take offense. i've read several of your post and mostly agree with every thing you say. i actually enjoy reading what you say. thanks again. it was just kind of offensive to me to hear this person say we weren't trained in critical thinking. gosh, for my last year in nursing school, that's all i eat, slept and worked...constantly thinking "critical thinking"

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Specializes in Med Surg, Ortho.
i honestly wouldn't know but have heard bsn courses revolve around community health, mgmt, theory and a couple of liberal arts courses.

regardless though, it is true that employers are preferring bsn these days.

leslie

you're right. i left out the community health part.....i've heard that bsn students do learn this as well as management.

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Okay, thanks. I was hoping you wouldn't take offense. I've read several of your post and mostly agree with every thing you say. I actually enjoy reading what you say. Thanks again. It was just kind of offensive to me to hear this person say we weren't trained in critical thinking. Gosh, for my last year in nursing school, that's all I eat, sleep and work...constantly thinking "critical thinking"

me too.

i'm a diploma nurse and critical thinking was drilled from day 1.

leslie

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Specializes in Med Surg, Ortho.
There are a lot of downfalls of some ADN programs focusing so much on clinicals and very little on the theory.

We focused more on theory more so than clinicals in my ADN program.....however, we did focus a lot on clinicals, don't get me wrong....but man, we had lots of theory.

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Specializes in L&D, OB Triage.
Compare an newgrad ADN with a newgrad BSN nurse -- the ADN can run circles around the BSN nurse in terms of clinical skills. There are some BSN programs that try to integrate more clinicals but I have never met a nurse that has attended one.

There are students in my BSN program who have never put in a foley, an NG, or an IV and we are scheduled to graduate in a month. Nearly every ADN nurse I have encountered has put in numerous of all the above throughout their program.

I disagree...although I am still in school (and I am in an accelerated program BSN) we are in skills lab EVERYDAY I have already had mastery check offs on SQ, IM, PO, topical, TPR BP, NG tube, Ted hose, IV starts, priming and hanging and IV bag, and we do Foley's this week.

One of my classmates started an IV on our 3rd day in the hospital. on his first try. And we've only been in school a month.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don't start the battle of ADN vs. BSN.....

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Specializes in Med Surg, Ortho.
There are a lot of downfalls of some ADN programs focusing so much on clinicals and very little on the theory.

We focused more on theory much more so than clinicals in my ADN program.....however, we did focus a lot on clinicals, don't get me wrong....but man, we had lots of theory.

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Specializes in L&D, OB Triage.

sorry....double post

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