I know some of these things are things that all students complain about, so they're not stupid. They just need to realize that it's not only our school that makes you do these things. Most are the standards for every program. But some of these are just dumb, I'm guessing because they just didn't know how intense a nursing program is, especially since our school has pretty easy admission compared to others (3.0 gpa and 75 overall on HESI A2)
1. The Community Nursing class/clinical is a waste of time.
2. The clinicals aren't in anything I want to specialize in.
3. Too many classes each semester. (It's a full time program where all your core credits have to be completed beforehand so there are 4 nursing classes a semester, 3 in the last semester)
4. You have to take med math tests every semester and pass with a 90.
5. Having to write research papers.
6. Leadership Management and End of life care class aren't easy A's.
7. Having to take exit hesi's every semester. (I think the minimum score you can get on it is 800 and if you fail you take a remedia class).
8. Making careplans.
9. You need 100 hours of community service before graduation.
10. The lecture exams are too hard. (I wouldn't say this is dumb but some students say this and then laugh about how their books are still in the wrappers they bought them in.)
I heard a lot of the same complaints when I was in nursing school. What students need to remember is the instructors are trying to prepare ALL of the students for what is to come after nursing school, not just one individual. When complaining about minimum required passing grades for math tests--There is no second chance when you have a medication dosage error. How many reports have we seen in the media where a nurse gave a wrong dosage or even a pharmacist mixed it incorrectly. My nursing school required 100% passing on math tests. We also had to do the HESI exams each semester and in my opinion it helped me pass the NCLEX. I guess my advice would be to just be patient. Nursing school doesn't last forever and you will have plenty of time to make your mark on nursing once you graduate :)
I know some of these things are things that all students complain about, so they're not stupid. They just need to realize that it's not only our school that makes you do these things. Most are the standards for every program. But some of these are just dumb, I'm guessing because they just didn't know how intense a nursing program is, especially since our school has pretty easy admission compared to others (3.0 gpa and 75 overall on HESI A2)
1. The Community Nursing class/clinical is a waste of time.
2. The clinicals aren't in anything I want to specialize in.
3. Too many classes each semester. (It's a full time program where all your core credits have to be completed beforehand so there are 4 nursing classes a semester, 3 in the last semester)
4. You have to take med math tests every semester and pass with a 90.
5. Having to write research papers.
6. Leadership Management and End of life care class aren't easy A's.
7. Having to take exit hesi's every semester. (I think the minimum score you can get on it is 800 and if you fail you take a remedia class).
8. Making careplans.
9. You need 100 hours of community service before graduation.
10. The lecture exams are too hard. (I wouldn't say this is dumb but some students say this and then laugh about how their books are still in the wrappers they bought them in.)
1.) The community class, to me was a waste of time. It was taught by an instructor in my school who's english was terrible........ there is so much much more to this but I'm done with it.
2.) If it weren't for having clinicals all over the place, I would still want to be an OB-nurse. Thank goodness for the critical care requirement because that is so much more up my alley.
3.) I liked the fact that in my school all the nursing was left for last. It was hard as a sophmore to go from an A&P class to a philosophy class and then to a Chem class.
4.) If you can't pass these tests, how the HECK do you plan on participating in the checks and balances system known as med administration with pharmacy and the doc?
5.) I do agree that one should be able to properly research information. You need to pick apart the bull from the useful info.
6.) I haven't had these yet but will starting next week. (final semester)
7.) I do not know what a hesi is, but I do know what an ATI is!
8.) Careplans are Very important and doing them the night before is what properly preps you as a student to get into "nursing mode." The requirements of them, at my school is what I believe to be the Garbage aspect of them. We aren't allowed to type them because the instructors fear the whole copy and paste procedure. So we have to hand write a "book" (i.e. 20 legal size pages) which takes 8-12 hrs. In this situation I am not sure which is worse. Sleep deprivation of a student or an improper care plan. hmmmm IMO I think sleep is more valuable.
9.) We did not have to do this per say. My school requires other things.
10.) If they weren't hard, then they would be putting slackers in charge of people's LIVES! Where is your pride people!?!? If you graduate, you will know you EARNED it!! That degree will mean so much more to you than your slacker friends getting their degrees in other, much Easier fields.
Hmmm sounds like your school is a deal. We have to pass our med math 100%. There was a girl with an A in the class but failed the med math test 3x and she was kicked out of the program. Mind you last time she took it she transferred the wrong answer but did the math correctly. So it doesn't matter, if on scratch paper they give you if you do the problem correct or not all that matters is what you put on the answer sheet. Our program is 80% and above to pass. Yes, it is quite the rat race to get in the program. There is usually 500 applicants for only 95 seats. Once in the program your life is over, it is almost self taught through reading and looking for other sources such as books, videos, and websites. Our clinicals the 1st semester was all CNA work except for when we got to do a wound dressing change or pass meds ( which was only once each the whole semester). Our return skills are rarely taught hands on, again find outside resources for help.
I guess the bottom line is...we got to pay our dues to get to where we wanna be. I've read alot of comments on here and other sites as well, where clinical instructors making so and so cry, make you feel like you aren't capable, etc.....it is just the road on the way to where you wanna go. And on the adventure you learn to be a good nurse in the end.
So yes we all have complaints but in the end it will all be worth it!
I bought a fundamentals set off of amazon that included ...
fundamentals of nursing-theories, concepts and applications, fundamentals of nursing thinking and doing, and with it came a 5 disk dvd that shows you step by step on how to do every skill,
These items on top of practice nclex questions books, test success books, laminated sheets, lab books, dx books, and much more.
So, with all that I don't have time to complain. I read read read and ask questions to anyone I think may have some good answers.
I have a goal and will do anything in my power to get there. Complaining is a waste of time when you could be reading and learning!
BTW I have even found answers to questions I was looking for on this website, so a BIG thank you to all those seasoned nurses!
Specializes in Med Surg, Homecare, Hospice, Rehab.
Regarding the problem of seeing no value to the Community Nursing classes - I expect I will have to speak for the minority of us who found our way into Homecare Nursing. Perhaps beginning Nursing school at age 50 affected my choice as well.
For reasons I cannot fully explain, I felt much more "at home" in the home of a patient, than I did on a nursing floor. In the home, as a student, I had my the model of my experienced local agency nurse. If we got stumped, we could call "Granny Blueglasses", my instructor, as she was affectionately known, yes to her face. She was at one and the same time an Instructor, a Mentor, and an encouraging friend. At times, when I was stumped, but he wasn't, I got some calling practice anyway.
Perhaps it stemmed from my times before Nursing School, as a Hospital Chaplain in both civilian and Army hospitals, when I developed my one-on-one skills, and before that, the USAID nurses I knew in Vietnam.
I was a "Spotter Plane" pilot in Vietnam and was not wounded, PTL. But I still remember those brave ladies as being more brave than me, when they would go out in the villages as part of MILPHAP teams.
Desert Storm came right in the middle of nursing school for me - and when our hospital personnel learned that "Hey, Chappy is a nursing student". - well you can imagine all the "help" I got. I was surprised to find out how much I really had learned when we redeployed back home in time for me to finish my incompletes and begin MedSurg 2.
In the community setting, I knew if I needed advice or instruction regarding something unexpected; or new orders, I could call. I found I was able to spend more time with patients and was able to do much of the teaching and reinforcing of things the folks said they did not hear in the hospital. I could explain that floor nurses often do not have the luxury of enough time to fully teach, to patient retention, all the things they, and the families, need to know to get well and stay that way. I did as much family teaching as patient teaching.
That always seemed to meet with complete agreement from the patients; Including: "I am sorry, I just hurt too badly or I was just too sick, to remember all that." I would tell them I was there because we were all part of the same team.
One gentleman said, "Boy! My doctor never did that much of an exam". I told him Nurses (do assessments) and I needed to be able to give the doctor as complete a picture of you here at home, as I can, because he cannot see you as you are now.
That to me, as a Homecare and Hospice nurse, filling in the blanks for the patient as well as ensuring the competence of the patient's body of knowledge, was as important as any of the clinical procedures I performed.
Without the experiences of the Community Nursing semester - I would have been in a world of hurt.
Specializes in Med Surg, Homecare, Hospice, Rehab.
I'm a grad-entry student, and while they all complain like crazy, it seems to be different stuff. They complain that the labs are disorganized; the instructors seem unprepared; the instructors don't know what they're talking about; the "NCLEX-style" questions on exams aren't really NCLEX-style, but poorly written; why do we have to have 80% to pass our classes if you only have to get 70% to pass the NCLEX; it's not fair that you have to have 80% on the clinical practical exam to pass the whole class when it's only worth 10% of the grade and you have an A in the class without it; blah blah blah...
In Flight school, my instructors were much harder on us than they knew the Check Pilots were going to be. Why? They said,
1. We want to make sure you can pass the check ride - makes us look good . . . 2. We want you to get in the habit of trying to be the best pilot ever - it will help a lot toward keeping you alive.
A Brigadier General, Hospital Commander said, "If your patients do not have confidence in you, you cannot keep them alive." The best nurses will be able to do just that - keep them alive to get well and stay that way.
I wanted all my patients to have so much confidence in me - that they would learn to have confidence in themselves.
Be grateful you are not in EOD School. Their moto - Initial success or total failure.
1. The Community Nursing class/clinical is a waste of time.
2. The clinicals aren't in anything I want to specialize in.
3. Too many classes each semester. (It's a full time program where all your core credits have to be completed beforehand so there are 4 nursing classes a semester, 3 in the last semester)
4. You have to take med math tests every semester and pass with a 90.
5. Having to write research papers.
6. Leadership Management and End of life care class aren't easy A's.
7. Having to take exit hesi's every semester. (I think the minimum score you can get on it is 800 and if you fail you take a remedia class).
8. Making careplans.
9. You need 100 hours of community service before graduation.
10. The lecture exams are too hard. (I wouldn't say this is dumb but some students say this and then laugh about how their books are still in the wrappers they bought them in.)
Those are all reasonable things.... none of it is worthy of complaints. I think nurses should know math and know how to write!
My complaints are more like:
- Teaching us to the test, to heck with comprehension/understanding (!!!) Maybe this makes their pass rate on Boards look pretty, but it's turning out a bunch of dingbats who can memorize and recite NCLEX questions well but who are "grossed out" by touching people and who can't solve real-world problems.
- Throwing advanced NCLEX questions at us for our first semester first exams. Never mind we'd never seen this style of test before, never been taught its tricks.... or know what many of the terms on the exam meant because we weren't yet taught them. I've never taken a test where I didn't know the vocabulary of a good third of the questions -- and this is with us preparing in advance?! (Teaching us how to guess on material we don't know is supposed to help us "prepare" for the actual nclex somehow, in the meantime goodbye GPA)
- Having errors on EVERY exam. If enough students gripe, we get that point back, so deep down they know the tests are riddled with typos and wrong answers. Then they shrug it off as normal when absolutely nobody can get As in the lectures. My favorite is when Prof A says one thing and Prof B had a different opinion, and then the exam questions may be multiple choice based on their opinions.
- Having an entire class of A students work their ass off, and the class average on one exam was an F, including myself. Despite studying nightly and knowing the material they lectured on, the one rotating-in instructor picked things that had nothing to do with her lecture.
- Being hard to reach when we need them because they're "busy". But heaven forbid you don't check email 10x a day, if you get an email the day before class about a new assignment appears for the next morning.
- Not having enough lab space, mannequins, equipment, and lab hours for the huge class size they accept. Then being downright nasty to students who weren't as prepared as they could be for skills testing.
- Picking a textbook even the professors say they hate and which the lesson plan does not follow. What am I supposed to read to get further understanding of a day's lecture?
- Charing us tuition, then not demo'ing the skills. We get to buy a box of videos which don't match our textbooks and figure it out ourselves. I cannot learn skills from a #$@$ textbook. Then turning us loose on our assigned Clinicals patients without any clue on how to even do basic patient care.
- Telling some of the people in a clinical group an announcement and telling them to "spread the word". Then, when the word doesn't make it to you, it's your fault you didn't know.
Those are all reasonable things.... none of it is worthy of complaints. I think nurses should know math and know how to write!
My complaints are more like:
- Teaching us to the test, to heck with comprehension/understanding (!!!) Maybe this makes their pass rate on Boards look pretty, but it's turning out a bunch of dingbats who can memorize and recite NCLEX questions well but who are "grossed out" by touching people and who can't solve real-world problems.
- Throwing advanced NCLEX questions at us for our first semester first exams. Never mind we'd never seen this style of test before, never been taught its tricks.... or know what many of the terms on the exam meant because we weren't yet taught them. I've never taken a test where I didn't know the vocabulary of a good third of the questions -- and this is with us preparing in advance?! (Teaching us how to guess on material we don't know is supposed to help us "prepare" for the actual nclex somehow, in the meantime goodbye GPA)
- Having errors on EVERY exam. If enough students gripe, we get that point back, so deep down they know the tests are riddled with typos and wrong answers. Then they shrug it off as normal when absolutely nobody can get As in the lectures. My favorite is when Prof A says one thing and Prof B had a different opinion, and then the exam questions may be multiple choice based on their opinions.
- Having an entire class of A students work their ass off, and the class average on one exam was an F, including myself. Despite studying nightly and knowing the material they lectured on, the one rotating-in instructor picked things that had nothing to do with her lecture.
- Being hard to reach when we need them because they're "busy". But heaven forbid you don't check email 10x a day, if you get an email the day before class about a new assignment appears for the next morning.
- Not having enough lab space, mannequins, equipment, and lab hours for the huge class size they accept. Then being downright nasty to students who weren't as prepared as they could be for skills testing.
- Picking a textbook even the professors say they hate and which the lesson plan does not follow. What am I supposed to read to get further understanding of a day's lecture?
- Charing us tuition, then not demo'ing the skills. We get to buy a box of videos which don't match our textbooks and figure it out ourselves. I cannot learn skills from a #$@$ textbook. Then turning us loose on our assigned Clinicals patients without any clue on how to even do basic patient care.
- Telling some of the people in a clinical group an announcement and telling them to "spread the word". Then, when the word doesn't make it to you, it's your fault you didn't know.
I dont mind having to bust my butt to study and having challenging courses, what i do mind is having to take worthless courses like leadership and community at the end of the program, when there are no HESI or NCLEX questions from those courses. If we must take these courses, at least give them to us at the beginning of the program.
"Well they never showed us how to work the kind of problems that were on today's test."
I say BS. The teachers spent plenty of time on exactly that type of problem two days ago. They asked if anyone had any questions. They went over the same type of problem last semester and tested on it then as well. I know because I was there. If you were not in class two days ago then it is your own fault that you failed the test. Stop whining.
"I failed the math test and now have to meet with an instructor to go over the test."
Good, because you need help. You need help with math and more so with your attitude. The teachers are trying to help you. If you seeked help before the test then perhaps you would not be in this fix now. Do we see a trend here? This is a long road, the teachers are there to guide you and help you, use them.
:mad:
carroll77566
10 Posts
I heard a lot of the same complaints when I was in nursing school. What students need to remember is the instructors are trying to prepare ALL of the students for what is to come after nursing school, not just one individual. When complaining about minimum required passing grades for math tests--There is no second chance when you have a medication dosage error. How many reports have we seen in the media where a nurse gave a wrong dosage or even a pharmacist mixed it incorrectly. My nursing school required 100% passing on math tests. We also had to do the HESI exams each semester and in my opinion it helped me pass the NCLEX. I guess my advice would be to just be patient. Nursing school doesn't last forever and you will have plenty of time to make your mark on nursing once you graduate :)