Do you feel that you have lost alot of knowledge since NS?

[chenoaspirit]

In school, I knew so much about different disease processes, treatments, etc. But since working as a nurse, I find that Ive forgotten alot of what I knew as a student. The longer Im out of school, the more I forget. I asked my Charge nurse and she feels the same way. She and I sometimes have to look a disease up because we dont remember what it is. We dont encounter those rare diseases often and if you dont use it you lose it. Anyone else feel they have forgotten alot of what they learned in Nursing School?

[Critical_Care_RN]

In school, I knew so much about different disease processes, treatments, etc. But since working as a nurse, I find that Ive forgotten alot of what I knew as a student. The longer Im out of school, the more I forget. I asked my Charge nurse and she feels the same way. She and I sometimes have to look a disease up because we dont remember what it is. We dont encounter those rare diseases often and if you dont use it you lose it. Anyone else feel they have forgotten alot of what they learned in Nursing School?

I do think that we all forget some things but I don't think we forget as much as we think we might have. The information is still there. We just don't use some bits of information as much as others so it isn't as easily retrieved as the stuff we use all the time. I also have to agree with what some of the others have said though in that I think once we're out of school and in the real world, we gain a lot of knowledge too. There's sooo much stuff that you learn once you become a nurse that you only learn through experience. A lot of what I learned in nursing school has become second nature to me as I use those skills every day. At the same time, I shutter to think what would happen if they took me out of the CCU and put me on an OB floor!:stone.....I wouldn't have a clue what to do for a laboring mother!:imbar I am sure the OB nurses would feel the same way if they were floated to CCU. The important thing is having the information you need to do your job on a daily basis and to always be an active learner. I fully believe that it should be every nurse's goal to learn everything he/she possibly can. We all know it's impossible to know everything but we should still try. Of course, if we ever get to the point where we think we do know everything, it's time to leave nursing because at that point, we are a danger to ourselves and our patients.