Do nursing schools actually conciously REALIZE they are being ridiculous or is it a..

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a matter where they are doing the best they can, and it just works out that way? Let me give you one example. My wife had over one thousand pages of reading due THE FIRST WEEK back from Christmas break. Her first test in Med/Surg last week included approximately 2,200 pages if you count the handouts, and assigned articles. What is more, her exam had six questions that were NOT EVEN COVERED in the assigned readings (they apparently used a test bank designed for a different text). The class average was a 70% with few or no A's. When the students tried to complain they were told they would have to set up private appointments with the instructor who maintains a grand total of TWO HOURS a week in office hours.

This school has one of the best reputations in the area. Do they do this deliberately? They claim to be reasonable people doing their very best to provide an excellent education. Don't they realize that this sort of thing makes getting the grades for graduate school almost impossible!

I have never assigned 2200 pages of reading nor have any of my colleagues. And you are right, an average text is right around 1000 pages. Where this figure came from is beyond me?!?!?!?

I also have a hard time believing that a student would "read ahead" so far in advance on their "summer break". It sounds pretty far fetched, but hey that is just me. Most nursing students are doing good to read in advance for the next class period. But Roland does sound like a superstar nursing student!

Stephanie

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Originally posted by nrsstephanie

I also have a hard time believing that a student would "read ahead" so far in advance on their "summer break". It sounds pretty far fetched, but hey that is just me. Most nursing students are doing good to read in advance for the next class period. But Roland does sound like a superstar nursing student!

Stephanie

Actually, I've done that. Not that I'm a superstar student, but I get so stressed out I try to get a head start every break just so I won't feel overwhelmed. Usually the assignments are available on the school website or in the bookstore. If not, I ask the instructor.

I don't always accomplish as much as I would like, but I try. I realize that most students don't do that, but it's not that farfetched if someone is an "anal" student like myself. ;)

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

I read ahead in the summer. I contrubute that to the 100% i received on my first test of the 2nd school year.

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May 2003 new grad adding my $.02 in......

I agree with most of Roland's assessment of nsg school in this day and age.

I am 44yr old and managed to graduate with 4.0. Passed NCLEX on first attempt. So was successful. However, I feel the education process is part of what is wrong with our profession today.( Also have a BS in business administration so can compare professionalism in the education process somewhat.) My instructors also didn't seem to know what material was covered in the reading and what text books we were using. Test questions were from who knows where. We played lots of games in the name of critical thinking.

I always thought it important to teach the basics first and then learn how to put it all together. Sort of how we learned the alphabet and then to read and spell. In my nsg school we just skipped to the critical thinking part without the instructors "instructing" anything.

Anyway, I felt I needed a "refund" after teaching myself for 2 years.

As I said just my two cents worth.

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Nicely put. It's tough going and a lot of mumbo-jumbo. What they seem to be doing in nursing is taking a lot of hands-on practical material and turning it into a college ed. Unfortunately, historically the background of nursing is not intrinsically academic, and the educators on whom we rely have no background in education and sound testing procedures. I have some wonderful and natural intuitive instructors who support common sense, but the system overwhelms and overrides them.

I never accept factual inconsistencies on tests and so far I've been successful in getting questions thrown out. It just irks me that i have to spend so much time and effort on this, instead of spending the time learning important stuff. Can anyone disagree?

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"critical thinking". In order to apply concepts in a synergistic, analytic manner you must first have a rather solid FOUNDATION in those concepts. Often the basis for such a foundation is memorization of important "keystone" facts. To attempt to apply "critical thinking" skills without such a foundation, would be akin to attempting to solve word problems with algebra, before you had a solid understanding of how to solve basic equations. It has been my experience that nursing schools denigrate the very concept of memorization.

Personally, I feel that the term "critical thinking" is sometimes misused by nursing schools to mean "the answer is whatever we say it is and if you don't agree it's because you are not using sufficient critical thinking skills". In other words it is sometimes used in a manner not unlike Orwellian "newspeak" where it is the idea that is stressed more than the logic behind the idea.

My wife and I just went through one hundred and sixty NCLEX-RN review questions this evening from Davis's NCLEX review (many of these questions are said to have come from actual NCLEX exams). The questions all had to do with Psychiatric nursing since that is the test she has THIS week. Now, she only missed TWO questions out of those one hundred and sixty NCLEX examples that I verbally asked her. Thus, one might expect that she would score well OVER ninty percent on her exam this Thursday. However, based upon past experience I can almost guarentee that she will do good to get an eighty five percent on her exam. That is because the school's exam questions seem to be MUCH more difficult (or more often just poorly worded or downright in contradiction with the text or notes) than the NCLEX type questions. If the purpose of nursing education is to maximize NCLEX performance why make the questions so markedly different? Could it be that if they just stuck to the NCLEX "protocol" that too many students (who came into her program with 3.45 average GPA's) would get A's and B's? Do schools and instructors deliberately write poorly worded, vague, or otherwise difficult to answer questions just to "throw" good students? Again, I suggest that I believe that this occurs more often than anyone will admit and that the motivation for doing so has little or nothing to do with turning out excellent nurses.

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I did/'nt read the whole thread so I'm probably duplicating something that has been said but..

Nursing school is unreasonable: huge almost impossible assignments, tests that don't ask questions covered and sometimes 8 hour clinicals scheduled 4 hours apart.

You know what though? nursing is unreasonable and the expectations placed on you are almost as unreal. How is 1 RN supposed to know everything about 12 patients? how are they supposed to CODE a patient in one room and still make sure the patient next to them gets there dinner on time while the guy down the hall is on the bedpan and needs to get off or he will fall out of bed?

Nursing is nearly impossible "NEARLY" but not completely, it is doable but it takes a sharp person and nursing school is (weather by design or necessity) the perfect place to test you and give you a chance to fail before failure means killing someone.

Nursing school isn't fun but if your desire is strong enough you get threw it and then your proud that you were able too.

As for them assuming that all students are going to be bedside nurses. Thats the basis of nursing. sure you can branch out and do something in med records or advanced practice but nursing started at the bedside and the skills used in those other areas were developed from bedside nursing.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ER.

I agree with Dayray- I think that the unrealistic volume of material is designed to force us to pick and chose what the most significant points really are so we can develop a strategy to approach chaos and overload in general.

When I first started NS, I was quite the revolutionary wanting to improve and reform the system myself. I will tell you right now that it was a complete waste of my time. If I had to do it over again, I would just show up, devise my own way of digesting all the material, take the test, and go home to my family.

Your thesis that a demanding test will somehow affect your future earning potential is a little far fetched unless you are failing the test outright.

Another piece of advice; being verbose and argumentative is generally not well received by nurses. Take it from a gal that had to learn that lesson the hard way.

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Originally posted by bluesky

Another piece of advice; being verbose and argumentative is generally not well received by nurses. Take it from a gal that had to learn that lesson the hard way.

WELL SAID!!

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Originally posted by Roland

Do schools and instructors deliberately write poorly worded, vague, or otherwise difficult to answer questions just to "throw" good students? Again, I suggest that I believe that this occurs more often than anyone will admit and that the motivation for doing so has little or nothing to do with turning out excellent nurses.

Roland: I'm starting to wonder if you're arguing just for the sake of arguing.

On another thread I believe you argued that education standards should be raised so that the amount of nurses may be limited and salaries may be increased.

Here, you're complaining that the education standards are too difficult and too unreasonable. This may be true, but it's at least accomplishing what you claim to be advocating on another thread: limiting the supply of nurses.

If nursing school is made easier, then everybody could and would do it. Aren't you contradicting yourself somewhat? Or, do you just love to argue?

Don't get me wrong, I love to argue too. ;) But I'm not sure where your collective posts are going and if there is a real point in any of this.

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Lizz

You took the words out of my fingers..LOL. I also noticed the other supply and demand thread and this thread is in conflict with that one, for sure.

Nursing school is hard and intense and I will agree that most nursing instructors are not the best at test writing.. I do still however question 2200 pgs of material for one test in one class..even with hand outs and articles..cmon. I mean is there a full textbook for each and every system in this class or what?

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Yes, I agee. I can't quite correlate the thread that we must all be BSN's to this thread where the world of nursing students is so unfair and downright hard, both authored by Roland. Seems to me you may be speaking out of both sides of your mouth.

Nursing school stinks! You will never ever write a care plan in the real world. You will never ever be called upon to know the minutia that nursing tests test you over. You will never ever have the luxury of pondering the finer points of "critical thinking" during a code. Nusing school stinks! I've been out since 1998 and I still think it stinks, always will.

Roland, this is a process. One you will either pass or fail. It ain't fair, it ain't fun, and they make it up as they go along by their rules, not the student's. You either learn to roll with the punches or you don't make it. Complaining about it, while universal, will not serve you well. Figuring out how to beat them at their own game will.

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