Pure worthless crap

[ohbet]

I was pondering my carrer as a nursing student ,how much was worth while and how much was crap.

My clinical experience in school was really worth while,but learning therapeutic communication was pure crap.

How about you,what did you learn that was really worthwhile in nursing school,the things that helped you in the real world, and what was pure crap and a waste of time?

[sunnybrook83]

I had a psych nsg instructor who always wore dark colors had black rimmed glasses, wore BRIGHT red lipstick and was OLD!! (not to mention she talked in a monotone at a low level so everyone in class fell asleep) She was always saying "It must be difficult" was an excellent therapeutic communication tool. We would laugh and joke about it, but then one day...... yup, in clinical, had a grieving pt, didn't know what to say, and out came "it must be difficult"!!! pt opened up and was able to verbalize quite a bit. So all that we think may have been useless- chem, algebra, therapeutic communication- is in our brains just waiting for us to use prn!

[Scavenger'sWife, RN]

Oh - Oh......I used to love Therapeutic Comm classes...thought the skits were funny...

Help me please....:roll

[Scavenger'sWife, RN]

The part I thought was awful was all those lengthy care plans and drug cards we had to do. I HATED THEM!!!!

Now I actually enjoy doing care plans at work ('course they are not quite the same as the ones I did in school). NOW I think doing them is FUN.

I need serious psychological help...

[NurseDennie, BSN, RN]

Originally posted by thisnurse

ive tried the apple juice to dissolve prevacid for feeding tubes. it sure didnt work for me...it also didnt work to unclog the feeding tube.

Okay, see if somebody else can validate this: But it seems to me that the prevacid little thingies would dissolve in Maalox?????

Also - I've used cranberry juice for cleaning out a feeding tube, and I think in an emergency, some flat Coke. SMALL amounts only, of course.

Love

Dennie

[ICUBecky]

use sodium bicarb for prevacid...completely dissolves it in minutes. ginger ale to unclog NGT or dobhoffs. i would think apple juice would clog a tube up even more with the sugar content and no carbonation...

even though i thought that some aspect in every course of college was crap, i found out in the real world that i unconciously use it everyday. although, i really don't use what i was taught (if anything) in dance aerobics at work...

psychoRN... 20 years as a nurse and you never had to do a drug calculation? seems impossible. i have to do them everyday.

becky

[GailWHNP]

Nursing theory was definitely one course I could've saved hard-earned money on! I *still* don't see how it applies to anything, but I imagine someone will tell me, huh?

Gail

[joyk17]

As a nursing student, I remember often times feeling and saying the same things that I have read posted on this bulletin board.

Now, as an experienced nurse of 16 years, as well as a nursing instructor, I am embarassed by my harsh words of long ago.

I ask you, to stop of a moment and think...what is it exactly you want from your nursing education? You want all the answers? If that is the case, then you will be extremely dispointed, for you will never have all of the answers.

Remember the first day of class? If I said to you at that time, "Let's discuss the pharmacodynamics of phenothiazines" what would have been your response?

Nursing school gives you the ability to "think." Teachers give you the ability to "understand" what is being said to you. But there is only so much time, and the material is limitless. Teachers teach to the "ideal" so you then have the choice of whether or not you will practice by it. If you cannot, then, instead of saying that "nursing school is crap and I didn't learn anything" look at your situation and ask..."Why can't I practice to the ideal? What is the problem?" Generally it is time, or lack of it.

How long are we as a profession going to allow administrators to control how we practice by controlling how much time we have to spend with patients. I am certain, that if you had the time, you would practice to the ideal.

I know my students would, because that is what I taught them.

Joy K. Shaw, RN, BSN

Nursing Instructor

Boise State University

[LydiaGreen]

Originally posted by KarafromPhilly

DelGR, what other kind of fluid would you use to dissolve a med besides water? How would you know that you need to do this? This is something new to me.

Pantoprazole (Pantaloc) for one. DelGR was talking about meds to be administered through feeding tubes. Pantaloc must be dissolved in sodium bicarb and the tube flushed with sodium bicarb. When dissolved in water it is too acidic, it lowers the pH of the gastric enzymes rendering them ineffective and incapable of breaking down the client's Isosource... therefore the client will receive no nutrition.