Help! I'm not sure if my program sucks!

Love-A-Nurse · May 12, 2002

originally posted by waerhawk
i am almost through the first year of a brand new adn ladder program and i am afraid i am not getting what i need to be a good rn. every instructor (most of whom have no teaching experience) has a different background and a different slant on what's important. what one says is an essential part of an everyday assessment, another doesn't even know how to do (stuff like cranial nerve checks).

at this point i could sit for my lpn this summer and i don't even have a clear picture of what a "good" nurse is.

anyone else survived a brand new program starting up?
or have a tidy definition of what pieces make a top-notch nurse?

thanks!

education alone does not make one a "good nurse. being a "good nurse" starts even before you apply to nursing school. it is words called, compassion, honesty, empathy, loving, going the extral mile, treating others the way you want to be treated and so on. if this is your nature, you will be a good nurse which also encompasses the knowledge and skills you will gain from the benefit of your education and applying them in your clinical setting which comes with time and experience. you or anyone can not depend totally on the instructor to learn. you must take it upon yourself to go the extra mile to understand the physiology of what you are to do. get other books to help or ask what you don't understand.

nursing is a great profession, but learning and growing never stops no matter how long you have been in the field and no matter how much education one gets.

therefore, a "good nurse" depends on the individual's love for humanity and one puts this with the knowledge and keeps learning and growing.

stephanysgetaway

StudentSandra · May 13, 2002

I think most of us feel in some way that we are not learning "enough" but just remember, passing the NCLEX means you have the minimum amount of knowledge needed to start your practice. Get the NCLEX review books NOW and start teaching yourself the things you feel you are not getting from your instructors. No Nursing instructor will spoon feed you all the information you need, it would be impossible and I know that's not what you want. Nurses need to be able to think on thier own and find the information they need. Good luck

jgiblet · May 14, 2002

one thing i would look at is how much clinical experience are you getting? i just graduated May 10th from a great ADN program and although we learned alot in class, the majority of our learning took place in clinical. i know my classmates and i still said at the very end "are we really ready to be nurses", and one instructor told us, " we have given you the basics, you will really learn to be a nurse once you start working". best of luck to you! and if you have any questions, feel free to ask me,

jennifer

CathyCatheter · May 15, 2002

i think that it is normal in each school for the instructors finding different things to be important to them.

one of my biggest beefs about nursing school, is when it is time for skill evals. we are always told that there is more than one way to do something, but when it's eval time, if you don't do what the instructor is evaluating you would do, you are wrong.

Waerhawk · May 27, 2002

Thanks for the thoughts!

I've been off-line working on end of the term projects, but I wanted to let you know I appreciate your responses.

It's feels good to know you are out there!

There are so many different angles to view nursing. I think what scares me most is I am going to school to learn how to "be a nurse" and since I don't know what I don't know, I have to trust the program to teach me. The question I get to struggle with is can I trust my program.

Thanks! & Have a great summer!