Okay, let me start off by stating that with this post, I am NOT trying to insult anyone, I am just wondering...
Have you ever questioned how anyone got into a nursing program? How they passed their classes? How they passed the NCLEX?
I'm asking because I was talking to a nursing student a few weeks ago and he was telling me how he was able to get into the nursing program because he had a 3.0 GPA. He said he got this GPA by networking and going to so many schools to take easy professors who basically give you an "A" for whatever course (such as Anatomy, Physiology, Microbio.,etc). At first I thought okay he's not book smart, but he probably has a passion for wanting to become a nurse. He said the reason he was doing it was because nurses in our area make good money. I asked about his TEAS score and he said he did okay, that he barely "passed."
Now, I've been hospitalized NUMEROUS times. So the fact that some one like that is going to become a nurse kind of scares me. People like him take care of people like me...
Has anyone ever encountered someone whose degree is questionable?
Had someone training on our floor one day and I just thought "how did the nurse mgr sit across from them, interview them, and hire them" REALLY??? Something definitely didn't connect and they had worked as a nurse before. If they had been my nurse I would've signed out AMA.....people were asking if they were really a nurse. Needless to say they were gone before orientation was up.
Specializes in Mental Health, Medical Research, Periop.
Back when I worked in MedSurg, I had a student one day on my floor trying to feed a patient during a seizure. YES MY PATIENT WAS HAVING A SEIZURE, and she did not think to notify anyone, PLUS she thought it was okay to put food in his mouth! Thank God I walked in when I did. Worse part is she was going to the school I graduated from. I was embarrassed for her. I was also upset because I am responsible for this patient.
Yes. There are many people that can pass the NCLEX and get a licence, but that doesn't mean that they are good nurses. More like technicians who can pass a test and perform some skills.
I have worked with nurses that I imagine had to work hard and cram to get through school. But the thing that gets me is nurses who are no longer in school that don't bother to continue to educate themselves. I have often come across a patient with a uncommon diagnosis and learned that other nurses at work don't bother to even look it up and find out what they can about it. The learning doesn't stop after school. I keep my A&P and pharmacology book close by because I have to keep re educating myself.
Skeery, isn't it! I had a nurse manager who asked if I would take a course online for her. It was an Art's course in Music that she needed while working on her degree (not sure if BS or MS) and she said she didn't know anything about music, but knew I did. I ignored her request!
As a medic I had met several practicing nurses that I wouldn't trust to apply a bandaid much less try venipuncture or medications. Scary, just scary...
It was the single most motivating factor to keep me going in the mental HELL that was nursing school. "If that dumb chick can pass and become a nurse then there is no way that I cannot succeed." Said it each and every day.
In nsg school I remember a fellow classmate or two that I wondered how they got there...really good at being interviewed?
Then again, I occationally encounter a doctor where I wonder how he/she got to where they are. I wonder all the time about laywers I see ad for on TV, why did some law school let them get a degree? Not to mention for many people I wonder, how is it they got a drivers license?'
I was in nursing school with a person like this. She would fight her horribly wrong answers with the professor. In clinicals, she wanted to give 250mg of something instead of 2.5. I don't remember the details, but when the professor tried ot explain why it was wrong, she kept fighting! Very same night, she lost her car in the parking lot of the hospital. Took her 45 min to find it, couldn't remember where she parked it....
Yes, she failed out. But..... they let her back in next sememster, before people who were waiting to get in for the first time, and I knew some of these people, they were pretty smart. And yes, she failed again....
I worked with a few nurses who were academically very smart, graduated at the top of their classes, but when it came ot common sense and critical thinking with the patients (in ICU) you wanted to bang your head against a wall with the things they did.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
I think in this case it may be to soon to tell. Going to a whole bunch of schools taking classes from the "easiest professor" sounds like a whole lot more work than studying longer for the class with the tyrant in charge.
I've never worked with a complete dimbulb, but a lady I went to school with was older and the most enthusiastic person you could ever imagine. If she busted her butt for a C I'd be thrilled to have her as a nurse. Used to be we were more tolerant of nurses and nurses to be - the whole person, I mean. Someone who didn't shine in academics (but passed the tests) turn out to have other talents or even "quirks" that was all part of who they are. Some sail through the coursework and have no ability to make eye contact and stare at their shoes when you talk to them.
Sorry for sounding maudlin - it just seems almost as if people want cookie-cutter nurses now. Has Jean Watson written anything about holistic nurse personalities? :)
Anyway, when we graduated we all got silver ID bracelets for each other with the one outstanding quality that person was known for engraved on it. I still have mine and cherish it.
Specializes in Med-Surg; Telemetry; School Nurse pk-8.
Anyway, when we graduated we all got silver ID bracelets for each other with the one outstanding quality that person was known for engraved on it. I still have mine and cherish it.
kcksk
93 Posts
Had someone training on our floor one day and I just thought "how did the nurse mgr sit across from them, interview them, and hire them" REALLY??? Something definitely didn't connect and they had worked as a nurse before. If they had been my nurse I would've signed out AMA.....people were asking if they were really a nurse. Needless to say they were gone before orientation was up.