Hey Professors, tell us how it REALLY is!

Cattitude · Apr 19, 2007

I didn't know every post had to be helpful to you, personally. I thought the question was for faculty to tell "how it really is." If that's the way it really is for zenman, then that's good enough.
I had a student (junior year in a BSN program) tell me she had no idea of how to use a library because she had never used one before. The nursing library was in the same building as the School of Nursing and had a big sign outside stating when they offered their regular tours and library orientation sessions. I told her to take one of the tours and ask the library staff show her how to use the facility.
I've had several RN-BSN students who seemed not to notice that they received failing grades on most of their assignments. They never responded to my e-mails offering to help them or to the announcements made in lecture that help was available. Then at the end of the semester, when they received a failing grade for the course (surprise!), they said, "I deserve to pass because I am a good nurse." They failed.
One student (in the same class as the one mentioned in the preceding paragraph) openly told me that he planned on making no attempt to meet the course requirements because he was taking this course and the whole BSN completion program just to "get his ticket punched" for promotion. He didn't plan on actually doing any work or learning anything. I told him I wouldn't punch his ticket unless he did the work and showed me that he had learned something. This story has a happy ending in that he heeded my advice/warning, got an A in the course, and admitted that I actually did teach a few things of value. He was one of my favorite students in the class because of his off-beat way of looking at things. I enjoyed teaching him -- and he enjoyed trying to push my buttons. We both had a little fun with it.
I had a classmate once in graduate school (PhD program) who told me that she never wrote her own papers in her previous programs. She always paid someone to do it for her. She had come to me for help in learning how to write a paper and prepare for her preliminary exams. She got mad at me (and called me a racist) when I made her do most of the work herself: she actually expected me to simply tell her what to write!
When I was working as a CNS in a hospital, I had a student call me and ask for copies of articles for a paper she was writing, saying that she "couldn't find anything on her topic." Her topic was a major disease about which there have been many things written. So, I asked her where she had looked. She tried online. I went to her school's library online site and quickly pulled up 35 articles in common nursing journals that should be readily available. When she arrived in my office, I asked her exactly where online she had looked. She said she never used the school's library and had just looked in the consumer literature. I quickly demonstrated how easy it was to use her school's website and pulled up the 35 references. I printed out the list and told her to go to the library and make copies of whatever articles she thought would be most helpful. Imagine that ... she thought my job as a CNS was to do her literature search for her!
I could go on and on ...
Fortunately, I have also met many wonderful students along the way -- students who take responsibility for their own learning and who will make terrific nurses in what I hope will be long and satisfying careers. Those students make it all worthwhile.

All great examples of how there are always two sides to every story. Now I certainly know that a few professors have issues but I think the majority are wonderful and caring.

I think that your post show that there are plenty of students who could take things out of context and twist things around to make you look like the bad guy.

I had great professors in both my ADN and BSN programs. I never saw them treat anyone poorly and never heard any student complain about them either.

luvmy3kids · Apr 19, 2007

Maybe necessary would have been a better word. I never said every post had to be helpful to me. I'm sorry but thinking that someone should go back to "the hair salon" the "beautiful redhead" a poor girl with a low ACT score.... let's just say if that is "how it really is" then I'm glad "Zenman" is not my instructor and leave it at that.

Cattitude · Apr 20, 2007

Maybe necessary would have been a better word. I never said every post had to be helpful to me. I'm sorry but thinking that someone should go back to "the hair salon" the "beautiful redhead" a poor girl with a low ACT score.... let's just say if that is "how it really is" then I'm glad "Zenman" is not my instructor and leave it at that.

I think that Zenman was making a point that some prospective students really have no idea what nursing is all about. Maybe they are just picking the idea of "nurse" out of thin air. And that it's bothersome to a professor to have to weed that out?

That's what I got out of it, some of it anyhow. I did get the point.

Professor's should get their vent time here too.

sshannon · Aug 1, 2007

I'm not a prof, but a 45 year old person going into nursing as a second career. It's been "interesting", to say the least, to see how my fellow students behave in class.
I had an A&P prof who announced at the start of the quarter that he would give some pop quizzes throughout the quarter for extra credit. These quizzes would be given in the first few minutes of class. It wasn't for a huge amount of points - maybe enough for 3-5% of the course total. But it would be enough to help a student on the borderline. It AMAZED me to see these "space cadets" wandering into class 10-15 minutes late, missing out on these "free" points.
Then there's the apparent need to be texting your friends while walking down the hall, eating your lunch, attending lectures,...
Then again, I look back on how I was in my first undergrad period at college (1979-1983). I'd regularly skip classes, and was only looking to pass, not excel. After a couple decades of life/work experience, that attitude has changed more than a wee bit.

My situation and experience in nursing school very much mirrors yours, CrufflerJJ. It's interesting to note that by the end of the nursing program, the slackers are gone and the former slackers who still are with us have gotten "religion" and are now as dedicated as the rest of us to the idea of studying, going the extra mile, and not missing out on those little extras (ala free points).

*Blessed2BaNRS* · Aug 1, 2007

i love all my students. i love to see them grow academically and professionally. sure, it's challenging, and "different" being on this side of the desk.
students really want to be good nurses, they work hard, sure, they grumble.....we all do!
i tell my students.....hey, i passed my boards....you have to do that now. i can give you the information, but it is up to you to learn it.

hi rj,

can i be your student?!! lol! for a lot of new ns students, the big fear is not the amount of learning or work required, but it is the fear of the instructors!! reading so many posts on here about the "instructor/professor from h**l" tends to make us a little leery of them. it is refreshing and encouraging to see posts like yours that show that you really like what you do and want to see your students succeed.

CrufflerJJ, BSN, RN, EMT-P · Aug 1, 2007

My situation and experience in nursing school very much mirrors yours, CrufflerJJ. It's interesting to note that by the end of the nursing program, the slackers are gone and the former slackers who still are with us have gotten "religion" and are now as dedicated as the rest of us to the idea of studying, going the extra mile, and not missing out on those little extras (ala free points).

My observations were actually about pre-nursing students doing their prerequisites. I'm not sure how students from traditional nursing programs would be. In my accelerated BSN program, there are NO slackers. Yes, some of us are more driven than others, but everybody is trying to do well. What's also great is that the majority of students are very supportive of each other, with no back-stabbing.