I hate the fluff stuff

Apparently you don't have an understanding yet.

Just take it as practice for the endless useless continuing ed requirements you'll face throughout your career.

Now, breathe deeply, in and out. Imagine your peaceful center, that calm, happy place, free from discord and strife. Nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

I hated the fluff too. Keep your head down, eye on the prize, and plow through.

I honestly don't mind it. I figure that it will help me be a nurse in one way or another. If there's even a 1% chance that learning something like that could allow me to help a patient someday, I'm willing to learn it :)

Let me explain something, you will use guided imagery in nursing. I saw it used twice last night on my shift a see transported patients to new rooms. Both nurses used it as we transferred their patients to new beds and it was incredibly painful for them and it was not possible to give them a pain med at that moment.

You don't have the capacity to realize yet what nursing is. We had the codes last night along with the patients that needed transferred. They all needed our help.

Thus - another example of the difference between "education" and "training". The former includes theory and principles - the latter is task based. The old adage "you don't know what you don't know" comes to mind. I think it's cute when students just want to focus on the most visible tasks because that's really all they can see at first.

Ok, so CAM isn't your thing. The only fluff I resent being told are the things that we're taught as a function of our textbooks being out of date. I have no specific examples in mind but I work in pediatrics. We get our patients to use their imaginations (ahem, guided imagery) on the reg.

Not everyone in your graduating class will work on a med surg floor. Just like not every one will work in cardiac or OB. Is learning rhythms or the stages of labor fluffy crap too just because YOU may not use those skills?

Ok, so this is a rant. I just want to rant about how much I hate the fluffy crap they make us regurgitate in nursing school. All the utter crap that you know damn well no real nurse ever does. You know, like guided imagery?? I'm not saying that meditation and guided imagery are stupid, in fact I use both in my personal awareness practice. But on a regular old med surg floor? Like really? If that was actually feasible, sure, but... That's just an example. Maybe people could list all the fluffy, inane, unrealistic crap that we are made to learn. It's a waste of time! Teach me how to save people's lives and be a good nurse!

Ok, so what do you guys think about the things that are taught "textbook," but the nurses on the floor just laugh and shake their heads at us? Like the 4 minute IV push? Like listening to an apical pulse for a full min? Like listening to bowel quadrants for 5 minutes each? Like counting respirations for a full minute? The nurses on the med surg floor don't even count respirations.

Ok, so what do you guys think about the things that are taught "textbook," but the nurses on the floor just laugh and shake their heads at us? Like the 4 minute IV push? Like listening to an apical pulse for a full min? Like listening to bowel quadrants for 5 minutes each? Like counting respirations for a full minute? The nurses on the med surg floor don't even count respirations.

You're taught those things because that is best practice. You're new, and inexperienced, and learning these skills. The time for taking short cuts is after you've mastered these skills, not before you've even learned them.

Fair, Fair. That helps, actually. Makes me feel like it's not just crazy. On the topic (ish), why do we listen to heart sounds? I can hear when something is irregular, but other than that, Im not going to pick up anything else, and even the clinical instructor I had said she wouldn't be able to identify a murmur... So, WHY?

Fair, Fair. That helps, actually. Makes me feel like it's not just crazy. On the topic (ish), why do we listen to heart sounds? I can hear when something is irregular, but other than that, Im not going to pick up anything else, and even the clinical instructor I had said she wouldn't be able to identify a murmur... So, WHY?

Because you should be able to recognize heart sounds. Your instructor can't likely because it isn't a skill she's learned. As a PICU nurse, I was expected to identify far more than just an irregular rhythm. Various kinds of murmurs, rubs, gallops, S3's and S4's. Nurses on a telemetry floor or Cardiac ICU need to do the same. Not all nurses will need to be that adept at differentiating heart sounds, but depending on your specialty, you may. The only way to learn those sounds is to listen, and keep listening.