Incomptetnt instructors (a rant)

[NP2BE]

I am in my second semester (junior year)of a BSN program and some of my instructors either are misinformed on many subjects, or just make stuff up as they go along. A few admit that they are limited to their specialty and actually use the term "I don't know" which is much appreciated. Its frustrating. And if with my limited knowledge base I pick up mistakes there must be a whole lot more in the areas I am not so familiar with. Anyone else have this problem?

[Peeps Mcarthur]

NP2BE,

I sent you a PM in response.

[Peeps Mcarthur]

By Zenman

So...one is a reductionistic approach and the other psychosocial?

I'm not sure what "reductionistic approach" means. I can't find the term in Webster's nor Taber's cyclopedic medical dictionary.

If you meant to quote me as saying that the psychosocial approach makes up alot of what it teaches......including phrases like "reductionist approach" for instance, then yes, that's what I meant.

Is nursing supposed to be different from medicine?

It is so different from medicine as to challenge the value of medical facts over psychology and sociology.

Memorize medical facts versus critical thinking?

Critical thinking is only useful if you have some facts and a method for connecting them. Critical thinking is censure of illegitimate data in reaching a conclusion. Critical thinking is accepting the best answer until another is shown to be better.

I used critical thinking in determining that medical facts are only useful to those that use them. one needs a method to be a critical thinker.

I have a method of censure that highlights words and phrases that seem made-up to help me shift the chaff. There are phrases such as, "rhythmicity", "reframing empathic linkages", "carative factors"(has nothing to do with jewlery), masquerading as something I should know and be tested for, as if any such nonsense would actually fit a critical thinking process. There are many hundreds of examples of such phrases that confer assumed intelligence upon the speaker for which those both speaking and listening cannot explain nor use...............especially in critical thinking.

Have to go to class now.

Will continue in response.

Anyone have famous or infamous nursing school phrases which puzzled those trying to explain as well as those being "taught"?

[maggiechan]

I don't have any nursing school phrases off the tip of my tongue, but scores of anecdotes concerning *****y lecturing and factless testing, masquerading as science. I'll be listening with a critical ear during my last ADN semester. Peeps Macarthur I'm also very interested to find out what your solution for escaping this madness was....my sanity is barely intact...

[LeesieBug]

almost always heard, "that's the "abstract" part of nursing theory. You must be able to conceptualize..........blah,blah,blah." Hardly ever was there an answer that connected directly with the material or was made clearer than the other very similar one. It just seemed so arbitrary.

If we got answers like this in our program, my butt would be out the door. I can see where many of you would get frustrated as heck if this is the mentality you are dealing with. Our school, so far, is very big on understanding and applying scientific knowledge. We are constantly asked why we are doing something a certain way, related to chemistry, A&P, micro, disease processes, etc.

Sorry some of you are getting such crummy instructors.

[jma_myangels]

I can honestly say that all of the professors, teachers, etc. at the college I attend are very professional and helpful. Of course I attend a small Christian College. It is not that much more expensive to attend this school instead of a state college. I do not know what your schooling options are out there, but I wish you all the best with your instructors.

[poe me]

This sounds very scary but all to true. I've never had this problem so far in my nursing classes, but my A&Pll instructor did not know much. There were some nursing students at one school who did complain about the lack of knowledge of one instructor. One would think that an RN instructor would know what they are teaching since they are nurses.

Good luck to ya!

[treddrn]

I can relate to this very much. Not only did I havea couple of incompetant instructors, the nursing program I just completed needs to be overhauled and upgraded. With all the changes with NCLEX, I feel as though the upcoming graduates won't be prepared as they should. I understand that the instructors are only human and don't know everything, but they could at least stop telling the class about their personal life...especially during the first hour of class and then want the class to be held over a hour.

[chris_at_lucas_RN, RN]

Okay, this is exactly why I transferred to a nontraditional program as soon as I found out it existed and learned I met the pre-reqs.

We had instructors who mispronounced terminology. Badly. We had one who could not give a definition of a word she used in her lecture, which was on her powerpoint, which she had been using for years. Misinfo was rampant: our class had people with BA's, BS's and master's degrees, mixed in with "regular" students. We weren't idiots, but the more we asked the more frustrated we became. Nice, normal students became grouchy, frustrated and frightened.

I had two absolutely wonderful instructors I will never forget. Both had been teaching more than 20 years, and both drew on years more of nursing experience before that. One told me about her experience with a hateful director and then shared the pearl of her wisdom: you must remember what your goal is, and that is to get your degree. Give them what they want, pass the exams and keep going. They will not change, but you can.

And she's right. I love her to this day.

I guess the thing that got to me was the overt, obvious and gratuitous fight against every effort our class made, as individuals or as a unit, to facilitate our own learning.

Part of the nursing shortage may well be because some instructors work so hard to eliminate people they don't care for, no matter what kind of nurse they will be. I'd've given my eye teeth for an instructor who was focused on the success of the students, and not on "catching" people. You'd've thought we were felons and stupid!

And if there was a clinical instructor who was absolutely a total loss, and mean to boot, that was invariably the one who cosied up to the director and got hired as a full time instructor. OOOOO-kaaaaaaaay.......

Wow. That feels better. Thanks for the opportunity to rant.

Deep breath.

So here's where I am, now that I am in the final curve of the race for the RN, as it were. All I can do is focus on my own corner of the world. I know where I want to go and I know what I need to do. I have to decide: is it more important to be right? Or to succeed.

I'm opting for success.

Thanks again, all.....