Life-Span class is shortening mine.

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I'm just whinning........certainly to a group of intellectuals that can somehow utilize this contradictory load of crap.

I'm certain this will be the only useless part of school, but I just can't get "up" for this.

I've been staring at it since early this morning. I can't see any content when I read it. It's like one of those pictures that you're supposed to look at and kind of let your eyes go out of focus and out pops a spaceship or some other such image that's not apparent by just looking at it. It's as if it's just someone talking about how thier day went or making casual conversation. When it does try to make a point, it only speculates, never settling on one thing, but presenting a range of possibilities.......all possibilities.

So they can never be wrong.....................how convienient.

I'm supposed to be writting a bibliography. I have to read and summarize ten papers.

I have to summarize speculation................beautiful.

Morons.:p

So I took my test yesterday...If I got less than 105% then I'll chew off my own foot..:chuckle Not difficult to spit out what they want to hear, just be really vague and you've pretty much got it!!!!:roll And just so you know Peeps, I start my last semester in August (the class was a "corequisite", not a prerequisite ) so I've made it almost all the way through without it...I'm glad you didn't give up!!

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Our Comm College offers Life Span on a home study basis...read the book and take the test...and the book isn't too bad, mostly common sense...

I have had some classes like you Peeps, and you have ALL of my sympathy...

Best of luck!

:coollook:

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So I took my test yesterday...If I got less than 105% then I'll chew off my own foot

You show an extreme dedication to excellence in your test scores Kelligirl, but if you chew off your foot save it in a pickle jar so you can show it to your grandkids someday as a fond memory of nursing school. Nobody thinks of that stuff untill it's too late.

Mzmckim,

Thanks for the thoughts.

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Specializes in Community Health Nurse.

I am so SHOCKED that ANY college nursing program would take such an attitude towards teaching this all important course to their nursing students! :eek: I know...I know...I know... Some here don't think it's important, but I beg to differ with you...IMHO...and I know that isn't worth much these days to some people, but LifeSpan...was a five credit hour course in my college, and a requirement in the nursing program. It truly saddens me that some of you do not like the course or find importance in it. Maybe it's just a generational age thing with the younger students not to want to know about that stuff anymore. :o

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mzmckim--

From your message and your profile location, I gather we're going to the same community college. Have you started the nursing program there yet? I'm taking PSY 231 as an ELI course now, will take the nonnursing classes I need next year and start nursing next May...

And Cheerfuldoer -- no, it's not a generational thing. I'm 40, and have a hard time keeping my eyes open while reading the book for this course. I think the big problem I have with it is that so much of this course is just plain old common sense, especially to anyone who has raised a child....

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Specializes in Community Health Nurse.
Originally posted by kardut

.............And Cheerfuldoer -- no, it's not a generational thing. I'm 40, and have a hard time keeping my eyes open while reading the book for this course. I think the big problem I have with it is that so much of this course is just plain old common sense, especially to anyone who has raised a child....

Hmmmm...I am 50...not far beyond your age of 40, but that class meant so much to me as a nurse, as a wife, as a mother, as a woman, but Psychology is like that. Some take to it better than others AND in different ways. I'm glad I had the class. I've been a RN for 15 years now, and never once regretted taking that course. I should say that I was a wife and mother of three during the years I was in college to become a nurse, so even though much of that course was common sense to me, it was also great to view it from the perspective of patient care, which is still helpful today...but life defines itself in different ways to each of us...which makes life so unique that way. :)

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:chuckle :chuckle :chuckle

Thank you for reminding me--I'm sure I would have forgotten and then I would have just kicked myself!!!:D Seriously though, I'm pretty much of the "just let me get a freakin' C" frame of mind regarding this class...Just let it finish SOON for crap sakes!!

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I would have just kicked myself

But then you would fall down, peg-leg!:roll

Ok here we gooooooo........Cheerfuldoer, give me an example of what I might TANGIBLY use in actual nursing practice short of working with peds patients............which will only happen in clinicals for me.

It must be tangible, in other words, it must be in my job description, in a document, in the chart and have a section in the progress notes to be relatable to my job.

Only what is seen not just what you are thinking about the patients needs at the time but how you would actually put theory to work

Go ahead "operationalize" it for me.

I'm also 40y/o so your hypothesis is taking on water! I do think that you'll find many more women than men loving this kind of class though.

Actually.......my numbers are "rigged" since the ratio of men to women in nursing is so lopsided, but they are ready-made findings.

Nothing agressive meant by this. I just want to share my veiwpoint...........really I'm not trying to be mean, promise.

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:roll :chuckle :chuckle :roll

I just got a mental picture...One-legged me trying to kick my own a$$.....:chuckle

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Specializes in Community Health Nurse.

Peeps...working with people (patients) is more than "black and white"...it's the gray area health professionals see that will often let them know what's going on with their patients. However...I will come back with a situation as soon as I can jot it down to clarify the need for that class. I don't have my Life Span textbook any longer, so bear with me while I research. :)

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Cheerful,

If you don't really use life-span then how about a psychology scenario.

Don't go to all the trouble to dig around in some dusty books...........unless you really want to. I will still discuss it with you anyway, but if you have to do that wouldn't it be fair to say that you don't really use it?

Just take an example of how YOU use it and it will be that much easier than trying to explain how I would use it.

Heck, I wouldn't know that stuff outta that thar book anyhooo.

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Specializes in Community Health Nurse.
Originally posted by Peeps Mcarthur

Cheerful,

If you don't really use life-span then how about a psychology scenario.

Don't go to all the trouble to dig around in some dusty books...........unless you really want to. I will still discuss it with you anyway, but if you have to do that wouldn't it be fair to say that you don't really use it?

Just take an example of how YOU use it and it will be that much easier than trying to explain how I would use it.

Heck, I wouldn't know that stuff outta that thar book anyhooo.

In lieu of the fact that I haven't worked in the last five years, I couldn't just pull this stuff out of my brain as though I were CURRENTLY utilizing it...HOWEVER...it still helps me in my communication with people I come in contact with on a daily basis. So.......just off the top of my brain matter, here goes......;)

If I remember correctly, the subject matter IS psychology of human development used by nurses (and doctors) in assessing their patients properly in order to arrive at the appropriate interventions necessary to return the patient to THEIR own optimum level of health based on their need to be nurtured in the environment they are accustomed to without the healthcare worker interjecting their own personal choices in the mix....since our concern IS about and for the patients we care for.

Knowing as much as possible about human development helped me to do a much better job of caring for my patients when knowing something about their family genetics, their 'family-way' of communicating their needs/wants with others (ie: terminology of terms they may or may not relate to); their ethnic and racial beliefs that clued me in on the patient's type of personality they may exhibit during the period of time I would be caring for them (also useful information to pass on to social services IF they are called in to assess a patient for discharge planning purposes, etc.).

I liked using Erickson's stage of development with my patients during my nursing days because each of Erikson's stages of development proved accurate in most cases. I did locate my little blue pocket size notebook that I made notes on to carry around with me when I first became a nurse. In it were Erikson's stages of development that were taught during my nursing student days in my Life Span and Human Development Course. At that time, they were as follows:

Infancy (birth to age one)...Trust vs. Mistrust

Toddler (ages one to three years)...Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt

Preschool (ages 3 to 6 years)...Initiative vs. Guilt

Schoolage (ages 6 thru 12)...Industry vs. Inferiority

Adolescence (ages 12 thru 18)...Identity vs. Role Confusion

Young Adults (ages 18 to 40)...Intimacy vs. Isolation

Middle Age (ages 40 to 65)...Generativity vs. Stagnation

Senescence (age 65 and up)...Integrity vs. Despair

Since the time I learned those stages to apply in nursing care, I have since seen a few changes to the age scale used -- give or take a year or two, but the principals used have not changed. So, the scale will vary in today's textbooks somewhat.

There wasn't a time that I cared for a patient that I didn't see or hear about Erikson's stage of development fitting each patient's stage of life, which I found to be very amazing. Perhaps I am passionate about this course of study because I was a psychology major many moons ago. It's been fun sharing this with you, and I hope after you complete the course you will have a flashback to the importance of learning this material when you begin your clinicals and analyzing the assessment and intervention phase for each of your assigned patients. Students will get to apply this knowledge as nursing students, so you'll see what I mean when you actually are in your clinical rotations. I wish you well. Happy July 4th to you and your loved ones. :)

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