looking back, are there courses that you thought were not necessary?

[nowIamRN]

At my nursing program, we have to take two semesters of Fundamental of Nursing. Now, i'm not saying this course is unnecessary, but two whole semesters of learning what "therapeutic communication" is , just sames like waste of time to me. And to cap it off, we had to have Intro to Nursing too, which was basically the same as fundamental. Oh and i can have two semesters of organic chemistry but not pharmacology? of these two, which one i'm i going to use most of?!!!!

I mean there are other courses i wouldn't mind spending two semesters learning.

Take for instance pathophysiology, i wouldn't mind two semester of this, in fact i would totally welcome it! i think it is particularly important for nurses to know disease processes and how they affect our patients. Another course i would love to have two semester of is Health Assessment. This is one of the core process of nursing and yet our school sort of breeze through it.

Instead of nursing school bombarding us with unnecessary stuff, why not focus on things that are actually useful for when we graduate and enter the workforce.

so what about you? any courses you wish had been cut off or ones you wish you had spent more time with?

[Faeriewand, ASN, RN]

My psychology and sociology courses were very different.

In my LVN program we had a one day class we could have done without. It was basically a high school course on how to get and keep a job. They lectured a little bit and showed a movie of high school kids coming in to work at Ding Dongs late and then getting fired. LOL

We had an instructor who used to take us into the lab and we missed our first clinical day so she could go over everything we learned. At the time we thought it was totally cool. Then next semester my clinical instructor (different one) pointed out that you learn better by actually working with patients. I found out she was right and the first one was goofy. Going into lab when everyone else was gone was just a play day for us.

For RN I couldn't believe we had a geri class during our second year. Isn't that first year stuff? It was too easy. Everything lower and slower, right?

For LVN I couldn't believe they waited to introduce Respiratory/resp complications until our THIRD and final semester! We needed that first semester or at least the beginning of second semester.

[jjjoy, LPN]

For a bachelor's or associate's degree of any sort, you're stuck having to put up with a variety of non-related coursework. Even Engineering students have to take some of those!

At my program, though, even the relevant, nursing core coursework didn't seem to be covered very effectively. We rushed through 1,000-page med-surg/pathophys/specialty textbooks - 300 pages of assigned reading covering 100 different conditions supposedly covered in two 3-hour lectures each week?! Get serious! Pharmacology was a 10-week class to cover all classes of drugs, mechanisms of actions, side effects etc. Talk about barely scratching the surface!! Comprehension and retention didn't seem to be the objective, heck questions were usually brushed aside because there was no time for that in the rushed, cursory lectures; instead the objective seemed to be for the school to be able to say "see, we taught (insert known medical fact)... it was right there in section 3.5 of chapter 48!" The short, multiple choice NCLEX-style tests didn't even really test for content.

As for being a wary consumer in regard to schooling choices, there's only so much one can know to look for prior to having more experience and exposure. If someone chooses an expensive unheard of private program in the strip mall next to 7-11, I would wonder why they didn't research it better before investing. But if one is choosing between well-established nursing programs, I don't think it's unreasonable for a prospective student to assume that either program would provide a strong professional foundation. There might be important differences between programs, but what is the minimum expectations of any solid, accredited program?

Despite regulated nursing school requirements, there does appear to be *vast* differences in the depth of concrete/scientific content (chemistry, anatomy, physiology, pathophys, pharmacology) required in the various RN programs out there. We can't argue that this or that level of knowledge is *necessary* to be a nurse if many well-established nursing programs do NOT require that level of knowledge.

[nursel56]

I found that sociology and psych nursing are completely different. My sociology course was taught by a very unique professor who blazed her own trail within the confines of the college's framework. I find the information useful quite often in trying to determine why a person would behave in a particular counterproductive manner not caused by a psychiatric disturbance.

Some people may not need to take a class about how to communicate with patients, families and/or coworkers because they picked it up on the first day of an unrelated class or they are lucky enough to come from a family that teaches that as a matter of course, but there are enough people that do not have that background to make the courses necessary.

If you wait until a triggering experience occurs to find out how you are going to react, and don't have an alternative voice in your head, I think that with some people, an inappropriate response will occur in the heat of the moment. I find the courses very helpful to at least mitigate my initial desire to use a response that is likely to make the situation worse. I remember a few months back a member posted a thread about a student nurse who sat in a chair at the nurse's station, and needing to review her patient's chart, raised her voice and said "you whooo!! Hey doctor person! Over here!!" I have to think that she didn't know how awful that sounded, and her career will certainly be hindered.

[m_aidez]

I understand that most nurses will be working in the bedside setting but I believe that nursing is more than just mechanical work. It's about understanding PEOPLE (i.e., patients, clients, consumers, etc.) and helping them meet their needs. Sometimes their needs go beyond the physical and so intensive pharmacology, pathology will not necessarily help you to be a good nurse in those certain situations.

Besides, I think having those "useless" classes actually gives me a break from nursing and I appreciate that.

Note: I'm replying to the member who said they want more patho, pharm etc.

[BluegrassRN]

I think you're replying to me. I have no problem with sociology, psych, and all the classes that help make a liberal arts degree. I just feel we need to replace the fluff, completely redundant nursing theory/history/perceptions/etc classes with more sciences, as well as a good self defense/conflict resolution class.