My nursing program is horrible!

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Hi everyone, after reading a lot of the other helpful articles and their replies I have decided to post a topic. Does anyone else feel like their nursing program is horrible? I understand nursing is a difficult field and the classes are hard, but I am doing relatively well. What causes me the most stress is the program I am enrolled in. I am scheduled to graduate in May 2020, so one more year! However, last week we found out that all of our faculty is either retiring, quitting, or getting fired. Yes, it has been confirmed by the dean. So, as of now we only have TWO professors for next year. We lost the entire nursing faculty including our director. It's causing me a lot of stress, because of the unknown of what is to happen next year. I am trying to stay postive by telling myself "I passed this year with crappy teachers I'll just teach myself again next year too". Has anyone else had a bad experience with their nursing program/faculty? I just don't know if this is undue stress at this sole nursing program or if every program has its downfalls. Thanks.

Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.

If you managed to get through so far with crappy instructors, and now the crappy instructors have all left, maybe things will actually improve. Maybe some of the new instructors won't suck that bad.

If they do, you already know how to get yourself through the situation, so you'll just keep on doing that. I'm going to hope that a few of your new instructors aren't complete duds.

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Thank you everyone for your advice! It helps to feel heard. I left quite a bit of details out as I was in the middle of finals when I wrote this a few months ago. I will provide details below about the nursing program.

I was mainly worried, because

a. This nursing program lost accreditation a year before I was set to enter.

We found out a week before classes that their accreditation was reinstated and we were accepted to begin the following week. YAY.

b. The new staff that helped the program gain accreditation informed us in May (right before finals) that they were leaving. To find out that you are losing the director, and 3 professors all at once is pretty scary news especially with the program's history of losing accreditation and what not. So, basically at this point we did not have any professors to teach our classes the following semester.

We are a small private university, and our program literally only had 5 professors and our director, so it looked grim for them to find replacements by August for our next set of classes.

c. I am the class president for my class, thus I was receiving all the questions and fears from my classmates.

They came to vent to me and dumped their worries on me. However, I cannot indulge in this venting with them and must instead put on a brave face and tell them its fine and we will work it out. If I vent with them or share my fears with them it can become a pretty scary situation in the context that everyone starts panicking. So, I have learned to keep them calm, find out any information I can, relay this information to them, and set up appointments with anyone I need to in order to get answers for my classmates and I.

But, I found this to be a place where I could vent. Which feels good, because I am not making anyone panic and can openly express what I feel ?

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Anyways, sorry this is so long! But, here's an update..

In August we started our senior year with a new director! They were not able to staff our program the way it should be (go figure), so our director taught us our Mental Health Course. And an OB instructor taught us our Pediatrics course. It was another semester of having to teach ourselves. Our PEDs instructor would constantly state in class that she was uncomfortable with the placement and this wasn't her specialty. She made it very known that she did not know the material. Our lectures consisted of her reading out of the textbook, word-for-word, to us for over an hour (I could have done that myself at home). But, we have a very smart class and we have learned to help each other out (study groups, practice questions), and I think we will be okay. It's just frustrating paying for an education when you're just teaching yourself.

but....hey, I graduate in May!! let the countdown begin lol

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On 5/2/2019 at 8:46 PM, Apple-Core said:

We had some changes in our program early on, and I was irate at first. After huffing and puffing for a few weeks, I realized the only person I was hurting was myself - wasting time on huffing and puffing instead of focusing on my studies. I decided to redirect my energy back to my work. Rather than hone-in on all the problems with the program, I changed my mind-set to be "this is what it is, deal with it". That sounds a bit harsh written down, and I don't mean to come off that way - but I honestly believe if you just accept the situation and redirect your energy onto passing, you'll do much better.

Yes, it sucks. But you have to get thru this regardless of whether it sucks or is awesome. Don't waste time on the crud. Think of yourself and your end goal. If that means teaching yourself, so be it. Does that suck? Yes. But - oh well, that is what it takes to get thru it so just do it!

AC

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On 4/30/2019 at 10:27 PM, Leader25 said:

We had a professor that kept coming in late,or not showing up and the subject matter alone caused enough stress.,sometimes her breath had alcohol.....we would sit and wait and then they would decide to move us to double up with another class already in progress.The nurses were resentful of the intrusion,disruption of their class time,and their prof would be so angry and mean.We were paying for a complete class that we were not getting.

We organized a protest letter,(in sympathy we left out the alcohol breath part )got signatures,stormed their administration.Soon we were back to normal with a competent instructor.

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Needless to say we became known as the troublemakers and none of us got any prizes at graduation.It didn't matter , we were happy to be done with it all.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
On 12/5/2019 at 4:10 PM, Kat05 said:

Anyways, sorry this is so long! But, here's an update..

In August we started our senior year with a new director! They were not able to staff our program the way it should be (go figure), so our director taught us our Mental Health Course. And an OB instructor taught us our Pediatrics course. It was another semester of having to teach ourselves. Our PEDs instructor would constantly state in class that she was uncomfortable with the placement and this wasn't her specialty. She made it very known that she did not know the material. Our lectures consisted of her reading out of the textbook, word-for-word, to us for over an hour (I could have done that myself at home). But, we have a very smart class and we have learned to help each other out (study groups, practice questions), and I think we will be okay. It's just frustrating paying for an education when you're just teaching yourself.

but....hey, I graduate in May!! let the countdown begin lol

Not only are you getting through nursing school, but learning to be self-directed will serve you big time when you hit your first job. Some orientations are better than others; a lot of new grads need to be spoon-fed for a while. You and your classmates will be able to hit the ground running.

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