Need student feedback for orientation ideas

anonymousstudent · Sep 11, 2010

I think you should just keep it positive. My experience has been that everybody blows everything WAY out of proportion to reality. My orientation was the most depressing thing. They had 2 students who were almost done get up and talk, and all they did was discuss how they almost failed out and how the work load was enourmous. I left there thinking I was doomed. But really it hasn't been that bad.

I guess it depends on what kind of students you are receiving for your program. I am in a cohort with students who at least have thier Bachelors, and many Masters as well. So we don't really need somebody to tell us to study and work hard because school is tuff. You know? We are also in a hybrid program, so we're not exactly needing to be spoon fed.

As far as the family issues, I'm also not sure you can just pin that down to a few general things. My family knows that I need to study, and we work things out. Honestly I think you need to educate students that this is NOT thier life. School is not your life!!! If it is you will lose your family. I want to slap people sometimes and remind them that they will be going back to these people when they graduate. Maybe the students need to be taught time management and relationship building for thier own lives. Maybe present the idea that if it honestly takes you 10 hours a day to study this material perhaps you have not chosen the correct field. Just my 2¢

I don't know if any of that helped you...you are more than welcome to ask follow up questions.

JROregon, ASN, BSN, RN · Sep 11, 2010

I had my orientation about 3 months ago and haven't begun yet. The most helpful part of our orientation was listening to a soon-to-be-graduating nursing student. She did have a more positive but realistic spin. No one told us to give up our lives outside of school but were let us know about the serious time commitments and the professional nature of our work.

It might be good to have resources, either on-line or book form, on age appropriate materials for kids to learn a little bit about nursing school and what nurses do on the job. It might be helpful for spouses or SOs to have a quick read on what a typical week will look like for a nursing student - one page max.

I'm trying to give my husband an idea of what our family schedule will look like but having it on paper would really help him. That would be a good activity for the future nursing students as well.

Saysfaa · Sep 14, 2010

I am a pre-nursing student who has not been through an orientation yet but if you want my input anyway, here you go:

Nursing school will be a big adjustment for my family. I've been a full time mom for 20 years. For the last two years I've scheduled a part time job, part time schooling, and volunteering around my primary career. My family would primarily be looking for things like policies, schedules and options. A tour of facilities (at least the nursing labs at the school) would be nice.

Three of my children are full time college students, the other two are in high school engineering programs. So, any descriptions about college life or class work really need to be accurate. For example, "attendance is important," would be less helpful than "the state requires x number of clinical hours, there is a severe shortage of clinical sites available so there is very little margin in the schedule and there is no way to make up clinical hours." Technically, "attendance is important" is accurate but since that phrase has been used since grade school it isn't practically accurate.

My family has very little anxiety about the coming changes. If the orientation is primarily about feelings, please say so ahead of time or a "nuts and bolts" alternative would be a welcome option.