NS does not teach ADL's

labman · Jul 17, 2007

Well Let me think they taught ADLs but incorperated them into fundamentals. So one day in lab they taught us how to do all of these tasks.

puggymae · Jul 17, 2007

At our school you have to have passed CNA (where they teach the basic skills) before you can apply to the nursing program.

**RosesrReder, BSN, MSN, RN** · Jul 17, 2007

We learned ADL's from the first day of NS. 2 years later and 5 weeks to pinning, we still do ADL's for each of our patients. The only difference in our last semester is that we are able to delegate some tasks because we have more pt's added to our load. Still, I help the aid or the task won't get done as she is extremely short-handed herself.

I can't imagine a program that does not do that. You don't start administering meds the first semester or doing dressings etc.. right away-so how what do you do instead the 12hrs?

My program starts us off @ lab, get checked off and then move to assigned pt's to practice ADL's and assessments.

Lastly, how does a nurse assess if she doesn't perform ADL's to some extent. I mean, it is the perfect opportunity to assess skin etc.

miss arron · Jul 18, 2007

adl's are the first things we'll cover in our fundamentals lab i have been told

NICU_nurse2b · Jul 18, 2007

WOW! That surprises me! That is like teaching Algebra without teaching adding and subtracting first!

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Jul 18, 2007

i'm not going to commit to supporting or being against a school's policy on this, but i do have an opinion about adls. we all do them from the time we are born! performing adls is a very practical commonplace thing we all do in our everyday life. if the profession of nursing never existed, we would all still be doing adls. our mothers and father were the original ones helping us with them. one thing nursing school did was give them to me in a list. i had never really thought about them in a defined list before. the other thing that the nursing profession over the years has taught me was to seek out different ways of learning to help people accomplish their adls. i have to tell you that most textbooks of nursing are pretty sorely lacking in this. they might give you some basic information in how to give a bed bath to a bed bound patient and how to give a bed pan, but they aren't real forthcoming in how to help a person with a unilateral paralysis get their shoes tied or pull up their pants! i've yet to see a textbook that tells you how to get a patient gown on and off a patient with an iv. a lot of this stuff comes from good old-fashioned horse sense, talking with others and some applied thinking. sometimes colleges can carry things just a little too far i think.

IrishIzCPNP, MSN, RN, APRN, NP · Jul 18, 2007

We may assist a patient in performing a bath or dressing...though it is usually something the aids do. In the end it's usually PT and OT that teach the patient how to perform them based on their ability. The nursing staff supports it and assists in things a patient cannot do. A bedbath is something a patient may not be able to do and a nurse or aid will do it.

I don't know that ADLs are specifically taught as...here are ADLs and here's how to do them.

natrgrrl · Jul 18, 2007

At our school you have to have passed CNA (where they teach the basic skills) before you can apply to the nursing program.

This is how our program works also.

MikeyJ, RN · Jul 18, 2007

We learned ADL's from the first day of NS. 2 years later and 5 weeks to pinning, we still do ADL's for each of our patients. The only difference in our last semester is that we are able to delegate some tasks because we have more pt's added to our load. Still, I help the aid or the task won't get done as she is extremely short-handed herself.
I can't imagine a program that does not do that. You don't start administering meds the first semester or doing dressings etc.. right away-so how what do you do instead the 12hrs?
My program starts us off @ lab, get checked off and then move to assigned pt's to practice ADL's and assessments.
Lastly, how does a nurse assess if she doesn't perform ADL's to some extent. I mean, it is the perfect opportunity to assess skin etc.

I am in my first semester and we give meds, injections, do assessments, charting, insert foleys, insert NG tubes, change dressings, and we also do ADL's.

We covered ADL's our first day of lab but thereafter moved on to more "advanced" skills. In our clinicals we take care of patient completely -- all the work the CNA's typically do and the work the RN's do. The CNA's and RN's on the unit are very happy when we come -- that means they get a huge break that day.

I think ADL care really just comes with practice. You can teach it in a laboratory setting, but it is much different doing on individual patients. Thus, I think ADL care develops over time as individual nurses develop their own style of performing ADL care that works for them.

2bRnKim · Jul 18, 2007

At our school you have to have passed CNA (where they teach the basic skills) before you can apply to the nursing program.

Same for our school. You must have your CNA prior to enrollment of the first semester.

Kim

caliotter3 · Jul 18, 2007

My school was sorely lacking in teaching the nursing level skills. I don't remember ADLs being taught at all. We were not required to be CNAs prior to admission. I had a very good CNA class and got my experience with ADLs from working as a CNA. I do remember having to do primary nursing during one of my clinical rotations. I would have been out of luck if I didn't have my CNA experience because there was only the hospital staff there to help me and they were too busy with other patients.