Nursing Instructors Who R Behind the Times

[Texas-teacher, APRN]

I teach in a community college A.D.N. program where I am one of the only instructors with recent/current skills. I work PRN to keep my skills up. I find it very frustrating to work with people (whom I love dearly) that have not practiced in 15-20 years.

They give the students outdated information or demonstrate a skill that is not performed that way any more.

Does anyone else work in a situation like this? Any advice? Any student opinions are welcome.

[Heatherheartsou, BSN, RN]

If it makes you feel any better, by the time we get out of nursing school, a lot of the current information will be outdated too.

Most of my instructors have only worked Ped's, so I feel a little lost if I am learning anything that applies only to adults... because they haven't practiced in so long. Most students should know to go by the book, and realize that information is constantly changing.

[elkpark]

I found myself in the same situation when I first finished grad school and took a position teaching in a community college a number of years ago. I took it for granted that I needed to keep my skills and knowledge current, and I also wanted to make use of my advanced practice training I'd gone to grad school for, so I started looking for a part-time clinical practice apart from the teaching gig. I soon found that none of the other nursing faculty had practiced nursing in ages (one of them, a classic "old battleaxe" who was the queen bee of the department, had only practiced one year after she graduated before beginning teaching, and hadn't practiced since -- >30 years!!)

I didn't set out to make it a project of mine to get the other faculty back into practice, but it did work out that, as I talked about my own (other) job, and also nattered on in general (at lunch, etc.) about how challenging-yet-important it was going to be to keep my skills and expertise current when teaching full-time, and how impressed I was with my grad school faculty, who all maintained part-time clinical practices in addition to their teaching responsibilities, etc., etc., the other faculty started saying, "Yeah, you're right about that -- y'know, I haven't practiced in quite a while; I guess I should look into doing some prn shifts at the hospital ..." And most of them started doing it! (Except for the battleaxe, who was retiring at the end of the year anyway, thank God.) I mean, they couldn't very well disagree with me, could they, and argue that it's not important to stay clinically competent and current??

You might try the same approach -- talking about your own views and efforts on the subject, without suggesting that you're criticizing them in any way for not doing it, and see what happens. If nothing does, it's not your responsibility anyway; and you might be pleasantly surprised at the response you get.