Just my opinion, but schools make it easy harder than it has to be. You can't be a minute late, your uniform had better have 1980's creases, your hair band has to match your hair, some require you to make cards for the drugs you give, you have to plaster on a fake smile, and Heaven forbid you question someone. We had to call everyone at the college by their last names, even classmates. Its ridiculous. Nursing isn't what it was back in Florence's time. Nurse rarely get respect, I've seen doctors and surgeons literally cuss nurses into a corner and nothing is done. Why would anyone want to be a nurse? It's all about covering your butt and throwing others under the bus. Where I work, nurses all seem to hate each other. Constant negativity and complaining about everyone else. Can we please have a nursing school that focuses on the important things, such as giving medications, knowing correct sites for injections, drugs, antidotes and what drugs do to the body, instead of worrying about not having the proper colored hair tie? I had an instructor literally grab my cartilage ring one day because it is small and I had forgotten to take out out. Can someone please explain why it is important to remove an earring to take a test? I've seen people kicked out for forgetting a paper in their vehicle. It seems it would make more sense to allow a person to retrieve a paper from a vehicle than to ruin their career plans because an instructor is on a power trip. Nursing school is no joke, it's cut throat and I don't feel it has to be. You spend way too much time stressing over non-profit critical things and way too little on the big stuff. We were never taught how to do a medication pass, told nothing about narcotics and counting them, not taught how to call a doctor, not taught how to handle families, but we were taught how to "be professional". It's insane how much unnecessary stress is placed on nursing students and how many have been kicked out over small trivial matters. It makes me sick.
What I hate is the stupidity. 1) During clinical orientation, we were told that no matter how bad the weather got, we could not miss our clinical time. They wanted us to put our lives on the line even if there were a level 3 emergency where you are not allowed on the roads. 2) they should not expect you to put school before your family's welfare. 3)If I am sick, I am not going to be there 4) If my children need me, I will not be there. It isn't as though I was ever looking for an excuse not to go, but life happens.
It sounds like they were trying to prepare you for a career in nursing, actually. I'm not a nurse yet, but I do work in a hospital alongside nurses. They don't get to just skip a day if the weather is bad. They have to show up because lives depend on them coming in and being ready to work, regardless of the weather. Same goes for if a nurse isn't feeling great. To me, it isn't "stupidity"--it's preparing me for situations I'll actually face as a nurse.
Wow, it sounds like your school, clinical sites, and current place of employment all suck. I don't think you can extrapolate that out to all schools or hospitals though.
Let's discuss professionalism for a few. The facility in which I work has all sorts of nurses. One who wears tie dyed scribe everyday, a male who has hair to his butt and a beard who would make the men of duck dynasty blush, a few staff who have more facial piercings than I have fingers, some staff on nights wear jeans and t-shirts, and nothing is said. In my experience, after graduation, professionalism when out the window. Im Not saying it is that way at every facility, just the one I work at currently, as well and the place I precepted. Maybe my facility is too lax. That seems to be the real issue. I had this idea that nurse were professional and people respected them and I had a rude awakening after graduation.
I think your expectations would be met at the hospitals in the area I first started working in. It was pretty much extreme professionalism, except for scrubs. If they could have figured out a way to get us to come in wearing suit and tie, they would have.
No nail polish, hair must be secured above the collar or cut short, no wrinkles, only facility approved colors of scrubs and shoes, no funky hair colors (including red that wasn't natural), only piercing was a single stud in each ear, no visible tats, natural makeup, and absolutely zero facial hair. Nails could only extend 1/8" past the fingertip. They even had hygiene standards.
Then I moved out to the Midwest where employees have rainbow colored dreadlocks hanging to their waist. It was interesting, but blew my mind.
I think you're complaining about some pretty insignificant stuff, but I will agree that certain aspects of nursing school are more difficult than the real world on purpose. I think you should be grateful for it too, I know I am. If you pay attention and think about it you'll probably figure out the reasons why too.
There are a lot of things nursing school does to prepare you not so much for specifics of the nursing world, but for the mentality. The earring sounds stupid to you, but suppose you end up working somewhere with a strict dress code? It also just teaches you to understand that you often have to compromise your person tastes and opinions to achieve certain positions.
It's like taking math classes when you're going into a field that doesn't even really use math. I hear people complain about this sort of thing often. "Why do I need this algebra class? I'm never going to use this stuff." It's not about the specific formulas and problems, it's about teaching you how to think and use rational thought and reasoning, how to apply general principles to specific problems. Even things like care plans in nursing school, which everyone hates and complains about, especially because we never actually do care plans in the real world (that I've ever seen anyway). But it's about teaching you how to look at the patient, how to think about their disease process and how to approach it. After you've done them a hundred times you develop certain habits of how to approach your patient, whether you ever actually write out a care plan in the real world or not. So while they're stupid and time consuming in school and you will probably never write one in the real world, they're providing you with a skill set that will come in handy down the line.
That's the way it is with most of the problems the OP mentioned. Nursing school is designed to provide you with the set of skills you will need to be successful. Depending on where you end up working, you may not need some of the skills they tried to provide you with, but they have no way of knowing where you'll end up. Look at it as training you to be over-prepared, which may be inconvenient in the process but ultimately beneficial to your success.
What I hate is the stupidity. 1) During clinical orientation, we were told that no matter how bad the weather got, we could not miss our clinical time. They wanted us to put our lives on the line even if there were a level 3 emergency where you are not allowed on the roads. 2) they should not expect you to put school before your family's welfare. 3)If I am sick, I am not going to be there 4) If my children need me, I will not be there. It isn't as though I was ever looking for an excuse not to go, but life happens. I had a girl in my pharmacology class who had a car wreck because they had her so upset about the consequences of missing or coming in late.
I agree that schools put too much emphasis on the little things when they should be concentrating on better teaching. In the end it is the knowledge that a student has acquired that will make a difference.
Feel free to stay home if the weather is bad or your kids are sick. But in the real world, you won't have a job to come back to. Too many absences and you will be fired. Believe it or not, those rules are prepping you for life.
Anybody who thinks teaching students like this is easier than, presumably, bedside nursing is more clueless about more things than immediately apparent. It's not. And it doesn't pay as well, either.
As to Ivy Tech, whatever that is, being really strict and appearing to go out of its way to flunk people out, if it's a for-profit marginally-accredited school trying to go for a better reputation, weeding out people who couldn't hack (or be bothered to hack) strict standards of behavior, perhaps even people who wouldn't hack a real nursing program....IMHO they're doing the people and the profession a favor.
As the old ads used to say, if caring were enough anybody could be a nurse. Obviously, not everyone can. The cut has to be made somewhere.
I had a classmate get a critical incident for wearing a ball cap to lecture. She sucked it up and took the critical. And learned from it.
Sjalv thanks for taking the time to year apart my post and show people an example of nety. Anyone knows an incorrect medication could harm or kill a patient. My point was we were made to copy the drug book for every medication, even ones we gave all the time. I understand the point of doing it.
Btw, you shouldn't assume. Just saying. We had two instructors who were fired for their attitude. We had to address classmates as Ms. Whoever or Mr. Someone. It was over the top.
I don't see myself as projecting. Some nurses come in to get report late and start complaining before they even pick up a pen. I did report her, she was removed from checking out skills off.
You still haven't answered my question about why it is important to remove an earring to take a test. True it is policy, but what's the point?
The paperwork in the car was simply an instructor on a power trip. It was cut throat, cover your butt at all costs.
I meant non-critical not profit.
I don't assume all schools are that way, I merely stated based on my experience, both I attended were similar.
However, it seems that about half of nurses are the same, they think they are above or better than newer nurses. Just because you have been a nurse longer doesn't make you a better person than me. You have valuable knowledge and can teach the newbies many things, if you can get over yourself long enough. We all out on our creases pants the same way, one leg at a time.
My sons are marked down if they forget papers to turn in or needed classmaterials are left in their lockers. On the report cards, it comes under life skills. They are in 3rd and 6th grade and THEY get it!!
My point of too hard on purpose, is things such as, insisting on hairbands matching your hair, I understand not wearing a huge pink now, but the detail is a little unneeded.
Forcing you to call your classmates Mr. Someone or Ms. Somebody, I don't see the point, I understand giving instructors respect and using their last names, they are instructors.
Kicking someone or rather several people out of the program for leaving a paper in your vehicle. To me, that says the instructor is on a power trip. I have seen several third and fourth semester students kicked out of the program over paperwork. Some instances, the school misplaced the paperwork and wouldn't allow the student to fill out a replacement. I've seen a few kicked out for leaving a paper in their vehicle and were not allowed to retrieve it.
And I was forced to choose between my grandmothers funeral and listening to case studies. I didn't go to the funeral and I was one of the ones who's paperwork was misplaced by the school.
I feel certain instructors are on a power trip and purposely make it harder than it needs to be. Why be harder on people than you need to be? I understand we are called to be professional, be knowledgable and courteous to our patients.
Nursing school is hard for a reason, actually many reasons, but I would never say that it is "too hard". You have to do the work, play by the rules, and deal with it to the best of your ability. They are trying to mold students into entry level nurses that will be competent enough to practice safely and pass NCLEX when the time comes.
If an instructor or a nurse during clinical is inappropriate, by all means report them or do whatever you have to do, but don't complain about trivial things when in reality they are in place for good reason. Be on time, be prepared, dress properly. Like a previous poster stated, rules/policies are agreed to upon enrolling. I'm sorry that you had bad experiences but they are not representative of nursing or nursing schools as a whole.
I kind of get what you mean fangirl, but this sounds somewhat over the top. If you have read your history, Florence Nightingale dealt with similar issues and so much more. In her day, nursing was one of the lowest jobs out there. Only women who were questionable in character and at the end of their rope would even consider such a job. As Florence was from an upper class family, she had continual opposition and emotional stress from most of her relatives until she became famous.
When she went to the Crimea, she and her nurses were opposed by the medical personnel there who 'felt insulted' by her presence. Eventually, when casualties came pouring in, the overwhelmed staff finally allowed her and her nurses to work with the soldiers. All throughout her time there, it was a continual uphill struggle for her to get past the common picture of nursing and actually make it respectable and an honour for women to join.
So basically, I am sorry that you and other students may have had difficult experiences. No matter where you turn in life, you are going to face trials at some time or another. It has benefited me greatly to read Florence Nightingale's life; I see that the things I face are not so hard. I wish you all the best.
I feel that like all disciplines, not just nursing, instructors and schools will always have the upper hand. Some will try to use it to help students, some will do it for power or money. I had a instructor make me take a class over again because the teacher prioritized personal problems over managing my clinicals. As a result of being abandoned in hospital the whole semester, I wasn't able to finish my work for a grade in the course. Believe me, I tried my best but when there is no one advocating for you it's hard. I thought I was doing well until the instructor checked in with me, THE LAST WEEK OF THE SEMESTER. At least, I did not receive a failing grade, just a do over. But I was sooo mad that I let this happen and there was no one to guide me.
districthopeful
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It sounds like they were trying to prepare you for a career in nursing, actually. I'm not a nurse yet, but I do work in a hospital alongside nurses. They don't get to just skip a day if the weather is bad. They have to show up because lives depend on them coming in and being ready to work, regardless of the weather. Same goes for if a nurse isn't feeling great. To me, it isn't "stupidity"--it's preparing me for situations I'll actually face as a nurse.