Nursing students...I can't believe...

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Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.

So I am a first quarter nursing student, and I was talking to some of my classmates. One mentioned how, at clinical, an older nurse kept trying to talk her out of the profession, basically trashing the field. Her opinion. So we keep talking and one of the things that came up was floor nursing. EVERY SINGLE one of them said they didn't want to work on the floor/be a floor nurse! :eek:

I was shocked. ***** Why are you even trying to be a nurse if all you want to do is go straight to grad school to become a Nurse Practitioner (Peds)???? One of these girls was the same girl who talked about other students who had to be rushed into the emergency room during clinical, saying they had no place in nursing school.

Maybe it is because I work as a "sitter"/safety care associate and am use to the "dirty working" (i.e. I had to hold a man's member in a urinary because he was in restraints last week).

Am I the only one who has a bad taste in their mouths? Many of these are little girls barely out of high school who have never worked or volunteered a day in their lives at a hospital. I would hate to have a nurse who hated her job and only did it so she could get accepted into grad school. :banghead:

They will be in for a rude awakening when they realize that most *decent* grad schools aren't going to bother looking at an applicant with 0 or the bare minimum floor experience, and I hope they wouldn't look at someone who has less than two years of work experience on the floor. I see most of the nursing students who say they don't want to work on the floor leaving the profession entirely within the first five years (and I'm being generous)...what do you think?

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Specializes in LTC.

There are many students that have these goals. I honestly could care less at this point. As long as they are competent as a NP that is all that matters. People have different goals and plans. I do believe that not everyone is meant to be a floor nurse.

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Specializes in Medical Surgical Orthopedic.

i was shocked. ***** why are you even trying to be a nurse if all you want to do is go straight to grad school to become a nurse practitioner (peds)????

it's a requirement, and that's probably why they're doing it.

one of these girls was the same girl who talked about other students who had to be rushed into the emergency room during clinical, saying they had no place in nursing school.

you are doing the same thing, right now.

i would hate to have a nurse who hated her job and only did it so she could get accepted into grad school. :banghead:

i don't care what my nurse's private thoughts or goals are as long as i am well taken care of.

they will be in for a rude awakening when they realize that most *decent* grad schools aren't going to bother looking at an applicant with 0 or the bare minimum floor experience, and i hope they wouldn't look at someone who has less than two years of work experience on the floor. i see most of the nursing students who say they don't want to work on the floor leaving the profession entirely within the first five years (and i'm being generous)...what do you think?

rude awakenings can provide motivation. they may not realize how difficult it will be to reach their goals, but that doesn't mean that they won't be able to do it.

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
So I am a first quarter nursing student, and I was talking to some of my classmates. One mentioned how, at clinical, an older nurse kept trying to talk her out of the profession, basically trashing the field. Her opinion. So we keep talking and one of the things that came up was floor nursing. EVERY SINGLE one of them said they didn't want to work on the floor/be a floor nurse! :eek:

I was shocked. ***** Why are you even trying to be a nurse if all you want to do is go straight to grad school to become a Nurse Practitioner (Peds)???? One of these girls was the same girl who talked about other students who had to be rushed into the emergency room during clinical, saying they had no place in nursing school.

Maybe it is because I work as a "sitter"/safety care associate and am use to the "dirty working" (i.e. I had to hold a man's member in a urinary because he was in restraints last week).

Am I the only one who has a bad taste in their mouths? Many of these are little girls barely out of high school who have never worked or volunteered a day in their lives at a hospital. I would hate to have a nurse who hated her job and only did it so she could get accepted into grad school. :banghead:

They will be in for a rude awakening when they realize that most *decent* grad schools aren't going to bother looking at an applicant with 0 or the bare minimum floor experience, and I hope they wouldn't look at someone who has less than two years of work experience on the floor. I see most of the nursing students who say they don't want to work on the floor leaving the profession entirely within the first five years (and I'm being generous)...what do you think?

Pay attention to your own career goals, not others'. Focus on your own classwork/clinical, not others'. Be less judgmental of your classmates; you're really in no position to make some of the statements you've made, since you are no more experienced in nursing than they are. (And no, being a sitter doesn't count.)

Just MYOB and you'll find nursing school a little more tolerable.

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There are a lot of battle axes out there

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Specializes in Trauma, Emergency.

at this point i'm thinking i want to be a CRNA so that is my end goal but i take each day of clinical seriously and give every pt i'm assigned as much compassion, love and attention i can muster.

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Specializes in NICU.

Haven't you ever heard of direct-entry graduate programs that do just this? They do an accelerated RN program and then do 1-2 years to become a NP, generally without being on the floor...

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Just because someone doesn't have the same goals as you do, doesn't make them wrong. I don't get why you find this so appalling. Time spent on the floor doesn't necessarily equal great nurse, or great nurse practitioner, for that matter.

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Haven't you ever heard of direct-entry graduate programs that do just this? They do an accelerated RN program and then do 1-2 years to become a NP, generally without being on the floor...

I think that's crazy. I personally would not want to be seen by a NP who has never been a floor nurse for at least 2 years or more. I think it should be a requirement. Most NP programs require you to have at least one year experience on the floor/bedside.

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

It wasn't that long ago that I was in nursing school, so please listen to me on this one:

Nursing is heuristic learning.

What that means is you can be incredibly book smart, but the world rarely goes by the book. Have you ever seen an experienced nurse walk into a room, look at a patient for a second, and then decide to go pull a blood sugar, call the doc, get stat labs or x-rays? And you can't figure out for the life of you what she/he saw that made her do that? That's because of the heuristic nature of learning. You have to see, smell (in some cases), feel and sometimes just "spidey sense" your way with some patients. Nursing is experiential learning.

Of course you need to have really good grades, especially if you're going on. You need to be in certain schools. But you really do need to have the experience in a hospital setting, seeing a lot of different situations. Doesn't have to be med-surg; I started in telemetry, and had a lot of non-tele patients. Because of the telemetry experience, I got a job in ICU, and do PRN work in the ER. And I thank GOD for the floor experience when it gets crazy because I can run with a lot of patients and not stroke out.

Don't short yourself of any learning you can get. But understand that some folks want one thing, and some folks want another. And half the time, you're pointed in a completely different direction after you get out of school, and you spin again in the first year or two.

Just keep one thing in mind. The folks who you think so poorly of are going to be your coworkers in another year or two. So don't burn bridges. They may save your bacon when your patient's crashing and they remember something you've forgotten. Or they may just decide to let you fall on your face.

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In the grand scheme of things. Nursing is a job.

It's perfectly OK to know what kind of a job you don't see yourself ever doing. It's OK to use one part of a job as a stepping stone for another job. A wise person will take all advice in, and then sort it out to keep what you think you can use.

If you have "dreamy dreams" about nursing, still after your first clinical week, well... good for you. Reality hits quicker for most.

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Allow me to reorient you a bit OP.. I was accepted to Columbia University in NYC with absolutely zero experience into their FNP program. I was talking to the DEAN of their FNP program and she completely advocates people going straight to NP. In case you did not know, Columbia is fairly famous as far as nursing goes, not exactly a fly by night joint......just sayin

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