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!
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.
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?
being an NP has absolutely nothing to do with floor nursing......just sayin......as evidenced by direct entry programs at many of the worlds top universities and colleges......
Oh yeah, now all that being said, I ended up coming down with a little thing called cancer so I had to leave Columbia and am now in a local ADN program, almost done.....still trying to decide if I wanna go back into an accelerated program.....or do some time on the floor
Life's short and so is school, study hard, make sure you graduate and pass your boards, don't worry about all those others that say all they are going to do is Peds or OB, just dream of all those job openings that leaves for you if everyone else is working peds and ob. Good luck!
Specializes in Orthopedic, LTC, STR, Med-Surg, Tele.
People's priorities change too. When I started school, EVERYBODY was going to be an NP after nursing school. I can't think of one person that I went to school with who is on a serious track to be a nurse practitioner.
It annoys me when people get judgmental over having plans to go into pediatrics (or OB for that matter), whether it's with an end goal of NP or not.
Look, I'm amazing with kids. There's just something about me that makes it extremely easy for them to connect with me. I feel more comfortable with the atmosphere of a pediatric unit. I like the variety in developmental levels between ages. I can handle the psychosocial issues with families. More than all of that, I enjoy it. I've done lots of things in order to prepare to be a pediatric nurse. I'm well aware that it may be competitive and that I'm closing myself off with a specialty. But it makes me happy. Plenty of nurses have told me during clinicals that they are glad I want to do peds because they couldn't do it and someone needs to take care of the kids.
/end
OP, I think it would be a good idea to look inward. Often I realize that when I'm feeling judgmental about someone else, it's usually because I'm feeling insecure myself. What are your goals and dreams? How do you plan to get there? Luckily you sound like you have plenty of time to figure it out, but I wouldn't be so hard on your classmates. There's nothing wrong with having goals, and if they know how to make it happen, then kudos for them. Nursing really takes all types and the more we collaborate and understand rather than act divisive, the better.
After a year in a very busy trauma/ICU I find myself thinking about going back to school. NOT because I cannot handle the workload, but because I feel very disconnected from my original nursing goals. I am really leaning towards public health nursing; many of my patients who are not traumas could have really benefitted from education and in-community services before they ended up with us.
Public health nursing jobs want BSNs, MSNs or MHAs.
So my high horse is on it's knees- floor nursing helped me, but it's not my be all, end all.
OP, careful what you post on the general forum as a student and anything re: students. Usually gets negative reception rather quickly.
Nothing wrong with your classmates way of thinking. Nothing wrong with yours either. I am a student too and I would say 1/2 the students in my class have no desire for "floor work." More power to 'em. There are many different aspects of nursing.
I am personally of the mindset that lots of floor (etc) experience does not always a good NP make. I suppose it could help...but I have done neither at this point so can't have much opinion on it.
I agree with others. Keep your mind focused on you and your goals and what you want to do. If the others are really not cut out for nursing at all, they'll get weeded out eventually one way or another.
And BTW, I disagree with the posts that your experience with pts does not count. I believe any experience earned in working with pts in any way can be a building block of knowledge. :) I would just be sure to not let it make you "cocky" so to say towards your fellow students. No matter how much pratice we get now as volunteers, pt tech positions etc...we have SOOO much to learn. :)
I clearly stepped on a few toes, so let me ask you this:
1. How important do you think bed side experience is when it comes to advancing one's career?
2. Do you think that there should be NPs "advanced nurses" out there who have never worked as a floor nurse in their career?
3. Why is there such a lack of disrespect to floor nurses and the career in general? I work alongside floor nurses and they are amazing....most of them.
4. I am not being judgmental, but I was just shock at the lack of disrespect nursing students have toward floor nurses and how many of my classmates look down at floor nursing, as though it is beneath them.
5. How many of you does this post "hits close to home to"? I have a feeling, a lot.
OP, careful what you post on the general forum as a student and anything re: students. Usually gets negative reception rather quickly.
Nothing wrong with your classmates way of thinking. Nothing wrong with yours either. I am a student too and I would say 1/2 the students in my class have no desire for "floor work." More power to 'em. There are many different aspects of nursing.
I am personally of the mindset that lots of floor (etc) experience does not always a good NP make. I suppose it could help...but I have done neither at this point so can't have much opinion on it.
I agree with others. Keep your mind focused on you and your goals and what you want to do. If the others are really not cut out for nursing at all, they'll get weeded out eventually one way or another.
And BTW, I disagree with the posts that your experience with pts does not count. I believe any experience earned in working with pts in any way can be a building block of knowledge. :) I would just be sure to not let it make you "cocky" so to say towards your fellow students. No matter how much pratice we get now as volunteers, pt tech positions etc...we have SOOO much to learn. :)
I noticed how combative and defensive some nursing students get. I seriously want to know, why is floor nursing beneath them that they feel the need to skip it altogether? Is floor nursing not important?
Yes, I agree that having a lot of experience doesn't automatically equate to being a great NP, but having NO experience as an RN can be a huge detriment as well.
I don't have a problem with their goals. In fact, I have kept my options open, but I realize that bedside experience is extremely important to have prior to applying to grad school. It is this distain for the floor nurses and nursing in general that bothers me, especially since many of these girls haven't even been in a hospital environment and haven't a clue what floor nurses do.
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.
I don't think poorly of anyone, but I think poorly of this lack of disrespect LOTS of Nursing students have toward floor nurses when they haven't even been around them, except for clinical.
And it ticks me off. That "I'm too good to be a floor nurse" attitude that too many nursing students have...what is up with that?
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.
It isn't the goal, it is the intent behind the goal, the "I'm too good to wipe a patient's ass, to insert a catheter, to do a floor nurse's work" that bothers me, and maybe I didn't make that clear in my first post. I apologize if it looked like I was attacking their goals, but I was attacking that snobbery towards floor nursing.
I don't think anyone can be a GREAT NP without a least some experience, a couple years or so, on the floor. An experienced RN is going to have more to offer, to bring to the table than a new grad who has never touched a patient outside of clinicals. Scary kind of. Almost like a Med student (surgeon) skipping residency and going straight on to work as a surgeon.
mindlor
1,341 Posts
being an NP has absolutely nothing to do with floor nursing......just sayin......as evidenced by direct entry programs at many of the worlds top universities and colleges......