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?
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
I actually wanted to get responses from floor nurses and their opinions. Instead I got some offended nursing students who I suspect fit the description.
And I wanted to hear if floor nurses have gotten that vibe from nursing students and what their opinion is on nursing students skipping the floor experience.
As an old battle axe....I am disappointed that nurses don't go to school to be nurses anymore. I also believe that no matter what experience you think nursing school gives you to make you competent......I'll let you in on a little secret.....Nursing school and clinical DO NOT prepare you to be a nurse. I am dismayed at the implication that clinical in school somehow gives you the tool necessary to be all knowing and all seeing in the realm of caring for patients. NCLEX is the assumption that it makes you safe which does NOT imply you are competent.
I am saddened by the disrespect shown to floor nurses and nurses who have been practicing a long time.....experience will give you knowledge and should give respect for the knowledge achieved by a lifetime of devotion in caring for patients. I am not spitting on ambition but I for one believe that you cannot learn how to be a nurse (or nurse practitioner) on line and that a very specific bedside clinical requirement needs to be in place prior to pursuing an advance degree. I don't think 120 hours will give you the tools to be responsible or accurate in decision making when dealing with peoples lives. Medical residents spend 4 years in clinical slavery before being able to apply for and accepted for fellowships.
I believe that the sudden draw to the profession are fueled by the mistaken belief that there is a nursing shortage and a steady good paying job available. The desire for advanced degrees are also fueled by the economy and the lure of "big money" coupled with an arrogance that advanced degrees entitle one to look down upon those of a lesser degree as being beneath them....is what has fueled the issues with nursing as a profession as we speak. as much as I have LOVED my career choice.....I wen to school because I wanted to be a nurse, not a doctor, not a doctor want to be. I made a conscious decision to further my career and become a nurse.
Without nurses....patients will die. At 3 am when a patient goes south who calls you! Who knows when something isn't right.....THE NURSE! We have been the backbone of the medical profession and I find it sad that the respect for this time honored profession which is the backbone of medicine....tossed under the bus and considered a last resort. I too have been guilty of discouraging new nurses to enter the profession. The two face bureaucracy, back stabbing, mean girl mentality has taken away from the hard working educated, life saving professionals that we are......just like behind every man is a good woman......behind every advance degree is a great bedside nurse who has saved their butt a million times.
Flame on!:flmngmd: I am a bedside nurse you see...a bedside grunt is where you'll find me. I am proud to be the best I can be to intervene when you most need me. If you other any family happens to need, I'm the nurse you want in the weeds.......it has nothing to do with advanced degrees, the bedside is where they need people like me. To leap into action, to know what patients need, to guide those who haven't learned how to act when there's a need at 3am and in need it's a bedside nurse you count yourself lucky to see.......a nurse who's seen what's needed to see and can get you what you absolutely need. To hold your hand, and ease your pain. To listen when you need someone to hear...a shoulder to cry on or a hand to hold...when you're scared and lonely and are in need. It's at the bedside you'll find me.
As an old battle axe....I am disappointed that nurses don't go to school to be nurses anymore. I also believe that no matter what experience you think nursing school gives you to make you competent......I'll let you in on a little secret.....Nursing school and clinical DO NOT prepare you to be a nurse. I am dismayed at the implication that clinical in school somehow gives you the tool necessary to be all knowing and all seeing in the realm of caring for patients. NCLEX is the assumption that it makes you safe which does NOT imply you are competent.
I am saddened by the disrespect shown to floor nurses and nurses who have been practicing a long time.....experience will give you knowledge and should give respect for the knowledge achieved by a lifetime of devotion in caring for patients. I am not spitting on ambition but I for one believe that you cannot learn how to be a nurse (or nurse practitioner) on line and that a very specific bedside clinical requirement needs to be in place prior to pursuing an advance degree. I don't think 120 hours will give you the tools to be responsible or accurate in decision making when dealing with peoples lives. Medical residents spend 4 years in clinical slavery before being able to apply for and accepted for fellowships.
I believe that the sudden draw to the profession are fueled by the mistaken belief that there is a nursing shortage and a steady good paying job available. The desire for advanced degrees are also fueled by the economy and the lure of "big money" coupled with an arrogance that advanced degrees entitle one to look down upon those of a lesser degree as being beneath them....is what has fueled the issues with nursing as a profession as we speak. as much as I have LOVED my career choice.....I wen to school because I wanted to be a nurse, not a doctor, not a doctor want to be. I made a conscious decision to further my career and become a nurse.
Without nurses....patients will die. At 3 am when a patient goes south who calls you! Who knows when something isn't right.....THE NURSE! We have been the backbone of the medical profession and I find it sad that the respect for this time honored profession which is the backbone of medicine....tossed under the bus and considered a last resort. I too have been guilty of discouraging new nurses to enter the profession. The two face bureaucracy, back stabbing, mean girl mentality has taken away from the hard working educated, life saving professionals that we are......just like behind every man is a good woman......behind every advance degree is a great bedside nurse who has saved their butt a million times.
Flame on!:flmngmd: I am a bedside nurse you see...a bedside grunt is where you'll find me. I am proud to be the best I can be to intervene when you most need me. If you other any family happens to need, I'm the nurse you want in the weeds.......it has nothing to do with advanced degrees, the bedside is where they need people like me. To leap into action, to know what patients need, to guide those who haven't learned how to act when there's a need at 3am and in need it's a bedside nurse you count yourself lucky to see.......a nurse who's seen what's needed to see and can get you what you absolutely need. To hold your hand, and ease your pain. To listen when you need someone to hear...a shoulder to cry on or a hand to hold...when you're scared and lonely and are in need. It's at the bedside you'll find me.
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.
Okay, well I didn't get the part about them thinking they were "too good" to be a floor nurse. It more came across as if they wanted to shoot straight through to NP, and you felt they needed to pay their dues. And my response was basically wondering why you cared.
With that being said, I definitely feel it's a good idea to get experience before moving into a more advanced role in the field. I certainly have, and feel more prepared as I begin the next phase of my own education.
But the point I was trying to make in my post that you quoted, was that it is possible for a person to do well as an NP, without working the floor first, just as it is possible for one WITH experience to be a crappy NP. And it really isn't up to us to dwell on another person's choice.
I've worked with and also been seen by a few NPs throughout my career. And the majority of times I didn't know who had a ton of floor experience or who hadn't. Sure, I can make a guess by the care I've received or seen given, but I could be wrong. And in the grand scheme of things, if they are doing a good job and can handle the responsibilities, does it really matter?
People who become LPNs... and tell their friends or other friends that they are LPNs in training. Some of the responses are as folllows:
"Why don't you go do a four year degree?" *look of disapproval*
"Why are you aiming so low? You can do better."
People who acquire 4 year degree in nursing (or be a nurse in general):
"Why didn't you become a doctor?"
"Well, I've heard...it is...better to become... a nurse than a...doctor." *hesitant & pitiful look*
*Angry tone* "JESUS! it's not that hard to become a nurse, they just fluff pillows all day."
What bugs me... is that, why should someone be perceived as any less if they aim for LPN, or didn't get RN the first try? Or better yet... What if they just wanted LPN alone? The big advantage to getting an LPN degree is that it is only a 2 year commitment, it is a good way to test waters (even becoming a CNA may also give a good idea of some of the nursing knowledge). And less tuition.
I am not sure why there is such a stigma (still today) for being a nurse. I remember my mom wasn't very happy when my cousin become a nurse, and perceived her to be the less smarter than my pharmacist -in -training cousin (who used to get her dad to do a lot of homework for her in high school for most, I kid you not, plus the admission methods were different). Which.. I'm thinking is not true. I think is just starting to change... I hope there will be significant decreased in sitgma.
Maybe because nurses are a female dominated profession? I don't know. But those kind of dialogues drive me crazy...people, until you go through nursing school. Don't assume you know what it's like.
I'm tired of reading that "Direct-Entry Master's" students, or whatever you want to call us, have no experience as nurses. While in school, I've worked full time in ICU and ER for 2 years now, and I'm very good at what I do. By the time I'm done, I'll have been a critical care nurse for 3 years.
ALL my classmates work, and they are all extremely bright people.
I don't know why I'm even typing all this, other than say that I don't really need to explain myself to anyone.
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?
I never really wanted to be a "floor" nurse either yet here i am . i think i do a better job than some people who love nursing and recite the nursing creed. The sad part is I am sure many NP programs would accept them. Why care what the motivations of others are as long as they are competent and do the job they are being paid to do.
I've just applied to anesthesia school. I've been an aide, floor nurse, and ICU nurse in 2 different units. You don't have to love your job but learn as much as you can along the way. Experience-whatever the type-is priceless and will pay off in the end. I like your attitude & good luck!
Many, many years ago, at least 25 years ago, I wondered out loud about the push for BSN as the entry level. Who wants to spend so much time and money getting a degree to work weekends and holidays???
The majority of nurses graduating these days - it seems - do not expect to spend much time at the bedside. And yet that is where the majority of care is actually done.
Wiping brows and bottoms, holding hands, inserting foleys and ng tubes. Sometimes knowing that a certain cough means congestive heart failure, or that new wheeze means asthma. These come from experience, the experience gained at the bedside, not from a youtube video, or a Googled download.
When the remainder of the babyboomer nurses retire we will be left with mainly inexperienced nurses. Anyone with more than 5-7 years at the bedside will be considered a 'dinosaur'. Who will train the 'newbies'? I blame part of this on 12 hour shifts, part on impossible nurse-patient ratios, part on unrealistic expectations.
Nursing was never meant to be easy, but it was never meant to be discouraging.
At 20, YOU are barely out of high school I agree that NPs should have some floor experience. As should MSNs and DsN/PhDs... but there are evidently schools who want the tuition money more than experienced candidates. JMO.
I never really wanted to be a "floor" nurse either yet here i am . i think i do a better job than some people who love nursing and recite the nursing creed. The sad part is I am sure many NP programs would accept them. Why care what the motivations of others are as long as they are competent and do the job they are being paid to do.
I mean this sincerely....what did you expect to be doing?
Who recites some nursing creed? I've seen it on a book mark. People can recite all sorts of things- without action, it's ALL meaningless. :)
WHNP DEN student here, graduating in May. Never worked on a floor, don't intend to do so (though I think you all are saints!). Remind me again how working on a floor will help me manage abnormal Paps, provide good contraceptive counseling, or diagnose and treat recurrent yeast infections, because I'm not really clear on that. I do, however, think floor experience is probably extremely valuable for ACNPs, though perhaps not essential.
With respect- I think it has a lot more to do with dealing with people, knowing more about their other diagnoses that may effect things you deal with.
I agree that NPs should have some floor experience. As should MSNs and DsN/PhDs... but there are evidently schools who want the tuition money more than experienced candidates. JMO.
mindlor
1,341 Posts
Klone is wise and speaks truth