I was just curious what others' opinion is on this. Do you think that somone who reads at a grade 5 level can function as a nurse at the bedside ? (Of course there are a variety of roles nurses function in that might be more suitable for a nurse with literacy problems, however, one of the articles explains she is going to be on nursing resource team (bedside nursing on an as needed basis, moving from department to department).
I am not trying to be mean and actually have an LD myself. But I also have a chronic illness and have required admission to hospital and am questioning how I would feel about my nurse having problems with literacy.
I had heard in the past that the college of nurses of ontario allowed a person disability accomodation to write their liscensing exam and then denied them registration based on the nature of the accomodations required. (I don't know the specifics.) This young lady is likley awaiting writing her exam.
Many professionals read at a 5th grade level. Sad. But true. If she got through nursing school and Boards then obviously she can read. Am I wrong ?
It is more complicated than that. You can obtain accomodation for exams where software reads the question to you are alternativley a proctor reads the questions to you. The proctor can also serve as a scrib and record your answers. In all likleyhood you can obtain the same accomodation for the CRNE
Where did it say she couldn't read... ?????? She can read.... just not as well as others.... do they say what they have in place to help her? Not sure what to think....
OK I get that it does not say that she can not read. Reading at a 5th grade level is really bad reading scores. Most 5th graders read at a higher level than that. An adult that reads at this level has comprehension problems. Meaning that they may be able to read a passage but not understand what it means. We all know that there are no accommodations that are reasonable for an employee with reading issues in the medical field. Exactly who is on the hook for a medication error when the nurse does understand a new correction from the doctor. A nurse with this reading level is a liability. How much money do you think a jury would give a patient if they knew that the hospital employed nurses with limited reading skills and that was the cause of error?
I think the biggest question is.... Would you want your child to have this person as a nurse? My answer would be a big NO!!
When deciding on which career to pursue in life, people must be realistic. Learning disabilities can be overcome; however, in the event that they can't be, a person must be honest with themselves. In life everyone has limitations in some area. I stink with directions and can get lost in a second. Knowing that I have a GPS and would never get a job that relied on my directional abilities. Sometimes a job takes more than the want to do it!
Doesn't mean she will be an incompetent nurse. Nursing is an applied skill and one that can be learned and understood despite various learning impairments. I have excellent reading skills but I have dyscalculia. I could equate my mathematical abilities to that of an elementary school kid. I absolutely cannot do fractions and those are taught nowadays in 2nd grade! But I can calculate dosages and drip rates all day. It's applied and concrete to me in that way, plus I have the formulas on hand. There are ways around LDs in any field, of course I'll never be a pharmacist or chemist, just like this person will never be an editor or professor of Lit. If you want to make it work, you usually can
I am just wondering about the special accommodations that had to be made in order for her to succeed in school. Is the hospital going to arrange these same accommodations? I can't see that with as busy as nurses are that they have time for doing this. And it really just makes me mad! Many of us have disabilities and we have to work on improving ourselves and overcoming those disabilities BY OURSELVES! I'm thinking because this was brought out into the open, she got publicity, now people are bending over backwards to help her. Sheesh! Well, great for her. Whoopie! It just minimizes all the sacrifices us less priviledged people have to make without help to overcome our disabilities.
Sorry, a little bitter here due to my own obstacles obviously.
Well, the nursing math is on the 5th grade level too, so there's not much difference if the reading is too. They really need to stop teaching on the grade school level. People have no business being in nursing school if they cannot do 5th grade math or reading. How the heck did these people ever graduate grade school (nevermind high school)? They should be washed out of the nursing program if they are that illiterate....it's too dangerous for patients. It also makes the whole nursing profession look bad.
Specializes in psych, addictions, hospice, education.
Surely, how we communicate reflects on us as educated people and as part of a profession.
Even so, a good part of our population reads at the 5th grade level. I was surprised to read the site that Commuter posted, since it looks like the American reading level average has gone up since the last time I read about it. Back then the average was 5th grade. It's good for America that we're better readers now.
Someone trained to be a nurse who reads at a 5th grade level...she still has specialized training that will help her comprehend words related to her profession. She will probably be able to figure out meds, and will be able to complete the nursing activities she needs to complete.
I wonder how many nurses have difficult reading? It would be an interesting survey.
Specializes in Infectious Disease, Neuro, Research.
She scored below the tenth percentile in reading, reading comprehension and phonological processing, but above the ninetieth percentile in cognitive functioning.
Which goes along with what I was going to say: you'd darn well better be genius-level and a phenominal orator. So, she's an auditory/tactile learner, and very bright.
Most folks reading at the 5th grade level will pretty much function at the 5th grade level...
Specializes in drug seekers and the incurably insane..
It's interesting that someone made a thread about this because we had a nurse at our facility before she moved, whom I believed was a "functioning illiterate". Or she had bad eyesight...I'm not sure. She would ask the rest of us to read MD orders for her as well as others' charting, she didn't look at the MAR while passing pills....AM pills had a yellow sticker, Noon: a pale blue sticker, Evening: Brown sticker, and HS meds had a navy blue sticker. I think she just pulled whatever color for whatever time of day it was. Her charting was atrocious; she misspelled easy, common words such as patient, during, and hour. Maybe she was dyslexic, I don't know. It was very strange...
as a pt, i would not want her pushing my meds...i'm sure she is a lovely, bright young lady with the best of intentions, but even the sharpest of nurses makes errors reading orders from time to time. i can only imaging that the odds and frequency of misreading orders would increase with an LD like this...?
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gilberra
4 Posts
It is more complicated than that. You can obtain accomodation for exams where software reads the question to you are alternativley a proctor reads the questions to you. The proctor can also serve as a scrib and record your answers. In all likleyhood you can obtain the same accomodation for the CRNE