Powerpoint Overkill

[TJMICHAEL]

Is anyone else having this experience? Sitting in class, night after night (or day after day), listening to an instructor read, word for word, from a power point? Not that these instructors aren't qualified to teach up & coming Nurses, most of them have Master's Degrees, but it's very frustrating. I feel like I am expected to bring so much to the table, on top of a certain level of respect for the experience they have & the letters behind their names, but they are not. They can borrow a power point from another instructor, have an admin run copies for them, show up, click & read. And get paid a lot for it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking them for getting paid well. And it's an important job, no doubt! But how about some of them deflate their egos a bit. How about some of them be a little more down to earth & tell us about the life lessons you have learned over the course of your career. How about NOT be condescending & prove that "nurses eat their young" isn't true ALL of the time. How about put a little more personal effort & responsibility into building up potential excellent nurses who come through your classroom instead of getting caught up in the red ink of "APA FORMAT." or making snarky, humiliating comments when you call on a student & he/she doesn't answer your question fast enough because unbeknownst to you he/she was up till 3am with a sick child, went to work at 6am, & is now sitting in your class room listening to your monotone power point presentation at 9pm.

I don't mean to make a broad generalization to all nursing instructors - thus far in my program, I have met many more excellent instructors who have helped shape my thinking & push me to learn & grow. I am just commenting on some of those who are obviously very proud of their education & the fact that they are teachers, & seem bored, egotistical, & WAY overpaid. Anyone out there feel me? I am trying to stay motivated, trudge through this journey & learn as much as I can, but these sorts of instructors SUCK the motivation right out of me. Wish I could just send them an anonymous letter in their suggestion box, but there isn't one. There really isn't much satisfaction in writing it all in their reviews at the end of the semester because that doesn't help ME at all. Ugh...

[sommeil, ASN, RN]

My pharm instructor was like that. I hate having powerpoint slides read to me. Fortuantely most of my Nursing Instructors are NOT like that.

[Hygiene Queen]

It seems like (in our program, anyway) that the longer the instructor has taught, the more interesting and informative the lecture... and they do it so smoothly without the powerpoint abuse.

Sure, they use them, but they use them the correct way. They use them to help keep the lecture focused and draw attention to key points.

I try to give the newer instructors the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps, once they've gotten more experience and are more comfortable, they will quit abusing the powerpoints!

However, my last instructor was awful! I didn't even bother to come to class everyday. I opted to stay home and study on my own. Why bother coming in if she is just going to read word for word off the slides and not even attempt to elaborate or answer questions?

She even had a recorded lecture to "supplement" the material... and it was just her reading off the same darn powerpoints!

She even had the nerve to tell us not to read off our powerpoints for our presentations... really?!?

It really and truly makes you appreciate your instructors that really know their stuff and teach!

[whichone'spink, BSN, RN]

My patho teacher did just that. I skipped out on a couple of classes, and didn't miss anything because all the professor did was read off the powerpoint.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

LOL - I love you guys!!!

As a grizzled old nurse educator, it warms my heart to know that students are actually interested in learning rather than focusing only on 'is that gonna be on the test?' My teaching style has always been... YOU read the material &then we address questions and how to actually apply the information. But this ticks a lot of students off. They want to be spoon fed - provided with notes - and told exactly what will be on the multiple-choice-only test. Heaven forbid I include any test items that actually required input of information from the student's own brain.

You are right on target - "instructors" are easy to come by... just hand them the PowerPoint and stand them up in front of a class so they can read the slides. Educators, on the other hand, have in-depth command of their field and facilitate student learning through any means necessary. Teaching in a nursing school actually pays very little compared to other choices for nurses with graduate degrees, so it is likely that the primary reason anyone would stay in the field is because he/she is passionate about it. It's easy to tell them apart... just ask for clarification on a complex issue; an instructor will refer you to the book but an educator will pull out all the stops to help you understand. Once, I even had a class get up out of their desks, join hands and "act out" cardiac depolarization - they 'got it' and it was fun.

Do me a favor - tell those good teachers how much you appreciate their teaching abilities. Maybe someday you'll end up on that side of the desk and a student will do the same for you.

Best of luck to all of you.

[SunshineDaisy, ASN, RN]

I like powerpoints, but yeah, not being read word for word. The teachers I have had have read some of it, but add other stuff that's not on the PP and I find that to be helpful to me. I really wish we could record lectures. Would be sooo nice!

[QuarterLife88, MSN, RN, NP]

I had an A&P 1 instructor that read word for word off her slides for two hours. Her area was really biochemistry, not so much anatomy, so she truly gave us the bare minimum. I could have skipped lecture and done just as well because I taught myself throughout that entire class anyway. What made me go every week was that sometimes she would switch test dates on a whim and I needed to be there to hear it!

My A&P 2 teacher was much better - had had some experience in the medical field, taught us how to read labs for certain blood cell counts and what it would indicate, and just other random interesting info.

My pharm instructor at the moment also uses PP, but she provides examples of her nursing experinces as well which I really appreciate.

[MannaKay]

Oh my geez, we have a couple of these. It drives me crazy! If you're just going to read me slides and not elaborate at all or answer questions, what is the point of us being here? We can read the slides to ourselves in the comfort of our own homes, thanks. If you asked our Funds instructor a question she would just say "Uh huh. Yeah." Maybe she's a good nurse (I hope so, she works in a NICU!) but she is not a good teacher. And unfortunately we're so short on nursing instructors that the evals at the end of the semester don't mean a thing.