GoodyNurse2b

Megan, I do not take your post as you being rude or insensitive AT ALL. You do make valid points. I take full responsibility of my own learning, but I do feel that the instructor has the responsibility of presenting the material in an organized fashion so that it is a) digestible and b) topics presented in class form a foundation for the independent learning students must do on their own to understand the topic. If that's not the case- THEN THERE IS NO POINT IN GOING TO CLASS! Unfortunately I don't think that's happening in my class. As I stated above, I have two classmates with doctorate degrees in other fields and several classmates have master's degrees. Even they are frustrated. I think they serve as a good gauge since they are very used to independent, intense learning. This is a second-degree program, and we are all educated and highly-motivated. I'm not trying to start a heated discussion. I appreciate all the responses I've received.

Megan, In this class, I think the issue with referring people to the book is that the class is pathophys and the book is rather complex. A lot of us need a good explanation of what is in the book to grasp the material. In any other type of non-science/nursing class I think book learning is easier. There is an outline, but it basically lists the main topics, with no subheadings or key points. The other thing that she does is she assigns whole chapters. In one breath she will say you are responsible for EVERYTHING in the chapter whether it is taught or not, and in another breath she will say focus on what we have gone over in class. It is very frustrating.

I am not taking pharm until next semester, but I do have a method that I use when I have to memorize large volumes of information. It helped in A&P significantly when I had to learn all of the muscles, origins, insertions, actions, etc. Here's what I do. You have two weeks- 14 days. And 40 drugs. (Divide 40/14 days and you figure that you need to learn 2 or 3 new drugs a day) On the first day, start off with two or three drugs. Learn them until you KNOW them. On day 2, review the first drugs and then add two or three more. Make sure you have them down pat. Proceed adding new drugs to the old drugs every night. Review it until you KNOW it. Since you are only adding a few new drugs every night, your goal is very easily achieved. Try it and let me know how it goes. I promise it will work!

Whispera and LLG, Thank you for your responses! I do agree that we must approach her rather carefully, but the fact that you both think it is an appropriate thing to do makes me feel much better! However, I do feel that no matter how careful we are, she is going to react negatively. With my first degree, I wouldn't ever have even considered approaching a professor like this, but I unlike the first time around, I am the one paying for this education. For $1500/class, I expect a lot more.

Hi. I'm hoping some of you might be able to shed some light on an issue my class is having with a particular professor. I am enrolled in a second-degree BSN program. This semester I am taking pathophysiology with an instructor who is only 25, so she's pretty young and inexperienced. I am not turned off by her age. But I am disappointed that my school would have someone who is so inexperienced teaching this particular class. My program is filled with students who have Phds and Master's degrees in other scientific fields, and we are all feeling very overwhelmed and finding her teaching methods difficult to follow. Here are some of our issues: Power points are very minimal, so we are fiercely writing and writing in class. She talks very fast. The other day in class she wanted to get through the lecture, so she asked us to hold all of our questions to the end. The lecture was on acid/base balance. Many of us got lost in the first ten minutes of lecture, so we were lost the rest of the class period. Many of us feel that she is not facilitating our learning. This is not the type of class where you can just do a straight lecture without providing some sort of guidance. It would be helpful if she would provide us withe some sort of outline that we can take notes on during class in some way to guide our studying. The brief outlines that she provides are just not helpful. In another instance, someone in the class asked her to write down what she was talking about on the board, and her response was, it was in the book. My classmate had to insist that she write it down. None of us are out to get our instructor. We want to be there and learn this semester. I don't think that she is trying to be unreasonable, but I think there's a huge lack of experience that is detrimental to our learning. We are afraid to approach her about it, because it seems that she gets very defensive easily. How do you suggest we go about talking to our instructor? Should we? Any advice you can give?

Thanks for all of your replies they have been really encouraging! Most of you have said location is key... I am in Baltimore... in close proximity to Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland. There's also a pediatric hosptial in my area, in addition to many, many community hosptials.

I am a future second-degree nursing student, returning to school after receiving my first degree back in 2001. I have been working on the prerequsites for a couple of years and am finally ready to apply to nursing school. When I think about becoming a nurse, I can really only envision myself working in a pediatric setting. Of course I'll keep my mind open when I am in school, but as of now, I have a strong desire to work with kids. This relates to the nursing care I received as a child... I was born nine weeks premature and weighed 2 lbs 28 years ago. I was healthy, but remained in the hospital for three months. I want to give back... So my question is, how difficult is it to get a peds position upon graduating? Is it reasonable to assume that I could have a long career working in pediatric nursing without EVER having to work with adults???? And when I say pediatric nursing, I also mean any area working with kids....well-baby care, NICU, etc.

I am a future second-degree nursing student, returning to school after receiving my first degree back in 2001. I have been working on the prerequsites for a couple of years and am finally ready to apply to nursing school. When I think about becoming a nurse, I can really only envision myself working in pediatrics. Of course I'll keep my mind open when I am in school, but I really have a strong desire to work with kids as of now. So my question is, how difficult is it to get a peds position upon graduating? Is it reasonable to assume that I could have a long career working in pediatric nursing without EVER having to work with adults????

Thanks for all of your responses to all of my previous posts. As you probably assume, I'm evaluating all of my options including ADN, BSN, and Direct-Entry MSN. The direct entry programs look extremely appealing, but seeing that they are at the best of colleges, I don't know how easy they are to get in. Does anyone know what the typical GPA, scores, acceptance rates of these programs are? Anyone have any experience applying? I'm in MD, so I'd consider Hopkins, but Columbia, MGHI in Mass, Case Western, Vanderbilt, Pace, and Yale also look appealing. Seeing as nursing traditionally isn't an "ivy league" profession, are the credentials required for these programs less than what a typical "ivy" student would need? I'd love to hear experiences with any programs.........

I recently read that nursing students in Maryland are not allowed to draw blood or start IV's... Is this true? If so, when are these skills learned?