ericthered

Hello, So I recently began working night shifts on a behavioral health floor after about 2 years working in an urgent care. Around the same time I got this job I absentmindedly put my info into the Bureau of Indian Affairs registry for nursing jobs and now I'm starting to get recruitment ads for nursing jobs on reservations in these areas. I would feel really bad about leaving so early into my new job but these other jobs sound like a dream to me; remote locations, having to problem solve and make do with what you have and most importantly helping a truly under-served populations. Cherry on top there is a loan repayment program to boot. My question is would applying for these positions and taking one if I got it harm my reputation among future employers? Just how bad would it look? And, finally, in the esteemed opinion of those here should I go for it?

I just recently took and passed the NCLEX in December. I've been applying at a few nearby hospitals but was just offered a job at a physicians practice out of the blue. I'm kinda hesitant to take it for 2 reason: 1) lower pay and 2) losing/not developing the fundamental skills of a nurse. I wanted to work med-surg or even ccu but I'm just not sure what to do. I would like to know what ya'll think, any insight would be much appreciated.

Dissatisfaction with the status quo is the catalyst for improving the problems with nursing education. "Sucking it up" might get you by but the underlying issues will persist.

I think ArtClassRN gave an excellent explication of what qualifies as science and why so much of nursing isn't. My biggest gripe then is that nurse educators keep insisting that nursing is scientific. And iluvgusgus, that part you mentioned about the catheter study, loved it. That is actual evidence based practice, it is precise and measurable and I wish that nursing and nursing tests were just more of that. As far as what qualifies as science I guess the simplest and broadest definition would be Karl Popper's falsifiability. For a theory to be scientific it must be testable and able to be proven wrong. Much of what ArtClassRN pointed out was not falsifiable and accurately not science. I believe it is important to have these definitions and standards, otherwise everyone is a scientist. Now, interestingly Maslow's theory is testable and partially falsifiable. You can test whether or not there is actually a hierarchy and if lower needs have to be satisfied before higher needs. They have even done these experiments and found that no, there is no hierarchy and only two classes likely exist, biological needs and all others (my previous posts link to one such study). Nursing, however, continues to heavily utilize a false theory. Maybe my real issue with nursing is not that it does this psycho-social stuff but that it does it very badly. Many of the "theories" that predominate the field are very outdated and lack the rigor of more modern psychology (which even now is barely a science). Oh well... In other news, took NCLEX today and got good pop up for PVT.........so moderately optimistic right now but not getting my hopes up.

I found Nursing to be drastically harder than any course I've ever had in math or science. Nursing is very difficult but it is difficult for all the wrong reasons.

I just wish we would stop trying to reinvent the wheel. A shockingly successful paradigm for healthcare already exists and it is the medical model. Why does nursing have such a strong desire to act like it isn't medicine, sure not the level of a MD, but definitely medicine.

Doing some more thinking about this and I have a few more examples of nursing education shortfalls. This one bugged me all through school, Maslow's. Our instructors kept talking about evidence based practice and then throw this antiquated and unsupported stuff out there and pretend it is valid (A causal correlational test of the need hierarchy concept). The thing that bothers me is that Maslow's hierarchy was so critical to our patient ranking structure yet there is in fact no real separation of the higher order needs into distinct ordered groups. The paper I linked too isn't the only one to reach this conclusion either, just Google it and see. I also can't stand the nursing diagnosis stuff. Why can't we just call a disease by its name a do a detailed pathology. I feel like nursing is trying really hard to pretend it is somehow not medicine and that leads to graduates unprepared to work in the medical field. I would really like to see nursing become a more scientific and rigorous field. Also, I think some sort of residency like they have with MD programs would be very helpful. Here is an excellent article on current nursing that I find interesting, though I disagree with the author on a few things. Worth a look. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/736236_1

Hello HouTx. Sorry if my comment offended you. I'm not saying that nursing school doesn't do anything to prepare one to be a nurse an perhaps my original writing was too strongly worded. However, I do still contend that nursing education is deeply flawed and needs a very critical examination, only part of which concerns exam questions. As for your statement that the NCLEX is well vetted I just don't buy it. Questions drawn from test banks seem to be poorly made and are designed to be as close to the NCLEX as possible. Also, my school contracted with a company to provide a review course for the NCLEX at the end of our classes. The instructor of that course stated that if you wait past 6 months from the end of classes to take the NCLEX your chances of passing the first time drop by 70%. That means someone who had a 90% chance of passing would only have a 30% chance if they wait to long. If the test is that variable over such a short period time that can't speak well of it's reliability or validity.

Hi all. This is my first post. I recently graduated from an RN program and will be taking the NCLEX soon. I've been doing practice tests a lot and am getting a little frustrated. In short the questions are stupid and I hate them on a personal level which I have to work at what with them being inanimate and all. Fortunately science says I'm right. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17014932 http://www.nursingcenter.com/lnc/CEArticle?an=01709760-201303000-00002&Journal_ID=54029&Issue_ID=1526614 If you don't feel like reading these studies basically state that many nursing exam questions are poorly constructed. The second study actually finds that bad question writing could result in 10%-15% of students failing a test they should have passed. I have witnessed this in my own education as many very bright people simply couldn't do well on nursing tests. I myself struggled severely in nursing school even though I came through the prerequisite classes with all A's. Before nursing I was a physics major and did fairly well, I've always been good at academia, and so it was very bruising to my ego to struggle so much. I remember one of my teachers early on talking about how nursing wasn't like engineering or math because you had to think critically. Now, I call bull. In fact, I think that bad questions are actually a symptom of a bigger problem in nursing education as a whole. I think the field lacks a comprehensive and rational approach to its subject and so it takes on a vague and indirect quality. Hell, every nurse I've ever met has stated that nursing school doesn't have much to do with being an actual nurse. Sorry for the long first post but I'm a little irked and stressed right now. So what do ya'll think? Also, wish me luck on the NCLEX, I think I might need it.