So I have heard time and time again from nursing professors and clinical adjuncts that "4.0 students often have a hard time transitioning to the floor, B or C students make better nurses". While I totally get that there are some people out there that are so cerebral that they don't do well on the floor, I think this blanket statement is a bunch of bunk.
I bring this up because I am a 4.0 student. I am also involved in clubs and student groups, volunteer outside of school, and often get complimented in clinicals. However, even with that I still hear the comment over and over that A students don't make as good of nurses as B and C nurses.
What do you nurses who are actually out there on the floor think?
There are book smart people and people with common sense smart. And they can both be very good nurses. It takes all kinds to make up a good staff and provide optimum care. I worked with a straight A doc who had a horrible personality (especially towards nurses) but was right on the money when it came to diagnosing and treatment. You just never know.
I got A's in nursing school and worked hard to get them, but I remember the 2 nurses that got perfect scores on every test, they were lousy on the floor. My theory was that they couldn't focus on the tasks and prioritising the patients needs. They would typically have a fit over labs, fixated on calcium levels that were only barely low instead of suction ini the airway of a trach patient. They couldn't see the forest for the trees!
Specializes in Critical Care & Ambulatory Primary Care.
Very interesting. I find that to be an understandable way to explain this generalization. I also think that first career nurses may be more likely to fit this generalization rather than those who work, return to school as an adult (with all of the various obstacles that can imply) and then enter nursing. Adversity is a real life manner of growing personally and I can understand why persons may believe that straight A students may not have faced the same adversity. However, the reality remains that this is a very large and likely un-supportable generalization.
I haven't read through any of the responses, so this is strictly in response to OP. I too remember hearing this in nursing school from instructors. I believe I struggled in clinical as much as the next student, just in different areas. While I excelled with the big picture of things and from the get go had a good grasp on prioritization and delegation, other students were able to insert a Foley on first try. Just an example. It took me, an A student, a little more practice I think, than others to learn certain tasks. But, I learned them nonetheless.
While I was in my CNA program and in nursing school, I heard from 2 instructors, "You're very book smart, but...."
Screw them, as a professor told me once when I confided this in her. I passed clinicals just fine, and am right where I should be experience wise 4 years after graduating.
The only thing I'll agree with is that while in prerequisites, science and math classes, one might be used to getting A's easily, it can be a personal adjustment settling with C's and B's in core nursing courses because they are unlike any other straight forward class you've ever taken.
4) I have noticed in my career that A student men usually transition better than A student women. I'm not trying to be misogynistic or say men are better nurses than women. I'm only implying that one gender may excel in transitioning better than the other. FYI-I'm basing this on empirical evidence. But do your own observations and if you agree then learn from them and apply it.
Farawyn, I'll go there.
You do mean to say you're NOT basing this on empirical evidence, right? I'm curious what the scientific basis was for determining that "A-student men" transition (ugh -- I'm not thinking about transition in it's usual sense) better than "A-student women" if you did actually mean you were basing it on empirical evidence. Would love to see the lit review on that one.
I have no idea if what grade you got makes you a better or worse nurse, I never ask, and I don't really care. You passed the NCLEX, are now a nurse, so get to work.
If your a good nurse, great, if your a sucky nurse, then shape up. I don't care what you did in school. This is the real world with lives at stake.
I have never been asked by anyone what my grades in school were, nor have I ever told anyone, it just never came up.
It's antiintellectuallism. Nurses are supposed to be good little worker bees who do what they're told and don't think. Thinking people rock the boat.
Nursing is the only profession I'm aware of in which many people claim that less formal education is superior and that mediocre students are preferred.
It's antiintellectuallism. Nurses are supposed to be good little worker bees who do what they're told and don't think. Thinking people rock the boat.
Well thankfully this isn't what I'm being taught right now. Almost all of my instructors thus far have encouraged us to really know and apply our stuff so that we know which provider orders to question in the future.
one of the best pieces of advice i ever got as a newbie (and i was an A student), was to always respond to calls for help, or trouble, any type of need (I'm on L&D), because that is where you will learn. and I guarantee you that stuck with me and helped. and to this day i offer help. not only was i putting myself out there for things that may be difficult/uncomfortable or "not my job" (as some people would say), but i always learned and it helped me later on. or, if enough people were there i could walk away but know what should happen if i was ever in that scenario.
I think there is a false belief that you are either "book smart" or "street smart" but you can't be both. I don't believe that that is true. I have met people who are both - people who are just all-around smart and can pick up on things really fast whether they read it, hear it or see it. I envy those people!
We all have our strengths and weaknesses but a willingness to try will carry you through just about anything.
This is interesting since I've read research that strongly suggests men excel in nursing, but because they are heavily favoured and often advanced past their female peers without good discernable reasons (other than their maleness). I'd love to read any contrary research if possible.
Anecdotally, I've seen a number of men promoted to supervisory roles in nursing when it is plain they are unsuited. Typically they have one or two female "favourites" who do all the work they're incapable of, creating rivalries amongst the staff. I've also seen the opposite (it seems almost reciprocal), but this is a definite pattern that exists in health care.
i saw an interesting phenomenon take place during clinicals. Several of my classmates were assigned to the same floor at various times. In other words, the staff on that floor had an opportunity to work with just about all of us. One day at post-comference two of my male classmates gloated about how the staff told them that they would be guaranteed jobs after graduation. Me and my female classmates looked at each other with surprise. Nobody ever told us we were guaranteed jobs after graduation. I don't have empirical evidence but I have anecdotal evidence that there was some gender bias going on there. I made a mental note to be sure and bring my member with me to clinicals next time.
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sherri64
77 Posts
There are book smart people and people with common sense smart. And they can both be very good nurses. It takes all kinds to make up a good staff and provide optimum care. I worked with a straight A doc who had a horrible personality (especially towards nurses) but was right on the money when it came to diagnosing and treatment. You just never know.