"Why can't she just work with another nurse and learn what she needs to know?"
This is the question posed to me by a friend whose children are homeschooled and live somewhat "off the grid". (The teen daughter is very interested in nursing and is academically quite competetent. She would like to be a missionary.) My friend is a self-described "rebel", well educated himself at the masters level. He rejects almost all state regulation, licensure, social security, insurance, etc. Nothing I could say convinced him that formal education and licensure for nurses has value.
I'd love to see his daughter attend some type of nursing program when she is old enough. Any ideas of what might convince him that it is a good idea?
Attending nursing school won't necessarily lead her to adopt a mainstream worldview, if that's what he fears. It will give her the tools (technical and critical thinking skills) and empower her to provide adequate and quality care for her patients. Only shadowing a nurse would only provide a subjective, fragmented view of the field of nursing.
I'm sure there are other countries in which she could obtain the title of "nurse" without the degree from the state. For example, a village in a third world country probably wouldn't mind someone who has the knowledge of the nurse yet lacks the diploma. Of course, she would need a license in most parts of the world. It's up to her when the time comes to decide.
It is a parent's obligation to give and teach the child what is necessary...but when that child grows up, it is up to him/her to apply what they want to their life the rest of the way. :) I'd hope her father would let her live her life and not try to clone his own.
There are actually some very good hospital-based programs left here in the States; Covenant Health in Lubbock Texas comes to mind. I don't know if it's still a certificate program, but it definitely does confer the privilege of taking the NCLEX-RN at the end of three years' training and I've heard older nurses say those are the best nurses there are. Also there are some legitimate, accredited online BSN programs cropping up (WGU has one) that are great for serious self-motivated learners - she would have to coordinate with hospitals for clinicals but there are people doing it successfully as we speak. (And that's an all-inclusive program, not just an RN-BSN bridge.)
I'm not going to judge your friend's reasons for his attitudes about life either way - I'm just glad to see people who are refusing to be sheeple - but I'm guessing that a lot of his reasoning about this particular subject does have to do with lack of awareness of just what a nurse does (I'd be really curious as to his thoughts about licensing of doctors/surgeons). So maybe a little education as to what a nurse needs to learn/know is in order - hand him a pathophysiology textbook and let him know that's just one of several of its type she needs to become acquainted with. If his daughter is reasonably well-educated the 'need to be able to communicate well' argument won't cut it - I know professors of nursing with Masters' degrees and even one or two with Ph.D.s who can't spell, punctuate or write a decent paragraph, and odds are he's seen a nurses' note or two that butchers the English language. (Honestly, my daughter could communicate better in 5th grade than some of my nurse friends.) But letting him in on some of the realities of what nursing is today will probably wake him up to what is actually required. People outside the medical world truly have no idea what goes into nursing today. My own dear mother brings this to my attention almost daily.
Your friend seems to know very little about nursing as a career if he's asking why they need to go to school. If he's too stubborn to help his daughter seek out a nursing school when the time comes, and it's a family dynamic where the daughter still submits to her father as an adult; then perhaps a good suggestion would be midwifery training. The majority of the schooling, as far as I've seen from friends who are certified midwives in OR, is apprenticeship. I've a good and incredibly talented friend who is a certified midwife and is working in Kenya. She's not a missionary; but there is plenty of opportunity everywhere, as midwives are far more valued and in demand in countries outside of the US.
Maybe it would help pointing out that a huge part of nursing school IS technically apprenticeship, since it requires clinicals?
"Why can't she just work with another nurse and learn what she needs to know?
My friend is a self-described "rebel", well educated himself at the masters level. He rejects almost all state regulation, licensure, social security, insurance, etc. Nothing I could say convinced him that formal education and licensure for nurses has value.
Is he well educated himself by who's standards? Does he have a master's degree? If he is well educated, then he should see the value of education in his children. If the daughter has been "off the grid" for that long, then perhaps college will be overwhelming for her. And that is where I have reservations--and find that kids in a controlling atmoshpere such as this seem to have a difficult time in the "real world".
I would also be curious, your friend rejects all state regulations, social security and insurance, but does he possess any of these things? Meaning like many who live off the grid, do they collect financial aid from the state on the very things that they find so offensive? Else how do they live? My point on that statement is that if they do collect from the state, then his child can go to college on some financial aid.
The best things we can give our kids is the ability to be independent thinkers. A degree doesn't equal compassion and caring and missionary work, but it sure does mean that you can be an RN. If she would like to go spread the word of Jesus, hand hold, listen, and care then have at it, no degree required to do all of that. If however, she wants to practice nursing, then she needs to be licensed to do so. And that means a degree. Which I am sure that she could get in a relatively short time should she be that brilliant. Seems to me that Dad is afraid that the real world may taint what he has created. And that is a very, very scary thing.
I would like to point out that while some backwoods third world village might accept an american with no license as a nurse, it would be patently dangerous to pursue this type of thinking and encourage anyone to actually try to do that. Remember the belgian nurses from 2006-2007? Was it Libya that sentenced them to death for giving an entire orphanage worth of kids AIDS? The nurses did not have the disease, and the DNA analysis showed that it did not come from the nurses. Because they were licensed, and employed, and followed all their government's "stuff", they had the support necessary from their government and the EU to get them the heck out of that place, alive.
They might not require you to have a license in B.F. Egypt, but they sure will burn you as a witch if they don't like your looks. Best to be on the safe side.
My friendship with this family goes way back, and I am very fond of the kids, who are just delightful. I don't want to go into details of their choices or their lifestyle. I do appreciate the comments on reasons to go to college, and the comments about alternate pathways to experience or education. I agree that going to a third world country without credentials is a bad idea, and would never recommend that.
But their choices should not have to be their kids' choices. It is a big world out there, and I would be equally concerned that the child not be prepared mentallly or emotionally for the kind of despair that she could see going to a third world country, or even in the next big city. So lets take college and education out of the equation for a moment. Book smart does not equal street smart. So homeschool to work shadowing may not be a bad idea. An insular life such as this needs a bit of time to become accustomed to the ways of the world as we most know it to be. I wouldn't even think about college until a plan to intergrate this child into the world comes first. There's an RN and then there's a missionary that offers spiritual support of those who suffer. And my guess is more along the lines that Dad doesn't want to relinquish control, and college and shadowing a working RN just may do that, so send her with a spiritual caregiver, call it a "nurse" to satisfy kid's need, and Dad and church still have the control.
One can be a nurse and one can nurse. Both are far different things. Noun, verb, or in the case of RN's or LPN's both mutually.
If the daughter has been "off the grid" for that long, then perhaps college will be overwhelming for her. And that is where I have reservations--and find that kids in a controlling atmoshpere such as this seem to have a difficult time in the "real world".
Not sure what you are basing your judgment here off of, but that's certainly not true for the majority of those I know who was home-schooled, and I know quite a few people from home-schooled backgrounds. In fact, the only person of my friends I know who had particular trouble when she went to college after HS was one who went to an equally conservative and strict college (Pensacola). I wouldn't blame her home schooling either, but more so the constant legalism she was under. Other than her, everyone (easily 20) I've known to be home schooled and/or off the grid has been very successful since.
And my guess is more along the lines that Dad doesn't want to relinquish control, and college and shadowing a working RN just may do that, so send her with a spiritual caregiver, call it a "nurse" to satisfy kid's need, and Dad and church still have the control.
One can be a nurse and one can nurse. Both are far different things. Noun, verb, or in the case of RN's or LPN's both mutually.
mariebailey, MSN, RN
948 Posts
Attending nursing school won't necessarily lead her to adopt a mainstream worldview, if that's what he fears. It will give her the tools (technical and critical thinking skills) and empower her to provide adequate and quality care for her patients. Only shadowing a nurse would only provide a subjective, fragmented view of the field of nursing.