Research Starting 8/12

Nursing Students Texas (UTA)

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I know I am way ahead of the game but I wanted to start this thread early so we could have some time to share pointers and tips we have collected along the way concerning this course. Maybe we can make it a little less stressful by trying to be as prepared as we can!!

This is going to be interesting. I saw that there are two tests and they are only available on Wednesday. I am hoping I can get off of work. I have never had a class have a test available for only one day. Good luck everyone and hopefully these 5 weeks will go quickly and smoothly.

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Stay positive, set deadline with your group members, when you have doubts double check answers, participate in online office hour and remember answers for the exams are not found in the text in order to pass you MUST understand the entire content of the work. Good luck guys.

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Stay positive, set deadline with your group members, when you have doubts double check answers, participate in online office hour and remember answers for the exams are not found in the text in order to pass you MUST understand the entire content of the work. Good luck guys.

Great advice, but easier said than done. Everyone in my group (except one) ignored all deadlines and submitted things whenever they felt like it or not at all. During the last 2 weeks, I set strict deadlines via the DB and Dr. H. popped in on the DB and told the group that they did not have to adhere to them because the last day to post the assignment was Saturday and she felt like my deadline of Thursday was way too early. I wanted everything to be submitted by Thursday so there was time to make corrections and have it finalized to submit on Friday since I worked on Sat. It was quite frustrating to have not only zero support from the faculty, but to have them contradict our plan to get the assignments done fairly and timely. The one girl in my group who worked hard w/me was forced by Dr. B, Dr. H, and our AC to delay submitting our final APA paper until Sat night as she was dressed in scrubs with car keys in hand walking out the door for work in order to give the rest of the group yet one more chance to participate with all deadlines ignored. Guess what? Even after doing all of that, we submitted the paper with only 3 names instead of 5 because only one other girl posted anything at all on the DB during that week.

Regarding the online office hours, they are held on Wed mornings the first 3 weeks of the class and yes they are helpful in that many questions regarding the assignments are answered at that time but if you miss them live, don't worry. They are taped and be accessed anytime after Wed morning for one week. Take good notes and use the info to help you in your assignments; it will save you a few points. And trust me....every point counts. You could assign one member of the group to listen and write up a summary to post on the DB if there is someone trustworthy and thorough.

As for the quizzes, some of the answers are indeed found in the text. I think what Shantel means is that they do not come directly verbatim from there. For example, you will need to understand concepts rather than merely simple definitions. In other words, yes, you do need to know the meaning of specific terms but there won't be questions that ask about the definition per se; rather, by understanding the definition, you can then apply it to an example given in the quiz question.

I am keeping good thoughts and am sending all my positive feelings and regards your way.

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Please feel free to contact me if anyone needs any help. Took this class this summer, and it's pretty rough.

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Hi scarletfire,

It is disgraceful that student who behave in such manner would be supported by the faculty. Sorry for your horror... They need to really consider changing this course. The course work cannot be done by a single individual yet the members are not held accountable to participate, so good student get screw in the process totally unfair.

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Hi scarletfire,

It is disgraceful that student who behave in such manner would be supported by the faculty. Sorry for your horror... They need to really consider changing this course. The course work cannot be done by a single individual yet the members are not held accountable to participate, so good student get screw in the process totally unfair.

Hi Shantel1621,

I know. For me, that was by far the worst part of my experience w/ Research. The other student and I were in constant contact with Drs. B and H and our AC by phone and e:mail after the first week when we saw that no one else was doing any work and we received an F on the 1st assignment, and they were not at all helpful to us. In fact, they actually encouraged us to correct their errors for them and give them extra time to work on their sections. And, they were very aware that she and I were the only ones contributing anything because after the 1st week, they (faculty) were reading all posts on the DB and all assignments on File exchange. So, they knew that she and I did all the work on every assignment and yet they didn't seem to think there was anything at all wrong with that. I need to stop talking about this because it is upsetting me and probably worrisome to the students in this class now. For anyone who is reading this, Dr. B told us that our experience (of 3 out of 5 in a group being the weak links) had never, to her knowledge, occurred before in this class. She said sometimes there is one person who doesn't contribute as much, but that's about it.

I do agree, though, that the group approach is counterproductive and takes away from any real learning that might otherwise have occurred. In addition, it has turned me away completely from any interest I may have had previously in nursing research. And, I am sure that that is not the goal they are trying to achieve by making us take this class.

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I know it is only 12:00 on day one but I am already getting nervous that no one else in my group has posted or responded to anything.

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I know it is only 12:00 on day one but I am already getting nervous that no one else in my group has posted or responded to anything.

I know Maryannmartin. i have the same problem. I am the only one who wrote something.

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same here. Only one other person has posted! Oh well, I have to work tonight and tomorrow night, so hope things look much better by Wednesday. Will listen to the OOH.

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End of day 1:

only one person has posted anything to the discussion board other than myself. I went to check the group list and there are now only five members in my group as a name was removed with out any one notifying us. I have now adjusted the assigned questions to reflect the five members left in hopes that some of them actually show up. Still not a single word of instruction or advice has been posted by my clinical coach. I suppose since they can't even let me know a member has been removed I shouldn't expect much. In case I haven't made this clear in the past, I hate this school.

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

I'm going to give you a piece of advice...it may not help fix being in a truly bad group or in dealing with the bumblings of the ACs and Bb software (hopefully things have improved for this session as they were pretty bad last session), but it may make how you cope with the class better as a whole.

Remember that the other members in the group are NOT you. Everyone is in this class for their own reasons and they have their own motivations. Therefore, try not to expect your group members to be like you, to approach the class in the same way as you, or to do the work the same way as you. That just won't happen.

Does that excuse a slacking group member? NOT AT ALL.

But if you go into the class understanding that you will not be working with 5 clones of you, you'll find it to be easier to deal with and you may just enjoy it. OK, I won't go that far as to say you'll enjoy it. But it may make things more bearable.

Set your guidelines for quality and deadlines for submission, and be firm with them. But accept that not everyone is going to meet them exactly when you do and in the exactly the same way as you do. Just as long as they meet those guidelines and deadlines that you set.

Good luck.

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I'm going to give you a piece of advice...it may not help fix being in a truly bad group or in dealing with the bumblings of the ACs and Bb software (hopefully things have improved for this session as they were pretty bad last session), but it may make how you cope with the class better as a whole.

Remember that the other members in the group are NOT you. Everyone is in this class for their own reasons and they have their own motivations. Therefore, try not to expect your group members to be like you, to approach the class in the same way as you, or to do the work the same way as you. That just won't happen.

At this point all I am asking is that they log into the class and acknowledge they are there and are going to participate. I have no unrealistic expectation that they will hold themsleves to the same standards that I do. I just want to know how many other peoples work will have to be passed out to the rest of the group because at this time we only have three members.

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