Looking for advice from an educator about my Professional Development BSN class that became so disrupted tonight solely due to the different levels of students in the class. By the end of the class, my head was pounding and some of the experienced nurses were expressing serious concerns about allowing different levels in the class in the first place. We are in a 300-level BSN class, but the educator had to keep stopping the discussion constantly to explain things that should have been learned in Nursing 101 - like why open-ended questions and therapeutic communication are important -- and how to do it.
Im one of the 6 experienced nurses in the class - 2 working in critical care, 2 at substance abuse programs, 1 in OR and 1 in med-surg. The seats are set up in a U-pattern and coincidentally all 6 of us, never having met before, sat on the left side from the first day. The 3 men gravitated to the center seats - 2 were PCAs, 1 an EMT, now are RNs and are at least halfway into their first year - 1 in psych, one in med-surg, 1 in home care --- so they also have some experience. Seated on the right side of the room are 5 former LPNs - now new grad RNs - 3 working in the nursing home where they were LPNs and 2 not yet working at all.
So we have the moms with teenagers on one side of the room, the guys in the middle, and the 20-something young women on the other side of the room. I point out the mix only to give you an idea of the different levels - I mean no offense to any of the group.
The most glaring thing was the critical thinking - and lack of it - between the levels. It was so obvious that there are different trains of thought between the levels. The new nurses cant be blamed since critical thinking does come with experience, but, as a student, it was very frustrating to have to constantly back-track off the topic and try to get everyone to the same level of thinking. In fact, it was impossible. We ran out of time because of it and did not finish the subject matter. Another source of great frustration tonight because the topic we were trying to get thru is what our final will be about. There were so many interruptions that we didnt even have time for a break during this 3 hour class.
We were discussing Neumans theory and applying it to case studies. The experienced nurses wheels could practically be seen turning in their heads as they applied the theory and came up with the stressors and appropriate interventions, but the new grads interrupted the discussion constantly - asking things like "why cant you just TELL the client to do it this way and move on?" And "it says this nursing theory was developed as a teaching tool for students. What kind of students? NURSING students???"
The educator had to take an extraordinary amount of time to answer questions like that and explain basic nursing, while the rest of us sat there waiting to move on to the next step. This went on for 3 hours.
At first the experienced nurses were understanding, recognizing the different levels of experience in the room, understanding that critical thinking comes with experience. They were not being judgemental of the new grads and were even trying to help them understand the subject matter and answer their questions. But after a while, the experienced nurses were getting nothing from the class, the unnecessary interruptions dominated the time. After a couple of hours of this, the experienced nurses were losing patience with the new grads and the tension was rising in the room. They stopped being helpful, and just sat there getting angrier and angrier that this class was turning into Fundamentals of Nursing and that the educator was entertaining these disruptions.
At one point, in applying Neumans theory to a case study of a breastfeeding post partum pt, a new grad kept insisting that a stressor for the pt was that her husband walked into the room while her breast was exposed. There was nothing in the case study to suggest that that was a problem for the pt or that she had any reaction at all to it. So the experienced nurses tried to explain why this was not an issue. The new grad insisted it was. The educator then spent another 10 minutes or so trying to make her understand that she is putting her own cultural ideas on the situation and got all into that. While the rest of us sat there waiting to continue the class.
One of the guys walked out a half hour early, saying he couldnt take it anymore. By the end, the left side of the room was groaning and rolling their eyes everytime the right side of the room had another question.
Maybe the educator should have not catered to the new grads interruptions that had nothing to do with the subject at hand. Maybe she should have offered to meet with them at the end of the class to go over whatever they needed. In any event, the experienced nurses left feeling very upset, drained, short-changed, frustrated, annoyed, and angry that the subject matter was not finished because of the disruptions. The new grads were oblivious to it all. I dont know how you solve this problem of teaching different levels at once but as it was, it did not make for a good class.
Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.
