Since nursing has changed so much over the years, does anyone think that nursing schools should add hospitality, customer service and how to micro manage to their education?
When we graduated as nurses, what we learned in school was typically not how you performed your job. Instead you need to learn how to cut corners but cover your a** and please both the hospital and the patients. There is so much conflict between what you know is right, what the hospital wants as an end result and how to keep the "customers" from causing you grief.
With all the theory that they teach which is useless in micro management, does anyone think that new nurses would be better prepared with some reality courses about the real nature of nursing. Yes, nursing skills are "this" but your actual job will look like "this."
I know if they offered classes on how to accomplish this difficult balance, I would be the first to sign up.
There are many lectures out there but all they do is teach you it exists. There are real lessons or examples. As a matter of fact, since the hospitals are the problem, maybe they should offer on-going classes to address it. Maybe more clear cut policies to address the imbalances so the nurses know they have something to follow instead of just hearing they didn't handle it right after trying so hard to do everything right.
Also a reality approach to all the interruptions and demands that are not priorities but interfere with important tasks. We know the hospital wants us to please everyone and get all of our work done and not work overtime. Maybe with all the specific policies they create, they can create specific policies that address your time management. Wouldn't it be great to say, between 8 and 9 the nurse can't be interrupted for bowel movements, walking patients to the bathroom etc because it is med time. Between 9:30 & 10 is charting time. I know....dream on.
I am just a pre nursing student waiting for my magic letter next month so I can start my clinicals in the fall. Why don't they have volunteers, candy stripers etc do the hospitality thing (water, reading material, pillow fluffing etc). I understand that this is not reality, but wouldn't it be nice. They could even put a new call button on the remote.
This concept has been implemented in many hospitals. In a big hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, at least in the emergency Department, they have sweet youngsters hired as "Customer Care" agents. They go from room to room at the ED, and ask if you need anything: pillow, pillow fluffed, more blankets, snack or water if allowed, etc.
Since nursing has changed so much over the years, does anyone think that nursing schools should add hospitality, customer service and how to micro manage to their education?
Good grief. Where's the abso-freaking-lutely not icon??
We are nurses. We are not employed by the hospitality industry.
I agree that much of nursing school curricula is unrealistic, at best. What is needed is considerably more clinical time spent caring for multiple patients and perhaps more role-playing exercises in professionalism i.e., responding to outright hostility, prioritization of multiple demands, and juggling personal & professional responsibilities.
The best place for these additions to nursing school curricula, IMO, is in a post-graduation residency for nurses. It's overdue.
there is not enough time in nursing school to teach the hands on stuff everything else has to be grabbed on the go
there is not time in the hospital setting for a nurse to give one on one care to 7-9 patients
aditting does not take the time to orient family members about the amount of work that the nurses are required to do, families think that if you are not in their room you are goofing off somewhere, if you are charting they think you are just sitting on behind and not doing anything
There would be time in a four year BSN program. Classes that should be added to the program would be classes in Employment Law, Administrative Law, Insurance Law, classes on the business end of heath care, assertivness training, teaching nurses what their RIGHTS ARE in the workplace, alternative employment for nurses, how to start a business,etc.
Nurses are like babes in the woods when dealing with management and saying "no" to unsafe workplace conditions. Nurse need to learn what they give up by not working in a union environment and how unions benefits the nursing profession. You cannot be a patient advocate if you have no workplace security. You cannot advocate for your patient if doing so will lead to being fired. Nurses need to learn how to how to stand together to better the profession, and protect our patients. There is safety in numbers.
Unfortunately, too many nurses are ignorant about unions because they work in right to work and at will states. They have no experience with unions. Those of us who grew up on the east coast have experiemce with unions, having parents who belonged to unions.
These are what I call, "quality of life classes". PTs, and OTs who now have graduate degrees as entry into practice, added these types of classes when they were still bachelors degree programs. They learn how to start a business, have professional prganizations who, unlike the ANA, support there members and look out for the good of their members, and not the hospitals. They strictly monitor and limit the number of individuals who enter the profession. They look out for their members from the get go, and resist the pressure to sell their professional practice to the highest bidder.
These classes might not make you do patient care better, allow you to assess you patient more closely, but they will give you the skills and, more importantly, give you the confidence to navigate the workplace thorns. These skills are sadly lacking in nurses. These are "nursing employment self defense skills" that we all need to learn.
There would be time in a four year BSN program. Classes that should be added to the program would be classes in Employment Law, Administrative Law, Insurance Law, classes on the business end of heath care, assertivness training, teaching nurses what their RIGHTS ARE in the workplace, alternative employment for nurses, how to start a business,etc.
Nurses are like babes in the woods when dealing with management and saying "no" to unsafe workplace conditions. Nurse need to learn what they give up by not working in a union environment and how unions benefits the nursing profession. You cannot be a patient advocate if you have no workplace security. You cannot advocate for your patient if doing so will lead to being fired. Nurses need to learn how to how to stand together to better the profession, and protect our patients. There is safety in numbers.
Unfortunately, too many nurses are ignorant about unions because they work in right to work and at will states. They have no experience with unions. Those of us who grew up on the east coast have experiemce with unions, having parents who belonged to unions.
These are what I call, "quality of life classes". PTs, and OTs who now have graduate degrees as entry into practice, added these types of classes when they were still bachelors degree programs. They learn how to start a business, have professional prganizations who, unlike the ANA, support there members and look out for the good of their members, and not the hospitals. They strictly monitor and limit the number of individuals who enter the profession. They look out for their members from the get go, and resist the pressure to sell their professional practice to the highest bidder.
These classes might not make you do patient care better, allow you to assess you patient more closely, but they will give you the skills and, more importantly, give you the confidence to navigate the workplace thorns. These skills are sadly lacking in nurses. These are "nursing employment self defense skills" that we all need to learn.
Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN
Spokane, Washington
What "time" would there be in a BSN program? They are four-year programs now, they're packed "to the gunwales" with content -- the students hardly get a chance to sit down and take a deep breath -- and the grads are hardly learning even the most basic skills/knowledge necessary for entry-level practice. How are you going to fit in all these extra courses -- cut out even morenursing content??
SusanKathleen, RN
366 Posts
This concept has been implemented in many hospitals. In a big hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, at least in the emergency Department, they have sweet youngsters hired as "Customer Care" agents. They go from room to room at the ED, and ask if you need anything: pillow, pillow fluffed, more blankets, snack or water if allowed, etc.