Well, as my screen name says, I lurk-- a lot! Anyway, I am preparing to write my final paper for nursing school, it is a wrap-up of our final preceptorship and our impressions of the nursing workforce we are about to enter. We are supposed to share our thoughts about furthering our education, how we have witnessed nurses being treated in the workplace, how we felt our school experience was, etc. My paper has kinda veered off on a little tangent (which I am probably going to remove) because one thing that has stuck out in my mind is the way I have seen my fellow nursing students communicate on our class web program, and I see it here on a daily basis as well. I am talking about basic communication skills as far as the written word is concerned.
Is it a trend today, or are my classmates really so deficient in language skills that they can not write a professional, comprehendable sentence? I am not talking about spelling errors, gosh knows we all make those-- I am talking about stuff like this:
"i dont know what u all r talkinabout, but there crazy the way they grade us in nursing school!"
Some of my classmates actually respond to discussion questions from our instructor in this manner. Whatever, to each his own--but my question is, how can a person be taken seriously as a professional if they can not write in basic comprehensible language? And in reading the message board here, I am kinda stunned how many times I just can't understand what the heck someone is trying to say because it just doesn't make any sense!
The more important question to me is this: Do people write like this in real life? Are nurses out there writing notes like this, and communicating with other professionals in this manner? Or is it just something people do on message boards? Do any of you run into this in the workplace?
I'm not talking about simple spelling and/or grammar errors(Tweety, I love your sig about spelling!:)). In fact, in 1st semester my instructor gave me a 98% instead of a 100% on a paper, and she made a note to me that my "grammer was incorrect in one sentence.":uhoh3: Yes, she made a spelling error while correcting me, but I got her point. But if she had written this instead: "ur grammer wuz not write," I probably would have not understood what she was referring to.
So, do nurses communicate this way in the workplace, or is it just confined to the internet?
*** I'm not looking to make fun of spelling or grammar errors, we all make them, I really am just curious if this is the way nurses communicate in real life!***
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
I think we all as a society, could try harder to make our communications more concise, correct and clear. That said, the language and spelling police don't reside here at allnurses.com. Lighten up!
That said, the language and spelling police don't reside here at allnurses.com. Lighten up!
i didn't get the impression that the concerns were focused on minor mistakes.
rather, the observations of (too) many professional nurses not utilizing basic jr. high grammar, spelling and usage.
no one is fussing over typos. it's bigger than that.
and i readily agree that if a nurse cannot exercise english 101, then it serves to further weaken the validity of our expectations, in being professionally recognized and treated.
truly, i am appalled at some of the nursing notes i have read. it's downright scary.
Specializes in Happily semi-retired; excited for the whole whammy.
i didn't get the impression that the concerns were focused on minor mistakes.
rather, the observations of (too) many professional nurses not utilizing basic jr. high grammar, spelling and usage.
no one is fussing over typos. it's bigger than that.
and i readily agree that if a nurse cannot exercise english 101, then it serves to further weaken the validity of our expectations, in being professionally recognized and treated.
truly, i am appalled at some of the nursing notes i have read. it's downright scary.
leslie
Obviously, there is a huge difference between the ability to compose coherent charting notes and the tendency to use Internet slang in chatrooms and message boards. Not all of the posters in this thread have made that distinction.
Obviously, there is a huge difference between the ability to compose coherent charting notes and the tendency to use Internet slang in chatrooms and message boards. Not all of the posters in this thread have made that distinction.
I haven't read all of the previous posts but I do have an opinion. What you write reflects back on you. I don't read too far in a message or give much respect to the poster with bad grammer and spelling. Sorry but language skills run further than skin deep as far as I'm concerned.
Anyway, I am preparing to write my final paper for nursing school, it is a wrap-up of our final preceptorship and our impressions of the nursing workforce we are about to enter. We are supposed to share our thoughts about furthering our education, how we have witnessed nurses being treated in the workplace, how we felt our school experience was, etc. My paper has kinda veered off on a little tangent (which I am probably going to remove) because one thing that has stuck out in my mind is the way I have seen my fellow nursing students communicate on our class web program, and I see it here on a daily basis as well. I am talking about basic communication skills as far as the written word is concerned.
SmilingBluEyes
20,964 Posts
I think we all as a society, could try harder to make our communications more concise, correct and clear. That said, the language and spelling police don't reside here at allnurses.com. Lighten up!