Students have NO idea...

[SHGR, MSN, RN, CNS]

...how much time faculty put in to their prep for lecture, lab, and clinical.

...how difficult it is to make a fair test

...how hard it is to grade papers using a rubric that someone else designed

...how the politics work in the institution and why I can't just change a test I have to give

...how to keep it fair between sections of the class that are taught by different faculty, possibly at different sites

...that part of our role is to give feedback and that I'm not really just "telling you all the things you did wrong"

...that another part of our role is to guide the students to learn the material, not just open up the top of their heads and pour the material right in (as if that were even possible!)

I get it. I had no idea as a student!! And students are supposed to be totally focused on their own learning. But still!

[llg, PhD, RN]

... how hard it is to come up with fresh, original comments to write on a homework assignment when all the students have written on the same topic (or nearly so)

... how hard it is to keep them straight (remember details about them) when everything is online and the faculty and student have never met face-to-face or had a real 1:1 conversation before.

(Can you tell I have just spent the last 2 weeks grading a lot of homework for an online class?)

[canigraduate]

...how hard it is to keep you from harming a patient in clinical.

...how stressful it is to pass meds with 8 students when you know darn well they don't know the difference between loratadine and lisinopril.

...how many of those red marks on your care plan are for your benefit (all of them).

...how it breaks my heart when you fail out of the program and I know how devastated you must be.

...how much a simple "Thank you" means from a student.

...how hard it is not to slap you on the back of the head when I catch you on your phone.

...how much I worry about teaching you enough to keep you and your patients safe.

...how loudly my husband laughs when I recount your antics.

...how happy I am when you get that spark of accomplishment in your eye when you've done a skill well for the first time.

[SRDAVIS]

how much homework we do

how hard it is to be creative, make learning fun and still cover the required material

how often I wanna say " you gotta be freaking kidding me" lol

how much we want to see them succeed

[SHGR, MSN, RN, CNS]

...how hard it is to teach the same thing up to three different ways (knowing it contradicts itself!): what is going to be on the NCLEX (some of which may not be current), what they will be seeing in real life, and also what is EBP... So much of what we do is tradition-based, yet we need to be a science, and we also need to prepare students for the reality of the workplace.

...that our role as instructors is not merely a barrier between them and the lucrative career of their dreams...

...that I, too, wish we could merely download information into your brain without effort...

[AJayG3310]

...how hard it is to keep you from harming a patient in clinical.

...how stressful it is to pass meds with 8 students when you know darn well they don't know the difference between loratadine and lisinopril.

...how many of those red marks on your care plan are for your benefit (all of them).

...how it breaks my heart when you fail out of the program and I know how devastated you must be.

...how much a simple "Thank you" means from a student.

...how hard it is not to slap you on the back of the head when I catch you on your phone.

...how much I worry about teaching you enough to keep you and your patients safe.

...how loudly my husband laughs when I recount your antics.

...how happy I am when you get that spark of accomplishment in your eye when you've done a skill well for the first time.

I wish I had known all these things during my LPN clinicals a few years ago...but I will keep all these things in mind if I get accepted into the RN program for this Fall. :) I love to hear (read) how it is for the other side of the coin. The instructors and clinical instructors. I have a few that I'll always remember and 1 that I still keep in contact with. You guys are angels!!!