That one seemingly useless prerequisite...

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You all know the one I'm talking about. During our pre-nursing days, sometimes we must take prerequisites that seem pointless and a waste of time. However, today while washing dishes, I found my mind wandering to how one of my seemingly pointless prerequisites, Intro to Literature, actually was not useless for my nursing degree at all.

I am someone who has always taken everything at face-value, without question. Naive? Yes. Too trusting? Probably. I've been taken advantage of because of this trait about myself. However, while taking that class, I learned that there is often WAY more to the story (pun intended) than first meets the eye. If you just dig a little deeper, you can often glean a much better understanding than you first thought possible. I learned how to a skeptic, which isn't necessarily a bad thing to be sometimes.

Although I am about a month away from starting my very first day of nursing school, I can already see how learning the skill to analyze and pick things apart to find a deeper meaning will actually come in handy for me. I can also see that it might take practice to know when to analyze and when to accept.

Anyway, that realization left me thinking that I can't be the only person who has taken things learned from "pointless" classes and applied them to nursing and/or life. I am wondering:

What seemingly "pointless" prerequisite for nursing did you have to take that is actually doing you some good now and why/how?

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Texas government. Government general. 2 history classes. ..

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

American history class...

This course is largely unrelated to nursing, but useful when receiving a patient who is a veteran of a foreign war or lived through the Jim Crow laws because you have an adequate fund of knowledge to chat with them about their experiences.

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Texas government. Government general. 2 history classes. ..

What was it about government, and more specifically Texas Government, that helped you in your nursing career?

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American history class...

This course is largely unrelated to nursing, but useful when receiving a patient who is a veteran of a foreign war or lived through the Jim Crow laws because you have an adequate fund of knowledge to chat with them about their experiences.

I like trying to find common ground with people and usually try to ask them questions about something I know they are interested in or have experienced to get them talking. I bet you've heard quite a few interesting stories from the vets!

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What was it about government, and more specifically Texas Government, that helped you in your nursing career?

I'm starting nursing school on the 24th.

Nothing I can think of will help me in that area. I already was in the military for 5 years so I'm pretty familiar with it all..

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I'm starting nursing school on the 24th.

Nothing I can think of will help me in that area. I already was in the military for 5 years so I'm pretty familiar with it all..

Oops, sorry to assume. Good luck on your first day! I don't start until the end of September, so I will be looking forward to seeing how it's going for those of you that start earlier. :)

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Specializes in Prior military RN/current ICU RN..

Nothing in life is "useless" unless you choose it to be. All classes can benefit you...whether it is learning a new study method..how to work with others....heck..just the importance of being resposnible and getting your work in on time. I laugh when students say a class is "worthless". They are not seeing the big picture. There are a lot of hoops to jump through during nursing school and that is a PART of nursing school. Learning how to navigate a challenging situation. Learning how to be self sufficent. I have been a nurse 10 years and I learn every single day.

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I believe you are correct. I know I was guilty of looking at it in the wrong way for a long time. It wasn't until the last couple of years that I started piecing things together and applying things I've learned to other aspects of my life. I was just making the connection between that particular class and how it might be helpful to me in nursing school and thought to bring it up on here to get a conversation going about what other people have learned. :)

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Jumping in here - Texas nurses need to know the specifics.... all the strange & unique facets of our state legislature operations ... because our NPA is also very unique. That's the driver behind our requirement for a Jurisprudence class for all new nurses & a refresher for re-licensure. So, those pre-reqs are not irrelevant to nursing practice.

Education is never wasted. Even if the subject matter has no immediate relevance, the act of 'learning' is a beneficial intellectual process. Of course, if the academic world was a fairer place, we wouldn't have to pay so much for those irrelevant pre-reqs, right?

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