The Indecency of Your Education

brainkandy87 · Mar 13, 2012

I agree fully. I think you only get so much out of any educational institution. What makes the great schools great is not the educators, but that the students there want to learn. That's why they're so hard to get into. I've graduated from a large university and a community college and honestly, the community college had a better teaching system. I think the value of self-education is especially important in medicine. You're only as good of a nurse/doctor/paramedic/whatever as you allow yourself to be. What you do with your education is up to you.

mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN · Mar 13, 2012

I think it id difficult to make generalizations. I have gone to different community colleges in different states, a regular 4 year university and a private "strip mall" (as I like to call them) graduate school. I have had good and bad teachers ate every level. Right now, I am at a community college for my Nursing degree and it is not a great experience. Many of us are older and have previous degrees, but we are having a problem with everything: textbook is horrid, revolving door of instructors (the Dean is going to teach a section, they are so in trouble with enough quality instructors), bad testing and I mean using a Beta program of non-field tested items. 4/36 passed the last test. the night group-none passed.

I think it depends on where you are. When I was in IL, my Biology professor was on sabbatical from Harvard while his wife finished her dissertation. He was GREAT! Another one I had later in SC was a brilliant scientist, not so great at teaching.

Everything depends.

brainkandy87 · Mar 13, 2012

I think it id difficult to make generalizations. I have gone to different community colleges in different states, a regular 4 year university and a private "strip mall" (as I like to call them) graduate school. I have had good and bad teachers ate every level. Right now, I am at a community college for my Nursing degree and it is not a great experience. Many of us are older and have previous degrees, but we are having a problem with everything: textbook is horrid, revolving door of instructors (the Dean is going to teach a section, they are so in trouble with enough quality instructors), bad testing and I mean using a Beta program of non-field tested items. 4/36 passed the last test. the night group-none passed.
I think it depends on where you are. When I was in IL, my Biology professor was on sabbatical from Harvard while his wife finished her dissertation. He was GREAT! Another one I had later in SC was a brilliant scientist, not so great at teaching.
Everything depends.

Absolutely, it does. Sorry if it seemed like I was making the generalization that community colleges are all good, or better than universities. I do think that, if the textbook is horrid, you should find another source. There were a lot of times in nursing school where our assigned book made no sense to me, so I simply researched other sources until I found a source that explained something better or I understood it better.

HGTVrn33 · Mar 13, 2012

@Grntea I could totally imagine their confused faces staring at you and your blank stare right back at them! lol

In my program it was the attitude of entitlement. They were expecting to be hand feed all of the information with out reading and researching on their own. I mean really we have google if you don't want to read a chapter. You could at least get a broad idea for the lecture that day, geesh.I told a class mate, she could take 20 minutes away from her social sites to google a topic she was having with on a particular day.

CrufflerJJ, BSN, RN, EMT-P · Mar 13, 2012

In regards to the trending topics of "I can't pass (insert whatever test that is being taken here,)" but I just don't want to/can't/don't have the time to study so I need help now...

Yup....pretty simple. If you aren't willing to WORK/PUSH to achieve, doom on you. No excuses. No whining. Wallow in your incompetence & don't bother to move on.

Creamsoda, ASN, RN · Mar 13, 2012

Its the me, me, me attitude of today. I have to work for what I want? Whhhhaaaatttt? But shouldn't someone hand it to me on a silver platter?

I fondly remember a high school teacher going on rants to us about how we need to start learning to "feed" ourselves. He was sick of "spoon feeding pablum" into our mouths. I get now why he was so frustrated. I guess I was blessed with a family who valued a strong work ethic. Sadly this world is going down the crapper. No one wants to take responsibility for their actions, whether it be work, school, and especially their health care. Im not where I want to be financially, I know it will come with time, but I know that I'm responsible for me. Not the government. God forbid I ever have to depend on any one else for my life. Never, ever. ( I realize there are other circumstances, but I'm just saying in general)

Yup so theres my rant. That topic is one of my biggest pet peeves ever. I guess some are ok with being mooches/ slackers, but I am not. Playing the system shouldn't be a way of life.

ClearBlueOctoberSky · Mar 13, 2012

I believe strongly in advocating for my patients.

However, how can you be a good advocate for your patients, if you don't advocate for yourself.

If your program is off track, then start asking questions, making suggestions for improvement. Don't just sit there and complain. And that is not directed specifically at you MMC51264. I lost count of the times that all my classmates did was complain, and yet failed to realize that they have the ability to advocate for changes. If asked if they could suggest an improvement, the biggest suggestion they would have was to fire the teacher. Really?

In my first term, we went through three instructors, one who quit. While she had extraneous circumstances happening, my classmates were the ones that took the credit. They were PROUD that they got her fired. And these are the nurses that are going take care for the elderly and infirmed.

How about taking responsibility for yourself. I don't think that it is that much to ask for.

mofomeat · Mar 13, 2012

I made that mistake in high school. I put in the minimum effort into everything and pretty much got what I deserved. I wasn't interested in much of what was being taught, so in those classes I passed with Cs and Ds. The only thing that helped my final GPA enough to let me graduate was the solid As I was getting in all the health and science classes (the only things I found interesting). At the time I graduated, I was happy to just be done with that hassle.

Well, now that I'm back in school and actually going after something I'm interested in, I have to make up for all of that. I've had to objectively look at myself and my work ethic on these things, and I had to own up to my crappy performance in high school. It's because of that I had to take all the bonehead Algebra and English classes all over again.

Lesson learned, the hard way. This time around I'm putting in the effort, and once again I'm getting what I deserve. When I hear some of my fellow classmates complain about how it's not fair and the teacher sucks and that they can't believe they flunked the test or an assignment, I just shake my head. Everything you need has been provided directly or has been readily available to you- all that's left to do is the 'work' part.

It's pretty simple, really.

Sand_Dollar, BSN · Mar 13, 2012

Get this. We were given a take home test centered around our EBP textbook. One girl cried out 'but that's so HARD'. Another asked 'were we supposed to BUY that book'. The teacher finally said 'I take the questions directly from the book, they are in order from front to back, you can do it'. You would not believe the whining!! It's sad but I had to literally clamp my hand over my mouth to stop laughing out loud at these people.

I did the test already and it was exactly what the teacher said, the questions were copies of questions from the text - that test was a joke.

Some classmates whine because they got a bad grade on a test, I just think to myself 'so what if you hate the subject, you still need to STUDY!' Some complain that the NCLEX style questions are too confusing. Then buy an NCLEX book and PRACTICE them!

I am older so maybe that has a little to do with it. I know how much $ I'm spending on my education and the VALUE that is has. I did not grow up in the 'we are all winners' school system, I grew up in the 'you have to be above average to be recognized' system. These whiners drive me insane.

whichone'spink, BSN, RN · Mar 13, 2012

Get this. We were given a take home test centered around our EBP textbook. One girl cried out 'but that's so HARD'.

Whoa, your school had open-book tests? Oh how I wish my major nursing classes had open-book tests. My GPA would be much better than it is now. Right now it's pretty good, but it took a few semester to finally get used to nursing test questions. Geez, these girls don't realize how good they had it.

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Mar 13, 2012

In my experience students want lectures and questions to be very objective, but in reality the art & science of nursing is more subjective. You have to learn how to extrapolate and think critically. It is difficult to teach critical thinking however.

HGTVrn33 · Mar 13, 2012

@classicdame you could not be more right with that statement. A lot of people in my program had problems with their critical thinking skills. I tend to think that if people struggled with this in school prior to starting any nursing program, the program will only exacerbate it.