Things you "should" be taught in nursing school

[KimberlyRN89]

I'm about 1 week from finishing up my 2nd semester in a BSN program. In my skills portion of Med-Surg, on our syllabus it stated that we would learn how to apply 12-lead EKG's. But we never did. I mentioned that to one of the instructors, and she said waved it off and said "Well your employer will teach you that once you get a job".

I understand that, but wouldn't some employers expect you to know that (i.e., basic skills?)

[AKA_Glamour_Pearl]

• know how to look things up, and be proactive about doing so.
  
• understand that we all have bad days . . . a preceptor who doesn't leap to her feet and bow at yours may just be having one of those. it doesn't mean she's nasty, eats her young or hates you.
  
• the first year of nursing sucks. honestly, it just does. expect that.
  

thanks for this! i'm a new nurse and i love to get input and advice. i want to know how i'm doing. i often feel the need to look things up. i also ask nurses quite frequently, how long it takes to learn this or that or to at least be comfortable. sometimes i see "experienced" nurses leaving in tears. it's very discouraging.

i just want to be a great nurse. i keep hearing 6months-2years before "loving" the job. some days i like it. some days i wonder what i've gotten myself into. some days i feel the urge to cry. some days i love it and i feel very competent. so, we'll see. i want my first year to fly by though! it's not that fun being the newbie. thanks!

[Nursetastic]

They need to be teaching professionalism, humility, and a continued eagerness to learn. Ok, maybe not teach it but at least attempt to instill it!

With only about 2 years experience I'm still a new nurse but the new grads on my unit are always saying "I know" or "I've already done that so I don't need more practice". Ummm...hello. You don't know it if I'm having to tell you or stop you. And however many of anything you did in school clinicals, you can never do too many. And I'm really not asking you if you want the practice, I'm instructing you that it is something that needs to be done for YOUR patient. Just because I am your preceptor now does not mean this is my patient load. I am here to guide you, not do it for you. I keep telling these new grads that I didn't feel remotely comfortable in my abilities until over a year of experience. This group that just got hired came onto the unit as know it alls and very cocky. Please, eat some humble pie and accept that you are a RN but you are not anywhere near proficient after only a month of orientation. Let us teach you! Accept constructive feedback. Be proactive and look things up. And for goodness sake, do not show up and act like you own the place just because you had 2 school clinical days here. If you show up on day 1 and act too familiar and begin voicing complaints and gossiping, you are only setting yourself up for failure and your patients for injury or worse. And put your damn cell phones away!

I didn't mean to hijack the thread. I just needed to vent I guess.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

i think nursing students should be taught how to organize themselves, prioritize and at least manage more than 1 patient at a time before graduation.

also - i would like someone to sit down and tell them that not all feedback will be positive - people will tell them what they've done wrong and that there is nothing wrong with this. if they are not told their mistakes they can't correct them and learn. i get so tired of hearing new nurses complain that they are being picked on because someone points out what they missed or could have done better.

and once again,ruby vee has hit the nail on the head- everything she said i agree with!

what she said!

[mama_d, BSN, RN]

How to give report would be nice. Can't tell you how many new grads we get who did the majority of their clinicals in acute care who have to be told simple things to cover in report...like what they were admitted with.

I totally agree with the feedback issue as well...I'm one of those people who, if you ask me for feedback on how you're doing, I tell you. If you're going to get all offended by my pointing out areas you need to work on, don't waste my time and yours by asking. FWIW, most of the newbies appreciate it and take the bad with the good gracefully, but there are a handful of divas who seem to just want pats on the head and gold stars instead of honesty. Makes me flippin' crazy.

[bubblymom373]

Thank you Ruby Vee for that great list! All the other suggestions were great too. May I add one more? How to supervise others. This along with conflict resloution as suggested before seem to be big problems with new grads where I work.

[healthstar, BSN, RN]

Holy hell, girl! You are paying through the nose for tuition! I only paid $45,000/yr for my baby brother's tuition at Yale, and that just about broke me! Where in the heck are you going to school?

It's expensive bc I am double majoring, it is mostly known for medical school and nursing second. For nursing program alone I pay about $40,000/ year including books, lab fees, other school fees. Different majors have different tuition fees, it would have been much more expensive if I didn't get any scholarships lol. It's still a lot of money to pay back, but it would be nice if they would take the time to teach me the EKG, I don care if nurses don't do it often, I am curious and I love to learn to interpret EKGs. Maybe my instructors are not rue how to interpret them either lol

[PintheD]

Loads of good advice!

My 2 cents - have a masters degree in communications as CUSTOMER SERVICE will trump clinical knowledge and skill set in any bedside nursing job present day. Maybe intern at Disney or Ritz-Carlton instead of taking that NA job...

[showbizrn]

[color=slategray]short list:)

1. job interviewing skills

2. basic business management skills

3. assertiveness training

4. presentation skills

get the picture?

[DookieMeisterRN]

In A & P we did 3 lead EKGs and actually I did learn 12 lead EKGs in my LPN program I attended. We spent time performing them on classmates and we learned to read 5 lead strips. Did I remember it all? No but it was helpful in my RN program.

Would it be priority to learn EKG skills over critical thinking, prioritizing, or basic assessment skills? Of course not.