Too much fluff in nursing programs?

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Do you feel their was too much "fluff" in your nursing program. I think relational practice courses are extremely useful.... but I think maybe 1-2 of these courses are enough. I feel their should be more focus on pharm/patho in nursing, as I feel this would be more useful. How do others feel? Maybe it is different in certain programs?

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

I remember when I was in school sitting through stuff that I thought was "fluff" thinking that it was stuff I would never use. I found the further I got into the program the more sense the "fluff" made.

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Do you mean the elective requirements in the degree? It's to make you a better rounded individual.

My patients are always amazed when we can have a discussion on 17th century literature or medieval law in England. But hey, I'm just a well rounded LPN.

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I don't mean electives... I feel those make students well rounded as well. I just mean in my program we had I think at least 3-4relational practice classes that were not designed all that well. As I said I think they are important, maybe 1-2, but 3-4 seemed like too much... so most of us dreaded going. Considering we would get 1 hours of pharm each week and then at least 3 hours of relational practice.... just thought it could have been evened out a bit more.

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Specializes in Emergency.
I don't mean electives... I feel those make students well rounded as well. I just mean in my program we had I think at least 3-4relational practice classes that were not designed all that well. As I said I think they are important maybe 1-2, but 3-4 seemed like too much... so most of us dreaded going. Considering we would get 1 hours of pharm each week and then at least 3 hours of relational practice.... just thought it could have been evened out a bit more.[/quote']

What is relational practice? I have not heard this term before.

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Relational practice was learning about how to form relationships with patients and families. Active listening skills, understanding yourself, your values, beliefs.... leaving those at the door when dealing with ethical issues, etc.

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Specializes in Emergency.
Relational practice was learning about how to form relationships with patients and families. Active listening skills understanding yourself, your values, beliefs.... leaving those at the door when dealing with ethical issues, etc.[/quote']

I see. I never had a specific class on this but my program was designed very differently than most. I agree, 3 hours per week sounds excessive and pretty darn fluffy.

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I found it very fluffy, but i see why they have it, as I was a bit older in nursing school (30), some of the people that were quite young seem to benefit from this, as they had less experience relating to all different types of people and families.

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probably going to get a lot of flack for this but bare in mind this is my own opinion. my program is fairly good but there are some courses that beat the dead horse so to speak. i think nursing in general foolishly distances itself from medicine and biology and tries to align itself with sociology/psychology when the core of what nurses do regardless of what is taught in school is to treat the biological process of disease in the sick, hurt and dying persons. while courses in the social sciences are an asset i think more focus needs to be given to core science courses. i would much rather have a nurse that knows their pharm inside and out and prevents a doctor from killing me than one that focuses on "validating my feelings". Nursing focuses too much on the qualitative experience and much less on quantitative and tangible evidence which in my opinion is a detriment to our profession as it takes away from our credibility. when we take one semester of basic sciences we can't fully comprehend the reasons for our actions. i know this is anecdotal a prime example is a nurse who i met that was certain tylenol affected blood cultures, really?

in conclusion i know that this will never happen but nursing needs a paradigm shift towards a medical model in line with more scientific rooted education.

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Jumper44 I can totally understand where you are coming from and I agree. I would have really appreciated a biochemistry course, more pharm, more anatomy, physiology, path, etc. We did take a full year of anatomy/physio and patho which was very useful but I would have liked more. Through taking some speciality courses and just being in the workforce I have learned a lot but I feel like I will never fully understand the biochemistry behind medications which I wish I would know. I guess with further education and maybe taking a clinical/practical masters I will learn more. I think the relational/arts courses are beneficial but more of a balance would be better... well at least I think.

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Victoria's Nursing Program = Fluffy *********!!!!!! :madface:

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Working in a hospital we see a lot of new grads coming out of degree programs who are sadly ill prepared to function in a hospital setting. We have been told by numerous educators from various institutions that learning direct patient care is now expected to happen when the students are doing their "pre-grad". So many young people who sadly haven't been taught to properly assess and take care of patients but could start a health program teaching high school students birth control. The focus is definitely more on the psychosocial aspect of peoples lives and not how to take care of them from day to day.

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