I am currently teaching a theory and clinical class for one year BSN students. All the students are college graduates and they have decided to enter into nursing.
In the clinical site, the students are being exposed to the nurses and to the various staff members who have morale issues related to the hospital's staffing and other cutbacks.
To summarize my issue, the students have entered into nursing assuming it was an easy ride to a job that pays a living wage. Now that jobs are tight and the work environment is more complex then they assumed, several of the students are now expressing doubts about taking on serious debt (the tution and fees for the program are over 80K) to get a degree in a crowded and competitive nursing job market.
One student told me that she has "haggled" before and now needs a check. She expressed concern when she saw how hard the nurses and the aides worked and is upset that she may not get a job to her liking when she graduates. Other students fear they will not get a nursing job. Stories about the reality of other fields (working for free (interning), working for very low wages, freelancing, etc) are a constant theme among the students.
Most of these students are average ability and intelligence but have a strong sense of entitlement. When I asked the question of "would you be in nursing school if your first planned career had worked out?", most said no and the others did not answer. I was shocked that not even one student wanted to be a nurse. Nursing was a job with easy access to a job and a good wage. A few saw nursing as "something to do" until the economy turns around. The mentality is not the same as my community college students or my career ladder students who want to care for the patients.
Having been in nursing education a long time,my guess is that most of these students would be in and out of nursing in less then 3 years. My fear and now the fear among the students is that they may not get the chance to get an acute care job and the training that goes with it.
Nursing requires dedication and humility. Neither characteristic is present with this group of students.
My question is what do I say to them to quell their fears? From my limited exposure to them, they are not nursing material...they do not like to follow directions or like to be told what to do. Several of them have master's degrees in various fields.
I am torn because I see this group as not making it in nursing. Academically, they will pass and get through the NCLEX without major stress. It is an unwelcoming job market that awaits then as they hold very unrealistic view of their abilities and of what nursing is about.
It is sad that as a department, we must take in the students and train them even through it is not in their best interest to waste their time or have them take on more student debt. Tution pays the instructors' salaries and benefits.
