What have you learned in nursing school that was utter nonsense?

nutella, MSN, RN · Mar 24, 2016

A nursing friend and I recently discussed what we still learned in nursing school that later proofed to be utter nonsense outright or just became really outdated. I found it quite interesting and was wondering what everyone else remembers?
One of the things I thought of was the myth of your tongue having different taste zones.

My highlight of "interesting" skills acquired during clinicals is the decoration of food trays !!

Back at that time, I was in my first year and had a clinical in general medicine. The hospital was very small and the tray system was not in place yet. Granted, they had somebody in the floor kitchen every day to assemble the trays based on the diet and such. In any way, the thought was that I would benefit from helping out in the kitchen for 2 hours in am to learn everything about the different diet.

Long story short - I also learned at that place how to cut orange spirals and turn radishes (the small round red ones) into astonishing flowers with a sharp knife. No kidding - I have used my food decorating skills I acquired during my first clinical in that hospital many times for private entertaining...

Of course now I laugh about it - back then I was really annoyed by this idea not to mention that I had a hard time reading the food cards that patients filled out back in the days.

I also learned in that same place, from the religious sister who were wearing the uniform (greyish dress with some kind of white apron plus hat) that the uniform protects the nurses from all kind of stuff - from inappropriate touch to whatnot.

Lennonninja, MSN, APRN, NP · Mar 24, 2016

Nonesense and outdated - making nursing diagnoses!

LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN · Mar 24, 2016

Nonesense and outdated - making nursing diagnoses!

Not in all settings; in LTC, our computerized charting comprised of care plans for pts-we added to them, updated of goals were met, and if they were new diagnoses, we added them.

It may not always be utilized in acute care-but the main purpose for nursing diagnoses is when you walk in the room and assess the pt, those help guide your thinking as what the pt needs-at least for me...

So-in short-not so outdated after all... :cool:

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Mar 24, 2016

Reality orientation for very demented patients does not work. If the 89-year-old lady thinks it is 1988, and her long-deceased husband is still alive, and Ronald Reagan is the president, it is better to allow her to think these things.

Telling her it is 2016, and her husband's been dead since 1995, and Ronald Reagan's been dead since 2004 is unlikely to be therapeutic or go very well.

llg, PhD, RN · Mar 24, 2016

I once had to wait for class to start while the professor (Guess who?) walked around the room, purifying it with burning incense. She didn't like having classes in that particular room because she thought it had "bad vibes." So she insisted on the cleansing ceremony before we could start class.

Fortunately, she was able to arrange for class to be moved to another room for the rest of the semester so that we didn't have to go through that every class period.

FloatRN19 · Mar 24, 2016

I'd say 60% of what I learned.

CountryMomma, ASN, RN · Mar 24, 2016

That I would be judged on the merits of my work and character, not on my appearance and ability to kiss posterior.

Well, that's not just nursing, but very apt to it.

quiltynurse56, LPN, LVN · Mar 24, 2016

This.

Reality orientation for very demented patients does not work. If the 89-year-old lady thinks it is 1988, and her long-deceased husband is still alive, and Ronald Reagan is the president, it is better to allow her to think these things.
Telling her it is 2016, and her husband's been dead since 1995, and Ronald Reagan's been dead since 2004 is unlikely to be therapeutic or go very well.

ArtClassRN, ADN, RN · Mar 28, 2016

My nursing education - at a very good community college program - was excellent. Very, very little of it was nonsense.

The stuff that was nonsense was never part of the official curriculum, it was usually some professor repeating an adage she or he had learned along the way and never kept up with practice changes. The one that comes immediately to mind is the professor who insisted that it was "dangerous to drain more than 1000 ml at a time from a foley catheter; it should be clamped (for some unspecified amount of time) after a liter is drained."

She was kind of a goofball anyway.

WRT to the "reality orienting" for dementia patients, we certainly never learned that in school and anyone with decent experience and skills in this area wouldn't do that today.

Hoosier_RN, MSN · Mar 28, 2016

Reality orientation for very demented patients does not work. If the 89-year-old lady thinks it is 1988, and her long-deceased husband is still alive, and Ronald Reagan is the president, it is better to allow her to think these things.
Telling her it is 2016, and her husband's been dead since 1995, and Ronald Reagan's been dead since 2004 is unlikely to be therapeutic or go very well.

You wouldn't believe the amount of new grads that believe they need to reorient the resident. Recent grads within 2 years. Yes, they are still teaching that at some schools. I have never bothered to redirect with dementia, it causes me more work and frustration. But the nurses who tell me that I'm wrong because they learned in school...ðŸ˜–

dishes, BSN, RN · Mar 28, 2016

I once had to wait for class to start while the professor (Guess who?) walked around the room, purifying it with burning incense. She didn't like having classes in that particular room because she thought it had "bad vibes." So she insisted on the cleansing ceremony before we could start class.
Fortunately, she was able to arrange for class to be moved to another room for the rest of the semester so that we didn't have to go through that every class period.

Was she teaching nursing theory? did she believe in energy fields? Some of the nursing theorists ideas are utter nonsense and shouldn't be taught anymore.