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

[TheMiss]

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what we still learned in nursing school that later proofed to be utter nonsense outright or just became really outdated.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.

[Jensmom7, BSN, RN]

One time I came in with another nursing student to practice "making Beds" as we learned in our first skills lab !

We're laughing about all this stuff, but I had an instructor wwaaayyyy back in the 70s who told us that we left ONE WRINKLE in a bottom sheet, we would be held personally responsible if that patient developed a wound.

Since she routinely breathed fire and spit thumbtacks, we believed her. We wasted more time making beds over...and over... and over again.

I look back on those days and think...****?

[A&Ox6, MSN, RN]

:banghead::banghead:

This is how nursing theory class made me feel. Our text was endorsed by Deepak Chopra, if that tells you anything. I remember reading some bovine feces about how when the pt's aura connects with the nurse's aura, the Caring Field is established.

One class, the prof brought her divining rods to class. She'd used them to determine where in her backyard the Qi was most favorable to put a labyrinth. She also passed around her aura photos.

Don't get me started on the Altered Energy Field NDx. How the heck do you write a r/t or an AEB for Altered Energy Field?? How do you even assess an energy field.......bring your diving rods to work????

I believe this class was meant to be taught by Madame Pomfrey with guest lectures by Professor Trelawney.

[A&Ox6, MSN, RN]

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.

And this is the reason that I have "delivered babies", "called the sitter" and "let the dog out" for my dementia patients.

[Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN]

I believe this class was meant to be taught by Madame Pomfrey with guest lectures by Professor Trelawney.

Puh-leeeeese....

Madame Pomfrey would never go for this crud.

[Nurse Leigh]

We're laughing about all this stuff, but I had an instructor wwaaayyyy back in the 70s who told us that we left ONE WRINKLE in a bottom sheet, we would be held personally responsible if that patient developed a wound.

Since she routinely breathed fire and spit thumbtacks, we believed her. We wasted more time making beds over...and over... and over again.

I look back on those days and think...Dafuq??

I'd like to see her try to keep the sheets most places use these days to lay flat with no wrinkles. The best is when they shrink and you need to use your whole body weight to pull them over the corners of the mattress - then the mattress corners pull in toward the middle.

I blame those crappy sheets for my insistence on only buying 100% cotton sheets.

[Pirate RN]

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.

For the relatively few moments required, I simply live in their reality with them- speaking cordially to people that I cannot see, stirring pots on an invisible stove at their request, and answering a phone that isn't really ringing, just to name a few. It doesn't affect my time management appreciably and helps foster a good relationship with my patients- and I easily reclaim my own reality when I leave their room. There's nothing to be gained by attempting to reorient patients with severe dementia, IMHO

[NurseOnAMotorcycle, ASN, RN]

Why are teachers still telling students how scary doctors are?! The first thing I usually have to do with students is intro the docs and show the new grads how un-scary they are. Poor things are afraid to ask for zofran for their vomiting pts.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

And don't forget how the instructors harped on the possibility of losing your license- and yet, the most common way to lose your license is drugs/alcohol.

[A&Ox6, MSN, RN]

Puh-leeeeese....

Madame Pomfrey would never go for this crud.

Exactly. Her class would present information and Trelawney would contribute the "divination" component.

[Farawyn]

Why are teachers still telling students how scary doctors are?! The first thing I usually have to do with students is intro the docs and show the new grads how un-scary they are. Poor things are afraid to ask for zofran for their vomiting pts.

Mine actually did not. I wrote that down here, because that was "the rumor" but I have to say my COB brilliant professors told us the opposite. Show respect to them, but do NOT give up your chair unless doc is pregnant or 90.

I worked in a teaching hospital with a bunch of snot nosed residents. They had to earn our respect. The best Fellows would always tell the 1st years, "Do not get on the nurses' bad side!"

[Farawyn]

Exactly. Her class would present information and Trelawney would contribute the "divination" component.

Ahhh, but WWSD?

(What Would Snape Do?)

[A&Ox6, MSN, RN]

Ahhh, but WWSD?

(What Would Snape Do?)

Shape would contribute. He always does. His lecture and theory are one page 394...