What is the objective of reading assignments?

[jjjoy, LPN]

The thread about "do students really do the reading?" brought up some questions that I thought the educators here might be able to give me another perspective on. I'm long out of school, so this is just curiosity. Just FYI, I was a very diligent student, got good grades both pre-nursing and in nursing, and I've taught non-nursing subjects. So I'm not against reading or homework or hard work or self-study.

In regard to most nursing texts, what would you say is the objective of reading assignments and what would indicate that a student had met that objective? Is it to be able to recall from memory the pathophys, signs/sx, etc of all the conditions covered? Is it to be able recognize the pathophys, signs/sx, etc of all the conditions covered? Is it to get a general feel for certain conditions and the related nursing care? Is it to be exposed to several different applications of nursing care (to various conditions) so that one can better understand the relationship between the pathophys, signs/sx, etc and the nursing care? Is it so that whatever condition a nurse comes across in their practice, they will have theoretcially had some exposure to it in school? Basically, what do we realisticly expect students to come away with from reading thousands of pages of nursing texts over 18 months?

My nursing texts were more like reference books than textbooks. Health conditions were grouped into categories and each condition had a couple of pages devoted to it. Each condition would have a few paragraphs on the pathophys, on the signs/symptoms, on the medical tests and treatments, on the psychosocial aspects, and on the nursing care. So a test of 65 questions might cover 400 pages of reading that covers over 80 different conditions.

Initially, I'd planned to write a notecard for each and every condition, with the sign/sx, labs, etc, do my best to understand and retain them. But I soon came to realize that that wasn't what we being tested on. "Critical thinking" and NCLEX-style questions were the main thing. You could have the textbook content nailed down solid (signs/sx, proper treatment, appropriate nursing care) and still get test questions wrong. So I changed my study techniques. I would carefully read the entire section of a few key conditions from a category of illnesses. Then I'd skim the rest, looking for anything that especially stood out (a unique symptom cluster, a special warning). I'd notice what nursing care was common across a certain condition (eg incentive spirometry for post-op patients). And that was about it. Studying the textbook more wouldn't help improve my test scores, without seeing the conditions in context I wouldn't retain much of the condition-specific information, and it's not like I didn't have a bunch of other important nursing assignments to work on.

The nursing texts WERE great reference tools. They were crucial to prepping for and reviewing my clinical case assignments. But I don't really seem them as tradition textbooks and am not sure what the objective is when long sections are assigned for reading.