What should they teach in nursing school but don't. What do they teach but shouldn't?

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My impression of nursing school based on my very limited experience is that there are many things taught that while perhaps not a waste of time are none the less perhaps not the best possible use of that time. If you were made the supreme overlord of nursing school curricula what things would you delete? Conversely, what things would you add both in terms of content and methodology (perhaps you would teach the same stuff but would do so in a different manner). Could nursing schools today implement your ideas (if they wanted to) or would they be prevented by accredidation bodies from straying from approved curriculum?

Specializes in LTC and MED-SURG.
first there are many hospitals that employ nursing students as aprentice nurses..... before you tell me i don't know what i am talking about i went to nursing school 35 years ago. i was within 1 month of graduation when i left because i became pregnant. then i returned in 1998.

i can assure you nursing has changed..............

as far as work 3 days and lecture one well nursing's role has expanded far too much to do that. the amount of knowledge from books and lecture need today by a beginner grad far exceed anything we conceived of back then.

these discussions are very helpful to me. i have decided to go the cna, lpn, rn route. i think i will be very grateful for the practical experience i hope to gain. also, i've learned from this forum the need to distinguish between practical experience and nursing school curriculum.. i would say in all disciplines, there is the school vs real world dilemma. i'm learning in this early stage of my nursing education to answer according to the book to get the a's that i want, but question the nurses to find the "real" answers. it's like playing a game, and i don't really like to play games. but i will to get through nursing school.

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Specializes in CVICU.
Maybe someone should experiment with a "hybrid" of the old diploma method and the current ASN/BSN approach. Perhaps, some innovative hospital could partner with a University where a "student" would work three days a week as they did in the diploma days. Then they could attend lectures on a fourth day which would confer a degree at the completion of the program. One of the problems is that I'm not sure that the years of experience obtained from the "diploma" system have been successfully translated into the current nursing educational system. Perhaps there has been too much intellectual "egg head" intrusion from accredidation agencies at the expense of common sense.

I am starting an Accelerated BSN program next year. The plan is to do all the classroom work the first half of the semester and then unleash us on clinical the second half. I am interested to see how this model pans out..

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I went through a BSN program and I really don't feel it prepared me for bedside nursing. Even our senior year, we'd have ONE patient on a busy med-surg floor.

That really suprises me. I am in my second semester and I had three patients yesterday. It was postpartum so they were mostly self-care, but the paperwork was a killer!

We have 1-2 pts first semester, 2-3 pts second semester, 3-4 pts third semester and 4-5 pts fourth semester. The goal is that at the end of fourth semester we are doing everything a practicing nurse does. I'm in an ADN program, so maybe things are done differently with BSNs.

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Specializes in NICU.
That really suprises me. I am in my second semester and I had three patients yesterday. It was postpartum so they were mostly self-care, but the paperwork was a killer!

We have 1-2 pts first semester, 2-3 pts second semester, 3-4 pts third semester and 4-5 pts fourth semester. The goal is that at the end of fourth semester we are doing everything a practicing nurse does. I'm in an ADN program, so maybe things are done differently with BSNs.

Not to start an ADN vs BSN debate...but I have to admit that most ADN programs I've heard about have better clinical programs than BSN ones. When I went through hospital orientation six years ago, the nurses who came from the local community college were used to 5 patients on a floor, and had actually had ICU experience from school. Us BSN nurses looked like idiots because all of our programs sugar-coated nursing, especially med-surg floor nursing! Again, NOT to start a debate, this is just MY observation and experience.

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Specializes in Emergency room, med/surg, UR/CSR.
I'd get rid of those stupid care plans!!!! I spent HOURS on these things in school, and I have never used one ONCE since working in the real world!!! I'm sure there are other ways to accomplish their objectives.

Amen!!! Those were the most useless wastes of time I ever had to spend time doing. And all the instructors had different ways they wanted the careplans and data bases done. Some were fine with two pages, and some wanted data bases and careplans that were at least 15 pages long! Some instructors said it was ok to use outside careplans books, and others wanted data bases and careplans using only the required texts. I thought it was stupid that we got letter grades considering they were so subjective, and based on the instructors feelings about the contents, and students. Sorry, touched a nerve! :rotfl:

Pam

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Specializes in Telemetry.

From a 45 year old finishing my ADN. Like virtually any degree offered by almost all colleges its just a money making opportunity for the college. Let me explain:

Colleges offer classes, some required, some elective. They make a lota money on these classes. Most of it is used for administration pay and to cover their losses in the various sports programs they need (?) to support, football, basketball, lacrosse, field hockey, etc... Are these classes really necessary to perform at an entry level in the career you have chosen? Questionable. Take nursing for an example. There is an entry exam to the career of nursing that all nurses must take, (NCLEX) (The Boards). It is very conceivable that anyone with the right study materials, (Kaplan), could pass this exam with flying colors. Of course the nursing field has made it a requirement that you have a nursing degree to pass it. But, I have been having some interesting conversation with hospital hiring managers, (nurses), who tell me that they "expect me to have no nursing knowledge" on hire date, because they have preceptorships or training programs where "they will train me every thing I need to know". Virtually every hospital nurse I have talked to have expressed there very little expectation in nurse grads, some have even expressed their down right disgust in the minimal skills and knowledge new nursing grads have.

The whole college degree program is just a big scam made to make more money for colleges and pay the salaries of nursing instructors who are burned out of doing real nursing or are incompetent of doing real nursing, remember the old saying "those who can not do - teach".

If there is one saving grace to nursing school it would be the clinicals where at least you learn real world hands on procedures. Of course that is the way nurses used to be trained - Hospital Diplomas - Which produced a lota great nurses and with none of the college BS and I do mean B.S.

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I've been an LPN for 7 years and am now in semester 4 of a 5 semester BSN program. I'm so sick of nursing instructors making things harder than they need to be (like giving us two days to research, compose and type a 60+ page case study, etc). I'm thrilled with my clinical instructor this semester because she is teaching us "real world nursing" in clinical instead of the paperwork, by-the-book nursing they try to cram down our necks. I didn't really have a clue when I got out of LPN school, and I finished at the top of my class. You really don't know a thing until you get out there and start practicing, but at least they could give nursing students a more realistic view of what will be thrown their way!

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Specializes in LTC and MED-SURG.
From a 45 year old finishing my ADN. Like virtually any degree offered by almost all colleges its just a money making opportunity for the college. Let me explain:

I partially agree about the colleges being desirous of profit, but that's the same with every business. Also, we individually want to make a profit of sorts. Everything is about money. That's life.

There are a number of issues involved. The idea of getting a college degree is to become a well-rounded and educated person. As nurses (I'm a student) we want to be educated people, aware of subjects related to, above and beyond nursing, just like any other professional.

Rather than go on and on, I'll just say that from what I've heard from my nursing friends are that BSN nurses coming out of school have less practical skills than ADN's, even LPN's and CNA's, MED ASST's, etc. But they still make more money and they eventually catch on. So, as I stated in an earlier post - the best route for me is CNA, LPN, RN. But I think we all have certain advantages and disadvantages, regardless of the educational route we choose.

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I am a senior year BSN student and I don't feel like I know a damned thing. Like someone else said, there is so much BS! I spent all summer working as a CNA and I learned 10x more than I ever learned in all of my clinicals combined. I make good grades, I just don't think they teach us the important things.

I spent an entire semester studying nursing theorists, Martha Rogers (a total nutcase) especially. A total waste of time. I finished my basic assessment class unsure of how to take a blood pressure, but having sat through plenty of class discussions on various self-help type issues. At the time I felt unsure of the quality of the program. As I look back on it I become quite angry.

Nursing courses should focus on repetition of cold hard facts and they should very kind and encouraging the whole way through! A smiling nurse with a head full of useful facts is the kind of nurse I want.

Typical assignment: "Read specified 700+ pages in two days. If you ask a question about it, I will be annoyed and may even give an answer contradictory to the book. Now, let's all talk about vagueries of interpersonal relationships and how we feel about them."

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MUST we spend so much time on nurse-patient interaction, especially when floor nurses are so busy, they certainly aren't clarifying, reflecting, confronting, etc. etc. Give me more hard knowledge.

oldiebutgoodie

kind of contradicts the holistic model of nsg.

and also diminishes the importance of a therapeutic relationship.

leslie

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although i have no complaints about my nsg education, i do wish they had exposed more of the ethical dilemmas one faces in nsg.

we too, had group/case presentations and interventions applied which did teach critical thinking.

and even though i hated care plans, i do understand the necessity of them, in hindsight.

but nothing, nothing ever prepared me for the many gray areas in nsg, revolving around patients' rights vs family's objections vs. md orders and all the ethical perspectives involved.

leslie

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My husband is in his last term of LPN school and his "instructors" (I use that term loosely to refer to these two idiots they have teaching them) are more worried about teaching them about nurse theorists and historical figures than actual nursing skills and theory! Not once in my 7 year career as an LPN have I ever used nursing theorists or history to care for a patient. Nursing school at almost every level is filled with fluff and most instructors have the attitude of "I had to do it, so you have to do it", which really blows!

In the BSN program I am attending right now, we do have cath sims and the "Stan the Man" someone else mentioned. So at least I do have access to some of the more technological methods of learning. My question is this.....if the nursing shortage is so bad, shouldn't we perhaps take a look at how we train nurses? Maybe that's where the shortcomings start.....

I am a senior year BSN student and I don't feel like I know a damned thing. Like someone else said, there is so much BS! I spent all summer working as a CNA and I learned 10x more than I ever learned in all of my clinicals combined. I make good grades, I just don't think they teach us the important things.

I spent an entire semester studying nursing theorists, Martha Rogers (a total nutcase) especially. A total waste of time. I finished my basic assessment class unsure of how to take a blood pressure, but having sat through plenty of class discussions on various self-help type issues. At the time I felt unsure of the quality of the program. As I look back on it I become quite angry.

Nursing courses should focus on repetition of cold hard facts and they should very kind and encouraging the whole way through! A smiling nurse with a head full of useful facts is the kind of nurse I want.

Typical assignment: "Read specified 700+ pages in two days. If you ask a question about it, I will be annoyed and may even give an answer contradictory to the book. Now, let's all talk about vagueries of interpersonal relationships and how we feel about them."

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