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?

kind of contradicts the holistic model of nsg.

and also diminishes the importance of a therapeutic relationship.

leslie

But holistic implies encompassing all aspects of the person. If we concentrate so much on the psychosocial that we don't have appropriate experience in skills, assessment, etc., what's the point?

Psychosocial and skills/assessment/patho should NOT be mutually exclusive.

oldiebutgoodie

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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."

Yikes! I can't believe you spent an entire semester studying Martha Rogers and friends. I would be angry, as well. Yep, I think Martha Rogers is also a crackpot. Oops, there goes my energy field!

I think BSN programs are so afraid of being considered "vocational schools" that they go out of their way to make sure we don't learn the skills the ADNs, etc do. I am sure gonna be unhappy when I start working and feel like a total idiot.

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Psychosocial and skills/assessment/patho should NOT be mutually exclusive.

oldiebutgoodie

that's right.

all should be integrated.

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I certainly agree that nurses should be experts in interpersonal skills. I tend to believe that most people who go to nursing school are pretty decent with their people skills already, and while it deserves some time and attention (professionalism is an important topic, for instance) I believe the focus is TOTALLY lopsided.

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Yikes! I can't believe you spent an entire semester studying Martha Rogers and friends. I would be angry, as well. Yep, I think Martha Rogers is also a crackpot. Oops, there goes my energy field!

I think BSN programs are so afraid of being considered "vocational schools" that they go out of their way to make sure we don't learn the skills the ADNs, etc do. I am sure gonna be unhappy when I start working and feel like a total idiot.

Excuse me????

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I know i will get dinged by this...but like another poster said, less careplans...tell you the truth i truly believe they helped me very little. I believe there should more on medicine. I had to learn on my own about Labs and still learning today. In the ED I have learned a ton from the docs, reading catscans, CXR, etc. That is what has drawn me to the ED. I know as I pursue my NP that the nursing model will give me a good background..

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Maybe some schools do this but mine didn't.

I think they should have a class in nursing school called "Practical Application" or something. It would be a informal, fun class session where students bring up clinical situations or hypotheticals and the class with the prof would discuss how to handle it. Also, this class' heavy focus would be on case studies. This way students are learning critical thinking and also feeling like the situations that they study could actually occuri in their careers.

Now to some extent we did this on clinicals. The post conference portion when we all got together after working in our separate areas we would discuss the Dx's of each and do a sort of spit ball Q&A with the instructor sitting in and giving ideas and or guiding toward certain areas.

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i agree with both of the other things mentioned. i am a wonderful computer learner and i feel that most of the next generation will be as well because they are widely used in schools now. i aslo feel practical application should recieve stronger emphesis. i also feel that(no offense to anyone i did both) lp/vn get a much greater clinical experience and learn more pt care, hands on and public relations both. i think sometimes students that go straight bsn don't get nearly enough clinical time and actual experience. i feel that practical application and public relations are both of major import. i mean if you are shy and reserved about talking to people then striking up a conversation and moving right into removing their gown so you can listen to their heart and lungs is really going to slow you down.

i feel that i learned much more in lvn (i was an lv/pn for 9 years)school where as in my adn program i felt like i was just jumping through hoops to please instructors and pass tests to be allowed to take boards, which i felt i could have passed before i went to adn my program

i guess i would also change testing to a more essay based testing, my reasoning being that if you give someone a scenario, or ask them out right what are the possible s/s after this procedure or that med etc. and they write out an aswer that explains that they understand what was being asked and what the proper thinking and critical pathways are i would feel that testing was fairer than questions pool from which a thousand questions have been used and reused and students have had problems with the wording or the intent or content are unclear, in other words not trying to trick or confuse but actually ascertain if the information is getting through!

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I graduate in Dec. So far school has prepared me to be an English major more than a nurse.

All we do is write pages and pages of stupid care plans and case studies. We GOT IT already! is what we want to tell our instructors.

How about some time to study for the tests????

And here's a novel idea...teach me some real practical things that I will need to know when I get to actually work.

For most of us we are just waiting to graduate so we can really learn what to do.

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I graduate in Dec. So far school has prepared me to be an English major more than a nurse.

All we do is write pages and pages of stupid care plans and case studies. We GOT IT already! is what we want to tell our instructors.

How about some time to study for the tests????

And here's a novel idea...teach me some real practical things that I will need to know when I get to actually work.

For most of us we are just waiting to graduate so we can really learn what to do.

Hear, hear! This last summer, I wrote the equivalent of 3 14 page papers, did a big presentation, as well as the usual care plans, etc. The highlight of the summer was that I actually got to do a straight cath (the only one I have done, in 1 year of school so far).

As I said before, critical thinking and skills do not have to be mutually exclusive.

oldiebutgoodie

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Specializes in Medical.

What an interesting thread.

I trained old school, in one of the last hospital-based programs; in the past, when I've raised concerns about the current process - which often seems to concentrate on abstract theory well over clinical proficiency - my concerns were ddismissed as evidence that I was intimidated by tertiary-educated nurses. :uhoh21:

We were on the ward after seven weeks (full time shifts from week nine) - three months after we started we all had a very clear idea of what a nursing career would be like. Three of my class dropped out after we passed medication administration, chosing to stay as enrolled nurses; everyone else who made it past the three month mark graduated and, fifteen years on, about a third are still working as nurses.

I'm pretty conflicted on the issue. One the one hand I firmly believe that nurses need to carve out a specific area of practice - it's encroached on all sides, and too often nurses don't see that 'giving away' our duties erodes the concept of nursing. Any (properly trained) one can do what I do, but only a nurse can do everything I do.

On the other hand it seems as though the quest for legitimacy and nursing professionalism (fought not on our terms but by the requirements defining other professions) has led to an emphasis on academic thory which is only tangentally relatable to the clinical practice the majority on nurses perform. I think it's this that is being referred to -

Perhaps there has been too much intellectual "egg head" intrusion from accredidation agencies at the expense of common sense.

And:

Yep, I think Martha Rogers is also a crackpot. Oops, there goes my energy field!

Amen! And don't get me started on nursing ethics of care...

I'm not advocating a return to hospital-based training - patients now are too sick, for a start. But it does seem to me that a significant part of why so many young nurses leave is because they're woefully underequipped for the reality of nursing. Without hands on clinical practice, theory doesn't become concrete.

Agnus posted about nursing now being more sophisticated, and I agree that there's a lot more tech than there used to be, but basic nursing care lies at the heart of all clinical nursing practice. I disagree, however, that we:

were too stupid to ever imagine that we might learn to read cardiac strips.We made no critical decisions about a patient. 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

There is more to know, but every grad I've ever asked has said they learned at least as much in their first year out as they did in three years of university. Most of that was hands on stuff that they could have got a better start on during their training...

LESS psychosocial mumbo-jumbo. LESS paperwork, MORE patient contact.
Amen - not just for students!

Oh, and I still use a stethescope to take a blood pressure (sometimes I even palpate!) and I don't own one - the cheap disposable ward scopes suit me fine. :)

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What an interesting thread.

I trained old school, in one of the last hospital-based programs; in the past, when I've raised concerns about the current process - which often seems to concentrate on abstract theory well over clinical proficiency - my concerns were ddismissed as evidence that I was intimidated by tertiary-educated nurses. :uhoh21:

....

I'm pretty conflicted on the issue. One the one hand I firmly believe that nurses need to carve out a specific area of practice - it's encroached on all sides, and too often nurses don't see that 'giving away' our duties erodes the concept of nursing. Any (properly trained) one can do what I do, but only a nurse can do everything I do.

On the other hand it seems as though the quest for legitimacy and nursing professionalism (fought not on our terms but by the requirements defining other professions) has led to an emphasis on academic thory which is only tangentally relatable to the clinical practice the majority on nurses perform. I think it's this that is being referred to -

Thank you for such a well-thought out post! Hey, do you want to be a nursing instructor?

oldiebutgoodie

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