hi all i just wanted to ask everyone what there biggest pet peeve is when it comes to your family or friends when discussing difficulties that you are having with school.
when i try to discuss things with my family they just say .... oh suck it up its not that hard :angryfire .... or come on now its just nursing its not that bad..... but my favorite is .... nursing is nursing isn't that why you wanted to go to school to learn so lean. i might add i really really hate this one
now when ever i have a problem non of my family members like to help me through the difficult times i just get these useless lines and its supposed to make everything better. i hate it even more because none of my family has ever gone through university or better yet most haven't even graduated from high school.
Yeah ... that's another big problem. Giving you totally conflicting information which even the nursing profession as a whole can't agree on. Three different textbooks will give you three different answers yet ... you're supposed to guess the "right" answer.
Then you go to the hospital and, of course, their guidelines are totally different from the books or what the instructor tells you ...
I've tried to bring this up at student faculty meetings but, they won't let me discuss it.
That's horrible that you're not allowed to discuss a legitimate issue at the student-faculty meetings. Kinda makes one wonder what they'd consider appropriate... :uhoh21:
The problem is they don't understand that if we didn't worry and study study study we would not have made that grade. I think we feel we need to know all the words and everything backwards and forwards and then alot of it isn't on the test. So now everytime we say we don't know it they say they don't want to hear it.
Mary Ann,
I think what your family might be trying to tell you is that you are driving yourselves crazy--and taking them along for the ride--when maybe there is a more productive and less frustrating way.
It's not the WORRY that's getting you the grades. It's the "STUDY, STUDY, STUDY". The worry is only increasing your anxiety and quite possibly setting you up for test anxiety which leads to POOR performance when you DO know the material.
Don't stop studying, but try saying to yourself, "Hey, I'm prepared. I've really done my homework. Now let's go show 'em what we've learned!" You'll be happier, healthier and much easier to live with.
Keep up the good work---but reward yourself for it, don't punish yourself for not doing more.:biggringi
And, yes, in case you haven't guessed already, I am a Nursing Instructor.
That's horrible that you're not allowed to discuss a legitimate issue at the student-faculty meetings. Kinda makes one wonder what they'd consider appropriate... :uhoh21:
They argue it's an issue that should be addressed by individual instructors ... not the faculty as a whole ... even though we've had the same problem with conflicting information each semester, no matter who the instructor is.
1. hearing second (and sometimes third-) hand information about future semesters. holy moley, haven't people got the routine down by now? they scare the crap outta us about the next semester, then we get there and figure out that we really can make it throught. it bothers me that people get so worked up about stuff we don't even have to worry about for another year.
2. people in class who consistently interrupt instructors. there is a reason our instructors are the teachers, and we are the students. they know more than us. really. i promise.
3. people that ask me about my grades. unless you are one of my close friends, you don't need to know.
4. meanie staff rns in our clinical settings. enough said.
5. hospital cafeteria food. why can't the hot food be served hot and the cold food be served cold?
6. i'm so sick of my family not knowing my schedule! my mother-in-law called me *during a test* to tell me that she just went to the dentist. what the fudge? that couldn't possibly wait another hour? thankfully i turned my phone on silent and had it stuffed in my backpack. she said later that she couldn't remember if i was in class this morning...(or any other morning, for that matter)
i think that covers it. maybe not, but it at least gets me started.
Test questions that don't test the desired knowledge for nursing skills (you know, the things you NEED to know to become a proficient nurse).
A question on our first test asked what the philosophy and conceptual framework is for the school of nursing that I attend. :angryfire That is totally unfair; some people failed by a point and it could have been that stupid question.
this must be routine. we have the same types of issues. one of our textbooks will contradict itself within the same section.... one of the biggest things with troponin is that it stays elevated much longer than ck-mb. i know that doesn't answer the question, frankly, i don't remember which one rises first. wish i could retake my last test........neuro....got an 88, worst grade i've had.....
my book says that they rise at the same rate, but troponin lasts longer!
A question on our first test asked what the philosophy and conceptual framework is for the school of nursing that I attend. :angryfire That is totally unfair; some people failed by a point and it could have been that stupid question.
I know it's frustrating when you are required to know things that don't seem to apply to your goals---especially if your goal is to become a "proficient nurse". But their is much more to professional nursing than nursing skills.
Understanding your schools conceptual framework is important to be able to navigate the many assignments you will have. For example, our school uses Orem's model of Self-Care Deficits. This helps students prioritize care both in the clinical area and on tests. Most students struggle with the test questions that ask "Which of these actions has the highest priority?" or "Which should the nurse do FIRST?" Maslow and the ABCs (Airway, Breathing, Circulation) help on many questions, but not all. Understanding the Self-Care Deficits is another tool you can use to correctly answer these questions as well as choose the most important nursing diagnoses and care problems.
As a student in an early class (since you are covering philosophy, that's usually in an earlier class) it is sometimes difficult to see why you should care about the school's philosophy, but you should. It will mold your own personal philosophy about nursing and shape the value-based decisions you will make in the future. As an RN, you will navigate many ethical situations which will be guided by your philosophy and beliefs about nursing and people.
For example, do you believe that people are individuals who have the right to choose their own destiny? Or, do you believe that people really don't understand their own healthcare needs and they should do what the professionals tell them? If you believe the first, then you will be supportive of the client who chooses (after recieving enough information to make an informed decision) to refuse a treatment, medication or surgery. If you believe the second philosophy, you are more like to label the client "difficult" and "non-compliant"--and treat them that way.
Try going back and reading your school's philosophy again. Does it match your own values? If not, how are they different? How will this affect your patient care?
As a professional (vs proficient) nurse, you will find that the most important things you will do for and with patients frequently has nothing to do with "nursing skills". But it will have a LOT to do with patient advocacy---and those things will be strongly rooted in your philosophy about people, nursing, healthcare and life itself.
Developing your own philosophy of nursing that will drive your practice is not something done overnight or in a class assignment. As you learn and grow, so will it. Nursing is a journey....enjoy it! :biggringi
I totally know how you feel when people don't think it should be that hard. Or, when I study really hard and get the A, people say "Well, of course you did." I'm glad they have faith in me, but what if I didn't?! It makes me put even more pressure on myself, which I don't need - lol.
Luckily, my sister is a respiratory therapist, and had to go through similar things, so I call her when I need to vent to someone!
I am 7 months pregnant and work as an LPN on a busy med surg floor at the same facility that I do clinical at. Combined clinical and work I spend 12 consecutive 8-12hr days there with one weekend off and start all over. I have clinical Mon/Tues. I actually had a co-worker say "must be nice to be in school and get a 4 day weekend." 4 day weekend? when I say that I am here 12 days in a row, she replied"clinical doesn't count".Doesn't count? The only difference is that I don't get paid for the 20 hours of time over 40 hours I am there.
It's not nursing-related... but I used to get ticked off whenever civil engineering majors asked me what I was getting frustrated working on with my spice program, and I'd answer, telling them that we were designing amplifiers.
They'd respond with, "Oh... amplifiers... like three-phase, huh? That stuff's a piece of cake!"
It would get me really, really, REALLY angry. Of course three-phase is pretty easy when you're dealing with an introductory (electrical) power engineering class dumbed down so that computer science and civil engineering majors can understand it... but I wasn't working with the same kinds of amplifiers we studied in the class he was talking about.
I was getting frustrated over the class I was taking where we were learning to design various amplifiers with semiconductors for integrated circuits.
Ugh. It pissed me off mostly because one of my old roommates' stupid boyfriends used to say it all the time... and I always wanted to angrily tell him that he didn't take enough calculus to comprehend what I was working with (he only had to take up to calculus 3)... but I just kept my mouth shut to keep the peace.
One of my pet peeves is someone not making an effort to study, and they want to copy your homework because they didn't do it. At the beginning of nursing school last fall, there was a girl in my class like that. She wanted to copy homework off others, and she had all kinds of reasons she didn't study. ("My sisters, friends, relatives kept me from studying because I couldn't say no when they wanted me to do something.") Excuses. She flunked out, fortunately before we got to clinicals and had to pass meds. She didn't do well in a previous CNA class, and talked the school into putting her in the nursing program, claiming the CNA instructor was prejudiced against her. I figure, she did the same study habits in the CNA class, didn't do well, made the same excuses, so that's the reason she wasn't initially recommended to get in.
donsterRN, ASN, BSN
2,558 Posts
That's horrible that you're not allowed to discuss a legitimate issue at the student-faculty meetings. Kinda makes one wonder what they'd consider appropriate... :uhoh21: