Who says nurses can't be scholars?

[Neuro Guy NP]

So perhaps this is a bit of a diatribe, but I really do believe nurses can be just as scholarly as any other profession. And to be quite honest, I am very tired of hearing nurses talk about how there is no need to further their education or at the bare minimum keep up-to-date on CEUs or the latest journal articles because it 'just doesn't have anything to do with being a nurse or being xyz,' or quite frankly any number of other statements or attitudes that put down or otherwise discredit the need to engage in academic or scholarly pursuits.

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard a professional discharging one of my patients, and going over the instructions and hear them give ludicrous explanations about medications, diagnoses etc. only to think to myself "where did you get that hogwash from?"

I have really been trying to instill in my students and new NP graduates that follow me a love of learning, to never be stagnant in their clinical practice, and to always look for the answers to questions they develop throughout the day (not that I have 100 years of clinical practice, but I digress). I really do believe that this is the best way to practice as a nurse, whether advanced practice or at the RN level. I tell my students that as an RN you should never do things just because they are ordered. If there are no reasons not to perform an order, fine, do it, but take the time to find out why things are done the way they are, listen to the doctors on rounds, read physician notes, multidisciplinary notes, go the extra mile.

For my advanced practice colleagues, puh-lease let's not be satisfied with the status quo. Sign up for conferences. Go to lectures. Go to skills courses. Author journal articles. Get that next degree. Let's step up our science background and take extra courses and represent the very best that nursing has to offer.

I do worry sometimes about the quality of our graduates from APRN programs. As for me, I am going to try to be the best role model I can. I have just completed my DNP degree , and I have just been accepted to a Neuroscience Ph.D. program here locally at a renowned university.

I signed up as someone willing to be a preceptor in the national databank of whatever with the ANCC for NP students, but have yet get any requests, but I love to take on students as teaching is one of my main passions, so if anyone here needs a preceptor and serious about their stuff, I'm willing. I'm in the Philadelphia area.

I guess I write this long post just because I grow tired of seeing so many members of my profession who are OK with lackluster. I feel that this is not something seen in other professions to this degree. I suppose I could be wrong.

The grass on the other side of the fence very well could be brown instead of the plush green I sometimes see. Just my two cents.

[Aromatic]

neuroscience is pretty cool. Probably my favorite topic also. Hence why I am pretty much only interested in neurology or psychiatry once i get done with school. Its always so strange why people are soooo fascinated with the heart and with like ortho and stuff (at least in my class we have tons of people who want to do ortho surgery and cardiology), yet psych and neuro are relatively untouched by many. The brain is the final frontier of the body.

At least residencies are easy to come by for neurology and psych, which makes my life easier and they are like two of the most needed specialties out there.

Good to see others interested in it as well. I think i did my capstone project back when I was in nurse practitioner school on AD, it was the most interesting writing a paper could be.

Cant really complain making 250-300k working in a field related to the brain lol

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

250k? Wait. Maybe I can go back to school LOL. I actually work in a neuroscience department doing AD research. If I was 10 years younger :)

[Malcolm13]

The problem is that there are starting to be many advanced degrees without experience. There is a critical disconnect between "scholars" and those with pertinent, relevant skills. It is impossible to understand the healthcare environment without years of experience.

I see you smugly speak of your phd acceptance. If that is where you would like to be I am unclear as to the reason of your venture into nursing.

As the push for higher education has exploded., the quality of care has plummeted. People are ending up in 6 figure debt, a no-win situation leaving a payment the size of a mortgage. Masters and doctorate degrees are coming into the market without even a year of experience.

Highly skilled Lpn s and those with associates degrees are being shoved aggressively out the door in favor of far less skilled master's prepared nurses whose bedside manner equates to a stale loaf of bread.

Yes, keeping up your trade is important. Though I laugh at your jeer aimed at neuroscience ICU nurses. I am a betting woman they could eat you alive while taking care of 2 vey ill patients. A feat I would bet you could not perform. This is clear from you comments.

Nurses can be "scholarly"if they choose, however they are often far too busy taking care of very ill and challenging patients as well as keeping current in their specialty. It is clear this is not where you would like to be. This is where the tough survive and the weak flounder.

Good luck in your endeavors, the ones that are right for you.

[Malcolm13]

I agree. I remember working with Lpn's who li had great pride in their jobs. Now there are nurses out of school who clearly have no interest in the field. Many who see advanced practice nursing as a quick way to make a dollar.

I love nursing and hard working nurses who toil

diligently for years learning their trade often years later combining this experience with an advanced education leading to an experienced and skilled provider.

Sadly, these days are over.

[jaycam, RN]

I just graduated with my ADN... I'm still waiting to take my NCLEX, so my opinion comes with a grain of salt. Have a job waiting for me when I pass in psych. I'm already planning more schooling. Not because I want a graduate degree, but because I just want to challenge myself and do more than get by. I am applying to BSN bridge programs so that when I do want a graduate degree I can apply for them, but I am also planning on taking classes like physiological psych and sociology classes that can apply to making me better as a floor nurse. Scholarship for the sake of scholarship is nice, but I would always prefer to do something with my knowledge...

[Neuro Guy NP, DNP, PhD, APRN]

In response to Malcolm13

I'm not going to waste my time responding to your way off base comments. Nothing smug or mean about what I was saying so I'm not sure why you feel the need to pick a bone here. You have no knowledge of what my pre-NP experience was. I in fact am an experienced RN, so please know your facts before assigning bad/arrogant motives to other posters.

this is should be a place for collegial discussion and if you or others cannot manage, then you and other such individuals are better off not replying. I do not mind opposing views at all but we should not tear others down in the process

[Avid reader]

Because advance knowledge isn't relevant unless you are prescribing tx. Practical knowledge is more applicable. I'm the curious type so I read voraciously however many nurses and Drs are capable enough without the additional course work. You do sound somewhat patronizing?

[Neuro Guy NP, DNP, PhD, APRN]

Because advance knowledge isn't relevant unless you are prescribing tx. Practical knowledge is more applicable. I'm the curious type so I read voraciously however many nurses and Drs are capable enough without the additional course work. You do sound somewhat patronizing?

well I certainly don't mean it that way. Sorry if it does sound like it. I don't mean to say that people with associate degrees only can't be scholarly or intelligent. Not at all. I'm just saying that there is a developing undercurrent within the prpfession of a satisfaction with status quo. Nursing has come a long way in its development as a profession and I don't want to see it regress.

When I first started teaching I was in clinical and I heard nurses say they didn't need to read new things about their specialty 'because it didn't have to do with being a nurse' and things like that. That's my point. Not being stagnant in knowledge

[divobari]

Because advance knowledge isn't relevant unless you are prescribing tx. Practical knowledge is more applicable. I'm the curious type so I read voraciously however many nurses and Drs are capable enough without the additional course work. You do sound somewhat patronizing?

I just have to say that any non-prescriber healthcare professional with any advanced degree, i.e. Nurse educator, Nurse administrator, Hospital CEO(Typically with MBA or MPH), Nurse Anesthetist(non prescriber in many states) could take your remark as patronizing, too. The reality is that no one knows what an advanced degree will get them until they actually get one - both knowlede-wise and job-wise. I'll support complacency in colleagues(as long as they are happy, I don't care.), but the need to denigrate those who want to see the profession continue to advance or continue to challenge themselves says more about the critics than those pressing forward. In the end, any advancement it will benefit all nurses and patient-care.

[Aromatic]

anybody can be a scholar. Degrees are just titles in many cases and I dont think I have ever directly used much of anything I have learned in school as of yet besides maybe the one year i worked as an RN on a med surg floor. Worked inpatient as an FNP, school whatever didnt help much there, just read books and CCM resident tutorials. Owned a business that made decent money for a while... never took a business class.

We have the internets, scholar away my friends.

[WKShadowNP, DNP, APRN]

I think my next degree will be an MFA in musical theatre.

Then I could be listed on the Playbill as WKShadow, DNP, MSN, BSN, AASN, MFA, APRN, RN, FNP-C, Jazz Hands

On the topic of letters behind your name, I received a mailing yesterday for a cardiac symposium. The speaker had the redundant alphabet soup with all her degrees and certification. So ridiculous and unnecessary. Just list highest degree and pertinent certs, if you must!

[Aromatic]

I think my next degree will be an MFA in musical theatre.

Then I could be listed on the Playbill as WKShadow, DNP, MSN, BSN, AASN, MFA, APRN, RN, FNP-C, Jazz Hands

On the topic of letters behind your name, I received a mailing yesterday for a cardiac symposium. The speaker had the redundant alphabet soup with all her degrees and certification. So ridiculous and unnecessary. Just list highest degree and pertinent certs, if you must!

haha i know right? I am not sure why people are so obsessed with degrees. I mean, they are not hard to get, at least most of them. even med school isnt THAT difficult and I doubt I have some ungodly level of intelligence allowing me to get thru it. Just hard work...

There are 2.5 million nurses and 800k docs in the country. If that many people can do it, it is nothing special. Now, come up with some brilliant invention and then these people can brag. Otherwise just tuck your head down and work like the rest of us and provide benefit to society.

I guess the only argument against all of this super egoism is it does have some innate benefit to our survival, at least in times past. Now it seems to just annoy the crap out of people.

I did see a degree that was called "master of puppetry" on a school website once.