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.
