Why do people drop out of AZ nursing schools?

sassiebaz · Jan 14, 2007

Cardiac,
You know, who am I but a lowly pre-nursing student. Oh - but I do have my opinions regarding the pre-reqs and how to better weed out the future would-be-dropouts in ns.
I see so much mass memorization in my nursing pre-req courses with few critical thinking questions. Now I know mass memorization is important - A&P comes to mind. However, why not add complexity and require more critical thinking questions on exams in addition to all of the memorization? Wouldn't this achieve the intended goals for NS pre-reqs?
I see this time and time again in my courses. The instructor asks a critical thinking question. Blank stares all around in class. A couple of students do know the answer. But you don't want to be the only student always answering, you know? The class stays quiet and the instructor backs off. Perhaps they think we are all that dumb. They need to push harder. The instructor gets that 'oh no, better back off, little darlings aren't so smart' glazed expression and then dumbs down the subject matter. It's like there's this unspoken rule that the dullest students must be carried along, even if the the curriculum is diminished. This is not going to happen in NS. So why be so gentle in the pre-reqs? They actually aren't doing students any favors by letting them go forward in pre-reqs if they can't think critically. I would think these students would hit a brick wall in NS. Why let them get as far as NS? It is actually unkind.
I can give you an example. This is jut one of probably hundreds I've noticed in my nursing pre-reqs. We had to learn the functional groups in my bio class. So the instructor told us which ones to memorize. So we did. However, we never actually talked about WHAT FUNCTIONAL GROUPS ACTUALLY ARE OR ABOUT WHAT THEY DO - THEIR SIGNIFICANCE. What good is memorizing science trivia if you don't know what it means?
The pre-reqs need to enforce more critical thinking skills even if more students are weeded out. Shouldn't that be the goal?
-end rant-

The one thing that does bug me about the way the pre-req's are process to ge into the nursing programs is somewhat similar to yours. The fact that so many may drop/fail out and then there are those spots that could have been given to someone that really would have been better suited, are wasted. When I was in mdeical assisting program at Phoenix college we had about a handful of students that literally failed almost every class. These classes were NOT pieces of cake. Yeah they weren't A&P but, terminology, and phlebotomy, etc......I got A's but some did struggle. There was alot of memorization. So, basically these students were passed anyways, and given a certificate. Because they spoke spanish they left school making more than me. I was the one with the 4.0 and they were pulling D's....there is something wrong with that!!!!

RNfaster · Jan 14, 2007

Hi Sassie - I am still around. Yeah, I am bummed that the Maricopa colleges don't use GPA as a differentiator for admission. I am in my last prerequisite class now and I just learned that.

I don't have contact with my fellow students as I attend classes at Rio Salado (attended most of them while I was still working). I don't know how well they do.

I think that over the long term, things will work out for the most part. Smarts should help you advance... On the other hand, schmoozing is helpful, too. I have to work at that.

There are always ding dongs in high, middle, and low places that are simply great schmoozers. But that is a type of intelligence or workplace currency, I suppose.

Curious how much more the Spanish speakers make... I speak some Spanish and am working on improving it. Have been looking at books on medical Spanish. Would want to work a whole lot if I were to translate medical instructions.