Why not a "match day" for nurses?

[lalalalexi]

So I just watched one of my friends who is in medical school participate in Match Day. For those that dont know, match day is where forth year medical students find out which hospitals they have been placed in for their residency experience. So I got to thinking...why not for nurses too? I suppose some of you probably think this is a stupid idea, but I think it would benefit the profession greatly to have newly graduated nurses do one year of "residency" in a hospital that needs/selects them. This way, nurses are not only getting great training, but also mentoring and that "one year of acute care experience" that hospitals everywhere seem to require these days. Nursing schools in the past used to be hospital based programs, so a graduate nurse would be guaranteed a position at that hospital. But now what? As a new grad in May, I am absolutely terrified of being thrown into this job market where no one will touch a new grad with a 10 foot pole. What do you think? Should there be a residency program for new nurses?

[juliaann]

All the big hospitals in my city offer nurse residencies. Of course, you have to apply for them and they're very competitive, so it's pretty much the same as if they were just the few new grad jobs that most markets have (if that). It would be nice if there were enough of these kinds of spots to go around for all the new grads...

I guess I should be fortunate that hospitals in my city even entertain the idea of hiring new grads at all.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Wouldn't that be a great idea!

Hospitals may even want to participate if nursing education was subsidized by the Federal Government like medical education. Currently, if hospitals want to provide this type of training they are on their own and have to fund it themselves. With healthcare reimbursement dwindling each year, this type of support will become more and more unlikely.

[meandragonbrett]

This would lend the hospital another reason you pay you even less your first year. "You're just a new grad in your residency"

[nyteshade, BSN]

I tutor nursing students in my spare time, and I don't like where the curriculum is going...for instance look at all the students begging for us to complete surveys about the field for them...this is pointless!!! *The best way to learn is to do, and in order to do, students need more clinicals. *Students don't need more liberal arts crap. *Schools are hesistant to let students get down and dirty, and are becoming increasingly dependant on these NCLEX predictor tests and fail good students in order to prevent the school from possibly getting low pass rates. *What's happening??!! Stepping off my soapbox now...

[Fribblet]

"*Students don't need more liberal arts crap."

That liberal arts "crap" has a lot of benefit. If you prefer to be less educated that's your choice, and, as evidenced from your poorly written post, you made that choice.

I don't see how philosophy, art, literature, leaning how to read and think critically, and leaning how to write like an adult are "crap," but I guess the less enlightened among us will continue to think so and push for more one-track University educations.

I'm continually shocked and embarrassed by the emails and memos I receive from nurses in positions of authority (managers, charge, CNO, educators, etc.) that are full of incorrectly used words, poor grammatical structure, and generally give the impression that a child wrote it.

Having nurses who are well rounded, educated, and can form complete, coherent sentences only benefits our profession and helps others (doctors and the general public) to take us more seriously. I, personally, would have less confidence in a nurse taking care of me who spoke to me and others like she had never attended an English course. (This, of course, applies only to native English speakers. Although I work with foreign nurses who speak English better than some native speakers I work with.)

So while you may think the liberal arts are "crap," don't advocate for the continued dumbing down of our educational system.

[MiahMSN, MSN, RN]

ouch :uhoh21:

[BKCinNOLA]

I agree, lalalalexi!

My BF is in med school now (a first year), and a bunch of his friends were calling him about where they were matched today (so exciting!). I think it would be great if it was a requirement (or at least an option) for new grad nurses, too!

:)

p.s. Fribblet: I also believe that a well-rounded liberal arts education is an essential component of professional nursing. Just wish I had a job to put mine to good use!

[RNperdiem, RN]

Of course, match only comes once a year.

If no hospitals take you, then you are out of luck unless you do the desperate "scramble" that the unmatched MD's do where they will try to take any position at all.

[ghillbert, MSN, NP]

Sounds like what we have in Australia for nurses - you elect some hospital graduate programs you want, and they interview and rank applicants, and then you get computer matched.

You can still progress if you don't get accepted to a formal graduate year, but almost everyone does.

It's a great idea - you work 4 days and the 5th is classes to help you assimilate to professional life. Very structured and intended to bridge the knowledge-experience gap that new nurses have. I was lucky enough to rotate to ortho, rehab and ICU in my grad year and I learned a lot. Never left ICU, either.

[cherrybreeze, ADN, RN]

"*Students don't need more liberal arts crap."

That liberal arts "crap" has a lot of benefit. If you prefer to be less educated that's your choice, and, as evidenced from your poorly written post, you made that choice.

I don't see how philosophy, art, literature, leaning how to read and think critically, and leaning how to write like an adult are "crap," but I guess the less enlightened among us will continue to think so and push for more one-track University educations.

I'm continually shocked and embarrassed by the emails and memos I receive from nurses in positions of authority (managers, charge, CNO, educators, etc.) that are full of incorrectly used words, poor grammatical structure, and generally give the impression that a child wrote it.

Having nurses who are well rounded, educated, and can form complete, coherent sentences only benefits our profession and helps others (doctors and the general public) to take us more seriously. I, personally, would have less confidence in a nurse taking care of me who spoke to me and others like she had never attended an English course. (This, of course, applies only to native English speakers. Although I work with foreign nurses who speak English better than some native speakers I work with.)

So while you may think the liberal arts are "crap," don't advocate for the continued dumbing down of our educational system.

Harsh, much?

Not all people need a liberal arts education to produce proper sentence structure, use words correctly, and not write like "a child." I've looked at some BSN bridge program cirriculum, and didn't feel it was worth my time or money, at this point, to take an art class. I don't consider myself less "enlightened" for feeling that way.

I have the same reaction to poorly worded/structured emails and memos, but those are not limited to nurses, or nurses with less "well-rounded" educations. It seems to me that a LOT of people fail in that area...regardless of their degree (an MSN did a PowerPoint CE for staff and used the word "irregardless," so no, her extended education level didn't help one bit). In fact, you use managers, educators, and your CNO in your examples of those who send poorly written emails and memos...as a general rule, those positions require a BSN, or in the case of a CNO, and MSN. You contradict your entire argument right there.

Some of the aspects you mention can be attibuted more to a person's ingrained intelligence and strengths rather than their degree. I think your tunnel-vision perhaps makes YOU "less enlightened."

[nicole109]

I am certainly not against the "liberal arts crap", however I do agree that clinical time is sacred, and the quality of clinical time in nursing school is what is truly important. While I was in nursing school, I certainly did not appreciate the liberal arts classes that I was forced to take (and I blame a lot of that on the fact that I was 17 and probably not really ready to go to college yet), but now I do recall a lot of the things that I learned in those classes and can apply them in my everyday practice. What saddens me, is the fact that while I am working and have senior clinical students come my way, they have never inserted or removed a foley, never inserted or removed an NG tube, never suctioned a patient, never administered medications via PEG or NG tube, etc. They are senior nursing students, and the only skills that they have are administering PO meds to 1 patient, taking a fingerstick (if they are lucky), and taking blood pressure with an automated machine. Most of them are scared to even get a manual blood pressure or an apical pulse. I don't know if it's because the clinical instructors are overworked (scratch that I'm sure that they are), but these students are being severely deprived, and many of them are then spending a great deal of time as new graduates unemployed where they are further losing the knowledge that they have worked so hard for.