Why can't the school get their act together??

[sh1901]

I'm a first semester evening/weekend student. My class schedule is that I have labs on Monday's, Lecture on Tuesdays (which is web-enhanced) and then my clinical on Wednesdays (Some evening/weekend students have clinicals on Saturday). It's all bunched together and by Thursday I'm exhausted but I'm loving it and making it work.

What I can't seem to understand is how my school (which has been around for a very long time) can't seem to get their act together!

First problem, Monday Labs: The evening/weekend students are split into 3 lab groups on Monday, and each of the 3 groups seem to be in a different place on the syllabus. It's crazy! The biggest problem with that is that means that when we all get to clinical on Wednesdays we are all in different places with skills. Our clinical instructors are then left trying to assist those that have not yet learned a skill and watch over the rest. It makes it even more hectic than necessary. I'm not sure why we even have a syllabus if they just don't even come close to following it.

Second problem, Tuesday Lectures: Our handouts are old, out of order and in some cases make the material even harder to follow. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful that they even go to the effort to do this, but can't they have someone (a work study student perhaps) go through and make sure that the handouts are correct and complete? Our lecture is web-enhanced, which means that we spend less time in actual lecture and have materials that are posted on blackboard. It's a nice way of doing things, even more reading, but still, for those of us working with families and going to school, it's a nice way of doing things. My only complaint is that the handouts end up making things confusing. When you have missing pages and the pages are all out of order, I just don't know how you are supposed to understand the material.

Third problem, Wednesday clinicals: Why is the schedule being changed at the last minute? So last minute in fact that the instructors don't even know?? Last week at our lecture they announced that we were in our last week of our current rotation. SO, the next night all the Wednesday folks go to our clinical site, and we tell our instructors that it's our last week with them. They are totally in the dark with NO IDEA that this was the case. They started calling the head of the department and finally got confirmation. So, then we had to spend our evening trying to get the last of our paperwork done for our patients, not to mention the people who still had skills to get signed off on and then there is the little matter of completing our rotation evaluations.

Why is it so difficult for the school to get their act together? I'm sorry for the rant, but my frustration level hit a new high this morning when trying to review yet another hand out for this week, I find that I am missing important pages.

Thanks for listening!!

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

Short answer: everyone thinks everyone else is responsible for communication. Some of the things you mentioned are small potatoes. Do not waste energy on those. Most of nursing school is an endurance test. Jump thru whatever loops are necessary to get that degree.