With all the reading we are giving and expected to memorize, paired with minimal guidance and classroom time, how do they expect us to succeed? 2 classes over a 3 week period followed by a 50 point exam? And if I have a question or don't get it, then what?
I'm just very p.o.ed right now and getting very frustrated/borderline discouraged. All this hard work and I'm getting nothing to show for it expect disappointment and more frustration.
I think you need to look into a private tutor or a facility like Sylvan Learning Center to help you develop study skills. I've seen students like you who are too dependent on study guides or having professors tell them exactly what will be on the test. I've noticed many of them just don't know HOW to study and use their resources.
Take the time to find a tutor before you waste even more time and money. Demanding a study guide in upper division courses simply isn't realistic.
you can call it spoon feeding but it really helps. the professors who spoon fed me helped me pass..i was able to learn the material and move on
Does anyone else feel old while reading this thread? When I got my first degree years ago, we actually took notes. Our profs wrote key topics (in chalk!) on the board and that was it. Then, when I went back to school a few years ago, I was initially confused by instructors either posting power points online or passing them out in class. It took me awhile to figure out how to use those PowerPoints as a launching point for my own notes.
Back on topic--if we make mistakes, someone can die. That's why it's essential that nursing school be difficult. Only the best should make it through. Everyone has a vocation in life, if nursing isn't for someone, there is nothing wrong with that.
I have a favourite quote...."Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted".......Ralph Waldo Emerson I can feel your frustration through the computer screen. I am so sorry you are feeling overwhelmed. Nursing school is hard...very hard. Medicine is unlike every other profession out there. No one is going to give you notes or a power point to help you critically think when a patient has a problem. You need to to it yourself. While the teachers that give you all the notes and power points to "help you pass" may be popular teachers....they are really doing you a great disservice. They are taking the easy way out and not letting students really learn. While students love this for they have a good GPA they really aren't LEARNING the necessary tools to be successful at the end. You really aren't learning how to forage out the information you need for yourself...learning to critically think...and you will struggle on boards and in your day to day practice prioritizing the patients needs. Nursing is a profession that depends on ALL of the information learned...each class each clinical builds off the other to help you develop the critical thinking skills that you will use single every day in patient care. Nursing is all about ownership and responsibility. Some of this comes with maturity. Nursing is all about being self sufficient and competent to be independent because we have people's lives in the palms of our hands. In nursing you are responsible for everything....late labs, late trays, missed x-rays, nasty MD's, unhappy administrators. You will have immense responsibility and very little control. You are the last safety net that protects the patient in the chaotic world of medicine. It is up to you and you alone at 1 am and your patient crumps....there will be no power points or notes to help you critically think your way to a solution...you will HAVE to do it yourself. Your patient is not going to care that you have had a bad day, a close friend was in a car crash, or that your cat just died. They just want you to be competent and know what to do to save their life. In taking on that responsibility you have to be self sufficient to make the best decisions. Your personal issues are of not consequence to the patient. Start thinking....I am responsible for me. I need to won what I learn. I am responsible for the information. I need to pay attention and take notes. I am responsible for me and becoming the best nurse I can be....I need to own my own future. I am the one in control of my destiny. Not "They" won't give me notes. "They" won't help me. "They" need to give me what I need. They are making me fail.....for that just isn't the case. Your learning is up to you and you alone. Nursing school didn't promise you it would be easy......it isn't. It shouldn't be for you wil be responsible for another human beings life. MANY nurses before you passed nursing school without power points and study notes. I think that schools today spoon feed the kids way too much. My children were so angry when I disabled their spell check and made them learn it themselves. My job as a Mom was to make them self sufficient...even if they are unhappy at the time. I make sure they know they are the commanders of their own destiny's and if they want something bad enough they have to work for it....life isn't easy and NOT everybody wins. ((HUGS))[/quote']
Does anyone else feel old while reading this thread? When I got my first degree years ago we actually took notes. Our profs wrote key topics (in chalk!) on the board and that was it. Then, when I went back to school a few years ago, I was initially confused by instructors either posting power points online or passing them out in class. It took me awhile to figure out how to use those PowerPoints as a launching point for my own notes. [/quote']
I felt old and I'm in my 30s! LOL.
When I started college in the late 90's PowerPoint was not encouraged; by the time I got into the first stunt of nursing school a year later (I did my prereq's for my CC within a year, they had PowerPoint, overhead projector for examples, yet, we STILL had to take notes.
When I went to PN school, most of the teachers had very differ net learning styles; some used PowerPoint, others lectured like a bed time sorry and we had to take notes; I learned to take note taking by SOAP or ADPIE; it served me well-fast forward to my BSN program in 2009...PowerPoint all the time BUT, you STILL needed to note take AND really utilized the recommended reading and study material; if one relied on the book ONLY and struggled, it was because one needed to utilize ALL readings to find the information; not just what the instructor stated in class.
Required readings introduced the material, recommended readings helped bridge the gap, clinicals put the theory and readings into action.
Back on topic--if we make mistakes, someone can die. That's why it's essential that nursing school be difficult. Only the best should make it through.
And the best includes people who struggle and find ways to succeed in grasping the material any way they can.
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Does anyone else feel old while reading this thread? When I got my first degree years ago, we actually took notes. Our profs wrote key topics (in chalk!) on the board and that was it. Then, when I went back to school a few years ago, I was initially confused by instructors either posting power points online or passing them out in class. It took me awhile to figure out how to use those PowerPoints as a launching point for my own notes.
Does anyone else feel old while reading this thread? When I got my first degree years ago, we actually took notes. Our profs wrote key topics (in chalk!) on the board and that was it.
I couldn't agree more. As a current nursing instructor, I feel the over-reliance on PowerPoints is unfortunate. I once did a brief (30 minutes or so) lecture on a med/surg topic with no PowerPoints, just speaking & writing on a flip chart. There was almost a mutiny in the classroom! The students were outraged that there were no PowerPoints. And yet... they managed to learn the topic!
I don't know if anyone mentioned this because, honestly, I lost track after awhile.
Anyway, I'll add that information isn't spoon-fed and one has to learn to use resources because that's what you have to do at work.
If you are unsure about something, you have to know where to find your answer.
Sometimes a coworker has the answer, sometimes it's referring to a policy manual and other times it's your books.
I think that nursing school-- by not spoon-feeding-- teaches one how to find answers.
One also has to learn how to find reputable resources.
So, yeah, one may think all they need is spoon-feeding (impossible for everything) but really the onus is on that person to know how to find answers by doing their own research... because I know we still do that everyday in practice.
This is because you cannot possibly remember everything you were ever taught and you cannot be taught every little last thing.
Does anyone else feel old while reading this thread? When I got my first degree years ago we actually took notes. Our profs wrote key topics (in chalk!) on the board and that was it. Then, when I went back to school a few years ago, I was initially confused by instructors either posting power points online or passing them out in class. It took me awhile to figure out how to use those PowerPoints as a launching point for my own notes. Back on topic--if we make mistakes, someone can die. That's why it's essential that nursing school be difficult. Only the best should make it through. Everyone has a vocation in life, if nursing isn't for someone, there is nothing wrong with that.[/quote']
I'm not even out of my 20s and I feel old. When I went to college right out of high school, there were powerpoints, but NO one ever gave them out. They were an aid for the professor, really. It kept them from having to write key points on the board.
If you wanted the information from the powerpoints...you wrote it down.
I surrender....I think many, many people here have been generous with advice, have been courteous, and have tried to offer assistance to EmilyEmily. There has been no "bullying" whatsoever. I think it's clear that she doesn't want to hear that she is responsible for her success or failure in school and in life. So, I'm not going to waste anymore time on this. I feel badly for her, as she has a very hard lesson to learn.
I am in school now, but in my 40s, so I've seen both sides of it. I am grateful for power points when we do get them, but I've never once relied on them for my knowledge base, just an additional study guide.
I LOVE when we are in lecture and using power points, and one is missing in ours that the instructor has. The students start flipping out like they are going to die. HELLO, get your pen out and WRITE! Spoonfeeding is killing their ability to think.
Another pet peeve is when the instructor says something along the lines of "You might want to remember this for next Friday" as in , our test next Friday. Shouldn't we remember everything whether you are putting it on a test or not? As a nurse, shouldn't I know it all?
I couldn't agree more. As a current nursing instructor, I feel the over-reliance on PowerPoints is unfortunate. I once did a brief (30 minutes or so) lecture on a med/surg topic with no PowerPoints, just speaking & writing on a flip chart. There was almost a mutiny in the classroom! The students were outraged that there were no PowerPoints. And yet... they managed to learn the topic!
I would fail your class. I'm not an auditory learner. I need direction with power points, study guides, etc. or else I'm lost
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I think you need to look into a private tutor or a facility like Sylvan Learning Center to help you develop study skills. I've seen students like you who are too dependent on study guides or having professors tell them exactly what will be on the test. I've noticed many of them just don't know HOW to study and use their resources.
Take the time to find a tutor before you waste even more time and money. Demanding a study guide in upper division courses simply isn't realistic.