Saturday, October 19, 2013

Nursing school

One thing I have yet to figure out in nursing school is why so much emphasis is placed on something that nurses working on a daily basis never do. I'm talking about care plans and case studies. In every hospital I have been to for clinicals, the nurses laugh when they see what we're having to do and tell us, "Don't worry, once you finish school, they're all done by computer." I've seen students fail completely out of nursing school over care plans. This is crazy. Depending on the requirements of the school, care plans are often multi-page, double spaced, in APA format, complete with citation. Fail it, you're out of nursing school. One nurse made the comment once "It's no wonder we have a nursing shortage in this country. We're failing students on care-plans." To me, the 20+ hours spent writing a case study could be better spent studying the textbook. There are some times when individualized care plans are needed, mostly in long term care. To me, it would be more logical to spend the limited time we have in nursing school to learn what we need to know to function as a nurse. Then, after graduation, add additional skills as required by the job we are in.

No comments:

Post a Comment