Re: Bring Back Diploma/Hospital Based Nursing Programs?


Candide wrote:
Was chatting with a friend yesterday who works in one of the larger
hospitals in our area about the usual suspects, and talk quickly came
around to nursing students/school programs. My friend was "assigned" a
student last week who was supposed to do nothing for the duration but
"observe", which one gathers is pretty much common practice these days
as the emphasis in nursing education has titled towards academics vs.
practical.

The upshot from what one is hearing and sees is now not only is it the
BSN grads arriving on the floors with tons of theory but little direct
patient care skills, but many Associate grads as well. IMHO the
decreased emphasis on clinical in favour of academics contributes to the
seemingly high amount of new grads who arrive on the floors and when
being acquainted with their duties, bolt for the door ranting " I didn't
go to nursing school for this". There seems to be some sort of idea
floating around that aides and techs are there to do all the grunt
work/direct patient care, while RNs give orders. Granted this is the way
the profession is moving (more because of the shortage of bedside RNs,
than anything else), but this does not seem right.

Nursing skills are honed by time, if one never uses them or holds them
in low value then they never will become "second nature" enough for an
RN to feel competent in all situations. My asking about bringing diploma
programs back is because to date most produced some of the best nurses
around. Thoughts?

Candide

I started in a diploma program. The first semester we spent 4 hours a
day in the hospital doing all the things nurse aides do now and then 4
hours in class. Sometimes the clinical hours were on the day shift,
other times evenings or nights. As we added knowledge and clinical
skills in the classroom, our role in the hospital expanded to include
the new clinical skills, so that by the time you graduated at the end
of 3 years you could walk into the hospital and function quite well.
When I transferred to University it was a walk in the park. And when I
started work I felt quite comfortable being the RN. None of our
clinical hours in the diploma school were spent just watching someone
work. We had assignments of multiple patients from the beginning.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Rough weekend
    ... rehab for 2 - 3 weeks. ... hospitals, and nursing homes aren't much better. ... Years ago, when my Mom's cardiologist first proposed the idea of surgery, ...
    (alt.support.chronic-pain)
  • Re: Jobs Abound Without Need For a Degree
    ... quality of care, ... I've read stories about hospitals even taking ... the Philipines (matched by a layoff of domestic nurses). ... nursing jobs--told me something like "Well, some of the people who come ...
    (sci.research.careers)
  • Re: Hospital Care
    ... Don't get me wrong, the nurses are the key, I was not at all trying ... you will get the best docs in the world, but the nursing shortage is ... that they are not able to provide necessary care. ... few for profit hospitals out there and now they seem to make up the vast ...
    (alt.support.chronic-pain)
  • Re: future nurse
    ... hospitals used to have one RN. ... The director of nursing. ... This they say allows the RN to spend time with her patient, ... and plan a course of care for the patient. ...
    (sci.med.nursing)
  • Re: drs help
    ... >>> hospital could end up loosing its insurance for letting him practice ... >> for not helping someone with your medical skills i wonder what god would ... > That was not issue the hospitals were complaining about. ... I'm a doctor" is not going to do any good. ...
    (alt.gathering.rainbow)
Loading