MY PLEA TO NURSING SCHOOLS (5 Things That Need to Change in Nursing Education)

Our Mission at NURSING.com
Is to provide nursing students with peace of mind through tools and confidence, and to help you succeed in nursing school, on the NCLEX, and in your life as a nurse.

Anyone that tells you that nursing school is a walk in the park is simply lying through their teeth.

Nursing school is difficult. We’ve said it before, but nursing school is kinda like having a baby… after months and months of nausea, vomiting, and sleepless nights you start to question why the hell you did it in the first place.

We don’t think that nursing school needs to be easier (per se) but it doesn’t need to be so damn hard. What do I mean by that?

Nursing school is hard. It has to be hard. You are learning how to are completely for a patient (and their family) physically and emotionally during the most trying time of their lives. This requires an enormous amount of knowledge and skill and learning that is HARD.

BUT… what we’ve found (from our experience and talking to literally hundreds of thousands of nursing students around the globe) is that nursing school has become unnecessarily hard. Assignments have grown monotonous. Clinical time has been reduced. Some courses have become entirely pointless. Information is poorly conveyed and made impossible to find. Students and patients have taken a back seat in nursing education. This must change. This, in our minds, is completely wrong. This sets the nursing student up for failure.

It is possible to have a simple nursing school experience and we are here to make that possible.

When NURSING.com first started in 2014, it was our goal to change nursing education. There is a need to create an environment of collaboration and support between students, educators, and administrators.

While we realize that we alone can’t change individuals or nursing programs, what we have been able to do over the last several years is create a ground swell. The NURSING Family is now millions strong and nursing students (and practicing nurses and educators) are discovering that they are not alone… they are part of a family. At NURSING.com, we believe it’s okay to give a damn.

We are proud of what we’ve created… together.

From where you are sitting right now, you might think becoming a nurse is an unattainable goal, like no one has your back, and that failure is your only option. Don’t give up!

5 Things That Need to Change in Nursing Education

• Intellectual humility
• “Yes But” vs “Yes And”
• Flipping the Classroom Doesn’t Mean Not Teaching
• Screw the “School of Hard Knocks”
• Nursing Students Are NOT Lazy

Intellectual humility

“Intellectual humility is simply the recognition that the things you believe in might in fact be wrong.” VOX

It is easy as educators to assume we know everything — or at least that we MUST know more than our students.

For many educators, they immediately slip into defense mode when nursing students have questions about accuracy of information taught.

Taking a moment to examine your feelings when what you’ve taught is challenged creates a safe learning environment — and even more, it shows nursing students how supportive nursing CAN be.

“Yes But” vs “Yes And”

When students provide answers and engage in the classroom or clinical — how can they be encouraged?

Creating a safe learning environment where students will continually challenge themselves creates deeper thinkers who become excited about learning.

This can be done by using a key phrase: “Yes, and . . .”

Rather than responding with BUT and pointing out flaws, educators can respond with AND- expanding on ideas.

Flipping the Classroom Doesn’t Mean Not Teaching

I get it . . . the “FLIPPED CLASSROOM” is the hot thing in nursing education. And when it comes down to it, it really is an effective way to learn.

However, what we’ve seen and heard from our students is that subpar educators are using “flipped classroom” as an excuse for lazy teaching.

Some assign readings and then test without ever teaching.

In the flipped classroom, the educator is a facilitator — this is ALL new information for nursing students and they need a guide to get them through the jungle of nursing education.

When the flipped classroom creates an environment where the base knowledge students are gaining is built upon by a guide — learning can happen.

Screw the “School of Hard Knocks”

Look, I don’t care how hard nursing school was for you!

Making it hard on others just for the sake of making it hard is . . . well, bullshit.

When need passionate nurses- not calloused first year new grads who burn out in their first year of work.

Let’s be agents of change. Let’s stop the cycle of “Hard Knocks”. Let’s guide our students and help them learn and become phenomenal, caring, passionate nurses.

Instead of thinking; how hard can I make this?

Think; how can I help them learn this?

Nursing Students Are NOT Lazy

Just to have a seat in nursing school, the average student has to:

• Pass 60+ hours of prereqs with a B average
• Take difficult entrance exams
• Compete for limited seats
• Take out an average of $40,000 in student debt

Let’s remove blanket statements like

Nursing students are lazy . . .

They aren’t. Are there a few who are? Of course.

However, the vast majority are passionate people who want to make a change in the world.

Assume the best.

Conclusion

Nursing school is hard. It has to be hard. You are learning how to are completely for a patient (and their family) physically and emotionally during the most trying time of their lives. This requires an enormous amount of knowledge and skill and learning that is HARD.

Just because nursing school is innately hard doesn't mean we should pile on challenges.

Let’s create passionate nurses and stop being roadblocks to the future of healthcare.

Happy Nursing!

Jon Haws, RN

Founder NURSING.com