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| *Ostroff, Fair and Company>>>Health Care |
Academic or Actual experience? |
Do we place too much emphasis on academic study to the detriment of practical experience? For example, an NHS degree nurse can exit university proudly holding his or her peice of paper and take charge of a ward, with little or no practical experience, including being 'in charge of' Auxiliary Nurses who may have had 20 or more years experience of direct, hands on patient care. Which would you prefer looking after you or your relative and why? i want experience over academic, theres nothing like an experienced nurse cooor! joking aside i was in accident and emergency last week after collapsing in work. the "doctor" who looked about 15 found nothing wrong with me. my future mother in law who was one of the first paramedics in england and seen it all from IRA bombings to nightclub stabbings and recieved an MBE for her services was able to tell me what happened over the phone and she was spot on. 2nd years houseman had'nt a clue. thank christ i was'nt brought in with a steel bar sticking out of my head. i would have been sent home with some painkillers. I want someone who has both, the education and the experience. Academic means you know the whys of what you are doing, the theories, the logic and allows you to make theoretical decisions based on something you may have never seen before. Actual means you know how to do or apply what you have seen before. I am going to need my nurse, to be able to do both. I'm not sure what an "auxiliary" nurse is - is that like a Licensed Practical Nurse, LPN in the USA, (step down in training from a registered nurse)? What I can say, is that registered nurses are trained at a higher level than LPNs; LPNs are skilled in patient care however they are not as highly skilled in performing physical assessments nor are they trained in nursing theory, care planning, and other aspects of nursing leadership. This education is invaluable to nurses, and leads to better patient care and improved patient outcomes. IMO, I would want a nurse who is trained to perform detailed physical assessments caring for my family member, because assessment is the foundation of nursing care. It is true that experience counts, but you cannot compare the experience of a lesser educated nurse or LPN to that of an RN, it's like comparing apples and oranges. And I should also point out that while in school, RNs have a good amount of actual clinical experience as part of their education, not to mention the fact that a great number of people in nursing school have started out as LPNs or nurses aids or worked in some other aspect of health care, so it is unusual for a new grad RN to have very little hands-on experience these days. Surely in an ideal world, a mixture of experience and education is ideal, but many facilities, faced with extreme nurse shortages, are forced to hire newly graduated RNs in charge or leadership positions that directly supervise other lesser-degree nurses such as LPNs, because the LPNs scope of practice as part of their licensure does not allow them to hold those kinds of supervisory positions. Don't knock new graduates. They pass an intensive exam - it isn't easy to pass if you weren't a good student and hadn't really learned nursing theory. We all have to start somewhere, whether nurses, doctors, lawyers, etc. If places only hired those with experience, how would we ever train new nurses? We would only be perpetuating the nursing shortages. RN |
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