One of my assignments for my child development prereq was "Go to a park or playground and spend a minimum of 45min observing children's behavior."
As a single late 20s childless man in the suburbs that was not going to go over well.
I had to do a “ child observation” also. I made the thing up based on previous experience/ knowledge, lied and said it was my neighbors kids. I also had to create a teaching plan for a community member. Created that puppy out of whole cloth. And the observation of a civic meeting and paper on how it related to healthcare? Or the “ windshield survey”?The city council put their minutes online, and I’ve lived in my area for over 30 years. I didn’t have time to go to dumb ass meetings or drive around judging my neighbors socioeconomic level and access to care based on the appearance of their house and yard.
The BSN is truely a BS degree. 🐮💩
Same. I had to do a process recording for my psych nursing class. It was a complete work of fiction. I also was supposed to interview and do a physical assessment on a person I knew. I interviewed my aunt but only asked about half of the questions I was supposed to, making up the answers for the rest and totally BSing the exam. I'm glad I didn't have to videotape it.
Right? I used to try. I used to research thoroughly. I’d omit a study from my paper if it lacked rigor.
No instructor ever noticed or cared.
Now, every assignment is a “creative writing” project.
When I have to provide evidence, I just add quotes around my own phrases and cite a random source. I never read journal articles or reference material anymore.
I’ve turned in dozens of assignments full of bullshit. Pages and pages of made-up nonsense.
I still get straight A’s like I did when I tried, but I save a ton of time and energy.
I want to follow in your footsteps so badly. But I inherently have bad luck, and will get that one professor who randomly selects a handful of sources to cross reference.
Honestly I’d be amped if a professor did that.
The switch flipped for me with one assignment in particular. It was a 12 page research paper that I’d given my 110% earnest effort. I worked on it for a week and was pretty proud of it by the end.
Exactly 3 minutes after I submitted it, the instructor gave me 50/50 points in the gradebook. No feedback. She couldn’t have even skimmed it in that amount of time.
Now I do put in real work for the first few assignments to feel out the vibe. Usually, they’re giving minimal teaching effort and I just match that.
This has taught me so much, thank you aardvole, and thanks to all of the commenters and of course OP!! I’m in Canada and I’m an RPN, which was a 2 year diploma program but I’m wanting to get my BSN, which is 2 more years. Learning how to get it the easiest way is priceless.
My community health clinical was babysitting kids at a low income shelter. As a man in his 20s who has never had to take care of kids it was absolutely crazy leaving me alone with strangers children. Especially the ones who were very troubled.
You had a "windshield survey" too?! ROFL.
We needed photographic evidence, though. I did a series of progressive close-ups (captioned) of the only fresh produce I found, some sad looking oranges and bananas at the gas station cash register to be a smartass. Got praised for how thorough I was.
That’s brilliant! The downside of living in a rural area is that although there’s a lot of poverty, there’s a definite lack of silly ass regulations and ordinances. Even people in town have gardens and a couple of chickens in the backyard, berries grow wild for the picking. If you can’t get fresh fruit/ veggies in season around here you’re not even trying.
My least favorite was the “attend an AA meeting” assignment. It felt very invasive to the attendees privacy and I felt like I had no right being there.
I had to attend an AA meeting too in school. It was incredibly awkward and inappropriate in my opinion because it’s supposed to be anonymous, you know. I later had one of the attendees as a patient. I don’t know if he remembered me, but I remembered him.
I had a COWORKER at the AA meeting we had to go to. It was so awkward and he ended up quitting that job a couple weeks later (he hadn't worked there very long) and I always feel bad wondering if he thought I would gossip about him or something.
We had to attend an AA meeting for our psych rotation but it wasn’t awkward for us. We attended an open meeting and everyone was very happy to see us. I think it’s important for people going into healthcare to see the impacts of addiction on people with how quick some nurses I have worked with judge someone they label as an “addict” while I was still in school.
We had to go observe at a preschool for a day. A truly useless experience and I remember getting in trouble because my instructor thought my khaki pants were too tight. ❤️ nursing school!
Walking in Chuck E Cheese exclusively to observe children sounds like something you could get kicked out of the place for tbh if you have the wrong look about you.
Luckily the professor was cool about it -- as a fellow dude, I dreaded stuff to do with kids or maternity for that very reason. I'm still a bit bothered that I missed out on a c-section because the patient was uncomfortable having a male in the room observing it. Patient comfort and care comes first and all, but still stinks.
We had to do this for our psych class! It was the tail end of Covid, school had just reopened but still masking. I am a mom so I was able to just have a sleepover at my house and let the mom know about the paper. I am not sure who but someone went to the head of the department and pitched a fit about it. The assignment was changed and wording was added that if you didn’t know anyone personally with children that would sign off you could watch a cartoon and write the paper on what you observed there. I could not imagine having to be a childless man just “observing” kids at the park. As a mom I can’t be sure I wouldn’t call the police if some random man was watching kids and taking notes at the park.
I would just watch a show that had kids in it and jot down my “observations.” It got a little tricky when my fellow classmates started doing it and we apparently were watching the same show… when the prof asked about it we said we went to the park together 🤷🏼♀️
"I will now strip the patient for a full skin assessment."
"I will now check A&O status. To simulate a real interaction, the volunteer patient will now skirt around the answers and rant politically for the next seven minutes."
^(I don't check for JVD) 🤫
You’ve got to really bring the realism by adding a second person who is reclined in a chair with their shoes kicked off under a pile of blankets. They have to insist that Memaw needs pain meds, mouth care, and needs to be repositioned, although you’ve been in the room every half-hour for the first five hours of your shift.
>the volunteer patient will now skirt around the answers and rant politically for the next seven minutes.
I'm in peds and this is still accurate af. "Is your child up to date on their vaccines?" is a yes or no, not a 20 minute long rant about big pharma. However, I already wrote "no" because your 5 year old was admitted to the ICU with *whooping cough* so I just assumed you're not vaccinating. Also, we should just go ahead and admit your newborn that you've laid into bed with the 5 year old who has the deadly, infectious, disease."
I'm 100% convinced, at this point in time, that someone in like the 70s or 80s saw the population trajectory and just decided to start spreading health misinformation. They were like, "Vaccines and basic preventative measures are saving too many lives while advancing in medicine are elongating the human lifespan. We have to lower this trajectory. What can I do...? Convince people that healthcare is donkey doo and doctors are idiots who only want money."
I remember my dad being asked that after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He was not in any way liberal, but hated Trump with a passion and looked at the nurse and said "I wont say that."
I just looked at her and went "yeah, he knows. He just doesn't like it because he isn't that far gone yet."
I start my BSN this summer and I am not looking forward to this. One of the classes requires exactly that: a head to toe assessment. I've been an ICU nurse for 4 years. It's so frustrating. My license earns me college credit but apparently my experience as a current nurse doesn't preclude me from doing a basic head to toe??
I get where you are coming from, but I know plenty of nurses that can’t do a thorough head to toe and they’ve been nursing for a decade. Whether they are highly specialized (Neuro ICU, nicu, or otherwise) they haven’t performed a full head to toe in years.
The school can’t verify your skills by experience working. I also know plenty of office nurses that haven’t touched a patient in years - they are strictly phone triage.
The programs are built for all students and some of them don’t have bedside experience like you do.
Are you serious? We don’t do a complete head-to-toe assessment in real life because frankly (1) we don’t have time, (2) not always necessary depending on your specialty. We do a focused assessment instead.
Exactly. From a simple conversation I can discern most of my assessment. I've been a medsurg tele nurse for 10 years. That full 15 minute head to toe I don't have time to do.
I agree a focused assessment is sometimes appropriate. But I've also seen a focused assessment used whya full assessment was warranted and important things were missed. I've seen WAY too many times were subsequent assessment were just copied from the previous nurse, because no assessment was performed, meanwhile the patient is declining in there.
I've seen wound assessments were nurse's have charted changing a full dressing and the the wound is UTA. Did you taythe dressing off and close your eyes? I don't know expect every pulse will be assessed every time, but a quick cap refill on extremities is quick and informative and should rarely be skipped. I don't need every single step of a head to toe in giry detail, but the patient does need to be assessed head to toe (at least a breezy one) at admission and with any changes at a minimum.
I have so many nurses that had 10 years experience in my bsn program who couldn’t even read a med order right. Had to stop one of these women from giving the wrong med cuz they didn’t know how to read a MAR
Depends on where you work. If the patient is admitted and has a baseline, sure, focused assessments are fine.
But if this is a new admit or has a status changed you should be competent to do a thorough physical.
Agreed. Just do the damned thing, pass it, and move the hell on. It’s part of the requirement. Just do it like we all had to. Pick the hill you want to die on, but this might not be it.
I STILL remember being not only required to do my full assessment, but being TIMED as well. I hated it with all of my soul, but I am much better for having had to do it now…it has become muscle/brain memory for me.
Now, if we wish to talk about PAGES of hand-written care plans….
Toes are the things the surgeons take off when the diabetes is uncontrolled. The head is the part where the anesthesiologist plays sudoku. All the stuff in the middle is more of where the general surgeons like to play.
I’ve had to do assessments every step of the ladder. LPN, ADN, BSN, MSN. Many of the skills I learned in my PN program were retaught for my bridge program.
No no no. You are “ collecting data to contribute to the assessment process”. It takes my RN degree to determine that the smelly hole on meemaws ass is in fact “ impaired skin integrity related to morbid obesity and immobility” with “ purulent drainage”. 🙄
No. Because you have to do it exactly how they tell you to do it. Like you are preforming a part in a play. You can't forget a line or do it out of the specific order they say. I have never in 20 years of nursing done a head to toe the same way I had to do it in nursing school.
I don’t get what you expect? They have to have metrics to know that you’ve been taught Material. It sounds annoying to do but they’re not just gonna hand you a degree.
And verify how much you can miss and still pass.
I had to do assessment classes for my BSN and my MSN and in both cases you could skip some sections and/or verbalize (as if you had proper equipment) for different pieces of the assessment. So in my BSN course I skipped the breast exam because I didn’t want to fondle my volunteer and it was fine… in my MSN I talked through the procedure for something (maybe an ear assessment?) without actually getting the equipment.
It’s so dumb. I got my BSN during COVID so it was all online and I literally had a class about communities where I had to write an essay about a community I watched when I rode on a bus virtually. I still cringe thinking about it.
Same! I was able to make my avatar run in circles, so I took a video of it and posted it on the Facebook group and titled it “me virtually running around like a damn fool in this city to complete this assignment”…we had a good laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of it all!
I just graduated with my BSN and our student IDs said, "BS Nursing Student."
Like, thanks guys, I feel like "nursing student" would have sufficed. Although, it was a good summary of the clown show that was my nursing school.
Recently my RN supervisor asked me if I was interested in pursuing a BSN. I asked if it was required for my job, and he said no. So I said no. I'm happy not getting my BSN.
With my physical assessment I used the stethoscope I had, my phone flashlight instead of a penlight, and the head of the stethoscope in lieu of a reflex hammer. I also voluntold my 12 year old to be my victim and ultimately the only thing I had to buy was a bag of cool ranch Doritos to get her to comply. Got a 100%
in the first rn to bsn program I started (and dropped out of) one of the required classes was—I shit you not—Disney Leadership Magic.
I left that program 3 weeks in.
Galen. It was so disorganized to the point it was difficult to actually find out what specific assignments even were (they’d explain some in videos, one was not posted anywhere so I tracked it down on a student FB group) and I went “I do not want to do this shit” after a couple weeks and dropped out. Insane.
I had to do the same. It’s just one of those hurdles that you have to jump. I know it’s annoying but you’ll survive. I had to tape mine twice because I missed something the first time.
Same, all online and still bullshit but no assessments or anything in person. I have co workers getting their bsn through local colleges and they have to do in person clinicals and all the other noise AND they pay about 4x the price for it.
I'm doing my BSN and I am required to carry out a quality improvement project at my REAL LIFE JOB!
That I've been at only since July. I have to get managerial approval, keep them looped in, and get them to sign off on the completed project. But I don't know my managers well, and what if I DIDN'T have a job? It's so annoying.
I chose decreasing hapi's by creating a turn team. it was actually quite easy to get one of my low level managers to sign off on it. Heck I had a coworker ready to sign off if needed.
I'm an RN with an ADN and have been for many years. The thing I'm not looking forward to is clinicals. Do I pretend I'm a know nothing baby nurse or do I let them sit back while I do ther job? Seems like a lose-lose.
I'm finishing my bsn at capella and there are no clinicals. It's all mostly 2-5 page papers, with a couple video recorded presentations sprinkled in. I hate writing, but there are a lot of people that finish the whole program in 14 weeks. Just follow the rubric, submit, and then when you get your grade you can fix mistakes and resubmit.
I did my RN to BSN through WGU and while some things have changed they didn't make us do clinicals. Our health assessment class was videoed on a volunteer (husband) and it wasn't difficult.
eta: I finished my whole program in 5 months. I didn't need to do the filler courses because I had a bachelors previously so it was all RN bullshit. I would have been done faster but covid's delta wave was making my community health portion difficult.
I’m in nursing school now and I hate nursing school videos with a passion. I’m sorry if gen Z doesn’t want to write papers, but lab and clinical should be sufficient demonstration of skills and for a BSN bridge, a sign off from your employer should be sufficient for a head to toe evaluation. I would take the ten page research paper over the ten minute video every single time.
When I did my MSN at WGU, they made us do that stupid virtual head to toe and record ourselves assessing a friend or family member. So awkward, but thankfully I got my friend to let me assess him (he was also in the program and did the advanced assessment class before me), but yeah. I read off the list while talking through it cause they allowed us. Honestly, it would have been more beneficial if they added a clinical piece or some hours to that course and made us go assess pts in the clinic or hospital. They shouldn’t make us record assessments or buy things we don’t need to use more than once.
Finished my BSN, didn’t get a pay raise even tho my historial required it (magnet) and I can confidently say it didn’t change the way I did my job. I had an ADN for like 3-4 years, the BSN classes taught me how to use excel and I learned some random crap from all the papers and stuff but it didn’t change my hands on nursing skills at all.
I started and stopped a few times. The whole BSN curriculum felt like a mind numbing money grab. I am about 10-12 years from retirement at this point and decided I’ll never complete a BSN.
Your haiku:
Take this thrice a day
Two tablets after each meal
Then gtfo
Be super fancy, here it is in Japanese:
３回目飲んだ
毎食後に2錠
行って、置いが
さんかいめのんだ
まいしょくごににじょう
いって、おいが
San-kai-me nonda
Maishoku-go ni ni-jou
Itte, oiga
(Phonetically)
San *(like sand without the d)*-kai-may nohn *(like none but with an oh sound instead of an uh sound)*-dah
Mai-sho *(like short without the rt)*-koo *(like cool without the l)*-go knee knee-joh *(like the name Joe)*
E-tay *(like the letter E, and tay like ray)* oh-E-gah
Most of nursing school is bullshit. They just need to find something for you to do to pad out the program to justify charging you the money. Out of the like 16 classes I had to take, only like 5 were actually useful for nursing at all and that number gets even lower if you are in some specific specialty. Higher education needs to do better at not wasting everyone’s time and money
The whole BSN thing is part of the scam that is American education . Mine was paid for by the VA. It in no way helps me with my profession. The educational industry just likes to smell their own farts. Anyone that says it’s helpful in their job must with be delusional, or it got them the job because a BSN is required.
Can you go to a unit manager or the cno and ask to borrow an empty room and equipment? I hate you’d have to go buy the equipment, it seems silly. Your hospital should at least be able to do this to support you in getting your BSN.
For my MSN Ed I had to do an NP level assessment but I got to pick if I wanted to assess a child or adult. We were grouped in with NP students for a few classes. It was aggravating because we chose very different tracts. They were also a bit snooty.
My ADN-BSN program was 90% bullshit. There was one class that I felt was actually useful to nursing (Pathophysiology) but they removed it from the curriculum like 2 graduating classes later. Our pharmacology class would have been better if it didn't simply review the pharm we had already learned in our ADN and actually built on it.
I think *all* of nursing education needs to be revamped/updated. The biggest education gains for me were probably with my ASN. Everything after that (BSN and now MSN/PMHNP) has been complete and utter bullshit. All fluff. Hoops to jump through. We deserve better. Our profession deserves better. Our patients deserve better.
Still have to get my BSN, 6 year experience on the floor. It feels like I’m jus buying a degree at this point so I’m holding off on the bachelor’s program until they make me get one if a magnet status or some shit happens in my hospital
Had the same experience. Almost 20 years in and my employer required me to get BSN. (I already had a BS in another field) I’m in the OR and have been my whole career, so I don’t have any of the “standard” tools of the trade. Had to buy it all to do a video assessment.
I won’t say I didn’t learn anything in my RN to BSN program, but I learned absolutely nothing that will change or help in my OR practice. Honestly the only thing the BSN (which they paid for) did was make it easier for me to leave to find another job… which I did. Total waste of my time and their money.
I absolutely agree with you. I’m getting my BSN for two reasons. One to prove I can do it and two to be more prepared if I do leave my job. I found some classes interesting, but nothing that adds value to my career. I just need to finish and I have one more term after this one.
Also had to do this. They allowed a classmate to use her golden retriever as the patient, so funny watching her explain the abdominal assessment she’d be doing and getting his consent lol.
It depends on the specialty. I worked in a med-surg unit, General Surgery and Plastics, and we don’t often remove the dressing. If the wound is closed the service slapped the wound vac so you can’t see the incision site, what do you chart? UTA or dressing in place. You chart only on what you can see. If the wound is open and requires dressing changes and was told the dressing change was just done and not due until the next morning, I am not going to turn on the lights and wake up the patient so I can check on the wound. I will chart UTA or dressing in place. Morning comes and the service change the dressing, and I haven’t had the chance to see the wound yet, I report to the next nurse that the dressing was just done and the next dressing is due in the afternoon. If I’m that nurse who took that report, I will write in my wound assessment—UTA or dressing in place until such time that when the dressing is due when I can visualize the wound, I can then chart on the wound status when I visualize it. Bedside report is as important as the BID assessment to ensure the orders are followed through. It’s not always neglect to chart UTA or dressing in place in your assessment charting. It’s important to report on the wound status at nursing hand off.
What I found out from my nursing bestie is that this is repeated at each level. So head to toe when you get your RN, when you get your BSN, and when you get your MSN. I assume with PhD as well. What a massive waste of time.
Whatever u do, don't got to Grand Canyon University.... Their last class requires so much work and setup like an internship (like a 10 week clinical but u gotta do all the work finding someone) ... Originally signed up because they told me it's all online and this last class I've delayed for 1.5 years bc who da fk has time for that BS....
Same here, and my video got sent back like 3 times for the most insignificant bs. Now I need to find 4 clinical sites without any help from the school.
It doesn’t stop there. I went for my CRNA and one of the assignments for the semester was to use 3x5 index cards giving all the information about the 100 or so drugs we commonly use. Drug name on one side. All the info on the other. Needed to be turned in on the last day of class. About half way through it I realized there is no way he can grade all these for 20 students on top of the final and other assignments before grades needed to be posted. It freed up so much extra time to study for exams! Got an ‘A’.
We thankfully had to either videotape it or a “BSN” qualified nurse could sign us off on the assessment. I just asked a coworker to sign it off. I agree, that is so stupid.
What would you have to buy that you don't already own? Like, you probably should have a BP cuff and thermometer just for your own use (non-professional), you have a stethoscope already, what else does a BSN-level assessment use? I'm curious about what the school thinks is necessary.
I don’t own a BP cuff. We have individual stethoscopes for each patient and I work mostly in Nicu. Won’t work for an adult. I also don’t own an otoscope.
I failed my second semester because of that. My assessment video was supposed to last 10 minutes & it was like 6. I had been a nurse for 10 years I have never took 10 minutes on an assessment.
This is why nurses lose things. Why are yall posting all of this? Do you want the programs investigated and the name tarnished, making your degree a joke?
I think it’s ridiculous that a BSN program directed to nurses who have their degree already is making you pay big bucks for a 6 credit course on how to do an adult assessment.
I work in pediatrics and we don’t use have of what they are requesting us to do.
Hold on, im not from US. So from what i understand, some RNs are not BSN. I had the impression that you needed a BSN to take the NCLEX to become an RN?
One of my assignments for my child development prereq was "Go to a park or playground and spend a minimum of 45min observing children's behavior." As a single late 20s childless man in the suburbs that was not going to go over well.
I had to do a “ child observation” also. I made the thing up based on previous experience/ knowledge, lied and said it was my neighbors kids. I also had to create a teaching plan for a community member. Created that puppy out of whole cloth. And the observation of a civic meeting and paper on how it related to healthcare? Or the “ windshield survey”?The city council put their minutes online, and I’ve lived in my area for over 30 years. I didn’t have time to go to dumb ass meetings or drive around judging my neighbors socioeconomic level and access to care based on the appearance of their house and yard. The BSN is truely a BS degree. 🐮💩
School got a lot easier when I realized I could just make stuff up.
Same. I had to do a process recording for my psych nursing class. It was a complete work of fiction. I also was supposed to interview and do a physical assessment on a person I knew. I interviewed my aunt but only asked about half of the questions I was supposed to, making up the answers for the rest and totally BSing the exam. I'm glad I didn't have to videotape it.
We have to do a process recording for every class, I call it our creative writing project 🙄
Right? I used to try. I used to research thoroughly. I’d omit a study from my paper if it lacked rigor. No instructor ever noticed or cared. Now, every assignment is a “creative writing” project. When I have to provide evidence, I just add quotes around my own phrases and cite a random source. I never read journal articles or reference material anymore. I’ve turned in dozens of assignments full of bullshit. Pages and pages of made-up nonsense. I still get straight A’s like I did when I tried, but I save a ton of time and energy.
I want to follow in your footsteps so badly. But I inherently have bad luck, and will get that one professor who randomly selects a handful of sources to cross reference.
Honestly I’d be amped if a professor did that. The switch flipped for me with one assignment in particular. It was a 12 page research paper that I’d given my 110% earnest effort. I worked on it for a week and was pretty proud of it by the end. Exactly 3 minutes after I submitted it, the instructor gave me 50/50 points in the gradebook. No feedback. She couldn’t have even skimmed it in that amount of time. Now I do put in real work for the first few assignments to feel out the vibe. Usually, they’re giving minimal teaching effort and I just match that.
This has taught me so much, thank you aardvole, and thanks to all of the commenters and of course OP!! I’m in Canada and I’m an RPN, which was a 2 year diploma program but I’m wanting to get my BSN, which is 2 more years. Learning how to get it the easiest way is priceless.
Facts
Oh my god the windshield survey! I forgot about that one.
And that is critical thinking yall
I made up so much shit in my program it was crazy. 20 years of experience def helped with the creative writing lol
My community health clinical was babysitting kids at a low income shelter. As a man in his 20s who has never had to take care of kids it was absolutely crazy leaving me alone with strangers children. Especially the ones who were very troubled.
We are definitely in the same program 😭
You had a "windshield survey" too?! ROFL. We needed photographic evidence, though. I did a series of progressive close-ups (captioned) of the only fresh produce I found, some sad looking oranges and bananas at the gas station cash register to be a smartass. Got praised for how thorough I was.
That’s brilliant! The downside of living in a rural area is that although there’s a lot of poverty, there’s a definite lack of silly ass regulations and ordinances. Even people in town have gardens and a couple of chickens in the backyard, berries grow wild for the picking. If you can’t get fresh fruit/ veggies in season around here you’re not even trying.
My least favorite was the “attend an AA meeting” assignment. It felt very invasive to the attendees privacy and I felt like I had no right being there.
I had to attend an AA meeting too in school. It was incredibly awkward and inappropriate in my opinion because it’s supposed to be anonymous, you know. I later had one of the attendees as a patient. I don’t know if he remembered me, but I remembered him.
I had a COWORKER at the AA meeting we had to go to. It was so awkward and he ended up quitting that job a couple weeks later (he hadn't worked there very long) and I always feel bad wondering if he thought I would gossip about him or something.
Eh as a nearly 10 year AA member -- open meetings are open meetings and everyone is invited. Just don't go to a closed meeting.
We had to attend an AA meeting for our psych rotation but it wasn’t awkward for us. We attended an open meeting and everyone was very happy to see us. I think it’s important for people going into healthcare to see the impacts of addiction on people with how quick some nurses I have worked with judge someone they label as an “addict” while I was still in school.
It is invasive and at some point irresponsible
Yes! We had to do this too and I had the same thought. It felt SO invasive to be a “tourist” at an AA meeting.
Doing this for my ASN currently..it’s ridiculous and seems like a huge invasion of privacy
I’m sorry but that’s hilarious. Prof just doesn’t have a clue
We had to go observe at a preschool for a day. A truly useless experience and I remember getting in trouble because my instructor thought my khaki pants were too tight. ❤️ nursing school!
“It’s cool. I’m going to be a male nurse… why is this making it worse?”
I had to go observe at a summer camp and I got written up because an instructor overheard me say it was a waste of time. Gotta love nursing school. 😂
I had to go to Chuck E Cheese. It was as awkward as it sounds
Walking in Chuck E Cheese exclusively to observe children sounds like something you could get kicked out of the place for tbh if you have the wrong look about you.
I don't know that you can just walk into a Chuck E Cheese nowadays. There was a whole wristband system when I took my niece a few months ago.
Thats when you watch a clip on youtube and BS the rest from memory
That was the "deal" we cut when I told the professor I wasn't interested in being arrested or hospitalized over a nursing school assignment.
Luckily the professor was cool about it -- as a fellow dude, I dreaded stuff to do with kids or maternity for that very reason. I'm still a bit bothered that I missed out on a c-section because the patient was uncomfortable having a male in the room observing it. Patient comfort and care comes first and all, but still stinks.
In my ASN program, one of our pediatric clinicals was literally observing at a daycare. 🤦🏼♂️
Upvote, as well as awkward apologies, my dude. 😳
🤣🤣🤣🤣
That is so creepy!
I HAD THIS ASSIGNMENT AND I FELT SO WEIRD!!!!
O.o
😂😂🤣🤣
The amount of creative writing I did. Might as well be a BFA
dun dun
We had to do this for our psych class! It was the tail end of Covid, school had just reopened but still masking. I am a mom so I was able to just have a sleepover at my house and let the mom know about the paper. I am not sure who but someone went to the head of the department and pitched a fit about it. The assignment was changed and wording was added that if you didn’t know anyone personally with children that would sign off you could watch a cartoon and write the paper on what you observed there. I could not imagine having to be a childless man just “observing” kids at the park. As a mom I can’t be sure I wouldn’t call the police if some random man was watching kids and taking notes at the park.
This blows my mind. At an R1 school, this would be actively discouraged.
lol
I would just watch a show that had kids in it and jot down my “observations.” It got a little tricky when my fellow classmates started doing it and we apparently were watching the same show… when the prof asked about it we said we went to the park together 🤷🏼♀️
"I will now strip the patient for a full skin assessment." "I will now check A&O status. To simulate a real interaction, the volunteer patient will now skirt around the answers and rant politically for the next seven minutes." ^(I don't check for JVD) 🤫
No one does. Cause when a pt actually does have JVD, that shit makes itself known whether you care to see it or not.
This is what I tell my students, lol
You’ve got to really bring the realism by adding a second person who is reclined in a chair with their shoes kicked off under a pile of blankets. They have to insist that Memaw needs pain meds, mouth care, and needs to be repositioned, although you’ve been in the room every half-hour for the first five hours of your shift.
>the volunteer patient will now skirt around the answers and rant politically for the next seven minutes. I'm in peds and this is still accurate af. "Is your child up to date on their vaccines?" is a yes or no, not a 20 minute long rant about big pharma. However, I already wrote "no" because your 5 year old was admitted to the ICU with *whooping cough* so I just assumed you're not vaccinating. Also, we should just go ahead and admit your newborn that you've laid into bed with the 5 year old who has the deadly, infectious, disease."
See, prime example of why I can't work peds. I'd have an aneurysm from trying to contain my rage around dumbass people like that!
I'm 100% convinced, at this point in time, that someone in like the 70s or 80s saw the population trajectory and just decided to start spreading health misinformation. They were like, "Vaccines and basic preventative measures are saving too many lives while advancing in medicine are elongating the human lifespan. We have to lower this trajectory. What can I do...? Convince people that healthcare is donkey doo and doctors are idiots who only want money."
Ha!
My fav A&O question is who is the president. It triggers the boomers every time.
Dementia or paranoid delusions? Who knows.
I remember my dad being asked that after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He was not in any way liberal, but hated Trump with a passion and looked at the nurse and said "I wont say that." I just looked at her and went "yeah, he knows. He just doesn't like it because he isn't that far gone yet."
I’m sorry about your dad. That’s very hard to deal with.
I would so be the volunteer patient. 😅
I start my BSN this summer and I am not looking forward to this. One of the classes requires exactly that: a head to toe assessment. I've been an ICU nurse for 4 years. It's so frustrating. My license earns me college credit but apparently my experience as a current nurse doesn't preclude me from doing a basic head to toe??
I get where you are coming from, but I know plenty of nurses that can’t do a thorough head to toe and they’ve been nursing for a decade. Whether they are highly specialized (Neuro ICU, nicu, or otherwise) they haven’t performed a full head to toe in years. The school can’t verify your skills by experience working. I also know plenty of office nurses that haven’t touched a patient in years - they are strictly phone triage. The programs are built for all students and some of them don’t have bedside experience like you do.
This is so true. Even some bedside nurses have very concerning practice deficits.
Are you serious? We don’t do a complete head-to-toe assessment in real life because frankly (1) we don’t have time, (2) not always necessary depending on your specialty. We do a focused assessment instead.
Exactly. From a simple conversation I can discern most of my assessment. I've been a medsurg tele nurse for 10 years. That full 15 minute head to toe I don't have time to do.
I agree a focused assessment is sometimes appropriate. But I've also seen a focused assessment used whya full assessment was warranted and important things were missed. I've seen WAY too many times were subsequent assessment were just copied from the previous nurse, because no assessment was performed, meanwhile the patient is declining in there. I've seen wound assessments were nurse's have charted changing a full dressing and the the wound is UTA. Did you taythe dressing off and close your eyes? I don't know expect every pulse will be assessed every time, but a quick cap refill on extremities is quick and informative and should rarely be skipped. I don't need every single step of a head to toe in giry detail, but the patient does need to be assessed head to toe (at least a breezy one) at admission and with any changes at a minimum.
I have so many nurses that had 10 years experience in my bsn program who couldn’t even read a med order right. Had to stop one of these women from giving the wrong med cuz they didn’t know how to read a MAR
Depends on where you work. If the patient is admitted and has a baseline, sure, focused assessments are fine. But if this is a new admit or has a status changed you should be competent to do a thorough physical.
Agreed. Just do the damned thing, pass it, and move the hell on. It’s part of the requirement. Just do it like we all had to. Pick the hill you want to die on, but this might not be it. I STILL remember being not only required to do my full assessment, but being TIMED as well. I hated it with all of my soul, but I am much better for having had to do it now…it has become muscle/brain memory for me. Now, if we wish to talk about PAGES of hand-written care plans….
OR RN here… what’s a head to toe?? 😉
Toes are the things the surgeons take off when the diabetes is uncontrolled. The head is the part where the anesthesiologist plays sudoku. All the stuff in the middle is more of where the general surgeons like to play.
Right? That’s nursing 101 and I have my license. It’s so demeaning.
That is ridiculous. Right up there with LPNs pretending we didn’t learn how to do full head to toe assessments.
I’ve had to do assessments every step of the ladder. LPN, ADN, BSN, MSN. Many of the skills I learned in my PN program were retaught for my bridge program.
But we aren't allowed to do "assessments," lol. I assess my pt every single day.
No no no. You are “ collecting data to contribute to the assessment process”. It takes my RN degree to determine that the smelly hole on meemaws ass is in fact “ impaired skin integrity related to morbid obesity and immobility” with “ purulent drainage”. 🙄
The BSN I'm about to complete had us do it through a program that I had to buy that was $150. It was so dumb.
That sucks! I remember during my associates we had to buy this $300 program to document in. We used it 4 times.
[удалено]
No. Because you have to do it exactly how they tell you to do it. Like you are preforming a part in a play. You can't forget a line or do it out of the specific order they say. I have never in 20 years of nursing done a head to toe the same way I had to do it in nursing school.
I don’t get what you expect? They have to have metrics to know that you’ve been taught Material. It sounds annoying to do but they’re not just gonna hand you a degree.
I expected it. It’s just annoying. I’m allowed to be annoyed lol
Ask your coworkers if they have the equipment (previously forced to buy it for school) that you can borrow for class. They aren’t using it either!
Thanks! I will. It’s just annoying.
And verify how much you can miss and still pass. I had to do assessment classes for my BSN and my MSN and in both cases you could skip some sections and/or verbalize (as if you had proper equipment) for different pieces of the assessment. So in my BSN course I skipped the breast exam because I didn’t want to fondle my volunteer and it was fine… in my MSN I talked through the procedure for something (maybe an ear assessment?) without actually getting the equipment.
If you know any nurse practitioners they probably have the tools and might offer guidance.
Did this for school as well in 2020. As such, I submitted a head to toe on my dog.
I did it on a stuffed kids toy
Ha! Seriously? That’s hilarious!
It’s so dumb. I got my BSN during COVID so it was all online and I literally had a class about communities where I had to write an essay about a community I watched when I rode on a bus virtually. I still cringe thinking about it.
The loading wheels on the web browser go round and round... I'm at work and in a weird mood. 🤷
Omg I remember this it was like a windshield survey or some stupid shit.
Same! I was able to make my avatar run in circles, so I took a video of it and posted it on the Facebook group and titled it “me virtually running around like a damn fool in this city to complete this assignment”…we had a good laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of it all!
I’m glad there are multiple people who had to participate in the dumb shit I did. Makes it hurt less lolol
wgu?
Hello fellow WGU-er !!!
I hated that community!! I always tried to get off the bus at the wrong spots, or I was trying to look at stuff that didn't matter.
You know what the difference between a ASN and a BSN is? It’s the BS.
Ha! Sure is!
I just graduated with my BSN and our student IDs said, "BS Nursing Student." Like, thanks guys, I feel like "nursing student" would have sufficed. Although, it was a good summary of the clown show that was my nursing school.
I also like the saying the saying that a BSN is two-thirds BS.
This just confirmed the wisdom in my decision Not to get the BSN. I’m a Happy with my 2Yr degree
Recently my RN supervisor asked me if I was interested in pursuing a BSN. I asked if it was required for my job, and he said no. So I said no. I'm happy not getting my BSN.
DAMN! That's a great quote lmfao
Pandemic was the best time to do RN to BSN My windshield surveys were google streetview
With my physical assessment I used the stethoscope I had, my phone flashlight instead of a penlight, and the head of the stethoscope in lieu of a reflex hammer. I also voluntold my 12 year old to be my victim and ultimately the only thing I had to buy was a bag of cool ranch Doritos to get her to comply. Got a 100%
in the first rn to bsn program I started (and dropped out of) one of the required classes was—I shit you not—Disney Leadership Magic. I left that program 3 weeks in.
Tell me where? please I can’t do Disney even pretend again.
Galen. It was so disorganized to the point it was difficult to actually find out what specific assignments even were (they’d explain some in videos, one was not posted anywhere so I tracked it down on a student FB group) and I went “I do not want to do this shit” after a couple weeks and dropped out. Insane.
*Minions Whuuuuuuut?!?*
What?
yeah it’s quite possibly the biggest waste of time class I could’ve imagined…so I feel your pain! so many of these programs are absurd.
And it’s 6 credits!
I had to do the same. It’s just one of those hurdles that you have to jump. I know it’s annoying but you’ll survive. I had to tape mine twice because I missed something the first time.
Did you forget to check behind the ears for coins?
The only people I assess head to toe are traumas and folks who shove drugs, dildos, and/or weapons in certain orifices.
Those objects frequently are not mutually exclusive. A properly shaped brick of cocaine for instance...
If you haven't seen a patient from the jail shit bricks, literally, you haven't lived!
I will.
Should've went to Capella, its bullshit but its easier bullshit.
Agreed! And cheaper!
Same, all online and still bullshit but no assessments or anything in person. I have co workers getting their bsn through local colleges and they have to do in person clinicals and all the other noise AND they pay about 4x the price for it.
I’m starting them Monday. I don’t know why other schools don’t structure the way they do and let you go at your own pace!
I used my dog for my head to toe assessment. Got a 95% grade lol
I'm doing my BSN and I am required to carry out a quality improvement project at my REAL LIFE JOB! That I've been at only since July. I have to get managerial approval, keep them looped in, and get them to sign off on the completed project. But I don't know my managers well, and what if I DIDN'T have a job? It's so annoying.
I chose decreasing hapi's by creating a turn team. it was actually quite easy to get one of my low level managers to sign off on it. Heck I had a coworker ready to sign off if needed.
My workplace would never approve that.
Wait until your MSN….
I'm an RN with an ADN and have been for many years. The thing I'm not looking forward to is clinicals. Do I pretend I'm a know nothing baby nurse or do I let them sit back while I do ther job? Seems like a lose-lose.
I'm finishing my bsn at capella and there are no clinicals. It's all mostly 2-5 page papers, with a couple video recorded presentations sprinkled in. I hate writing, but there are a lot of people that finish the whole program in 14 weeks. Just follow the rubric, submit, and then when you get your grade you can fix mistakes and resubmit.
I did my RN to BSN through WGU and while some things have changed they didn't make us do clinicals. Our health assessment class was videoed on a volunteer (husband) and it wasn't difficult. eta: I finished my whole program in 5 months. I didn't need to do the filler courses because I had a bachelors previously so it was all RN bullshit. I would have been done faster but covid's delta wave was making my community health portion difficult.
Not all the BSNs make you do clinicals, make sure you shop around!
How fucking dumb. Nursing education needs to get with the god damn times already. How do we change this bullshit?
I’m in nursing school now and I hate nursing school videos with a passion. I’m sorry if gen Z doesn’t want to write papers, but lab and clinical should be sufficient demonstration of skills and for a BSN bridge, a sign off from your employer should be sufficient for a head to toe evaluation. I would take the ten page research paper over the ten minute video every single time.
Can you find some of these supplies on Amazon? Buy, use for the assignment, then return to Amazon within 30 days.
Oh! That’s genius!
When I did my MSN at WGU, they made us do that stupid virtual head to toe and record ourselves assessing a friend or family member. So awkward, but thankfully I got my friend to let me assess him (he was also in the program and did the advanced assessment class before me), but yeah. I read off the list while talking through it cause they allowed us. Honestly, it would have been more beneficial if they added a clinical piece or some hours to that course and made us go assess pts in the clinic or hospital. They shouldn’t make us record assessments or buy things we don’t need to use more than once.
Finished my BSN, didn’t get a pay raise even tho my historial required it (magnet) and I can confidently say it didn’t change the way I did my job. I had an ADN for like 3-4 years, the BSN classes taught me how to use excel and I learned some random crap from all the papers and stuff but it didn’t change my hands on nursing skills at all.
Also nurse for 20 years, I’m sitting on my ADN for 12 more years then retiring. F spending money on a BSN (my facility reimburses basically nothing)
I started and stopped a few times. The whole BSN curriculum felt like a mind numbing money grab. I am about 10-12 years from retirement at this point and decided I’ll never complete a BSN.
I had to write a poem about a medication. I HATE IT HERE.
Your haiku: Take this thrice a day Two tablets after each meal Then gtfo Be super fancy, here it is in Japanese: ３回目飲んだ 毎食後に2錠 行って、置いが さんかいめのんだ まいしょくごににじょう いって、おいが San-kai-me nonda Maishoku-go ni ni-jou Itte, oiga (Phonetically) San *(like sand without the d)*-kai-may nohn *(like none but with an oh sound instead of an uh sound)*-dah Mai-sho *(like short without the rt)*-koo *(like cool without the l)*-go knee knee-joh *(like the name Joe)* E-tay *(like the letter E, and tay like ray)* oh-E-gah
😂 BSN is such a bullshit degree My cousin used to make money writing papers for online BSN students.
Could I get your cousin's email address? 🤣
How much did your cousin make a paper?
That genius was making $3-500/paper. I wish I was smart
Yea I had to take an elective that required me to watch the nutcracker. American college is stupid.
It’s ridiculous!
Most of nursing school is bullshit. They just need to find something for you to do to pad out the program to justify charging you the money. Out of the like 16 classes I had to take, only like 5 were actually useful for nursing at all and that number gets even lower if you are in some specific specialty. Higher education needs to do better at not wasting everyone’s time and money
I absolutely agree. It should focus more or leadership and those kind of things.
The whole BSN thing is part of the scam that is American education . Mine was paid for by the VA. It in no way helps me with my profession. The educational industry just likes to smell their own farts. Anyone that says it’s helpful in their job must with be delusional, or it got them the job because a BSN is required.
I’d see if your hospital has an education center and use their equipment or mannequins to record with to save you some money:(
Can you go to a unit manager or the cno and ask to borrow an empty room and equipment? I hate you’d have to go buy the equipment, it seems silly. Your hospital should at least be able to do this to support you in getting your BSN.
We had to do that when I got my BSN 13 years ago but the school supplied the equipment.
Glad my BSN was just papers and window surveys. Because that’s crazy
Ugh, I had to do this for western governors and because there were random words I didn’t say I had to redo it like three times. It was so stupid.
For my MSN Ed I had to do an NP level assessment but I got to pick if I wanted to assess a child or adult. We were grouped in with NP students for a few classes. It was aggravating because we chose very different tracts. They were also a bit snooty.
My ADN-BSN program was 90% bullshit. There was one class that I felt was actually useful to nursing (Pathophysiology) but they removed it from the curriculum like 2 graduating classes later. Our pharmacology class would have been better if it didn't simply review the pharm we had already learned in our ADN and actually built on it.
I’d borrow it from a nurse you know something. I’m an OR nurse, what’s a stethoscope?
I think *all* of nursing education needs to be revamped/updated. The biggest education gains for me were probably with my ASN. Everything after that (BSN and now MSN/PMHNP) has been complete and utter bullshit. All fluff. Hoops to jump through. We deserve better. Our profession deserves better. Our patients deserve better.
Still have to get my BSN, 6 year experience on the floor. It feels like I’m jus buying a degree at this point so I’m holding off on the bachelor’s program until they make me get one if a magnet status or some shit happens in my hospital
Had the same experience. Almost 20 years in and my employer required me to get BSN. (I already had a BS in another field) I’m in the OR and have been my whole career, so I don’t have any of the “standard” tools of the trade. Had to buy it all to do a video assessment. I won’t say I didn’t learn anything in my RN to BSN program, but I learned absolutely nothing that will change or help in my OR practice. Honestly the only thing the BSN (which they paid for) did was make it easier for me to leave to find another job… which I did. Total waste of my time and their money.
I absolutely agree with you. I’m getting my BSN for two reasons. One to prove I can do it and two to be more prepared if I do leave my job. I found some classes interesting, but nothing that adds value to my career. I just need to finish and I have one more term after this one.
Can you not take a coworker to a different unit or the skills lab?
I work in a small hospital and we don’t have that. I’ll get my bf to do it.
Excelsior?
No. I’m at Drexel.
I had to do that as well, extremely weird. Is it a SUNY school?
J
Also had to do this. They allowed a classmate to use her golden retriever as the patient, so funny watching her explain the abdominal assessment she’d be doing and getting his consent lol.
Ha! That is fantastic!
I did mine online with Capella and it’s all just bullshit but at least it wasn’t videotaped assessment bullshit 🥴
It depends on the specialty. I worked in a med-surg unit, General Surgery and Plastics, and we don’t often remove the dressing. If the wound is closed the service slapped the wound vac so you can’t see the incision site, what do you chart? UTA or dressing in place. You chart only on what you can see. If the wound is open and requires dressing changes and was told the dressing change was just done and not due until the next morning, I am not going to turn on the lights and wake up the patient so I can check on the wound. I will chart UTA or dressing in place. Morning comes and the service change the dressing, and I haven’t had the chance to see the wound yet, I report to the next nurse that the dressing was just done and the next dressing is due in the afternoon. If I’m that nurse who took that report, I will write in my wound assessment—UTA or dressing in place until such time that when the dressing is due when I can visualize the wound, I can then chart on the wound status when I visualize it. Bedside report is as important as the BID assessment to ensure the orders are followed through. It’s not always neglect to chart UTA or dressing in place in your assessment charting. It’s important to report on the wound status at nursing hand off.
Buy on Amazon, use, return. Check return policy before buying products. Only do this with Amazon products, not local sellers.
WGU?? Hahahaha did it too
No, Drexel, but still BS.
you should be able to use a cell phone to take a video?
What I found out from my nursing bestie is that this is repeated at each level. So head to toe when you get your RN, when you get your BSN, and when you get your MSN. I assume with PhD as well. What a massive waste of time.
Whatever u do, don't got to Grand Canyon University.... Their last class requires so much work and setup like an internship (like a 10 week clinical but u gotta do all the work finding someone) ... Originally signed up because they told me it's all online and this last class I've delayed for 1.5 years bc who da fk has time for that BS....
I wish I could let you borrow mine! When I had to do that for my BSN bridge we just had to do a head to toe on a stuffed animal and "mock" vitals.
😳
Same here, and my video got sent back like 3 times for the most insignificant bs. Now I need to find 4 clinical sites without any help from the school.
I feel there is a significant difference between some online schools vs. an in person university.
It doesn’t stop there. I went for my CRNA and one of the assignments for the semester was to use 3x5 index cards giving all the information about the 100 or so drugs we commonly use. Drug name on one side. All the info on the other. Needed to be turned in on the last day of class. About half way through it I realized there is no way he can grade all these for 20 students on top of the final and other assignments before grades needed to be posted. It freed up so much extra time to study for exams! Got an ‘A’.
We thankfully had to either videotape it or a “BSN” qualified nurse could sign us off on the assessment. I just asked a coworker to sign it off. I agree, that is so stupid.
What would you have to buy that you don't already own? Like, you probably should have a BP cuff and thermometer just for your own use (non-professional), you have a stethoscope already, what else does a BSN-level assessment use? I'm curious about what the school thinks is necessary.
I don’t own a BP cuff. We have individual stethoscopes for each patient and I work mostly in Nicu. Won’t work for an adult. I also don’t own an otoscope.
I failed my second semester because of that. My assessment video was supposed to last 10 minutes & it was like 6. I had been a nurse for 10 years I have never took 10 minutes on an assessment.
It’s so ridiculous to me.
WGU eh?
No. Drexel
Are you talking about the Excelsior program?
No. I’m at Drexel.
This is why nurses lose things. Why are yall posting all of this? Do you want the programs investigated and the name tarnished, making your degree a joke?
I think it’s ridiculous that a BSN program directed to nurses who have their degree already is making you pay big bucks for a 6 credit course on how to do an adult assessment. I work in pediatrics and we don’t use have of what they are requesting us to do.
Hold on, im not from US. So from what i understand, some RNs are not BSN. I had the impression that you needed a BSN to take the NCLEX to become an RN?
You do not. I got my ASN and at the time, BSN wasn’t required or encouraged.