As it turn out my instructor was worse on paper than in person. In fact, in person, she's awesome and I've learned so much from her. So lets play a little catch up.
During this rotation I've been able to give my first IV meds, give my first meds through an NG tube (it's a tube that goes in through your nose to your stomach) and see a wound vac changed. Needless to say it's been a great nursing experience! I always knew that Peds was an option for me, but it's been nice to get first hand experience. In fact in deciding to go back to school for nursing I had taken a couple of vacation days from my job to shadow a nurse at PMCH on their medical unit as well as their PICU(pediatric intensive care unit). I liked both of these so much that I decided to bite the bullet and go for another 3-4 years of schooling to get my nursing degree.
While the clinical portion of this rotation rocks, the didactic portion leaves little to be desired. I am just struggling as a whole with how these "teachers" are ok with and feel like they are worth the money we are paying for these classes when all they do it answer emails. The way this online thing is set up is that, we have modules that we have to complete, most classes are set up so that if the class was a full semester we would have one module to complete every week, but being that it's an accelerated class we have anywhere from 5-8 to do in one week. Each module has at least 1 chapter to read, a discussion board posting and review activities. In previous classes these modules also contained your audio lecture with notes that you were able to follow. However for these last two rotations there has been nothing. Basically these teachers just say "here's 8 modules with 8 different chapters to read totally about 370 pages worth of information to read in one week with absolutely no guidance from me." We get minimal notes(they have a few bullet points on each slide), and no "study guide" to help us while we study. Pretty much BS if you ask me. If I were an online instructor, I would try to take a little more pride in my work and help the students as much as possible. When you think about it, being an online teacher seems like a dream job, and in reality it really is. There is a lot of initial work involved but once you've recorded your lectures, made your exams, and made your notes, it is set up so that most of the work is already done for you. However the problem is that these "teachers" haven't made taken the time to get the course going.
My frustration lies with this fact. To me it's just PURE laziness that you can't take the time to make sure you're students have everything they need to succeed. I'm not asking for you to hold my hand and give me spoon feed me everything, I mean I realize that some things need to be done on my own. But lectures and a guide for what we need to focus our studying on when you have almost 400 pages worth of information would be nice. I mean talking to some people about nursing school, they will say that they rarely used their books but went to lecture everyday and passed their classes. Seem a little off?????
My even bigger pet peeve is that when you talk to anyone about it, their excuse is "well the NCLEX is just like this". GIVE ME A FREAKING BREAK, you have to get me through nursing school before I EVER have to worry about the stinking NCLEX. You've GOT to be kidding me if you think this is ok. I mean what the H are these "teachers" being paid for? If you're going to have a program where everything is self taught, why the H am I spending $12,000 a semester for your institution? (woooosaaaahhhh)
Consequently since I'm a terrible reader and learn best by audio or visual means my exam grades have been less than good. I was able to prove to my instructor that one question was wrong and get points back so I'm sitting at a little bit more comfortable grade but I'm still frustrated. To be honest if I hadn't spent a crap ton of money already on this program and wasn't almost half way through, I'd quit and find a different program. They say they are working on improving this program but honestly I think they are just blowing sunshine up my rear. Because when you go in to talk to their new clinical coordinator she tries to make it about me and saying that maybe I'm not cut out for online classes. I wanted to scream at her and tell her that I've taken 10 online classes prior to this and never got lower than a 94 in those classes and one of them was chemistry, so kiss my rear! The previous online classes all had lectures, notes and discussions that actually aided in my studying instead of creating extra BS I didn't need.
Ok I'm off my soap box, but man do I feel better. Well the next exam is next Monday so if any of you have an spare time around 9am that day, please say some extra prayers for me. I need all the help I can get!
much love,
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