Nursing Education in the U.S. has gotten backed up against a wall over the last several years and, characteristically, the nursing students get the worst of it.
Nursing students seem to get hit from every direction. Often a 4.0 GPA is required to get into a competitive school, alternately the programs that wait-list students might be a six year wait to get into a two year program. If you don't have the grades or the decade you would need for public education, the private trade schools offer 18 month Associate Degree programs for a mere $40,000 to $68,000.
Though we wish they did, the worries don't stop there. Admitted nursing students often deal with rapid changes in educators, or administrators who push educators into teaching subjects they are not comfortable instructing. Short supply has driven the cost of employing nurse educators extremely high, and programs are making do by overloading existing teachers. As most students know, stress put on teachers by administration generally evolves into stress put on students by teachers framed up in a what-doesn't-kill-you-only-makes-you-stronger sort of way, and pressure to meet their demands is hedged with constant threat of expulsion.
In this difficult, often hostile, altogether too machiavellian society, nursing students often fall by the wayside or get discouraged and choose other less desired careers. Statistics project that in the next 20 years we could be half a million nurses short in the U.S. alone. It's sad to consider this shortage while watching wonderful capable students get turned away for lacking a tenth of a GPA point, or simply not being able to afford six years of waiting or $60,000 in tuition.
This blog is started by these student, goes out to these students, and is dedicated to finding solutions to the obstacles these students face.
Start the Discussion. Start the flow of ideas, and thoughts, and complaints. Somewhere in the vast intelligence and consciousness of our friends and classmates are the solutions we seek.
Why should we seek them? Because we are the future of health care in America, and if we don't find the answers, who else will?
What We're About
Whine, Soap-Box, Pontificate, Postulate, Unravel, Despond and ultimately Come Together with other nursing students.
Start The Discussion seeks problems and accompanying solutions to the many pitfalls and barriers that lie in the path toward and in the navigation of Nursing School.
Start The Discussion seeks problems and accompanying solutions to the many pitfalls and barriers that lie in the path toward and in the navigation of Nursing School.
2 comments:
A glimmer of hope… I think?
So I don’t know if anyone else got the e-mail… first off I am currently on the wait list in the Maricopa community college system in phoenix Az… The e-mail was a survey about the nursing program and it somehow will improve wait times. I am not sure how they are going to use it or how it is going to work but if you read this before you answer the e-mail let them know in the other comments section that what they are doing to us is absolutely unacceptable. Let them know your feelings about the system and if enough of us say something maybe then just maybe something might be done about it. This is what I personally wrote to whoever gets to read it.
I think it is annoying and very discouraging that we do not know our place in line. Knowing where we stand and an approximate date that we will start the program would be extremely helpful. It is also daunting to see every semester more spots going to just hospital employees. I understand the easy answer is get a job at the hospital however I have been trying for over six months knowing people in the H.R. department at different hospitals that have tried to help me but say that there are no available jobs.
I am fascinated by this country and the fact that when people get together and say something people listen and if you get enough people together saying the same thing things change. I think that having over 1700 voices (the number of people currently on the waiting list) would be a voice heard loud and clear.
Thanks for posting a reply! I didnt get the email you are talking about, but I heard about it, and I think you are right. We need to have a voice in order to be heard when it comes to nursing education.
Would you mind if i made this a post for the blog??
let me know
-Tacy
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