Sitting here in Anatomy and Physiology. 4 hours before a test on the nervous system. Going I do not need to know this to be a home care nurse. I have a Bachelors Degree in Psych so I am not knew to the college thing, and I enjoy lectures, learning in general. But this second degree is because I need a job, and am good with people, hard working, and like to ensure people are taken care of. I got in the top 12% in the Nation on the TEAS test with 3 hours of study time, and no sleep.
I need an A in anatomy to get into the program, guaranteed, a B to have a good chance. But its just so darn frustrating. Like the overall info the most pertinent info I remember practically instantly. I now how neurotransmitters, action potentials work and reflexes. Do I know all the nerves of the CNS, PNS? No, do I need to know them to do well in my future job? No, if I ever cross over the subject in the future, do I need to know this information now? No. If I have an interest, I can literally go through something one time, and remember it, and use it. Which means if in the future If I need to know all this for a problem, I will easily be able to pick it up, a google search, webmd/mayo/wikipedia/ so forth and I got it. Verify, ask a colleague, done. Its never going to be life threatening though for a patient if I do not know it. If something is seriously wrong with the patient you call 911, and that’s it, any neurological issue dealing with neurons and their placement in the body, is not going to be something you can fix, legally. Now understanding to much sodium for instance is bad and why its bad for the nervous system,(the body in general), makes sense to know. Lack of precursors for certain neurotransmitters and potential diet that may depending help, makes sense to know. Again neuron locations and what the specific neurons do, is not important for the field.
This is why the average Janitors IQ is higher than… the average engineer… some people just can’t get over the pointless hoops. And anyone that can agree that their are pointless hoops and has power to fix the system and doesn’t is part of the problem. This is why people are dissatisfied with college and education in general. I loved my gen ed reqs, I love learning, but gen ed literally applies to majority of aspects of life. Knowing individuals neurons does not, and is not applicable in my field I plan to pursue. Just so darn frustrating, had to vent to someone.
What does “point-full” mean? One constructive suggestion - you need to work on your grammar and spelling. Those skills ARE important for your profession. You need to be able to convey your thoughts more clearly than you have in this post.
The people who designed the program think you do need Anatomy. Some of it may be because doctors will use Anatomical terminology in their orders and if you don’t know what/where a a sacro-illiac joint is, for example, how can you follow them?
Also they may have found that people who can’t learn anatomy may not do well as a nurse. Or there is state regulations on what you need to know.
Also many majors have classes on "the basics"that everyone may not …I am an Electrical Engineer and never use Physical Electronics (what is happening at the Electron level), but some people do, and it is good ot have the background on it.
Sometimes you have to slog though “pointless” things to achieve certain goals. That’s just the way it is.
In this case though, I don’t want any kind of health care provider, especially one coming to my home to care for me, not to have a basic understanding of human anatomy and physiology. It’s actually a pretty fascinating subject. If you ever decide to go to graduate school for psychology, it will be a good foundation. You don’t always know why you need to know something while you are doing it. Are you sure that you want to be a home care nurse?
There’s a lot of things in life that we just have to slog through in order to reach the goal. This would be one of those. So either suck it up, buttercup, or choose a different path.
At this point in your education, it’s probably not wise to decide what is and isn’t useful for your chosen career. It’s very possible the information you declare will be completely irrelevant to you as a professional may, in fact, come in handy someday.
I agree that you are not ready to decide what information is useless until you practice your profession. How and when does information become useless? Is that word assigned to information you find difficult to learn? Just learn the information. All these bits of information could end up really important and you will have to learn them fast later. Some information may never be useful but you just know it. I bet lots of us could measure a field using rods after some refreshing.
There is however information that is difficult to learn, but is easily accessed in charts. Things like Piaget’s developmental stages are an example of what is difficult to learn until it is used repeatedly. Things that are conveniently charted seem especially hard to learn. Put these charges together into a paper and a computer file for easy access.
As a nurse you will be responsible for the lives of patients. If you screw up a patient could die. You do not seem to be ready for that responsibility.
Disagree. You need to know some neuroanatomy in order to get a sense of whether lesion localization makes sense. That’s often one of the best ways to separate malingering from real neurologic insult, or to differentiate peripheral neuropathy (which can be from something as minor as sleeping in the wrong position and will reverse) from cauda equina or cord compression which are emergencies often requiring neurosurgical intervention. Can even help with something like whether or not a rash is shingles or something else.
Yo, OP. I have a home care nurse. I promise, she needs to and does know all (or at least most) of the things in your post.
She needs to be able to figure out where my pain is coming from so she knows what to do next. She needs to be able to evaluate my pain to decide whether it’s safe for me to get my IV treatments.
I have lupus and central pain syndrome. One is a connective tissue and autoimmune disease. The other one is a disease of the central nervous system. So yes, I promise that she needs to know the nerves in there.
If this is your attitude, I beg of you not to become a home care nurse. I sure as hell do not want my nurse looking things up on webmd while something is happening.
For the sake of future patients, I really hope the OP is just pulling our leg.
With all due respect, you don’t even know what you don’t know. A degree in Psych does not give you a pass to become a nurse. Didn’t you look into the course requirements? Nursing is rigorous, nursing requires a tough, resilient, bright, person who will go beyond what is required to be an advocate for their patient. They should always be learning and pushing their knowledge to new heights. Your attitude does not reflect the core values of nursing. Nursing is not just a job. If you go in with that attitude, you will be weeded out quickly.
Good luck on your test. If you don’t get into nursing program, considering your bachelors in psych along with fact that you’re good with people, hard working, and like to ensure people are taken care of, perhaps a career as a consultant advising nursing and countless other educational programs what pointless material they could cut from their programs could work for you.
What would make you think a home care nurse doesn’t need to know the nervous system? What if one of your patients has a nervous system disorder? What if you decide to later become a different kind of nurse later on in your career?
If you aren’t a nurse yet and are only at the beginning of your nursing program, how do you know that you won’t need to know all of the nerves in the CNS in your future job? Nurses with advanced degrees and many years of experience are the ones who designed your nursing curriculum. Why do you think you know more about nursing than they do?
If you are a nurse you ARE the 911. Who do you think cares for patients after they have a medical emergency and 911 is called? Nurses! You can’t just be looking stuff up on Mayo Clinic while your patients are having an emergency.
I am baffled about how you could say that you love learning for learning’s sake but are grousing about learning something that’s closely related to both nursing and your original degree (psychology).
CNAs aren’t nurses - they are nursing assistants, and they make a lot less money than nurses. But it’s true that you can do home care as a CNA and the training is a lot shorter.