I had the great opportunity the other day to visit a local hospital as part of the evaluation process for a nursing faculty member. I was able to follow her around as she instructed nursing students during their clinical rotation in Peds/OB. It was so inspiring and relates well to Thasha's blog, "Where the Rubber Meets the Road", and the idea I posted before--the moments in which nursing skills and science come together to help one individual. I was impressed on how much the students are allowed to do, and how many decisions they must make. Let me give you a couple of examples.
One nursing student was caring primarily for a very young, single mom. She was helping arrange for lactation consultation, social worker, etc. She was also showing mom how to take care of baby's basic needs, and encouraging her. The young woman's parents were not around. The student would also have the opportunity to explain the purposes of various tests, like the erythromycin ointment applied to newborns eyes at birth. Her science background is relevant!
I also observed (a former micro student of mine no less!) who had a question about an antibiotic dosage for a child. Dosages for children are based on weight, and conversions (mg/kg usually) have to be made for each child by the doctor and checked also by the nurse. The charted dosage was different (less) than she expected it to be based on the child's weight. In this case, the nursing student recognized a discrepancy in the expected. This is critical thinking! Now, the doctor might have a perfectly good reason to have prescribed that dosage but what if it was a mistake?
I think that both of these examples show the importance of having a strong math and science background. In the first case, knowing the science of antibiotics would help ease a young mom's mind over what was happening to her new baby. In the second case, although the dose was likely correct, it illustrates how being able to do the basic math might make a difference in the recovery of a sick child, or even catch a mistake.
Pair compassion with science and I think the best kind of healthcare will be provided. When you have a loved one in the hospital...do you want the folks who are taking care of them to have learned micro, and anatomy/physiology, pharmacology, and be able to do the math? So embrace the math and science you are learning! It will help make you the best practioner possible, don't you think?
You are completely right. When it comes to someones life being at stake, obviously you want a trained nursing student who payed attention in all their math in science classes. Some people might say, "What does this have to do with my career?" and they feel like they need to learn the material and just forget it the next day. Whatever we learn, I believe that it must stick in your mind, no matter how many times you have to re-take that class. We chose this nursing pathway for a reason, to help others in desperate situations. However, before we get there, we must know all the math and science material and be able to apply it in the hospital environment because I believe every little thing counts. The story about the nursing student who changed the dosage due to the weight and size of the infant was a great example. Situations like that will happen very often and it is up to us future nurses to do our duties, which is to care and help patients with knowledge we acquire from our college courses. Every little thing counts.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about something related to this topic a little while ago. Sometimes students try and do whatever they can to pass a class, whether is class related or not. I would not want to find out a nurse or a doctor snuck their way into the program, by cheating for example, because they thought biology was not important.
ReplyDeleteThere is a reason these classes are pre-reqs for a nursing program and the reason is because they come in handy in situations. All the days we might be a little tired in class or too tired to go to class and days where something discussed could be used to help save someone's life in the future. All of a sudden missing class because your tired becomes an extremely selfish reason.
Thanks for sharing these stories, personal stories are an excellent way to help us students put something into perspective!
I think so too, when one sees it all come together "in action" all the coursework and studying long hours make sense. Just want to clarify though, the student didn't make the correction, she noticed it was different and wanted to know what the Dr.'s rationale was for a non-standard dose. She didn't change the dose!
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