How well do colleges prepare students for nursing?
In Revalorizing the Trades, Camilla Paglia expresses her concern over the loss of jobs. With the shortage of nurses in the nation, colleges have increased their efforts to attract large numbers of students to nursing majors. They have increased enrollment for students on a rolling basis to accommodate for retiring baby-boom generation nurses. Although colleges have increased enrollment, colleges are not adequately preparing students for nursing jobs, which leads to loss of jobs for nurses. College nursing students are often unaware of the reality of the working environment in hospitals and nursing homes. Additionally, students are not mentally and psychologically prepared for the job’s requirements and work stress they encounter in nursing field. Educators need to fully take into consideration the importance of connecting nursing students to a realistic view of nursing.
Many highly qualified students come to study nursing with high expectation for their future careers. After completing academically challenging courses, they expect their careers to be rewarding. However, nurses freshly entering their careers often do not find them to be fulfilling. They are often unprepared for the problems and conflicts they face as real nurses. In one study, an interviewee replied that she would not have entered the field had she known the expectations required of nurses (317). Likewise, many students may feel insecure entering a nursing job because of the lack of connection they have with the real field. Other studies showed that roughly half of the faculty nurses agreed with the survey question “believe that nursing schools do not focus sufficiently on the working conditions, frustrations, and rewards of the job” (321). This mismatch of expectations results in a large number of turnover of nurses.
Colleges need to make preparations for future nursing students by introducing them the expectations and the real working environment they will meet in their career. If students are familiar of what their future should look like, they could mentally prepare for themselves the stress they will face in their careers.
Experiencing the true nature of a nursing career before entering the job would enable students to choose the field that would suit them best. Although some colleges introduce students to nursing jobs with intern opportunities, these are rare and are available only to handful of students. The reviewing of nursing jobs to all prospective nurses would not only enhance students chance to excel in their specific field, but also would help the community clinics realistically to expect the type of nurses they would meet in the future. In the long run, connecting future nursing students to the reality of nursing careers would result in more qualified nurses in our society.
Work Cited
Stephen, Crow M., Sandra J. Hartman, and Christy L. McLendon. "The Realistic Job Preview as a Partial Remedy for Nursing Attrition and Shortages: The Role of Nursing Schools." Education Research Complete. EBSCO, July 2009. Web. 1 Oct. 2010.
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