Last night I got to write my first mid-term exam for second year nursing school.
It was on "lifespan psychology", which, I must admit, is a course I am having trouble linking its real value, to nursing. I'm hoping it will get more interesting/useful as time goes on, but the first exam focused heavily on theories -- Piaget's theory, Erikson, Pavlov, Bronfenbrenner, Watson, Skinner, Bandura, and on and on....
There was also a large component on heredity and prenatal develpment. Both of those topics we covered in detail so great in last year's physiology classes, that it was amusing to listen to our prof, a newly-minted PhD in psychology, (who is apparently teaching his first course ever, based on his ego-laden lecturing approach...but I digress...), lecture us about neurotransmitters, neurons, axons and the like (this course is reserved for nursing students, so we all have the same background in physiology). It was a repeat of high school biology class.
I don't mean to complain, but frankly, I sincerely do hope it gets more useful and interesting.
Something happened to me as I sat down to write yesterday's exam. Something that has never, ever, ever happened to me before (and this is my fourth university degree!)
I realized I had NOTHING to write the exam with. Normally, I bring my backpack or computer case, which has loads of pens, pencils and erasers in it. I'm the one who shares my pencils with others. For the exam, however, I brought only my purse with me.
So last night, I sat there in the classroom, and my blood ran cold as I dug through my purse and realized it contained my wallet, my BlackBerry, my daughter's Epi-pen and two lollipops. Nothing else! I could not believe it. Perhaps what I could not believe even more, was that that making sure I had a pencil with me hadn't even crossed my mind when I left the house!!!
Luckily two friends came through very quickly as I sheepishly voiced my need for a pencil. But I just kept shaking my head in disbelief that I could come so unprepared like that to an exam. After all the university exams I've written in my life, you'd think, just maybe, I'd know better.
It all ended well, and gave us a good laugh after the exam!
Onwards and upwards!!!
I took a lifespan psyc as a rereq and I enjoyed it but it wasn't nursing focused - I wonder if yours is. Although now I'm in a Gerontology class that covers more physical nursing assessment and intervention with regards to old people. It's not the most popular class amongst my classmates but, maybe because I'm getting closer to that age - lol, I'm finding it very interesting and useful. Truth is, most patients are on the other side of whatever "old" is and we see these issues in the clinical everyday. I think I blogged on it once but growing old in our society isn't popular or sexy and the ageing folks have a different needs that are often overlooked. From a practical standpoint, I've found this info more useful once you're spending more time in the med surg units. Keep me posted.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your opinion! The lifespan psych class we're taking has the potential to be very intereting and informative, IF, someone with a nursing background was teaching it. Sadly, the prof is, understandably, a psych PhD (with no apparent teaching skills), and absolutely no concept of how to add a nursing slant to the course. Last year, in intro to psych, we had a former RN turned psych PhD, who taught us. She was incredible, and would have been *the* prefect prof for this lifespan course.
ReplyDeleteI'll get out of it what I can, on my own, and like you mentioned, hopefully will see the practical application of the course info once we get out into the world of clinical rotations, which start in January for us.
I'll certainly keep you posted!!! Cheers!