Non Traditional Nursing Students

So just before Christmas I was asked to teach a new class in a new program for non-traditional nursing students.  Basically if you already have a degree in another discipline you can (in theory) get your BSN in 14 months....mad I know.  It means very few breaks, very full weeks of long lectures, each semester lasts 6 weeks instead of 12, so exams and readings and homework and presentations are happening ALL the time.  The first class had 38 students in it.....nuts all of them!!!

The class I was teaching was called Introduction to Professional Nursing.  A great deal of discussion was had on the good ole nursing process, critical thinking, evidence based practice and other great mantras of our profession.  It was as scary for me that first week as I think it was for the students, but it turned out to be a wonderful experience

I love teaching/mentoring second career nurses.  They tend to be motivated, they want to be in class, they want to do really well and they have just about enough experience of life to know how to talk to people and deal with the ups and downs that brings along with it!

A diverse group from several places in the US with backgrounds in nutrition, psychology, the military just to name a few.  We were a happy bunch, meeting twice a week for many hours.  It was fast it was furious, there were many exams to give, much grading to do, it just finished.....I am tired!!

No good being tired I still have the rest of the semester to go with those other sensible I'll-Do-This-In-4-Years-Thanks type of people.

Research is kinda fun (said no-one ever) but second semester in I am beginning to get in my groove and the fact that I have had near 100% attendance speaks more to the students desire to get through the muddy waters than my sparkling enlightening lectures.  I try and make it fun, there are the weekly pictures of Toby and his various adventures and every now and then I throw chocolate and show a funny video but lets be honest, nursing research can be a very dry subject, there just is no good way to liven up a correlation coefficient and what the heck is the P Value anyway.  But we soldier on, got some good students and they are trying really really hard so we shall all stick together until the end, end of April that is, when we can all take a big breath and hope that all this snow will be gone by then

Here is one of Toby in the Fall, he had just caught a mouse....clever boy!!