Cretinous...

... fuckwits. I worry about nurse education quite constantly, honestly. I have just finished a placement which, at times, may have been boring, but there was no shortage of learning opportunities. The staff themselves were constantly engaged in their own learning, as well as mine. Now I'm back to Uni? Ick.

In the past, student nurses I know have complained about the use of big words. A qualified nurse I worked with said working on a coronary unit involved "too much thinking". I shit you not.

I have just got out of a session (something I have to go back to) in which people I should respect espoused the idea that a Mentor (that is to say, a registered nurse who is guiding your learning on a ward) should teach you basic A&P if you're too pig ignorant to go out and learn it yourself. Sweet. Mentors are supposed to do this in between being overworked, overhoured and underpaid, apparently. Forget about independent learning, forget about guided learning. This is learning-on-a-plate. And here's me thinking that should've been left back in primary school.

N.B. A mentor should certainly assess your knowledge on a subject, and work from there. But if your knowledge is low, that is neither his/her fault, not is it his/her core responsibility to teach you what you don't know. My best ever mentor figure would ask me what a drug did. If I didn't know, I'd ask. She was fully prepared to answer, but would first tell me: "You know where the BNF is..." which is exactly the ways things should be done. My cretinous colleagues don't seem to realise this.