I'm a community college librarian, and our dean has asked me to research ways that we might improve our nursing programs (LVN-RN Mobility, LVN-RN Transition, Paramedic-RN Mobility, Paramedic-RN Transition, buttociate Degree RN).
Specifically, I was told that employers are looking for nursing graduates with more highly developed critical thinking skills (of course this is true of employers in other fields as well).
(I should mention that I realize that there isn't a subsbreastute for on-the-job experience -- I began by finding some articles by Patricia Benning who one of the nursing instructors had suggested as an authority on training nurses. Benning's view of expertise as developed through experience rather than through formal education, while perfectly reasonable (the same is said of lawyers, doctors, and other professionals), doesn't answer the question of how to improve *our* program.)
The aforementioned notwithstanding, I thought this group (some readers of which I suspect may be hiring or supervising new LVNs and ADNs) would be a good place to ask what specific educational experiences they either found especially helpful, or would like to see included in community college nursing programs.
It also occurs to me that it would be helpful to know what aspects of nursing education you think are *unhelpful* or superfluous. (For example, one of our nursing instructors suggested that LVNs don't really need to learn how to write research papers in APA style.)
Also, I'd be interested in hearing from any of you who work with new graduates that know of a particular community college program that does an especially good job of training nurses.
Finally, while my focus is on developing critical thinking skills (and whether you agree that this is an area in particular need of improvement), any other suggestions that might make our graduates more desirable to employers would be appreciated.
Feel free to respond by email or by posting to the newsgroup (I'll be happy to summarize emailed responses for the group if there's an interest).
Thanks in advance,
Larry Gainor