Medical Training

As we head into the last weeks of the current module, our students are looking forward to a well-earned 2-week summer break.  Students in groups 11 and 12, who are currently in Module 3, have been studying Medical Surgical Nursing and Pharmacology for 22 weeks straight (as there is no break between Module 2 and Module 3), and they are feeling it.  They are also feeling more accomplished and comfortable in their student-nurse role, and all that it entails.  Students in Groups 13 and 14 are finishing up Module 1, and looking forward to beginning the clinical internships at various skilled nursing centers in the Concord area.  They have also made strides in becoming capable student nurses as they continue their education and training at Gurnick Academy.

We are looking forward to our new batch of LVN and PT students scheduled to begin their prerequisite class on July 6th.  The VN/PT prerequisite class, Essential Medical Bioscience, includes an introduction to anatomy and physiology, as well as introductory study of medical terminology and drug calculations.  For those that haven’t practiced math since high school, manipulating fractions, decimals and metric conversions can be challenging.  But through steady practice, most all students are successful in mastering the drug calculation skills necessary for becoming an LVN.

Our students come from a variety of backgrounds when they enter the LVN program.  Some are Certified Nursing Assistants furthering their career in health care.  For these students the practice of patient transfer and general approach to patient care is familiar.  For these students, however, the training and education to become an LVN usually involves “unlearning” their role as a CNA.  The approach to the patient or client as an LVN requires a deeper level of critical thinking and analysis of client data.  Beginning with obtaining vital signs, the CNA turned LVN student recognizes not just abnormalities, but takes the VN student into the realm of, “why is this happening?”  More education in anatomy, physiology and critical thinking enables the CNA turned LVN student to begin to think like a nurse.

The rights I am referring to are not professional rights, and not even the “five rights” of medication administration.  Instead a new set of rights are emerging, called the “Five Rights of Humor Administration.”  After reading an article in CE Express by Western Schools 2010 “Infusing Humor Into Healthcare” by Enid A. Schwartz, RN, MS, MC, I suspect students will read about these “rights” in future LVN school textbooks.  Schwartz states that the “rights” of using humor…[include:] the right patient, the right type of humor, the right time, the right amount of humor, and the right route or form of humor.” When checking the “right patient” the author emphasizes the importance of being sensitive and “for some patients, humor is inappropriate or unhelpful.

As a nurse I can not imagine telling a “knock-knock” joke to someone who is just coming out of anesthesia.  Not only would that be the “wrong patient” but also not the “right type” nor “right time” for humor.  The “right amount” of humor might not be as obvious to know.  I guess if you start to sound like a stand-up comic spouting off one-liners you have gone too far.  Then there is the “right route or form;” I recall a pediatric nurse, who instead of telling jokes, was great at imitating voices.  He could give instructions and reassurance as John Wayne or Mickey Mouse and have his patients laughing during what could have been a challenging procedure.  One of the reasons I enjoy being a part of the Gurnick Academy of Medical Arts – LVN program is how we value humor and without knowing it are already utilizing these “five rights.”

F. Gardiner’s Article “Why We Must Change: The Research Evidence” raises a number of very important questions concerning modern college education system.As an LVN program, we provide education to adults with at least high school level of knowledge, and therefore, the level equivalent to college level. In fact, being a degree-granting LVN program, we consider our LVN school as college-level institution. And teaching at this level, we must bring up the appropriate questions about reaching out and getting through to our Nursing students. Do they learn what we teach them?
Apparently, based on the most recent research completed at multiple universities and colleges  on teaching techniques, methods of information delivery, and students’ retention of information, how we teach is not necessarily is how the students learn.

In particular, many teachers employ the method of delivery that requires mere memorization and regurgitation of information. The larger the class size, the less thinking is expected and required of the students, and the more simple recall of information taught. The studies show that students in classes of medium size (20-45 students) are more oriented toward comprehension of the material, and in the small classes (15 students or fewer) the students were able to analyze and integrate the information taught.

Moreover, a very small percent of undergraduate students (only 14%) were ever taught how to study. And when later surveyed on course material retention, in the best cases it was only up to 50%, and in most cases it was as low at 20% of the material taught. So, only one fifth of what we teach, spend so much time and effort on, is retained by our students. Clearly, something needs to change in our education system.If the students retain only one fifth of the lecture, what happens to the rest of the information given to them over the time frame of a course? And why are the retention rates so low?

The answer is simple: the students are not thinking during lecture. What are they doing during lecture, if not thinking? Only about fifty percent of the lecture they are asking or answering questions, or taking notes, the rest of the time, their attention drifts. In fact, science shows that if the student does not stay involved, actively participating in the process of learning, their attention wanders off the subject within 10-15 minutes of the beginning of the lecture, and up to 15 % of the lecture time is spent in day-dreaming!

So, how do we improve the education system for our LVN students? to improve LVN certification. Do we need to change the course curricula or change methods of presentation? Maybe so. However, it is absolutely vital to the process to do everything to retain the attention of the students by keeping them involved in the learning process. Learning is effective only when it is active. The information will be retained, only when thoroughly understood, and it will be understood only if the students come to discover that information on their own.

A little girl with curly hair and big brown eyes is staring at me with a question in her eyes. So much to wander about, so much unknown, so many questions to be answered! All in its own time. That little girl is all grown up now. But back then she wanted to know: who am I? What will I become when I grow up? Will I be happy? Will I make other people happy?

With a sigh, I answer to that little girl on the picture, the picture of me, seven years old: “I really hope so.” I hope, I make other people happy, I hope, I have grown to be a good person. I hope, I will be special to someone who needs me and loves me. After all, I am making something great of my life: I am studying to become and LVN nurse. Dad always said, it is good for every family to have a medical professional on board. I did not realize, he was talking about me, until recently.

I chose to go to an LVN program here in California to make a difference in this world. I know, it’s a tough one. The LVN courses are challenging, and the pace is so fast that sometimes it makes days and nights blend into a timeless mass of hours and hours of studying, LVN classes, clinical practice, homework… No one said, it would be easy, yet everyone is so supportive. I am so grateful to my mom and dad for believing in me, investing their time and money into my education, investing their hopes and wishes into my future. Because, they too believe that I will grow up to be special and important. I will grow up to be a Nurse.

I am proud to be an LVN student now. I will not let my parents down. Even if sometimes I feel guilty that my mom and dad had to give up so much, depriving themselves of simple pleasures in life, just to give me a chance at a better life, I am happy and proud that they believe in me enough to give me that chance. Mom and dad have not gone on vacation for years, working day and night at their drycleaners business, just to make sure that their little girl with curly hair and brown eyes could finish her studies at the LVN school to get that diploma, so that she could proudly say, “Thank you, mom and dad! I am a Nurse now, but we did it together.”

4:30 in the morning… The alarm goes off… It’s the clinical lab day at Gurnick.
“Oh, please! Just 5 more minutes!” – She thinks, but she drags her tired body out of the warm bed into the shower. Hardly waking up, she puts on her blue scrubs and nurse’s shoes and looks in the mirror. Dark circles under the eyes… That’s the least of payments for being an LVN student in a fast-paced program. “But it’s worth it,”- she says to her reflection, -“Soon, I will become a nurse, an LVN, and my life will change for the better.”

On her tippy toes, she sneaks into her little daughter’s room to kiss the sleeping child on the warm cheek and, laying her last loving glance, quietly leaves.
It’s still dark outside. She gets into the cold car and starts the engine. “Oh, I am so tired! But thank God for mom! If not for her, I wouldn’t be able to attend my LVN classes. She is taking care of my little girl, while I go to school, because she wants me and my daughter to have a better life. So, I won’t let them down!”

She has been attending the LVN program at Gurnick in San Mateo since last October.
Being a single mom wasn’t easy to find the right LVN program in California, where she recently moved with her daughter. She was looking for a better life. And this was it! This was her answer: “become and LVN student, become an LVN nurse, turn my life around, and start a rewarding career of helping people, changing their lives, while changing my own.”

There are so many such single moms attending LVN classes at Gurnick. They choose this school, because Gurnick understands and supports everyone, who wants to get an education in nursing. “This is the school that won’t turn you down, but will nurture and support you as you make your progress.” This is the school that helps you succeed no matter what your situation at home is.

Yes, the instructors are tough, the program is fast-paced, and every day is saturated with new information, new knowledge, new nursing skills to learn and goals to conquer. But all the faculty and staff at Gurnick want the LVN students to succeed. That is why they went out of their way to get their LVN program qualified for Financial Aid for their LVN students, because nobody should be turned down, if they want to become an LVN nurse. And that is why they have built a job placement department, to help the graduating LVN nurses start their careers right.

The sun is rising, as she pulls up to the parking garage. It’s 6 AM, and the clinical lab is about to start. There, she sees other students in blue scrubs hurrying to class, holding hot coffee in one hand and textbooks in the other. Their sleepy faces are smiling as they wave her “good morning.”
She waves back at them, thinking: “My home away from home, my Gurnick family. Even though we met only when the program started just a few months ago, we have become friends, and I love them. We are all in the same boat. We all have to give up so much, but we are getting much more in return!”

She steps into the laboratory room, where the instructor in the white lab coat is greeting everyone, getting ready for a new day at Gurnick, as she thinks to her self: “This will be a good day.”