Nursing School Is More Than Just Medical Terms And Taking Care Of Patients

MAYHEW, Miss. (WCBI) – Hospitals are supposed to be places of healing, but often, dangers from the street make their way through the doors, along with patients.

These days, it’s not enough for future nurses to learn about medical terms and caring for patients.

They also need to know how to deal with situations that may come their way on the job.

Area nursing schools have recognized the need to prepare their future registered nurses for just about anything, but regardless of the patient’s state, or state of mind, nurses also have to be able to handle those cases with care.

Nursing is a calling and isn’t for everyone.

No two shifts are the same and no two patients are the same.

Nurses tend to spend more time with patients, and that can expose them to some potentially dangerous situations.

“You can also have family members, or people that have accompanied the patient into the ER, who may be disgruntled at the patient that you have to intervene and so, there’s a lot of security risks and we work really closely with security to train the nurses, so they know exactly what to do,” says East Mississippi Community College RN Instructor, Karen Taylor.

Security risks mean nurses have to be more aware of their surroundings and learn how to handle whatever situation presents itself.

Changes in the job have made their way into training as well.

That training brings real life experiences into the classroom for these future nurses.

“A lot of the scenarios that we deal with in the classroom, are scenarios that some of our instructors have actually dealt with before, so it’s a firsthand experience and they put it into a classroom setting for us, to allow us to understand how to handle that situation if it’s given to us in the real world,” says EMCC nursing student, Jordan Keasler.

Technology allows these practice patients to be diagnosed with real health problems.

“An asthma attack that actually declined to the point where the patient stopped breathing and we used another student as a family member and we had instructed that student to react a little more aggressively and violently towards the nurse, while they were treating the patient,” says Taylor.

Students not only spend time learning how to care for patients and deal with other problems, but also focus on communication.

“We use scenarios, here in our mental health class, where we use other students from other classes to come in and be patients with disorders like, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, and these students have to learn how to talk to them therapeutically and deal with them on a one on one basis,” says Taylor.

They can’t prepare for every scenario, but the lessons help get students ready for their clinicals.

“You can learn about the emergency department all day, but until you actually are there and experience, and you know, can actually see firsthand what’s going on and how other nurses deal with situations and so you kind of take all the text that you’ve learned and then you’re able to apply it,” says EMCC nursing student, Charis Ellington.