Journal of Nursing Jocularity

Getting Real about Nursing Student Preparation

Have you ever wondered if you are guilty of being “an expert in your own mind”? I recently ran across a study by the Nursing Executive Center that should pull the blinders off nursing educators who are convinced they are sending their new graduates into practice adequately prepared to perform their nursing duties.

The Center’s “New Graduate Nurse Performance Survey” (2007) revealed that the responses from more than 400 nursing school leaders and more than 5,700 hospital nurse executives to the statement, “Overall, new graduate nurses are fully prepared to provide safe and effective care in a hospital setting,” were polar opposite!

While 90 percent of the nursing school leaders agreed with the statement, only ten percent of the hospital nurse executives agreed!

So, what’s funny about this polarizing perspective? Well, not much. But those nurse educators with a healthy sense of humor may be the ones best prepared to take radical steps to address this “wool-over-the-eyes” reality. (more…)

The Joy of Inquiry

Why is it so important to shift nursing education to a learning paradigm, as is recommended by the Carnegie Foundation (Sullivan & Rosin, 2008) and others?

I recently found an excellent editorial by Alfonso Montouri that brought the answer to life. In his essay, he described a teacher he had had in elementary school who walked the talk of engaging learners so they would become excited about life, living and learning. His personal account provides a compelling argument that brings the theory home – to the heart of the professional educator. (more…)

Humor in the Classroom: Don’t Tell … ASK!

R U ready to drive your students nuts? (Wouldn’t your students be shocked to read even a couple words from an “digital immigrant” in their texting shortcuts?) And r u excited about driving them nuts with a teaching purpose so profound that you’ll get the BIGGEST KICK out of it (while your students get totally annoyed … until they understand the message you’re sending)? (more…)

Photo by Julie Elliott-Abshire

Humor in the Classroom: Far More than Gimmicks!

I had to chuckle. A reviewer of an article I’d submitted challenged me, “Are twists cognitive challenges or educational gimmicks?” This question helped me realize that even those who understand the holistic value of humor in the classroom still have much work to do. (more…)

During nursing school, I have visions of being ‘the perfect nurse’. I would do all the procedures according to the book — no exceptions. I would be so well organized — everything would be done correctly, on time. Forget the 1/2 hour variance when giving meds. I wouldn’t need it! I would have happy, non-demanding patients, and if I happened to get an unhappy patient, I would use the therapeutic communications I learned during our psych rotation.

Now that I’m a ‘real nurse’ I’ve had a chance to identify some of the most outstanding contrasts between student nursing and ‘real life’ nursing. (more…)

Hi Everybody! Welcome to the March edition of JNJ, our Student Nursing Spectacular!

Student nurses are near and dear to my heart: over the years I’ve been both a student nurse and a nurse instructor. It’s precisely when you’re learning the ropes and routines of nursing that humor proves its value.

The humor we need — for ourselves, and for our patients — is therapeutic humor. This is the healthy, healing humor that can be used to lift the spirit. Make no mistake: healthy, healing humor can be dark at times, sophomoric and silly at others. Laughter happens when we’re confronted with the uncomfortable, unpleasant or unusual — which is pretty much a normal day in the life of a student nurse! (more…)

February is American Heart Month, which means that here at JNJ, we’re going to be taking a look at the connection between what makes us laugh and what keeps us going: humor and the heart.

Our Patients Have Hearts

Despite what we may sometimes believe during initial assessments, the vast majority of our patients do, indeed, have hearts. Those hearts aren’t in particularly great shape: cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in our country. According to the American Heart Association, over 80,000,000 individuals in the US have one or more forms of cardiovascular disease. (more…)

It was a warm spring day when my student called with a question on her assigned patient. The physician had ordered a stool for Ova and Parasites, and she wanted to know how to collect the specimen.  I told her to obtain the specimen on a tongue blade and take it immediately to the lab.

Shortly after, I was at the elevator when the door opened and there was my student, in the middle of a crowded elevator.  She looked so prim and proper in her crisp student nurse uniform wearing her nursing cap.  Then I noted the uncomfortable faces of everyone else in the elevator.

The student was holding a tongue blade with a large lump of stool precariously balanced on it!

In Lesson Two, I taught the need for proper containers, the labeling of lab specimens, and the importance of the feedback loop in communications!

JNJ a magnet pulling humor people together

When I discovered the original JNJ 20 years ago, it was like a magnet attracting people from around the world who recognized the value of humor in nursing. I wasn’t even a nurse, but I always felt included in that interesting, quirky community. Now it’s time to welcome an entire new generation to this wonderful community through JNJ’s rebirth.

I’m still not a nurse, but I am contributing to nursing education redesign as a veteran curriculum designer. Today’s thought leaders, such as The Carnegie Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, are united in their cry for nursing education to transform and teach for understanding, rather than just memorization. And guess what helps make this transformation faster and more effectively than any teaching technique? HUMOR! (more…)