Spring 2009, Day 2: depressed

Not to bring anybody down, but if yesterday was a bummer, today was worse (bummier? bummerier?). We were supposed to read a book over Christmas break called Nine Hills to Nambonkaha for Community Health, so I read it today. Afterward, I was so depressed I could have cried. Okay, actually, I did cry, but only a little. It's not that Nine Hills was so moving (you can read my review on Amazon if you're so inclined), but that it is so much flim-flam and so far from what I wanted to be doing this semester, which was getting management of cardiac patients down pat and preparing for the NCLEX. I don't really understand the point of it all. Community Health ought to be an elective course. I think our BSN program is designed for a different type of health care structure--specifically, one in which Associates degree nurses work on hospital wards and Bachelors degree nurses manage them and work in public health. That model doesn't fit anymore, and they need to update things. Management needs to be a Masters-level preparation different from MSN and NP degrees, and the BSN needs to incorporate more cognate material like genetics and economics. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of inflexibility built into the system due to the NCLEX and dictats from the ANA and NYSNA.