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How to Have a Refresher Course: A Refresher Course That WorkedAuthor(s): Mary E. RyanSource: The American Journal of Nursing, Vol. 41, No. 4 (Apr., 1941), pp. 397-398Published by: Lippincott Williams & WilkinsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3415418 .

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How To Have a Refresher Course A refresher course that worked

By MARY E. RYAN, R.N. Englewood Hospital, Englewood, New Jersey

To DATE over i6o nurses, graduates from eighteen states, Canada and even Scot- land, have registered for our course of lecture-demonstrations. Of these, over seventy have volunteered to spend six four-hour periods in observation on the wards.

Confronted by the possibility of in- sufficient nursing service for hospitals and communities all groups of nurses feel an urge to prepare for the emer- gency, knowing that much may depend upon their ability to expand and adapt the services they render. Part of the preparation consists of a survey of the potential assistance to be obtained from older graduates who may have been away from active nursing for many years. A refresher course for such grad- uates, conducted by the faculty of a school of nursing, can provide opportu- nity for such a survey. This article is a description of the method by which the nursing school faculty of one community hospital instituted such a course.

As a preliminary to our program, a superficial survey was made by question- naires to the alumnae, to find interested graduate nurses who would welcome a brush-up course and to discover their chief needs. The administrator of the school announced the results of the sur- vey to the faculty, namely, that many nurses seemed anxious to review nursing procedures and to learn some of the newer technics. From this point the planning of the program was placed in the hands of the Curriculum Committee of the school faculty.

The Curriculum Committee stated the objectives of the course as follows:

i. To increase the amount and improve the quality of potential nursing service for the hos- pital and the community by assisting the in- dividual graduate nurse to keep up to date with nursing methods.

2. To revive and encourage the interest of the graduate nurse in the nursing needs of her com- munity.

3. To stimulate faculty and student growth by providing opportunities for participation in the educational program.

The next step was a tentative outline of the subject matter to be included, selected in the light of the objectives and from the stated needs of the nurses. Conferences of the committee chairman with individual faculty members served to orient them to the problem and pro- vided new ideas for the improvement of the tentative outline. The revised pro- gram was then studied in order to map out the most logical sequence and time allotment, and to select the best meth- ods of instruction.

Demonstration of isolated procedures was vetoed; the committee decided that selection of an individual patient, with demonstration and discussion of the nursing measures involved in his care would present a more vivid picture, and hence would result in better learning. For example, consideration of the total nursing care needed by a specific post- operative patient would provide oppor- tunity for an explanation of the use of such measures as Wangensteen drainage, the Harris drip, and intramuscular prostigmine. Likewise, the care of a hyperthyroid patient provided an effec- tive way of considering avertin, barbi- turate hypnotics, and some of the psychological factors involved in the patient's recovery.

APRIL 1941 397

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398 The American Journal of Nursing

Responsibility for conducting demon- strations was divided among the faculty according to the abilities and interests of individual members. Physician members, as well as nurses, volunteered to give in- struction. The committee felt that senior students would benefit by participation in the course; the discussions and dem- onstrations, therefore, were arranged by students and supervisors together.

Concurrently, announcements were sent to the local papers describing the purposes and content of the course, stating the time and place of instruction, and giving the requirements for at- tendance. Registration in the state was not required, as the committee believed that such a requirement would eliminate the very group of nurses who most needed the course.

So started the refresher course. The lecture-demonstrations are conducted by supervisors and students talking and working together as if in an actual nurs- ing situation. Classes are held once a week for twelve weeks, and last approx- imately one and one-half hours. On each class evening, use is made of table demon- strations which show drugs mentioned, equipment, or some of the newer nurs- ing textbooks. Opportunity to subscribe to the Journal is offered, and a display made of articles pertinent to the nursing procedures under discussion.

In addition to these classes nearly

half the group elected to come into the hospital for six four-hour periods of ob- servation. The first of these periods con- sists of an orientation tour of the hospital in small groups; the other periods are devoted to observation of nursing care on the wards.

The following table shows that the greatest number of registrants are grad- uates of from ten to twenty years ago. Attendance by recent graduates was not encouraged, as the program had not been constructed for their needs.

YEAR OF GRADUATION NUMBER OF

REGISTRANTS

I9o8-191 ............ ....... 7 1912-1915..... ....... .... .... 19

1916- 919. .................... 22

1920-1923 .................... 33 1924-1927 .................... 38 1928-1931 .. .................. 35 1932-1935 .................... . 3

The course is accomplishing its objec- tives. The great majority of registrants have stated that they will be glad to serve in an emergency; some wish to be on call at present. It was most gratifying to realize that so many nurses, graduates of scores of different hospitals, who have been away from active nursing for many years, are enthusiastic about an oppor- tunity to bring themselves up to date. They admit a nostalgia for nursing, as so many of them say about the course, "It's like coming home."

What Price Venereal Disease? THE COST of pensions paid to those blind because of syphilis is about ten million a year; the care of those insane because of syphilis costs about 33/2 million dollars. Yet those insane and blind because of syphi- lis form a very small percentage of the total damage done by the disease.-Treasury Department, U. S. Public Health Service, Press Service Release No. 15-69, December 13, 1938.

IN THE WORLD WAR, venereal disease cost the United States Army the loss of almost 7,000,000 days--equal to a full year's ab- sence from duty for 19,ooo men. Only battle wounds and influenza cost more in terms of days lost. And uncontrolled venereal disease is just as destructive today as it was in 1917- -ASSISTANT SURGEON GENERAL JOSEPH W.

MOUNTIN, in a radio address over Station WOL, January 21, 1941.

VOL. 41, No. 4

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