I have a project for community health in which we have to give defintions. I am assigned nursing school culture and have no idea what this is... Thanks for your help.

-- Barbara Shaffer (chisley5@msn.com), October 06, 2001

Answers

Barbara,

As a student nurse you are socialized into the culture of 'student nurses'. This socialization teaches us a set of beliefs, practices, habits, likes, dislikes, norms and rituals, factors that comprise a given culture. For example your understanding and beliefs regarding health and illness differ greatly from the population at large. Other rituals, hand washing, uniforms, language (medical terminology). Look at http://www.culturediversity.org/provc.htm Hope this helps

Victor

-- Victor (victor@culturediversity.org), October 11, 2001.

Barbara,

I wonder if it would be helpful to think about nursing school culture from an ecological perspective. By that I mean that we are placed in a certain environment in nursing school, which may or may not include friendly teachers, not-so-friendly teachers, lots of reading, many hours of clinical practicum, the shared experience of your peers.

So, in my mind, culture is the interpretation of the organisms involved in a certain environment. How students all respond to one another has everything to do with what they are experiencing in the environment in which they find themselves. Because nursing school places unique demands on people (is a harsher(?) environment, that affects the response of the students, meaning that they would likely respond differently in a different environment without the stresses of nursing school.

I hope this helps.

Susan

-- Susan Heffelfinger (joysmom@hotmail.com), October 18, 2001.