What are academic grades? In elementary, high school and undergrad college; grades were something I would strive and try to calculate endlessly. Why? Did the letter assigned to my knowledge reflect my actual intellect? When I was in nursing school, I dropped that fret for the perfect grades. Yes, they were nice to get, but no one makes great grades in nursing school, or no one I know will admit.
We had a motto in nursing school, "C=RN". I didn't understand the phrase entirely at first, but when I found myself passing courses by the "skin of my teeth", I finally understood. To tell you the truth, I don't think the perfect grade nurses actually made great nurses in practice. I am sure they were a walking reference for facts, but throw them in a trauma center on day one or a patient has cardiac arrest, can they apply that knowledge to the situation.
You see, I went to an associate degree nursing school. We were trained to perform at a highly skilled level. The process, muchly I've heard compares to the military, by weeding out the weak and narrowing down the candidates. The school I attended had a perfect passing rate of the nursing boards on the firat try. The local hospitals needed nurses ready to work at full or near full capacity STAT. When we graduated, I was hired into a highly-regarded emergency department in a busy city, and I felt I was prepared to handle the arena, or knew how to ask for "HELP!"
Now, I am by no means saying that Bachelorette prepared nurses in that area I graduated are not good nurses. On the contrary they are excellent nurses. I'm saying that straight A students with any degree in any field, sometimes have trouble performing in the real world. To react quickly and appropriately is a learned skill often attributed to real-world experience under stress and pressure from the environment (and your boss too). The idea of perfectionism can become so illusive, many lose sight of reality. For some, it can inflict insanity further isolating them from others.
