Sorry, but I couldn’t resist. But perhaps this can be filed under mental health–as in mental fog? Perhaps Sarah Palin is suffering from some sort of delusional ailment that allows her to believe that by virtue of osmosis, she has become an authority on the nation of Russia. Afterall, she can “see” Russia from some islands in Alaska.

I suppose that means I am qualified to negotiate treaties with Canada being that I live only 20 miles from the border….

Anyway, what is even more amazing is that she said this publicly. I was a little surprised by this interview, since I expected her to be a smooth talker, even if what came out of her mouth was pure ignorance and nonsense. But she bumbled and stumbled, and clearly, hadn’t a clue what she was talking about. I guess the all nighters with Karl Rove just aren’t working too well.

CBS News has just posted video of a chunk of Katie Couric’s interview with Sarah Palin that aired the other night. It’s difficult to describe.

COURIC: Well, explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials?

PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our next door neighbors are foreign countries. they’re in the state that i am the executive of. And there in Russia –

COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations for example, with the Russians?

PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We do — it’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia — as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska, It’s right over the border. It is from Alaska, that we send those out to make sure an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there, they are right next to our state.

Does anyone actually know what she is talking about? Does she know what she is talking about? Is she saying that she is in charge of spying missions that are conducted from Alaska? Is Palin actually CIA, in disguise as a soccer Mom? Is this woman James Bond, or just suffering from massive delusions–that she has somehow, something to do with any covert activities being conducted by the US military that are related to Russia?

“Putin rears his head and comes into Alaska airspace…” Very poetic, but what the hell is she talking about? Does Putin make secret missions into Alaska airspace, to visit and negotiate with Palin? Just think, this woman can be the next VP of our country. And even the president, if John McCain suffers an early demise. Judging from the looks of him, and his totally erratic behavior, I wonder if he too, is suffering from mysterious mental ailment.

Now, what we need from Palin is the nursing interview. Not only what she thinks about the nursing crisis, but what are her views on repairing healthcare? She hasn’t said a peep about that, but then, maybe she doesn’t know there is one. About 18% of Alaskans are uninsured, and according to stats, tend to be young adults, males, and Alaska natives. In a state overflowing with oil money, has Palin even addressed that? Or thought about the health of her constituents?

Been there done that. Dealing with incompetent people who flaunt graduate degrees but not one iota of real experience.

For some careers, it doesn’t matter as much, as the advanced degree is the point where they can actually begin to work. But in nursing, an advanced degree without work experience makes you little more than a paper soldier. A cardboard cut-out, and certainly, not qualified to lead or teach.

But yet, it seems that some schools and spinning heads think that it a good alternative to pursue. From Nurse.com:

New nurses should start thinking about continuing their education much earlier than before. “We are finding it is in everyone’s best interests to identify promising people who want faculty careers and get them started more quickly,” says Raines.

One of the new educational trends is a direct route to a PhD for many nurses. “Many of our doctoral programs are admitting post-baccalaureate students directly into PhD programs, as other disciplines do,” says Raines.

This means doctoral students graduate from their terminal degree program, for example, at age 30, rather than 45, she says.

There’s nothing wrong with planning ahead and many nurses know exactly where they want to be in 5 years, and that they want a grad degree.  But still, going directly from baccalaureate into an advanced degree program without any experience is just idiotic. How can one teach, for example, if she’s never even worked on a unit? How can one be a manager if she knows nothing about work environments and situations?

Nursing programs give you the barest rudiments, and in many cases, clinical time is even being shaved down because of problems finding hospital sites.  And nursing is not like other disciplines because as I said earlier, in other disciplines, you need the degree before you can even get started.

Still, experience always helps.  Wouldn’t someone who wants to be an archaeologist benefit from working at a museum, going on digs even as a volunteer, or working in some capacity with an expert before/during their pursuit of an advanced degree? Medical schools are now looking at experience–but people who have a little bit of life experience, or who have worked in healthcare–even if its just as a medical assistant or an aide. They have real life, hands on knowledge of patients, workplace politics, even Medicare/Medicaid if they had some type of admin job. All of this enriches the experience.

There’s nothing wrong with a nurse moving straight through the academic ranks as long as there’s work experience in there. In fact, a certain amount of cumulative work experience as a nurse should be required before an advanced degree is issued. No one without at least 2 years working experience in that specialty should be allowed to teach, for example.  A clinical nurse specialist flaunting her triple PhD and month long internship is going to be laughed off the floor by the experienced nurses–I mean, who is going to take this person seriously?

But this little anecdote, that I pulled off of Nurse.com, seems to be another one of those bright-eyed solutions to the great nursing shortage. In this case, scrambling to produce more faculty members. So this brilliant idea is to weed out the “promising” nursing students and shove them through academics. Give them a PhD, and put them out to teach. Wow, what an inspiration. They can throw outdated rhetoric and theory at their students, and God help them if they are asked a mundane question that requires on the job know-how.

Never a dull moment in nursing.