Randy Pausch and Nursing

¶ … Randy Pausch "I know you're smart. But everyone here is smart. Smart isn't enough. The kind of people I want on my research team are those who will help everyone feel happy to be here," so were the words of Randy Pausch, a professor and lecturer (Pausch, 2008). The late Randy Pausch turned one of his greatest speeches into a New York Times' bestseller. The book, The last Lecture, came out in 2008 after his infamous speech and was co authored by Jeffrey Zaslow, a Wall Street Journal reporter.

The book itself builds on the content of Pausch's last lecture, also known as "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams." Although not directly about nursing, the inspirational message behind the book empowers nursing students to be prepared for the road ahead. The notions of the importance of experience and optimism are what prepare the student for the difficult journey down a path of medicine, with all of its unexpected twists and turns. Pasuch is passionate about his concepts presented in the book.

One of the most interesting concepts is his view of experience and how important it is within learning real life lessons. According to Pausch, "experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing we have to offer" (Pausch, 2008). This seems like such a simple concept, but when it is related to nursing it is a crucial component to understanding how to succeed in the field.

Essentially, Pausch is telling his reader to use experience as a stepping stool for future learning. Experience is what provides us a base on which to create future foundations. This is essentially an empirical outlook on life, which is a crucial step to the critical thinking and evidence-based practice that are so important within nursing and medicine in general. All the textbook knowledge in the world does not necessarily make someone the best nurse ever. It is that knowledge combined with experience that will create the best nurse.

Nurses must used evidence-based practice to empower their critical thinking abilities and thus make split second decisions where a patient's life may be at stake. Thus, it is Pausch's notion of trusting experience that helps empower a nurse's ability to provide the best quality care overall. Moreover, Pausch places a huge role on ourselves and our motivations within the learning process. It is not necessarily something that is given to us, but how we handle the situation.

Thus, he writes "we cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand" (Pausch, 2008). Ultimately, this is true in any situation, but especially in nursing. A nurse cannot dictate a patient's needs or circumstances. The nurse just has to be able to react to random and completely unexpected circumstances at a drop of a hat. Through experience and academic knowledge, a good nurse will take the worst hand and.