[LADYFLOWER]

For all of you that have graduated, tell me what was the worst or most difficult part of your Nursing school experience?

[smilin_gp]

Waiting for my turn in the end-of-rotation clinical evaluation line. I was always worried that a clinical instructor was going to ding me for some fault that I was unaware of and hadn't corrected, and that this would go into my permanent record. Fortunately, my instructors were reasonably fair- but waiting for my turn was hard.

It also was hard waiting and studying while my friends from my previous round of college were buying cars and travelling. Had to keep my mind on the ultimate goal of qualifying for a worthwhile profession.

[LADYFLOWER]

Originally Posted by smilin_gp

Waiting for my turn in the end-of-rotation clinical evaluation line. I was always worried that a clinical instructor was going to ding me for some fault that I was unaware of and hadn't corrected, and that this would go into my permanent record. Fortunately, my instructors were reasonably fair- but waiting for my turn was hard.

It also was hard waiting and studying while my friends from my previous round of college were buying cars and travelling. Had to keep my mind on the ultimate goal of qualifying for a worthwhile profession.

Thanks for the response. I see all your "waiting" paid off for ya!

[Marie_LPN, RN]

Trying to find time for myself.

[TriageRN_34]

My ER preceptorship...but it was also the BEST!!! I learned so much, and was so happy even though it was fast paced insanity most of the time, extrememly challenging, and hard!!!

[shelbywu]

By far, the absolute worst part of nursing school for me was writing all those CARE PLANS!!! I would take a test any day over doing care plans.

[PedsER-RN]

Originally Posted by LADYFLOWER

For all of you that have graduated, tell me what was the worst or most difficult part of your Nursing school experience?

The worst part was staying up late working on stuff to prepare for clinicals, then getting up at 0430-0500 (I don't live in town) for clinicals the next morning (I am NOT a morning person).

One of the hardest parts was near the end of each semester when we were all so tired but still had projects, exams, lab/clinical competencies, etc. It was so hard to keep studying when we all had major burnout.

Oh, another 'worst' for me was when we did our IV lab and I missed on my partner, so they made me stick my INSTRUCTOR (who we were all afraid of b/c we had heard from other classes how mean she was), then I MISSED ON HER, and they made me STICK HER AGAIN!!! I FINALLY got it, and she wasn't mad (at least she didn't show it if she was), but I was just about sick by the time it was over.

[Tweety]

The first quarter clinicals where I was a nervous wreck.

[MIA-RN1]

Originally Posted by LADYFLOWER

For all of you that have graduated, tell me what was the worst or most difficult part of your Nursing school experience?

Worst: Not sleeping the night before clinical; worrying over exams; doing test-outs in front of the instructors
Best: FInding out I enjoyed clinicals; figuring out the exams weren't so hard once i learned to psych out the questions; and finishing all the test outs!

Seriously, I even liked the worst stuff a little bit, because it was a learning experience.

[TiffyRN]

Psych rotation; to this day I don't really know what psych nurses do (I know they do plenty; but we weren't shown what they did during psych rotation). So we sat around all day with hospitalized psych patients. SSSOOOOOO not my scene. I'm not sure to this day what my instructor was thinking or where her head was.

Also all my lab performance evals (you know when you would perform for example a sterile dressing change on a dummy?). We had check off sheets for the procedure to be followed but it was never really reviewed in our lab. Our lab turned out to be an extended lecture period with virtually no hands on practising. The only detailed and hands on instruction done was once you failed a performance eval then they would finally show you how to do something. I think I passed about 15% of those on my first attempt; all the rest were after 2 or more attempts. Thankfully you could keep trying as many times as you could get through line on the designated days.

I have "issues" with my nursing school experience (13 years later!).