Do you remember everything from nursing school?

Nurses General Nursing

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Was nursing hard when you first started? Like right after you passed the NCLEX? What was assessing and diagnosing like? What were you thinking?

I'm a new grad, got my license in June so the horrors of rn school are very fresh in my mind. my sister just started her rn schooling this past fall and they aren't even doing rn diagnosis anymore. they were told that rn diagnosis do not really correlate to nursing practice in acute care so they are focusing on medical diagnosis and the care that correlates to specific s/s of diseases and conditions. i thought that was kind of surprising...:rolleyes:

Focusing on medical diagnosis and the care that correlates to specific diseases and conditions? Is sanity prevailing at long last?

Is it really true? Oh please please please, let it be true.

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Focusing on medical diagnosis and the care that correlates to specific diseases and conditions? Is sanity prevailing at long last?

Is it really true? Oh please please please, let it be true.

Sounds more like an LVN.

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Sounds more like an LVN.

Hi Darkpk55,

My comment may have been rather immature but we all have our moments of foolishness.

Back in the days before nursing diagnoses, patients were still cared for appropriately but we tended to call a spade a spade and patients had pain, or shortness of breath, or hemiplegia or a surgical wound or whatever it was that they had.

Nursing diagnosis did not invent or describe any new problems or interventions, it just put unwieldly labels on already existing and identified problems, and already existing interventions.

NANDA language and nursing diagnoses are not used where I work, fortunately we go along quite happily calling spades spades. :)

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Specializes in Emergency.

I agree with completeunknown. Haven't used a nursing diagnosis since school. In my ER, we use medical diagnosis terminology not nursing.

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Specializes in ER / ICU.

I graduated last June, been working for 8 months now. Honestly, I remember a lot of the stuff we talked about in school, but none of it really clicked in my head until I saw it for the first time in real life. It felt like I had all this random information floating around in my head, random facts, signs & symptoms, medication indications/contraindications, etc. but none of it fit together. Now, after 8 months of being on a telemetry floor, and now the ER, I feel like a LOT of the puzzle pieces are put together. So now when I get a CHFer, for example, the same list of questions runs through my head (I have all the puzzle pieces)...are they on a fluid restriction? do they have edema? are they on lasix? when was the last time they had a stress or echo? what's their EF? how do the heart and lung sounds present? are they on an ACE/ARB? etc. Nursing school gives you the facts you need. You don't really know what to do with those facts until you see it in real life and until a pt is counting on you to pick up acute changes in their status.

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Specializes in ICU.

I do not remember everything from nursing school but I have had many " aha!" moments. The longer I practice the clearer everything becomes. I have learned so much since nursing school I think it has overshadowed nursing school in my mind. I have not really forgotten the information but I have paired it with new information for an infinitely better picture of whats really going on. As for nursing diagnosis I use them all the time. I chart my nursing diagnosis and interventions routinely but I am in LTC so that may be the difference.

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I graduated last June, been working for 8 months now. Honestly, I remember a lot of the stuff we talked about in school, but none of it really clicked in my head until I saw it for the first time in real life. It felt like I had all this random information floating around in my head, random facts, signs & symptoms, medication indications/contraindications, etc. but none of it fit together. Now, after 8 months of being on a telemetry floor, and now the ER, I feel like a LOT of the puzzle pieces are put together. So now when I get a CHFer, for example, the same list of questions runs through my head (I have all the puzzle pieces)...are they on a fluid restriction? do they have edema? are they on lasix? when was the last time they had a stress or echo? what's their EF? how do the heart and lung sounds present? are they on an ACE/ARB? etc. Nursing school gives you the facts you need. You don't really know what to do with those facts until you see it in real life and until a pt is counting on you to pick up acute changes in their status.

I'm not in nursing school yet, but I love doing this! Hopefully Ill love being a nurse!

I here a lot of nurses state that some people don't know how to use critical thinking, and can't apply the facts they know.

I can use critical thinking for simple things. I just hope I can for more complex things.,

I usually just use critical thinking for simple things. My family drinks alcohol every week lol.. They complain about dehydration, constipation, migraines, etc. Their eyes are bloodshot after drinking... Did they have enough sleep? Dehydrated? What day of the week is it? Friday? This is very simple, I know... I do this kind of stuff everyday though before I even knew about nursing. Well, I have to explain to them why they experience those issues. Hopefully it's a good sign.

I figured that it's hard to maintain homeostasis the older you get, so that's probably why older people are at higher risk for hypothermia. I also noticed old people are found dead in their houses when it's really hot.

I guess it does show that I can apply facts. Can't everyone do this? Why do nurses say that some nursing students can't?

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Specializes in Acute Mental Health.

I'm still a fairly new nurse and remember feeling like I knew less in my last semester of nursing school than the whole time I was in school, lol. I felt like I couldn't remember anything, but I think I was just on overload. I still look things up and ask questions of my fellow nurses. Usually, I just need someone to verify the direction I want to take with a pt or issue.

I work as a psychiatric nurse so when I walk in and find a more medical situation, I still have to "Oh my god, what do I do" feeling and then I calm myself down and proceed to assess head to toe (unless its obvious) and I do fine. I remember the important stuff from nursing school, but so much information was coming at me then that I don't remember all of it. I;m grateful for my fellow nurses!

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I have been a nurse for 13 years and I hardly remember anything. I learned more in my first year on a busy med-surg unit that I ever did in nursing school. but of course, I had some great preceptors and an awesome general surgeon who showed me stuff on patient's who weren't even assigned to me. I had just enough knowledge to pass the NCLEX the first time. Now that I have been out of school for a while, I enjoy reading pathophysiology books. (yes, I am a big nerd) But it makes so much more sense now that I have had some real hands on application.

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Specializes in Telemetry, OR, Admin, Education.

Hardest part was that the job functions were not well aligned with the knowledge imparted. I wanted to do all those wonderful things we were taught, but there was no time with 6+ patients on nights. Assessment skills only grew better...Diagnosing became better as I learned what what was important (Focus on real problems first, what you can fix or prevent, before working on all those other items...Psychosocial is almost always lower priority to physiologic. Nursing Diagnosis is a wonderful way to train the mind, but it is usually not dynamic enough for care delivery and to keep up with all the things patients are actually going through in 'real-time'.

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Specializes in Family Medicine.

I remember a lot and I'm finding this to be a disadvantage because it makes me resistant to adopt the "real" world ways.

You'll relearn nursing on the job and it will be different than the textbook. Also, things change so much so it's a better idea to read nursing journals/do your continuing education hours than to read your nursing school notes/textbooks.

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

was nursing hard when you first started?

you realize, fairly quickly, that school did not prepare you for reality!

like right after you passed the nclex?

as with all traumatic situations it's a big blurr!! (kinda like labor, i know there was pain, and alot of screaming,the nurse should have never told me to squeeze her hand if i felt a contraction) i remember feeling panicked, scared, overwhelmed. not really sure when those feelings left me.

what was assessing and diagnosing like?

assessing was kinda easy, you did a body check, take vitals, contact the dr if anything was out of normal limits. as a lpn we don't diagnose

what were you thinking?

what in the name of all thats right did i get myself into!!!!!!!!!!!

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