RN School is tough !!

Nurses General Nursing

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Hello Everyone. Now I am 6 weeks into RN classes. I am forced to be succesful at: clinicals, lecture and labs. The other students are all nervous, like me, and it's tense. Often I feel sad myself because no one is smiling enough. Labs are tough and they expect us to know how to give an injection on the first or second try. People are so nervous I don't know if they would let me do them. The lectures are hard, followed by bigger and bigger waves of required reading from super-thick books. It's like an airport because everyone has those portable bookbags on wheels things. The meds are killer. There are so many meds and so much to know about meds, its overwhelming. Clinicals are two days a week at adult care facility which is not as acute as med-surg cna work I do. No one knows me, and I get lonely and feel lonely for the people who live there. My first PT died, and my second didn't want any visitors after a few hours. Trying to watch all the videos are hard...did i mention that. Instruction videos on Lab skills....there is about 5-6 hours worth of video Lab. Grasping the concept of nursing diagnosis and planning and relating it to a medical diagnosis...these are huge concepts my brain is stretching wide and hard for. And the tests so far are all tricky theory questions which forces you to have to read all the text and remember it for specifics.

My nutrition has dimished because my exercise has went out the window. I'm lucky to have time to exercise once a week, compared to the 5 times a week before I started nursing school. I don't have enough time to cook for myself, and I don't have the desire to take the time to eat right. I still have a 24 hour a week job at the hospital, but you can't study on a med-surg floor as a cna. Work is the most relaxed time because everyone there is supportive of me so much. If only they knew how tough going to nursing school is. :-) I have no more free time for myself...some days are very long.

RN school is no walk in the park, and it downright changes your life.

(Send me an angel, right now!)

Mario,

I so know how you feel. I think one of the reasons nursing school is so hard is because NURSES CARE! We want to be perfect for our patients. We never want to be unprepared or make mistakes. We realize that we are not sacking groceries or crunching numbers...we are caring for precious human beings. But we also need to remember WE ARE PRECIOUS HUMAN BEINGS TOO. Sometimes even now when I am struggling with the learning curve (and the learning is continual, even after graduation) I try to remember how I learned to drive a stick shift. Remember the starts and sputters? Remember the first time you went up a huge hill and instead of riding the gas you pushed in the clutch and there just so happened to be someone right behind you? What seemed impossible then is now automatic...and so will all these new skills and knowledge. You already know so much more than you realize. Every day, as you learn more things you continue to build the foundation for a great nursing career. YOU ARE ALREADY A WONDERFUL PERSON. That cannot be taught in any nursing school and it cannot be taken away from you. Just remind yourself all the time "Someday my skills will catch up to my heart. Until then I will do the best I can under my unique circumstances". That is all anyone can ask of you including yourself. HANG IN THERE and keep posting...if you have the time;)

Yep!

It's tough, but there is light at the end of the tunnel hehe! :) Can anyone tell me when we start realizing what dept. we might want to work in? I have seen a few, but there are things I like about all of them. Its seems like I like all of them in there own special way.

Cheers,

Marc:D

Mario -

I've read through some of this thread (not in it's entirety howevere, so these are impressions).

I am so happy you started this thread. You are going through a very hard time right now. Most of us have. Learning how to go through it without getting depressed, angry or bitter was something I wish I had during school myself - career change, some help financially (not much though), working as a nurses aide.

I'm glad I got through it, though. Whenever I work with CNAs, I know what it's like for them. I hear people stressing, I know what it's like.

Remember: pity is not the same as recognizing you are having a difficult time. They may seem the same at times, they are not.

When you think of what you are doing as difficult, you can also say - "hey, I'm doing it, though."

Nothing I can add to all that has been said, other than that.

I hope you do well Mario. I find so many people who end up with depression, anger, confusion, hostility. With this forum, you may prevent any of those from happening to you. You are also giving a voice to others who are having probems and the opportunity for us old-timers to share how we got through it.

Keep it up!!!

Sorry, I always think of something else.

I think it can be harder for men in nursing - sometimes they deal with weird stuff. A classmate of mine, when asked if he was going to be a male nurse, would respond, "Well, yes. I'm studying to be a nurse, I'm not planning a sex change operation, so, I suppose I will be a male nurse."

If you want to laugh at the whole thing, watch "Meet the Parents" - it says a lot about perceptions of nursing as a whole, men in nursing in specific.

And, if you ever run into trouble on a regular med-surg floor, just work psych or rehab.

I know it may seem that is only to have your size and strength exploited. The psych and rehab units I worked on had more guys then most. Some were stronger, some weren't. I mean, if you have more muscles, cool, we can use them. We're not stupid enough to abuse it, though. Just like you only go to the really good sticker when you can't do it yourself, you go to the one with the strenght of strenght when you can't do it yourself. So, really, I've never seen guys "used" for their muscles.

What I do see on these units are nurses who know a good nurse when they see one. If you can help in physical strenght areas, great. If not, who cares, if you're a good nurse?

so mario...is your avatar a "johnathan livingston seagull" thing???

i am going crazy in school too...i feel like i am so negative all of the time - so, i keep trying to check myself when the negativity escapes my mouth - TRYING being the operative word there;)

anyhoooo, keep your chin up, thanks for posting the thread, and keep me (i'd like to say us - but can't speak for everyone) posted! it is nice to know we're not alone:D

one more thing (((((mario)))))

ok, one more thing

Not yet full grown RN, but on your way,

Keep checking. When you think negative, say it here - sometimes better than bottling up I think.

Mario I am so proud of you for going for it. Like everyone on this thread we are rootin for you! Nursing school is rough and like many before you you will succeed. Please keep in touch with your progress. Hang in there I know you will do it!!!!!!

anne, i know you are so right about not keeping it bottled up! so, i will do just that... vent here...thanks for the valuable input (again)!!:kiss

Oh - thank you oh so very much again and for always because yall care so much AEB speaking wisdom to me concerning RN for the benifit of man and woman kind about how to be sucessful at school. That was an intentional run on sentence to emphasize how busy I am r/t RN school. All of your wisdom and powerful feelings will levitate me.

You sent me an angel like i asked and was humbled by the angel. This angel yall sent influenced my instructor to cut a clinical day short and also influence the hospital to be slow at the end of last week. Originally, I had clinicals AND work on Thu-Sat, with maybe 4 hours sleep x3 days. The angel made it so I only had to work 4 and not 8 (phew), on Thu and Fri and on friday only had 3 hours clinical, and on Sat was an all day, 1 credit, elective class i attended for the full financial aid. I'll tell ya, if it weren't for that angel letting me sleep properly, I would have disintergrated. Strictly speaking, i was lucky, and vow to never (ever) even plan for getting less than 7 hours sleep, because I know the angel isn't always gonna be with me. It's suicide to even think about not geting enough sleep in such a gross manner. There is no such thing, as i heard some students say, of "burning the midnight oil,. Straight up: if I don't sleep well, I'm toast.

Today I am still blown to death with required readings, drug cards, med-surg asepsis, preperation for next week, maybe iron some stuff, exercise for 2 hours, make sandwiches and pot of beans and do all the lab assignments for the lab skills part. My hippocampus is bleeding. I thank you and I loveyou all so very much for the angel and now I will use the power the angel shared with me to absorb everything.

Angel_jl.jpg

If only I were wise, my life would be a lot easier than it is now. Had I been wiser in school, my life then would have been much easier.

My only wisdom comes from remembering experiences, what worked - and this is the important part - the "DUH"s - why didn't I do it that way in the first place?

I mostly share my DUHs. There were many more of those than doing it right in the first place. One of my biggest DUHs was trying to do it without finding people who could help me through school.

My current DUH is figuring out how to ask questions to help me get through current life stuff. At least it has finally occurred to me to ask.

You are all much wiser than me. It may sound dift, but I'm mostly trying to show you that and let you know I wish I had been so wise.

It's funny, too. Sometimes I start saying things in a way that makes people say, "God I know what she's going to say already, I'm not listening." This annoys me, they don't know what I'm going to say.

Yet, I sometimes find myself doing the same with others, and then I remember that old Golden Rule, "do unto others" and get very annoyed at myself.

I admit, I started reading a post from Mario, wanted to stop. I'm glad I didn't. This is what I heard

Strictly speaking, i was lucky, and vow to never (ever) even plan for getting less than 7 hours sleep, because I know the angel isn't always gonna be with me. It's suicide to even think about not geting enough sleep in such a gross manner. There is no such thing, as i heard some students say, of "burning the midnight oil,. Straight up: if I don't sleep well, I'm toast.

And I think, yes, angels have come to me in the past to point me in the right direction. In general though, they are pretty busy, once pointed, they expect me to follow through.

Also - sorry for not quoting per potocol. I've been too lazy to learn it (not a good trait). I will work on it.

Originally posted by regnursein99

OMG.....you just described my 1st semester of nursing school.

Using the NCLEX book to study is an EXCELLENT suggestion. I did not discover this until my 2nd year and wished I had found it sooner.

I am in that first semester, and looking for an NCLEX book. Could you please recommend one? I posted another thread, with no results...

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