Tell Me Your Best/Worst? - Nursing School, First Year, Career

[native_texan]

I keep hearing such a negative stigma over nursing school, the first year out, and complaining in general about the profession. WHY THEN BE A NURSE?

I have just quit teaching after 10+ years, and I see how it easy to be caught up in the negativity of an "industry" (i.e. education), but if we all quit, then who would be left to teach our children? There are things that amazing about teaching, but it has it's downsides, too. That's why they have to pay teachers...duh.

So now that I'm fulfilling a desire to become a nurse that I had to put on the back burner years ago, I'm wondering why I'm doing it when I read so much negativity.

I don't know if the stories about nursing school are stories from students who have never really struggled with anything before, so it's a major shock, or if it's horrible for everyone.

I don't know if things actually get better after you get your license or not. From a lot of stories, it just gets "worse." WHY THEN, would anyone want to this profession? If you're just doing it for the money...don't get me started.

It's even made me question myself and my own goals. So please, tell me what was the best and worst of nursing school, the first year, the career. I've seen plenty of arguments on WHY NOT to do, plenty of reality checks...I'm over 35...got plenty of those.

SOMEONE PLEASE GIVE ME THE ARGUMENT OF WHY ONE SHOULD CONSIDER NURSING! PLEASE TELL ME THERE'S SOMETHING GOOD OUT THERE!!

[native_texan]

I don't think you should do anything "just for the money." It definitely is ONE of the factors that plays into any career. Flexibility is another, and advancement another. I was referring to JUST the money. I know for me, at the end of the day, if I have milions, and I have helped no one, I will be miserable.

I totally agree with you though that people who go into with simply a mind of service will be disillusioned. I don't believe that I am. I want to use my intelligence, my skillful ability to use my hands (also an artist), make a comfortable living, have days off to enjoy life, make others' lives better, have choices/back-ups if I get burnt out in one area, move fast, think fast, etc. That's why I'm doing it. I don't like science, but I love the learning about human a&p, and more specifically, what happens when things go wrong, and how to compensate, if at all possible.

Thanks for your insight!

[malenurse69, MSN, NP]

I completely disagree about nursing school being easy or any kind of walk in the park.

I graduated from a nationally ranked BSN program with a class of 115, and NOBODY that I know breezed through the program making As all the time.

I took some hard senior level Econ classes for my first bachelors, and nursing school was 10x harder in my opinion. I graduated with honors, but that's bc I worked my ass off the entire time. I don't know any of my peers who didn't work their asses off to make decent grades.

Every program is diff, but I don't know anyone from mine who would talk about it like it was no big deal and a piece of cake.

Difficulty is relative. I am in one of the top nursing schools in Ohio, and we have a very competitive program (Cut off was a 3.75 I think.) With that said, theres little over 100 in my cohort, and i talk to most of them, and they are all struggling in one form or another. I have no issues, and find school to be rather easy, while maintaining a full time job to pay the bills and volunteering on the side. That's not to say I don't work for it, that's a given, I work hard for my 4.0, but it isn't hard in the traditional sense, it's just like a marathon, you put in the work and it gets done. I think most people have issues with consistency. If I don't understand a process I work on it until I have full understanding, while most people I observe are not willing to put in the time required to fully understand concepts, and take tests with knowledge defecit. Might be my type A personality, but it's a phobia of mine to not understand a question on a test.

[dream'n, BSN, RN]

Nursing school was difficult for me and all of my classmates. There is a massive amount of information to learn, not just memorize. You need to understand complex patient illnesses; the whys, hows, and whats. You need to put all of the information together to be a good nurse. For example: why does a kidney patient need erythropoitin, why are their RBC counts down? Why does the diabetic receiving Solu-Medrol need closer blood sugar monitoring? Why are lung sounds so important in a fluid overload patient? A patient with liver issues; what might be causing her altered mentation. How does sepsis lead to edema (in a dehydrated patient) and DIC? As a nurse, you will need to understand each organ/each body system, so you can anticipate possible health issues. I think of the human body as a miraculous machine, and after nursing school and actual experience, you are able to follow its logic.

[sistrmoon, BSN, RN]

I graduated Summa Cum Laude with my unrelated bachelors degree, love school and always excel in it, and I thought my ADN program was quite difficult! The test design, labs, clinicals and checkoffs are so different, not to mention I felt there was some definite weeding out of those who weren't liked or considered up to par. I barely got the minimum grade for my cardiac unit and I studied a ton. It was a very high caliber program with a long waiting list, maybe it's different elsewhere.