What is harder- nursing school or first year working?

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi! So I just finished my final final of first semester in nursing school, where I am also taking Anatomy and Physiology and a psych class, 13 credits total, and I'm wiped out. I was trying to give myself a pep talk, like only 3 more semesters and you will be done and life will be easier since you won't have to work part time while going to school and taking care of your family- just working and family! But then I thought, first year is supposed to be terrible as well! Which did you think was harder- nursing school or your first year on the job? I know there's still a ton to learn...

Wow, such hard first years. I was able to finish all my non nursing courses before nursing school so that helped alot. My nursing instructors were poor teachers, I had the worst 2 years of my life in nursing school. And that's including birthing and raising 6 kids to adulthood. My first job was Home Health and Hospice. I've since moved to acute care. I loved HH and would recommend it as a first posting. You learn assessments, wound care, foleys and PICC line care really well. I found med surg faster paced than I enjoy which makes it very intimidating for a new grad.

Well, I am just about done with my first year working on a progressive care unit at a busy hospital, and haven't found it very difficult at all. I think nursing school was harder family wise, because I was at school/clinicals all day and then at home had assignments and studying to do. Now, I go to work but when I come home, I am at home with no other responsibilities except loving on and taking care of my family. I no longer have the stress of a paper to do or a test to study for.

I'm a few months into my first year of working as an RN. What is harder is the PTSD from nursing school. (lol)

No, really. Nursing school pressure was more difficult for me. And I've had some tough patients.

Oh man, for me nursing school was 100% harder. I owe it to the complete lack of support from professors, the number of hoops I had to jump through, and the general pervading feeling of anxiety that came with the "pass this on the first try or you're out of the program" mentality my school held.

I was really lucky and had wonderful, supportive coworkers and administration at my first job out of school. Making money was great too.

Specializes in Med-Tele; ED; ICU.

Working is much harder, but in a different way.

Working, while it comes with more responsibility and higher stakes, also offers some predictability regarding schedule and energy; it also provides compensation.

I've been a full-time university student three times in my life. While each time presented unique stressors and challengers, each remains one of the most enjoyable chapters of my life.

Specializes in Oncology (OCN).

I agree with JBMMom who said it's comparing apples and oranges. It's also going to depend largely on your life circumstances.

Nursing school for me was difficult in that my first year I commuted 75 miles one way four days a week for school/clinicals, was married with two elementary aged boys, one of whom developed fever of unknown origin toward the end of my first semester (he ended up being diagnosed with CFS.) If that wasn't enough of a challenge, my husband changed jobs requiring us to move 300 miles at the end of my first year and I had to transfer campuses (same university). My commute then was 120 miles one way. I eventually ended up staying with a classmate 1 or 2 nights a week instead of driving back and forth 5 days a week. Still I loved school and managed to graduate cum laude. I could not have done it without the support and understanding of my husband and boys & my extended family.

My first year of working was so much easier in some ways. My commute was less than 10 minutes in hardly any traffic. (My first year of nursing school was in the medical center in downtown Houston; my second year in various places throughout Dallas-Ft Worth.) That in itself cut my stress level tremendously! But the transition from nursing school to actual nursing practice is a huge learning curve, even if you go to a really good nursing school and have excellent instructors. You suddenly realize, or at least I did, you have an awesome responsibility and unlike when you were a student or in orientation, the buck now stops with you. Not to be overly dramatic but you have people's lives in your hands. There is no one looking over your shoulder making sure you're doing everything right. Your first year or so of practice you learn to practically apply everything you learned in nursing school. And truthfully, you really never stop learning. Nursing is an ever-changing field.

Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

For me nursing school was harder. But I had the advantage of working as a nurse tech after my first year, which where I worked meant I did everything the RN did. I learned way more working while in school than I learned during clinicals. I had the opportunity to perform procedures and be proficient in them before I encountered them in clinicals so I was much more comfortable than most of my classmates.

The downfall of this was the lecture, papers and tests became harder. I had a hard time convincing myself to memorize normal lab values, I mean why? The range of normal is printed right on the darn lab report, why should I have to memorize these?? Writing those care plans that took hours was torture when I knew all I really had to do was print a care plan. It wasn't until much later that I realized the value of having this knowledge. Now I am the first one to encourage students to take that seemingly busy work seriously. It really does help in your career to have not just the skills but the knowledge to back up those skills.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

It's like asking what do you hate more: cutting your fingers off or your toes off. They are different kinds of "hard". Not comparable.

Nursing school was harder. I had no family support, did not have any savings, and struggled with studying/working two part-time jobs.

While the first year of nursing is hard-having money to support myself really made the difference.

Specializes in M/S, Pulmonary, Travel, Homecare, Psych..

I'd have to say first year working. I have my reasons for this though, it's not an arbitrary knee jerk response.

I thrived in nursing school. My grades were where I wanted them, no major "unsafe" write ups or anything. Was always confident I'd pass state boards first try. Went through school as your typical student, no major issues.

I thrived during my first year in nursing (first three years actually). I scored very well with patient surveys, perfect attendance, awards. But something was different. I tended to drag those around me down (well, it was more than a "tendency" but that's another story).

During my first year in nursing, I felt as though I was in a video game and two things had occurred: 1. The difficulty went from novice to pro overnight and 2. I believed I had to outscore everyone else around me. My mindset was a recipe for disaster, and poor coping followed. Again, that's another story.

It took me a long time to outgrow that feeling of having to outscore everyone else. Too long. I certainly didn't do it during my first year. I had that feeling during school too, but it never went to the degree that it did after school. That's why I say things were harder working.

Specializes in Wound care; CMSRN.

It's kind of apples and oranges. Yeah, we're always learning, but Nursing school was one big long waiting for that other shoe to hit the deck. I was so glad to get to work and actually be able to do something. No more waiting to see if this latest exam was going to finally wreck my world.

The other thing I like about the work world is constant access to the experience of the nurses around me. I know my co workers (for the most part) have my back and want to help me be the best nurse I can be.

As long as I'm willing to put forth the effort, and it's obvious I'm paying attention and taking direction to heart (however it gets delivered:wtf:), my coworkers are happy to help. Can't say that was the case in nursing school.

They're both really tough in their own ways but for me personally I started in the ED in the busiest ED actually on the east coast.....

that compounded by new responsibilities of learning how to document and navigate the EMR, politics of the healthcare team, being accountable for multiple patients on your own, building stamina to work 12 hr shifts etc etc

yea the first yr of work is harder, at least for me it was

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