Anyone unsuccessful in nursing school but excel as a nurse??

[Jess__]

I am currently in nursing school and I am not doing as well as I have hoped. I am the type of person that takes longer to learn things, but does extremely well once things are learned. I am a hands on learner.. note taking and reading isn't as easy for me. I've had to retake 2 classes, but so did about 10 other of my classmates.

I am just wondering if there are any nurses that struggled in school, but excelled once you got into the real world and started working? I just need some encouragement!

[Jess__]

I took my chemistry in person and had no clue what my professor was talking about. The last time I had taken chemistry was probably 12 years ago. I ended up watching youtube videos and passed the class with a B!

[emmjayy, BSN, RN]

Thank you for this! Im glad to hear you have done so well! There was 13 out of 17 of us that didn't pass our med surg II class, including myself. We just had a mental health exam that 2 passed out of I think 30 people.. so I've been really discouraged lately.

I hope your school is taking a hard look at how they're presenting material. 76% of your class didn't pass med surg and 93% of your class failed an exam on mental health? That is absolutely crazy and a horrible indicator for the school. I find it hard to believe that 28 students who were bright enough to get into nursing school failed an exam because they were all lazy/bad at studying/stupid/whatever.

[wantobern01]

I can sympathize some with you. I am not the best test taker but part of it is reading what the question actually wants, what is the most important and best answer. I do well in clinical and my instructor feels I know what to do and am showing it and was surprised when I told her I would more than likely have to repeat the class. It happens. This term I am repeating I am learning more at finding the best answers bin my lecture exams, still struggling but getting there. However clinical is a different story..this instructor spends more time telling of her past experience..rather than getting us on floor. Has had us turn in several assignments only to have uphold on to them so she can discuss individually. I guess thats fine but only one student has had their assignments checked and the others are still waitNA every weekend and so far the hospital is happy with me. I hope I will be a good nurse if I ever make it thru school.

[LawyerRN2b]

I'm not in nursing school yet...but...I went to law school and had lousy grades. I ended up a lousy lawyer. I'm not ashamed to admit that. My brain works better in different subject areas. I was forcing a profession on myself that I wasn't very good at. Took some time to reflect and explore my actual strengths. Now I'm here waiting for my BSN acceptances with a 4.0 prereq GPA and very high entrance test scores. I tried too long to fit a square peg in a round hole. With that said, I'm not trying to discourage you but from my experience you should excel or at least do well in your professional studies. It was a correlation for me.