Hello everyone! First off, I know that this isn't the happiest of topics to stumble upon, and this post is by no means written to scare future nursing students. This is just for insight and to share my experience with you all as many of you have been generous to do in the past for me.
Let me begin with the moment I was accepted into my program:
I was thrilled. I was a bit in awe, but who isn't when they finally reach the weed picking moments when you are among the chosen few. Am I right? I didn't want to waste any time. It was straight to the instructors' offices to ask them what they think I could do to maximize my understanding before being overwhelmed with material that was unlike anything else I had ever done.
So, you would think that I would have been advised to read ahead what I could during some of my spare time, right? Wrong. "Nope, we don't want you using the time you could be spending with your families studying or reading ahead, because once school starts, there will be no time for family."
Okay, so let me start off by saying that this was some of the worst advice any instructor could have given. I appreciate the intentions, but let's face it, we hate stress and struggling to make it after working this hard. Not to mention that this same instructor said we would be "fine" once school began. Right? Wrong, again.
We waited until school began, and guess how many chapters they expected us to read within a weeks time? 21. Yep, and let me tell you something, we are already spending 24 hours a week in the classroom lectures and labs, so we only had the time after we got out of class to read. Not so easy for people with families, jobs, and other responsibilities.
My advice to anyone in this situation where they told these same things; go with your gut instincts and read ahead. Ask students in the upper levels of your program if you can get a copy of their reading calendars so you know the pace they expect you to do everything. Spending an hour or so before school starts on reading the materials will lighten your stress, your load of learning, and give you more time with your families even during classes. Who doesn't want that?
Now, for ALL students facing the possible "W" word....Withrawing:
I go to a school that looks at what is called a didactic score, also known as your test average for the course. Each course has it's own didactic score and our school considers a failing grade a didactic average below a 75. This is probably familiar to those already in nursing school, but this was all new information and pressures added that I wasn't aware of before starting class. This might be something that you all can find out before hand.
I did really well in the beginning, even though it was the most demanding with our reading amount. I passed my first fundamentals exam with an 87, and my first pharm test with a 90. I thought I was going to do very well, and boy did it take a turn soon thereafter.
I was so scared about failing our first lab check-offs. I had heard about how strict some instructors had been by others sharing their experiences online. So I figured that I could focus more on getting past my first check-off, which was an immense amount of steps and knowledge, and then turn right back to pharm and study for the next exam. I was soooo wrong in doing this and didn't realize it until I got my first failing grade since high school.
My pharm tests are comprehensive so from that point on I struggled moving forward and barely passed my subsequent tests for pharm. I was constantly stressed out about pharm that it began to make me push fundamentals to the side to focus more in my other class. Make a mistake once, okay, make the same mistake twice....shame on me.
So it came to be that I was skipping several chapters in fundamentals to try making sense of my comprehensive pharm exam materials. I was lucky I managed to still make in the 80's in fundamentals. I started to become very disappointed in myself that I let my grades fall and got so behind I couldn't maximize my learning, and in fact I was looking at failing the class.
The deadline for withrawal was coming up, and I had a choice to make.
There are only 3 possible scenarios:
- Try to make it through with a minimum of a 75 in pharmacology and fundamentals and succeed. However, it will mean that I will struggle to learn in the later courses and will also lower my GPA, A LOT. This is especially bad for people who are considering to get higher degree levels later on.
- Try to make it but fail, which would mean that I could never come back to my same school and reapply, my GPA will be tarnished, greatly lowering my chances at getting in anywhere else, and it was all a waste of time and money
- Withdraw before the deadline, come back in 9 months having already read and knowing what is expected along with all those months to spend time with family while I learn the material before classes start again.....hmmmm
So as you can see, it took me quite a bit of deep thinking about the pros and cons to make my decision to drop my classes and to come back next fall new and refreshed....and AHEAD. I hope this gives some insight to you guys out there. Read ahead, find out when to read first so you will have a good rhythm down when classes start. Don't worry about lab skills so much as the theory, because that is the reason most students struggle and/or don't succeed. Use the 'Learning Objectives', study guides and try to use supplements made for your required texts, because the answers will be the same. If not the same texts, at least use supplements made by the same publishers because their information will be more "on the same page", if you will.
I am actually very happy I made this choice, and I can't wait to really maximize my learning in these next 9 months. Best of luck to all of you!
NURSE ON!
NNM
