I'm having very mixed feelings....It's just not what I thought it was going to be....

[scrlet]

I started my RPN program this year. I was soooo excited to get in, I have wanted to be a nurse FOREVER!!! Now that I am in school, my program is just not what I thought it would be. I'm disappointed with it. I'm now (I think) regretting not just going for my RN. I don't feel challenged enough. I'm really bored in my clinical settings and labs. In clinical I desperately try to find things to do, nurses to help, patients to help, even to go just sit and talk to patients and listen to them tell me stories, I restock everything and still end up with nothing to do. I am use to working in a really fast paced atmosphere with lots of pressure and stress. I hate having nothing to do. Like today in clinical lab, everyone was so excited to learn about sterile technique and gloving and that's fine and all, I want to learn how to do it properly to. But I listen and watch my instructor do it, then I do it and people around me just aren't understanding the concepts and I want to scream REALLY!!! Ok maybe that's a bad example, but I had to do that all day

Last week I was talking to a couple nurses I was working under and I realized how much people made out the programs to not be so different, as far as knowledge base. Now though my problem is, I can't just cross over into the RN program. I would have to start from the beginning and that would be a whole 4 years all over!!!! I can't do that with my life right now. So now, I feel like I have to drag myself through the next year and a half until I graduate and then find a bridging program. I don't know, I just feel very lost about it all. Is it just normal to feel this way come this time? or am I just ridiculous? I love nursing still, I just feel I either need to take a downer or this course needs to take an upper!! If that makes any sense! I have one amazing instructor, but she teaches my classes, so needless to say, they are the only classes I look forward to. If I had her as an instructor, shes hardcore, maybe it would be better, i don't know, maybe that's what I need? Anyways thats my frustrated lost rant of the day!

[Compassion_x]

Is this your first semester? It gets better. You should also realize all nursing programs start off slow if you don't already have a nursing license of any kind. So starting with an RN program wouldn't be much different, since everyone has to learn this stuff. If you're bored and feel like you know most things, great, you should pass easily then. My first semester was easy for me too, I got a 4.0. I have working in a nursing home as a CNA for about a year at the time of clinicals starting, almost 2 now. So clinicals were a walk in the park and boring most of the time except when we passed meds (we were quizzed, that was the only "challenging" part of those clinicals). I knew a lot of the information in lectures too.

Just stick to it, there are a lot more people like you than you think. And it will get tougher.

[scrlet]

Is this your first semester? It gets better. You should also realize all nursing programs start off slow if you don't already have a nursing license of any kind. So starting with an RN program wouldn't be much different, since everyone has to learn this stuff. If you're bored and feel like you know most things, great, you should pass easily then. My first semester was easy for me too, I got a 4.0. I have working in a nursing home as a CNA for about a year at the time of clinicals starting, almost 2 now. So clinicals were a walk in the park and boring most of the time except when we passed meds (we were quizzed, that was the only "challenging" part of those clinicals). I knew a lot of the information in lectures too.

Just stick to it, there are a lot more people like you than you think. And it will get tougher.

This is my second semester. Last semester was even worse. I'm the same. I'm already a PSW and have worked in a nursing home for a few years now. So first semester to me was just my old job, but more boring because I had one pt and I'm use to having 12-14 pts to myself. I've also done some medic stuff in the past, so I know it all helps me, I am just bummed I guess right now because they said this semester is the most exciting, hardest and fun!

[WordWrangler]

My two cents is this: never, ever, ever listen to what "they" say. Everything is "hard" and you're going to "study your head off to keep up" and "it's the worst few years of your life" to get through school. Take a deep breath and evaluate your options. You're bored where you are. I totally get that. I was a a brand-newbie nurse at the start of my ADN program and yet, it took mere minutes to learn what to do and then we hung around all.... day.... long..... waiting for everyone else in the class to learn it, too. Is the sterile technique thing really hard? No. Is it important to learn and to manage how to accomplish? Yes. But whatever, right? You just want to do it. When I was in the LTC, I was SURE I had made a mistake and I wanted to rescue all those poor souls right out of that place as I ran screaming from it myself. But I learned there. And a couple clinical rotations further, I have a much more developed sense of where I want to go, what my strengths and challenges are, etc. In your boat, I'd finish up the courses you're in and get to work and apply for the bridge to RN then. The work itself is never as bad as the schooling for brain and butt-numbing boredom, but you don't want to go back and start through again with nothing to show for it. Who knows if you could mentally stand to do it all again??? Good luck.