Is nursing school supposed to be harder?

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I read numerous posts on allnurses about how difficult nursing school is. People are thrilled when they get high Cs or low Bs, and state that averages for some of their tests are around 70% or lower sometimes - they are just happy that they are not failing. I get ****** off when I get anything below a 93% on an exam. I graduate nursing school in a number of months (it's a BSN program) and have received As in all of my nursing classes (with the exception of an A- in pharmacology). I am not posting this to build myself up or upset anybody. I am actually legitimately concerned about the quality of education I am receiving from my school after reading about others' struggles. My school's program is not that difficult. It can be time consuming, but getting 4.0s each semester is very do-able, even with jobs and extra-curriculars. I can't stop thinking that my school creates easy exams & just hands out As, and that I won't pass the NCLEX...

So I want to know: how can you tell if your nursing program is a "good" one? what makes nursing school difficult for you? do you feel like you are getting quality education? did you expect nursing school to be easier or harder?

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Take a look at the statistics of your school, retention rate, placement rates, NCLEX passing, etc. If they can't provide you with this information then administration doesn't care about the results of its school. I'm sure you're just an exceptionally good student and are worrying over nothing :up:.

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Specializes in Adult Internal Medicine.

If you are getting A's and your school's NCLEX pass rate is 100% then I wouldn't worry too much, it just came easier to you than to others.

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It depends on your program and instructor. I have had one or two bad instructors where I literally had to decipher their tests (it was really bad). I was happy to get a C in that class. Then there are teachers where their tests are too easy or they curve the test too much.

Also, my ADN school purposely makes it harder than some of the BSN schools in my area. We have a higher NCLEX pass rate. Only one hospital prefers BSN-prepped nurses, but they will hire ADNs and require them to get their BSN within 5 years.

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Do you read the required readings in the required books for your classes? Are they huge books? Do you have to read at least 2-3 chapters a week? Are you lectured about the readings that were due? Are the tests about the same information as the book talks about/what you are lectured on? Do you have to think about the nursing process at all when taking your tests? If yes, then you're probably just a smartie pants.

Maybe to make sure your school is adequately preparing you for the NCLEX, buy a NCLEX book and do the questions and readings. Don't worry if you don't know every answer in the NCLEX book, but if you can rationalize the questions and answers somewhat, then I think your school is fine. It never hurts to study for the NCLEX and this way you can decide if what your school is teaching is appropriate in order to pass the NCLEX.

I don't personally feel nursing school is THAT hard, it is just a lot of information in a short amount of time. I feel those two factors get bunched in with the word "hard" because many other degree's are just not the same. Nursing school is different.

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our school is pretty tough too...students struggle. We have a really good NCLEX passing rate. There is always drama with each rotation, truth is a lot of students hang on. I always say the "A" student is not necessarily gonna make a good RN, there is so much more to nursing than knowledge. Yes we have to know what the heck we are doing and know it well. I think there is a lot of controversy about "C" students and how good of nurses are they gonna make. I agree it is very time consuming, all consuming we should say, especially if you are a "A" or high "B" student. I hear students say all the time "oh i barely made it, barely scraped by" it is a little worrisome. I think once you get the hang of knowing what to study, how to study and how to master interventions then the good grades come. I do believe some ppl are called to nursing. I also know some students that are "A" students and stink at bedside care, no communication skills, no compassion etc. things that cannot be bought or learned a nurse must have. How miserable our patients will be if those qualities are not there....we see it all the time in the hospitals. Ppl hate it.

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Specializes in Forensic Psych.

I'd say a good indicator would be the distribution of grades - it should be pretty much normal - ie, a few fail, a few get As, and most everyone falls right smack in the middle. If everyone is making high Bs and As, I'd be concerned. If not, maybe you just don't find it all that hard!

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Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.

You might be able to go to your BON website and check your schools pass rate for NCLEX as well as compare it to other schools in the state. This should give you an idea how well or how pour your school is preparing its students.. When I was in school, anything greater than 86 I was happy. I can tell you no one in my program graduated with 4.0 in nursing and the class average was the upper 70's lower 80's on just about every test but our pass rate was 98% for NCLEX. I can also tell you the fail rate was high, out of 64 of us that started that first semester, only 27 of us graduated..

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For those who feel their nursing school engages in grade inflation, what's your NCLEX pass rate? I know my school's is 92%, and supposedly there is some grade inflation going on there (I haven't started the actual nursing portion yet). With a 92% though, would you think the courses are fairly difficult or average for an NS?

Also, Lucidity, what's your school's NCLEX pass rate?

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It's very interesting to see how everybody responds to this question. It just goes to show you how everyone differs in what they are truly "strong" at. I myself thought overall nursing school was fairly straight forward and easy while others struggled profusely. Also, with the notion that if someone does not do good in nursing school, but has "good" bedside manner is a good nurse, I fully disagree with that notion. If I was a patient I would rather my nurse know the danger signs of me crashing as a patient and do critical thinking than just be an average nurse with "good" bedside manners. In the end do what everybody is saying and look at your school's NCLEX pass rate and look at some NCLEX review books and see how well your critical thinking learned in school correlates with the NCLEX prep materials. Welcome to the BSN profession and good luck with your future nursing profession and NCLEX!

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For those who feel their nursing school engages in grade inflation, what's your NCLEX pass rate?

I don't believe my school, inflates grades at all, but I also don't think the concepts are that hard, so I'll answer your question... My school has an NCLEX pass rate of 98% the first time and 100% the second time for the past 4 years.

Also, I like what I.C.UNurse said about everyone differs. Additionally, programs differ. I go to a 4-year BSN program in which I had to take all my pre-requisites and co-requisites with my nursing class. This made time management and studying more difficult because I would be in Med-Surg nursing lecture and clinical and also be in pathophysiology and a number of other science and other general education courses. Another program might be a fast track ABSN in 18 months, or an ADN program in 2 years and find those really hard. Or you might have the person who is in a traditional BSN program that finds the information extremely easy.

The course of your nursing school experience and prior college expreience may make it easier or harder for a person...

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