Nursing school is awful in so many ways....

[caffeineRx]

EDIT: FYI- Not asking for advice..I'm just venting. Common sense replies are a waste of your time and mine. Feel free to skip to another thread if this one gets you bent out of shape.

Ok, if you are looking for positivity, close this thread quick!

Reasons why *I* feel nursing school can SOMETIMES be a drag:

1) Weight gain/loss that is unwelcome

2) Breaking out like you're going through puberty again

3) Lack of sleep (6 hours sounds good)

4) 200 hours of studying and only 2 days to complete it

5) You are inclined to feel clueless and severely inexperienced

6) Crappy Administration and/or Nursing Staff

7) Cheaters

8) Classroom Politics & B.S. "Cliques"

9) Cattiness

10) Backstabbing

11) Gossiping

12) Watching those who commit #7-11 succeed equally as well as you do. WHAT A KICKER!

Has anyone been in a nursing program that they hated so much they would given anything to transfer

on to another one? Just a random question.

I'm in my mid-20s and I cannot help but to notice how terrible the nursing school environment is. I have been in college before and it just doesn't compare to nursing school. I have never dealt with so many backstabbing, gossiping, cheating, ungrateful, catty people in my LIFE. And much to your surprise, they are NOT all women! I'm sick of my college. We pay over $23k per year and the administration treats us like dirt. There is NO loyalty when it comes to us and we are blatantly lied to almost on a daily basis...and even though I get along with my class as a whole, I would say it's more that I "tolerate" them because I'm slightly easygoing. I have never met so many two-faced, shameless, jealous, shady people in my LIFE before. It creeped up out of NO WHERE!

I'm sick of my nursing program. Sick of the people who are jealous of those who make good grades..and SICK of those same people who feel they have a right to copy off their papers or pressure them into "sharing". I go to college with , generally, a bunch of flippin' idiots. That felt better. Thanks for letting me vent. I'm just shaking my head thinking that I have to go here for another 1.5 years potentially. I'm doing everything I can to transfer, but I'm not sure how easy that will be. I'm finished with my LPN portion of my program this summer.

I just had to get this off my chest. You do not have to agree with me lol. I have already started to tell my classmates some of this. If they are gonna be hateful, they will be hateful knowing the truth from me! I don't have a problem either. Done a lot of that "blunt" talk this week. lol

[nursel56]

QUOTE=citylights89;4126651]Ouch! That's kind of harsh in itself.May I ask, what do you consider the personality type that is set to succeed?

Yeah, I know. I was just trying to keep to the general tone of negativity starting with the original post, and subsequently repeated in later posts, in case I forgot. Or can you only be negative if you agree with the OP? Anyway, that comment was really a response to summersent's, "nursing typically attracts a certain type of personality". Not sure what she meant by that, but I doubt it's anything you would find flattering. The vast majority of my posts are supportive and positive. If someone who is venting is attacked, I defend them. The exchange between summersent and caffeinerx didn't strike me as just a vent, but it was full of perjoratives, generalizations and assessments of things (like what it's like to be a working nurse as opposed to a student nurse) they have no personal knowledge of. The highlighted parts of their comments are what really bothered me. Those are not the average vent. I truly apoloqize if you thought I was talking about students in general. Nothing could be further from the truth.

QUOTE=caffeineRx; LOL. Apparently she dislikes others who think outside of the box. She is entitled to her opinion :). I am also curious to know what personality type is set to succeed. If you ask me, summersent seems VERY smart. I like their no-sugar approach.

Is calling your classmates (EVERY SINGLE one of them!) idiots, morons, pathetic, ignorant, cheaters, moochers and drama queens "thinking outside the box"? I always thought it meant to be creative. Every PERSON is an individual. Maybe some of them could benefit from your superior intelligence. Are they all horrible people? Not one of them has a learning disability, a language barrier, or came from a background that put them many paces behind the starting line from day one? Thinking outside the box looks for ways to make things better, not "fake it til you make it" tolerating people you have contempt for.

I can see you are 53 and have been in this field for 18 years, perhaps you love it dearly and good for you :).

The age card! Subtle!(not) Actually, I hated nursing when I was in nursing school. The only reason I stuck it out was that I by the time I realized how much I truly loathed it, it was too late to get my money back. The only reason I took the NCLEX called "boards" then, was because I figured I may as well get the $%$^$ license if I put that much time into it. I started work at a pediatric hospital because I now could make more doing that than working as a waitress.

My point is this- nursing is something many of us grow into, and it evolves constantly. Most of what I said wasn't really directed at you. Summersent may be smart, but she chose to throw in the towel, now on this, and other threads she tells students "leave now" "nursing is abusive" etc etc. She makes nursing sound like something you need to pack your bags in the middle of the night and escape out the bathroom window. That is a skewed view, which she delivers with the assurance of someone who has been a nurse. You have every right to be on this forum! You've not given up, and I wish you well in your nursing business career. I hate boring, sappy threads, really.

[9livesRN, BSN, RN]

I am glad to only have 11 days worth of class left... and i will be done with the chaos!

[tfleuter, BSN, RN]

I agree, there's a lot to nursing school that is less than pleasant. And the prevailing attitude of "nurses eat their young" doesn't make it any better. OTOH, not all have the experience you do. My program has it's own up's and down's, but I must say that I am pretty happy with the other 58 students I share my time with. For the most part, they seem like a smart, dedicated, reasonable bunch and I have yet to meet one who wasn't friendly enough. Not to say they are all perfect, I'm sure there may be a few cheaters that I'm unaware of, or some cattiness or backstabbing that may be taking place.

I can't say why our situations seem to be so polar opposite. Possibly a combination of the predominant culture and the school's admission process? Perhaps even the way your instructors treat the students and conduct themselves has played a part in creating the problem. You know, treat a person like their some kind of dumb, incompetent, dishonest drone long enough and they will eventual become one.

Sometimes I feel like nursing school is all about jumping through hoops. I'm willing to jump through whatever hoop they show me, as long as my rights as a person are respected. So far, my self confidence is still intact.

[dukesgal]

I am so with you! When I first started school, I was excited to get to know everyone and hoped they shared the same passion for nursing that I did. I was so touched when myself or others would go through hard times and how we all seemed to rally together. Ha, how short that lasted! Now, with a quarter and a half to go til graduation, I would rather keep to myself.

Thankfully, a lot of the students who were not dedicated, who cheated, used drugs, etc have been weeded out. But there are still a few that stink up the whole group! There is more gossip and drama in NS than a bunch of bored housewives!

Inititally, I hoped we would all band together and make it through, but near the end of our first year (of 2 years) I realized it was every man for themselves!

I will be soo glad to graduate and not look back. Yes, I still have my Bachelor program to complete, but I am doing that part time and most of it will be online. Yes, there will still be catty nurses that I will have to deal with, but I will deal with that with the same determination and grace that has got me this far in nursing school.

Just keep your head down and your eye on the prize and know that we can make it through!

[summersent]

Nursel56,anyone can step one day in a hospital as a student and see how it is. I'm intuitive and its extremely easy to pick up on the dynamics. Nursing school is conditioning of how it will be. Search these threads. I don't know how many times I've seen and read of attacks,backstabbing,weight gain,health issues and so much more directly related to the nursing environment. I was once told to go without a lunch or bathroom break during a 10 hr clinical because "thats the way it is". There is a thread on that at this moment! Nursing sounds good if nurses were given rights, a nice workload and respect(as well as give it to each other) but its not like that.

Caffeine, is stating how she feels and I am too. I do tell people who have questions about this profession to leave this and rightfully so. It wouldn't sit well on my conscious to tell a good person to get into something that is so damaging. Its the same reason why MANY nurses would never want their children or anyone they truly care about to get into nursing.

Anyone who is honest knows how this "profession" operates. It operates on negativity and conditioning. I've never met so many student nurses and nurses so ready to backstab each other. If you are around negativity and abuse all the time, you will eventually sink with the rest or you leave. Its extremely hard to flourish.

Some folks start out with high hopes and a good attitude(like myself). Others are drawn to the passive-agressive subservient behavior. Others get into it because of the supposed "stability". There is no stability and shortage in nursing. Hospitals aren't looking to retain nurses. Its about money. It's about hiring the least and burning them out and then its on to the next batch. Just be honest with the females before they take out $40,000 in student loans.

I'm not going to tell someone that "it will be worth it" when it won't be. I can't even begin to tell you how many nurses have injuries and are told to "deal with it" .I won't tell a person that if they are violently punched that they will still have to care for that patient and won't have any rights as a HUMAN being. How degrading?!

nursel56, if you feel you've grown to tolerate this type environment, thats saying it all. Nursing students' negative reactions are typically the NORMAL reaction. I didn't "throw" in the towel. I threw the towel back at the abuser. Nursing is very much like an abusive relationship. For example, I applaude the women who walk away from an abusive man. Thats STRENGTH and pride. I don't respect the women who know its wrong, complain and choose to "live" with it anyway. The situations that nurses have to go through no one should "grow" to tolerate. Thats making the abnormal, normal.

SO many nurses leave this "profession" within the first few years. I mean its at a HIGH rate. Look it up. There is a thread on that here as well. And why do you think that is? We ALL know why. Please stop denying the obvious.

Like caffeine said, if you don't like it, don't read it. I choose to stay here and help support females like caffeine and I will continue to do so.

[nursel56]

Summersent, I don't know what happened to you in nursing school, but it must have been really, really bad. I never meant that someone should have to "grow" into tolerating abuse. For every thread that talks about nursing being like an abusive relationship, there is one about a hospice nurse providing a respectful and dignified passing, as free from pain as possible, to a dying person.

The nurse or student who comes here to vent might also be the one who comes here to relate how it felt to be involved in their first code and bring someone back from the edge. Or a nurse who struggled through their first year of ICU and finally had that shift where everything fell into place, and they were glad they had listened to those old bats who told them to hang in there, it would all eventually be OK.

I am no Pollyanna, you can be sure of that! I have a question for you. If everyone listened to your advice long enough, who would be taking care of sick people?

Oh, one more thing. When my step-daughter told me she was starting to take her pre-requisite classes for the nursing program at the community college I was thrilled! My daughter is in her second year of a program with an emphasis on Physical Therapy, likewise- we have a blast trying to stump each other on the names of obscure bones and crazy acronyms in anatomy. I let her tape up my ankles and feet, and it was hilarious when I actually tried to walk with that stuff on me. So count me as at least one nurse that doesn't fit into your worldview about their children.

[summersent]

Bad? Yeah. Typical behavior? Yeah. Please don't make it seem like my experience is rare. It's not. Also, please don't say "my" worldview. Most nurses wouldn't dare encourage their children to step foot into this. This is known.

Look at these threads. This isn't venting. This is how things are and how things are operated.

Also, I see you failed to address some of the questions in my previous post.

If people listened to my advice, nursing would be completely different for the better. Healthcare depends on nurses. If they didn't take the disrespect and help support each other, you'd be seeing higher pay,better workload and more respect.

Obviously you've been in this for a very long time. You've accepted it all. I'm not trying to change you're mind and you can't change mine.

[nursel56]

No. If people listened to your advice, there would be no nurses. I'm sorry you were so traumatized by your experience. I'm done with this. I think anyone reading these can see where we are both coming from. Best wishes in your new major.

[summersent]

Yes, there would be nurses because hospitals need nurses. There would be nurses with better working conditions and more respect. You sound very upset and I'm not traumatized. I'm just being assertive and speaking up on the issues at hand. Anyways, I'm very tired and its late. Sleep for me.

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

I suppose everyones experience is different. Some have it better than others, vice versa. I do think summersent made some intelligent remarks. It all clicks. My self-esteem is fine, as well...and I'm still wondering how anyone can commit themselves to a lifetime of only one option (ie. nursing). I'm taking it day by day and just thinking about the end goal.

Nothing wrong at all with evaluating where you are at and where you are going and whether it is facing the direction you really want to be. Just be careful when painting with broad brush strokes, both in terms of defining others but also in terms of defining yourself. There are few things in life that are as black and white as "all of this profession are these kinds of people and have this kind of experience". If it is not for you, there's nothing wrong at all with changing majors at any point along the way. I wish you luck as you reach out for conclusions.

[50caliber]

It is real simple here. Its a career choice and no one is putting a gun to your head. If you have so much disdain for nursing school or a nursing as a career, go choose another career. Why be miserable with what you are going to be doing for a living.

I hated nursing school but its done with. I got an excellent paying job that will pay me more than my useless 4 yr bio degree from the UC. I love what I do and each to his own.

[caffeineRx]

It's VENTING people! LOL. Stop attacking the post. IT IS VENTING. Regardless of how one loves their career, the majority VENT. HUMAN NATURE lol! Thanks for all the replies regardless. I like the points FairyCari and Summersent made. I actually appreciate them all !