Petrified I will fail out!

Nursing Students General Students

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Have any of your nursing students felt this way before entering the program? I start the program in August and I am absoulutely terrfied I will fail out! I have always been the type of person to put my all in my studies and spend hours preparing for exams. But people just cut out nursing school to be impossible. I mean clearly it isn't but you know..

Am I the only one who is feeling this way?!!

=[

Words of advice?

I think Nursing school gets its rep as being so hard because when you first start out the test format is not what you are used to seeing. Its more APPLICATION then knowledge based questions. Where as before in pre reqs and high school you were just asked to questions that were based on the knowledge you learned. Nursing school wants you to take that knowledge and use it and apply it to a patient scenario. Don't get me wrong nursing school isn't a walk in the park, but once you get used to the format of tests it will not be as difficult. Take this summer and relax, spend it with family and friends, do whatever you want to do because all of that will be limited when you start school. Then when school starts, build your knowledge base (study powerpoints, memorize lab values, etc.) then answer NCLEX questions (NCLEX 4000 is one of the best because you can choose what topic you want questions over), so that you can begin to apply it. Also read the rationales of why you missed any questions.

GOODLUCK! You will do just fine!

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Specializes in Cardiology and ER Nursing.

The fear is what keeps you on your toes.

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I had myself nearly convinced that it would be impossible and I'd fail out in my first semester. I made it through with an A. While I managed to calm myself a little, it still crept back in RIGHT before the faculty said "you may start" for each exam. And, silly me, I'd be convinced THIS was the one I'd fail, and I never got below a 92.

The super rad part about nursing school is you USE the information forever. It's not learning a chapter, regurgitating it for the exam, and then RE-learning it for the comprehensive final. You're learning stuff that leads to more indepth stuff and you're using it all in clinicals. You get it in lecture. You get it again in skills lab. You use your knowledge on a living, breathing patient in clinical. You never forget it.

That first exam may leave you in a near state of panic. I was practically vibrating with terror waiting for the exams to be passed out. All we hear is "OMG IT'S SO HAAAAAAAAARD!!!!" but it's not necessarily the INFORMATION that's hard; it's the time constraints. The knowledge is almost easy but when you've got an exam, med sheets, care plans, assessment forms and a skill check off all within 3 days, you're gonna want to puke. Then the next thing you know, you have miraculously found an entire DAY where you don't have to study or do paperwork and you spend it any damn way you please and at the end of the day you're relaxed and can think again about how grateful you are to even be in a program.

Nursing school is SO FREAKING AWESOME. Patients welcome you into some of the darkest times of their lives, as an uninformed and terrified student, and let you attempt to take care of them. You'll fall asleep with your books on your chest. You'll sit in the floor, surrounded by a sea of textbooks, power points, supplimental reading, a laptop, a smart phone, 3 half empty cups of cold coffee, and an open jar of peanut butter with a spoon in it, and the next day in clinical you'll maybe help relieve somebody's pain and you'll want to take a victory lap, high fiving everybody you see.

Don't worry, friend. It's busy, it's rugged, you'll possibly cry, you may self medicate here and there, you'll forget to put on deodorant/feed the dog/pay a bill/everybody's birthdays/put on pants before leaving the house but by GOD you'll somehow be able to spit out the normal ranges of lab tests like some creepy nurse robot.

You can do this.

-cheers!

:) !!!!

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Specializes in Family Practice, Emergency Nursing.

"The way you think determines the way you feel, and the way you feel determines the way you act." This is what I was told by one of the best (probably THE best) nursing professors I've ever had. That statement has thus been my compass for my success not only in nursing school, but also life.

I'm originally from Southern California. Once I graduated high school in 2004, I began my journey with pre-requisites required for nursing school. Being that I had a failed marriage and an ex holding me back from reaching what I most desired (becoming a nurse). I eventually left CA and moved 2,400 miles across the country to Pennsylvania to start nursing school in 2010. Moving was the hardest yet best decision I've ever made.

I've endured frustration, sleep-less nights, gallons of coffee/energy drinks, thousands of dollars in tuition (thanks God for financial aid!), thousands of miles on my vehicle(s), hundreds of clinical hours, hundreds of hours studying, emotional meltdowns and panic attacks; you name it, it's probably happened. This is what might happen to you, most likely it will. Nursing school is NOT for the faint of heart and is NOT a cake walk. If it was easy, everyone and their mom would be nurses and I'd be a millionaire.

I'm a firm believer in what you put in, is what you get out. Yes, you might have a poopy instructor, but you can't win em' all. Be realistic about things and stay organized with your life inside and outside of nursing school. Make sure you take time for yourself and let your family/friends know ahead of time how chaotic life will be for you once nursing school starts (Trust me on this one especially...my boyfriend and I are better because I made him well aware of what my schedule was going to be like--having a communal calendar is AMAZING!).

I just graduated Nursing School this past weekend, May 5, 2012. There many times I doubted myself and felt defeated. I've met some phenomenal nurses, doctors, techs, classmates, professors, and patients. There were patients that made me cry both sad and happy tears. Those tears made me a better person and reminded me why I chose nursing. Nursing school was by far the most FANTASTIC opportunity I've had the pleasure of experiencing. Relish in the moment and determine the way you want to 'think' during your journey in nursing school. I had a BLAST!!!

Good luck! And if you ever need anything, be it advice or a shoulder to cry on, you know you have a family of support and experience here :)

-Jen

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Wow absoutely beautiful words spoken from experience from all of you. Thank you for you honest opinion and sharing your walk. I have been looking to hear from those who could give real life opinions.

Thank you all and God Bless you and Congrads.

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