Tired, frustrated, discouraged...welcome to 1st semester nursing school

[dianacs]

I can't believe I only started last month!!! I swear I--and the rest of the family--have had one cold on top of another the whole time. Never a chance to catch up on rest.

I got a low grade on a test that I thought I did well on...but so did a lot of other people...still, this has me bummed out. I mean, does my nursing career hinge on whether I can identify someone in a group setting as a "withdrawer" or a "blocker"? On the exams for this particular class, rather than choosing the overall best answer, I have to choose what my instructor thinks is the best answer. And her way of thinking is not clear-cut to me. These tests are NCLEX-style, where there is more than one right answer, and I don't have trouble with that concept, but some of the differences between answers are nearly nonexistent and could be argued either way...but what's the point of doing so? I don't know...I guess everyone has a rocky class here and there. My other nursing class is fine, no complaints there.

And we spend so much time talking about how the nurse must do this, the nurse is responsible for that. The nurse must be everything to everybody, jack of all trades yet master of none, always caring, saying just the right thing in just the right way at just the right time, blah, blah, blah. No wonder nurses get dumped on so much--they've taken on so many roles already. And sometimes I think that if I had wanted to be a social worker or a counselor, that's what I would have gone into instead. (I know that nurses must help people out this way sometimes, but you know what I mean).

I hope I will be more optimistic soon. I can't imagine hanging in there if it's always going to feel like this. Help me out here!

[farmmom]

Boy you sure sound like it has been a bad day.I sure hope it gets better but yes Nurses do have to be it all and you have to want to do it and smile at the same time .I sure hope tomorrow you can smile and laugh again:D

[renerian, BSN, RN]

I remember the stress of tests, school and add illness of you and or your family makes it tough to cope. You are right. Nurses seem to need to be the do all and catch all..........to many people sometimes all the same time! Just take one day at a time and keep coming back for more. Nursing school is so hard-all the time. I remember.

Hang in there,

renerian

[PennyLane, RN]

I know what you mean about choosing the answer the teacher wants, not necessarily the "correct" answer. In my A&P class, the lecture teacher and the lab teacher don't agree on certain things. So I have to remember what the lecture teacher taught us, which may differ from what we learned in lab. Luckily so far the exams haven't been during the same week, so I'm doing OK. But it is infuriating!!

Take some deep breaths and a long bath with a glass of wine.

[zacarias, ASN, RN]

dianacs,

Last week my class had a similar experience. We had a psych test and while most of us passed, we didn't do nearly as well as our usual and it bummed most of us out.

Some of the instructor's questions were poorly written and some were flat out impossible to answer (like more than one answer was FOR SURE right). We are allowed to appeal where we write a paragraph quoting notes, books, and making strong arguments why we should get credit for certain points. Ostensibly they are being fair and letting us argue our points, but really I don't expect them to give us the points for those questions.

I'm sorry for your experience. Now that I've taken one test in that class, I'm gonna really think on how I can learn this teacher's strategy so I can answer more correct next time.

Z

[farmmom]

just out of curiosity,is it a possibility that they want you to agrue your point.Kind of like learn to stand up for you decisions, because the nurse is the one who will help with the diagnosis in LTC .Just a thought:confused:

[LPNtoBSNstudent, BSN, RN]

O gosh, I know just what you mean. I have got this instructor that has got me so confused in Business Statistics because of her English. As it is, it is a very difficult class, but she thinks one way and the entire class thinks the other way. She even went to the English professor at the school to try to get him to explain it to us but he disagreed with her too.

Oh and as far as being a jack of all trades, that reminds me of the other night I was working night shift in a LTC facility (I work weekend nights only because of classes) anyway, one night I heard this hollaring coming from the far end of the hallway. So I go trucking down there to see what was up. The entire room was flooded with at least 3 inches of water and the toilet was steadily running over and water was squirting out of the bottom of the toilet where it meets the floor! There were two ambulatory patients in the rooms. I was the charge nurse and there were 3 brand new nurse aides (new to the facility and new to being nurse aides) I had only been working there myself for about 2 months (of weekends only!). So while answering call lights and such, we had to get the patients moved and then, we had to mop up that mess (be housekeepers) and try to stop the toilet from running (maintenance). Water had even started going UNDER the wall into the next room!! As soon as I finished that I had to wash up and feed my tube feeders and finish passing meds. Crazy night!! Nurses are definately jack of all trades!!!