What was your toughest semester in Nursing School?

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i'm doing my associates now so i only have fundamentals, med surg, phych, and maternity/pedi but those of you who are doing bsn can chime in as well.

I feel like each semester was hard for a different reason, and it's really hard to compare them. My first semester (fundies and pharm) was hard because that's when the shock hits. You realize how little of a life that you can actually maintain outside of school. Not mention the different type of testing. It's hard to get used to the types of questions they ask to prepare you for the nclex. My second semester was hard because our teachers were terrible... I know that's mean, but I basically had to teach myself everything in basic and maternity and I felt like my time on campus was a waste. However, the second semester is when you really get to start doing some nursing skills in clinicals. My third semester was really hard because we didn't learn enough in basic to prepare us, and our advanced teacher is really difficult... She was absolutely amazing and the total reason we learned how to answer the questions and start to pull everything together. I thought pediatrics was fun, but we had really good teachers for that as well. And I'm currently in my fourth and final semester Leadership and Practicum... I feel like a lot of what we learn is stuff we touched on in fundies mixed with common sense. So it's hard to put any effort into it. Senioritis is hard to overcome... doesn't help that we had two weeks off for Christmas before this semester which makes it hard to get back into the swing of things. We have class one day a week, and tests every week. I'm in the NICU for my practicum, which I adore. This makes going to med surg for leadership suck. I have no desire touch adults after being with the babies.

It doesn't get easier, you just kind of get used to the studying. Your teachers also play a huge role. Good luck!

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At my school, I hear from other nursing students that Med-Surg I is the toughest and most draining. Med-Surg I at my school is known as the semester from HELL! I was told that if I was having any serious doubts with school, it'll mostly likely occur during Med-Surg I. It is the class that most people drop school from, most drop-outs occur in this semester. Go figure. :uhoh3:

Okay, so here is a little background of what I will expect this coming Fall. I will attend class five days a week, Monday - Friday from like 8:00 until 4:00 p.m. I'll have 3 days of lecture, 1 day of Lab, and 1 Clinical day and only caring for 1 patient each Clinical day. Sounds easy enough, and not too bad. Very doable.

Now, in Med-Surg I, I will still attend Monday - Friday from 8-4 p.m. I will still have 3 lecture days, but no Lab. Instead, I will have an additional Clinical day, so two days of Clinical. Instead of caring for just one patient, I will be caring for 3 patients each Clinical day. So, thats a total of 6 patients to care for in a week. Which means 6 careplans, plus a research paper, my test exams, quizzes, dosage calculation tests, homework assignments, textbook readings and studying on top of that. Oh, I forgot to mention the journal I will have write in after each Clinical day of my experiences I had in Clinical. Yay! Go me.

Med-Surg I has more in depth course objectives and material to learn from. As you all know, each semester builds upon the last so we are not able to forget anything! What I will learn in Fundamentals will apply into Med-Surg I, and so forth. During this semester, I will be learning alot of pathophysiology and pharmacology plus whatever else they have in store for moi. :bugeyes: I'd imagine it would be Med-Surg related, duh! I'm not there yet, so I won't go there. :no: I'll find out soon enough. :yeah:

I do know I will be busy. I'm sort of dreading this class but I know I'll get through it.

Stay positive, y'all. :D

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Specializes in They know this too!.

My second semester, Med/Surg.

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Fundamentals was THE worst for me. I have PTSD because of it; not really, I just hated it that much.

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You have fundamentals, mother baby/peds, medsurg and psych all at one time? Sheesh! Those were spread out over different quarters for me, they are all the hardest courses I took. The rest should be a piece of cake.

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For me by far it was the last - cardiac. Gives me the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it. I can hardly believe I survived it.

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Specializes in SDU, Tele.

now! i am taking pharm and it is SOOOOO crazy tough!!

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i'm doing my associates now so i only have fundamentals, med surg, phych, and maternity/pedi but those of you who are doing bsn can chime in as well.

some of the responses had me cracking up. its true it depends on the individual every semester will not be the same for everyone. right now i'm taking med surg with psy and it is a lot of info packed into one semester. i passed my first exam but i have like 5 more to go. i'm just hoping i survive the program. one thing i've learned is that studying is key. i try to read a little everyday so that when it comes time for the exam i'm not trying to cram everything in my head. thanks to everyone who chimed in. i hope one day to be telling others what my challenges were and how i made it!

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Specializes in Telemetry, OB, NICU.

Third and fourth semesters.

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Specializes in Med Surg - Renal.

i'm doing my associates now so i only have fundamentals, med surg, phych, and maternity/pedi but those of you who are doing bsn can chime in as well.

my toughest was med surg, by far. a whole lot of challenging material coming at you very fast.

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My school is still on quarters. Certainly the first quarter was very difficult because they sort of tossed us in to let us sink or swim. It was a different world with different kinds of tests, etc.

But, I would have to say that 3rd quarter was the most difficult. We had our first quarter of MedSurg as well as skills II (which was all of the IV skills and then some) and Pharm II. At the start of that quarter, the faculty told us to kiss our families goodbye and let them know we'd see them in 12 weeks. It really was just about that bad. I spent every waking moment balancing school and more school. My husband really had to step in for me because I don't think I cooked or did any laundry that whole quarter.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

First semester was super easy compared to OB but I'm loving med/surg.

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