What was your experience in school?

Nursing Students General Students

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This is related to another post I replied to earlier. The OP was asking if it would be best to get through all the co-reqs/non-nursing courses before starting nursing school. Most everyone replied an emphatic YES.

That said, I am wondering for those of you who only had nursing coursework through nursing school, what was your experience? Did you have any advantages? Disadvantages? What was your time management like? Did you find you had more time than your fellow students or was it negligible?

These may seem like questions with obvious answers, but if there is one thing I am learning, nursing school is a totally different animal.

On a side note, I just took a look at all the texts/materials I'll need for my fundamentals and lab course and my head exploded a tiny bit . . .

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Specializes in Home Health/Peds PACU.

I earned an A.S. in diversified studies while working on my prereqs for my ADN program. So when I started nursing school full time all I had to focus on (school wise) was school. That said, I also was married with two children and worked full time. I was certainly glad to not have to take other classes while in nursing school. I used every spare minute to study the entire 2 years! I did well in nursing school making 2 B's and the rest A's and passed the NCLEX with 76 questions. I think the bottom line is, you do what you have to do to make it work. Preparing as much as possible and keeping life as calm as possible during nursing school is ideal although sometimes impossible. good luck to you!

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Ah, and the reason I ask! I have two little ones, almost 3 and 5, and all I can think about is how they ARE my social life. While I have NO issues putting in the time, I want to spend as much QUALITY time as I can with them. Nice to hear you did it and it was manageable and you worked FULL TIME! Now that, I have no idea how you did.

But you did! ;)

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Specializes in L&D.

I think you will get a variety of answers for this questions b/c everyone's life is so subjective.

I am a nontraditional student---meaning I already have a Bachelor's degree(Sociology) and have been in the workforce for a bit(5-6 yrs)....I had all pre-reqs done with my previous program so I entered the program only needing nursing courses.

Is it easier? Well yes it is, b/c I don't have to leave class and go straight to another class. I don't have another class's test interrupting my study time for nursing. There are some students in our class who are taking other courses and they seem to do fine.

BUT I am also a mother of 4 children and I don't have time to study and study and study for 3 different classes, so although I could make it work, it would be incredibly stressful.

I guess an advantage is I have more time in the skills lab practicing in non class times.

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I had all of my pre/co-reqs out of the way before starting the nursing program. I am also a non-traditional student with 15+ years in a previous career. I also have 3 children who were 8, 6 and 4 when I started the program and a husband who works long hours.

Certainly it helped not to have to put the time into these other classes. However, it was also an advantage because I already had my anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology courses out of the way. Technically our program would allow you to take those during your first three terms. So, those students were at a disadvantage in terms of their base of knowledge to combine that with the nursing coursework.

I was still busy all the time, even without other courses to handle. Between my children and my schoolwork, I didn't have a lot of time for anything else. But, it was worth every moment!

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I would say definitely get all of the courses you can out of the way before nursing school! I am in my senior year now (in my BSN program) and am now taking summer classes to get them out of the way. I had 2 semesters of nursing school once I was in the program having to take gen eds and trust me...you do not want to have to do that! I didn't have the time or dedication to even pay attention to those other classes. I got good grades in them though because I did want to maintain my GPA. But, it was a huge headache having to juggle the other classes with nursing classes, and clinicals. It was added stress that I did not need. Looking back...I wish I wouldve gotten them all finished in my first 2 years (before the program) Not to mention, in my program, sometimes the class schedules and clinical times make it impossible to fit other classes in. Hence, why I am taking summer classes (last semester I couldnt fit any other classes)! haha. so do yourself a favor and get them finished! you will be VERY VERY glad when all you have to worry about is your nursing coursework! : )

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Specializes in LTC and School Health.

I had a great experience in school. In fact I loved nursing school. Learned so much and made a ton of friends. I worked which made it more difficult, but none the less had a blast!

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