Anatomy Advice and Help Needed!!

[kfs1108]

Hi there, I am currently in the pre-rec stage of the nursing program at my school. I was originally a Bio major, but I decided I wanted to pursue nursing instead, especially since I had the intentions of getting into the medical field from my Biology major. I just switched in the spring, but have gone through hell in the personal life since then. Last semester I started my nursing pre-recs and dove head first into A&P I. Everything went well in the beginning, as it always does, but then one of my close family members was diagnosed with cancer and died only a couple of months later. I ended up withdrawing from my lab, and got so behind in lecture that I ended up failing. I shook it off and decided I would try again in the summer sections of the course... Bad idea.

Again, I started off doing very well at first in both lab and lecture (A&P I round 2). Then even more mishaps began happening in my personal life, I missed more school and fell behind again. Instead of withdrawing I forced myself to push through because I wanted to get through it and pass SO bad. I ended up failing lab, and then lecture for the second time.

I am now left feeling depleted and lost. I want nothing more than to get through nursing school and follow this dream I have of working in a hospital one day. I am currently at my local community college, but I have big dreams to go to a big nursing school in Georgia or Florida. I feel like at this point, what colleges will I even get accepted into with these awful grades? I am just trying to figure out if I even have a chance still. Has anyone else faced problems like this? I am really looking for some advice because I am going to have to take the classes again, and then eventually A&P II. For now, I have decided to put A&P on the back burner, so I enrolled in Microbiology for the Fall semester along with Medical Terminology and Human Growth and Development. If anyone has any advice for me, or any similar stories, PLEASE share. Anything that can help would be great.

--K.

[Neo Soldier, BSN, RN]

You've failed twice because of personal problems; what if something happens again, will you be able to handle the pressure?

I am saying this because prerequisites are nothing compared to nursing school. You have to develop coping strategies before you get in

because nursing is highly stressful.

I would recommend you take the classes you need at a different community college so that your GPA on your transcript doesn't look terrible.

Were you the care taker of the person who died? were you getting financial assistance from this person? You may want something that proves

that this person's death affected you (I guess it would come in handy if the school asks)

When you apply to schools, apply to an LVN/LPN program to increase your chances of getting in.

I wish you success.

[Blaize]

I agree with Neo, take your prerequisites at a different College so your gpa don't hold you back. Some schools have a limit on the number of times you are allowed to retake prerequisites before they accept you into their nursing program. Also getting into nursing school is extremely competitive, remember you may be going up against students with 4.0 gpa and have great SCORES on HESI/TEAS. If you truly want to become a Nurse, its going to take balancing life struggles and maintaining your focus of reaching your goals. You could one day be that awesome nurse for cancer patients and be apart their support system.

[Estateboy, RN, EMT-P]

My daughter took 4 tries to get through school and I have all the respect for her. All personal problems from babysitter issues to ex husband problems. Dont stop now!!

[Alexis914]

I don't really recommend taking micro without having a solid A & P background

[Alex_RN, BSN]

There is good advice above but you need to check into your potential nursing programs now and see what their policies are going to be. You cannot pick and choose your transcripts. You need to know what sort of target you must hit, and if it is even possible. You may need to adjust your goals downward and work your way back up later in your career. My RN program would not take a combined A&P class. They had to be separate 5-unit classes with separate labs.

Regarding your bad grades: Some schools have policies that will let you replace a bad grade with a good retake grade, others will let you average the grades on appeal. Talk to the school where your bad grades reside and find out if they can be repaired. Sometimes there is a one-time transcript cleaning for new students.

Your foundational knowledge is very important. Every semester builds on the last. You need to put the time in each semester or else it just gets harder and harder. I was weak in my patho and it made a lot of future classes harder.

Nursing school was the hardest thing I have ever done. A lot of people never made it past the prerequisites.

[Mjae]

I don't really recommend taking micro without having a solid A & P background

At my college, I couldn't take A & P until I passed Micro... Interesting.

[Bentleysmama]

Sort of piggybacking on what others have said - it sounds like the first thing you need to do is learn to balance your personal life better. The first couple big traumatic things that happen can be hard to handle for some people, but the older you get the more you learn that there's always going to be stuff- death, divorce, financial problems, illnesses....it doesn't stop. What you've experienced so far will continue as a pattern if you don't get a handle on how to better cope with the stress that comes with life. Good luck!