Any nursing students out there with ADD/ADHD?

guest8616 · Aug 7, 2016

I'm actually in the same situation as you. Recently got diagnosed with ADHD in March of this year and start nursing school in a couple weeks.

I would highly recommend making an appointment with the disability services department at your school ASAP; they can offer free accommodations based on your disability (learning or otherwise). Many times, you are given distraction-free testing environments, time and a half on exams, and other media support with notes, etc. You just have to ask what accommodations are available!

Best of luck,

Shweta

HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD · Aug 8, 2016

I wish you both the best - I really do. I have a close family member who has a learning disability that was very challenging. She deliberately chose a career field in which her weakness was not a relevant factor.

However, I am very concerned about the reality of day-to-day nursing practice for anyone who has difficulty with rapid cognitive processing or retention of information. Those school "accommodations" won't be there when you're responsible for the lives of your patients. There are significant implications for impact on patient care, particularly in today's world with very high workloads and increasingly ill/unstable patients. It's a soul-crushing burden to know that your actions had a negative impact on a patient's health/life

Is there a consistently safe way to maintain the balance needed to make sure that that dream job doesn't become a patient's nightmare? Are there clinical settings which are best suited for particular types of cognitive processing issues? Is there any research on this yet? I'd love to see it so we could apply the evidence in my organization.

deannahamid, ASN, BSN, LPN, RN · Aug 13, 2016

I have ADD/ADHD and was diagnosed as an adult, while in the nursing program. I was absolutely having difficullty with aspects of the program. Once diagnosed though the disability services department needs to become your best friend. Unfortunately, they can also be lacking and therefore you must become your own best advocate. I had to make my own plan for accomodations - things such as more time for tests/exams, extra time to finish assignments (remember that if this is a difficulty for you that you can ask your prof to release information early in the semester on what essays you will have to give you LOTS of time to get it finished), etc...

And I know another person has indicated that they're cautious about a person having ADHD and being a nurse. I've actually had a PROF discriminate and state that she "would do anythinng and everything to ensure that you (me) didn't become a nurse b/c they couldn't be competent" - UNBELIEVABLE!!!! BUT, I'm here to say that I have been able to be a nurse (currently a practical nurse) and have been able to go further in my education and be successful.

If you can't do a full time load, go part time - there's no shame at that! I can assert that it makes things WAAAAAY easier.

Good luck to you though

UnicoRN611 · Aug 15, 2016

I graduated in May and I have ADHD. I also had quite a few personal issues to deal with during nursing school that made my ADHD so much worse than it typically is. I didn't have any special accommodations in place because I was diagnosed at a young age and have been able to function pretty well with the coping techniques I used as a kid. However, if you are newly diagnosed, I say DEFINITELY take advantage of any help or accommodation that is available to you.

It frustrates me when people say that accommodations in school will be a disservice to you as a nurse, because nursing school and working on the floor as a nurse are two COMPLETELY different experiences, and just because you struggle in school, DOES NOT mean you'll struggle as a nurse. The disability services your school offers are not there to give you a CRUTCH or to push incompetent people through a program, its there to give you TOOLS to handle your disability, and it's up to you to learn how to use them and implement them in your own life.

That being said, I wouldn't disclose your disability to many people, because, unfortunately, people DO discriminate, as much as they love to say that they don't. If you're having a particularly bad day on clinical, or if you're having trouble with time management when you're in the hospital, I would most certainly tell your clinical instructor about your ADHD and how it manifests itself in the nursing setting.

I had a lot of trouble getting off the ground with nursing because I had trouble figuring out what had to be done and when. Because I struggle with time management, I had to make myself VERY DETAILED "Brain sheets" that had check boxes with every single possible thing that needed to be done in the morning so that I didn't skip a step. Eventually I didn't need to rely on the sheets quite as much, but they were a life saver in the beginning. They also have apps now that do pretty much the same thing, I think one is called "Nurse Notes" for iPhone!

Good luck with everything, you're going to do great!

fustudent610, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Aug 15, 2016

I graduate in 4 days and have ADHD. I have had it since a child. Everybody's different and I can only speak from my experiences. I felt that I could only go full throttle or no throttle and not a lot of people work that way. For instance, my study habits were usually all in on one day, then didn't study at all the next day. But when it came closer to the exam I would push myself to work each day on things. It wasn't a perfect study habit, and many times throughout school I felt terrible and that I should have done more. But in the end, it worked.

I did not choose to use special accommodations and have nothing against them. There were people in my class who have, and nobody made a big deal out of it. Everyone is very respectful. I think my greatest challenge was/is organization in school. It's hard to take a ton of material thrown at you that you need to make sense of. But I was most successful by going through my notes/book/study guides for tests and making an outline of my own. I never read the textbooks word for word and it would have killed me if I had. I utilized the ATI books, saunders, study guides, videos, etc. But once in a while there's no avoiding the textbook and I just used it as an encyclopedia for finding specific content.

The 3 hour classes were a killer for me and I became visibly antsy. Then again, who wouldn't be? I will say one thing that I did notice about my ADHD was my level of energy. I was able to push through 100+ question tests without becoming fatigued, although I think that just comes with practice.

Basically I would say play to what works for you even if it isn't traditional. If you have the stamina, use it. And more importantly, focus is everything. It may sound lame but it's true. If you want to do something you'll do it, and this from one ADHDer to another.

heavenleiighh · Sep 10, 2016

[COLOR=#000000] [/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]This is exactly why I love this site, it gives us all a chance to reach out and support one another!! Little about me: I have been wanting to attend nursing school for 12 years, but I was always too afraid to. I considered myself unworthy/too incompetent to be able to handle the course load that nursing school requires. I was never diagnosed with ADHD as a child, I was diagnosed just 3 weeks ago at 30 years old!! After researching ADHD for hours one night it finally made sense to me as to why I felt so bad about myself and my inability to learn the way everyone else seemed to. It helped me understand why I couldn't just get itâ€ the way all my other classmates did. I have one more semester of nursing prereqs to complete then I'll be ready to apply for the program ::eeeekkkk:: I have had the hardest time so far with the prereqs. Not because I didn't find the information interesting, but because I could not focus in class or retain the information when I studied. I've wanted to give up every single day, but I somehow managed to keep chugging along. I hope to be on a stable dose of medication by next semester which makes me super excited to see the difference in my learning ability vs being without it my whole life. I don't have a lot of advice to offer on this topic because as I said, I've yet to be able to experience the difference between being on the medication and without but I can reassure you that there are a lot of us out there. Even though it's super tough and overwhelming we have got to keep fighting our way to the end because we owe it to ourselves to have our dream job and wouldn't it be great to prove to all those doubtful people that they were wrong about us and our ability to become great nurses?! :)[/COLOR]

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nsuchsland · Sep 24, 2016

I was diagnosed with ADHD at 45. I knew I would be a nurse in high school. When I could not afford to go to nursing school I went in the US Navy to become a hospital corpsman knowing I could become an LPN/LVN. The hands on training was perfect for me. (Navy basic training was hard but didn't last long). I grew up in CA and worked there after being in the service for many years as an LVN. I knew I had ADHD long before an official diagnosis. I was told by my son's counselor that I exhibited signs of adult hyperactivity when he was diagnosed at 8 with ADHD. I was called the whirling dirvish as a child. I got an official diagnosis at the recommendation of one of the pediatrician's in the outpatient clinic I worked in because I drank so much soda for the caffeine. I take short acting adderall and it works well for me. I went back to school at 51 taking prerequisites for nursing school. It took me 4 years then did 2 years of nursing school for my ADN. I passed the NCLEX-RN the first time and moved to NC to work (I have 2 children and 4 grandkids here and my daughter wants more children). I just recently changed jobs at 59. I still work in pediatrics and I love it still. I used a lot of audio while in school. Some books I had would have audio questions and answers, some would read a review of the text. I also used iTunes U a LOT! It's free and there are thousands of both audio and video classes. I would look for similar classes and listen in the car. I worked full time when taking the prerequisites and part time during nursing school. I commuted an hour to work during all this time. During nursing school I was in my car 3-4 hours a day when I had class or clinical as nursing school and clinicals were 50-60 miles from my home. I stayed at school to study to avoid the worst traffic. Knowing my learning style helped me but also using audio for my traveling time was a big help, even though it was not my best learning avenue. I would listen to the same thing many times as my mind would often wander but eventually I would learn it. I never had any learning accommodations but some classmates were given extra time for tests (which in no way would affect how good a nurse they can be). I have the advantage of loving nursing, so have often found the hyper focus of ADHD helpful. I love kids and always knew I would work with them from an early age. For years I was also the ADHD coordinator so worked with this population setting up evaluations and follow up appointments and was able to do teaching adding a unique personal perspective. It helped me when in nursing school. I loved school and my job but every class needed a new approach as each instructor is different. Some were more interesting and better teachers. Some were so bad I had to do a lot of supplemental learning. My love of computers helped me be more organized. I used Dropbox and Box extensively and put all my work there so it didn't matter if I forgot anything, it was always accessible. I used digital books for the same reason. I also was able to use a service during nursing school called Learning Ally a place where books are read by volunteers to be audio books for those with learning disabilities. I did not learn about this until my last year of school but it helped then when I had trouble finding other sources of audio I needed. The website is learningally.org. Since it is for disabled due to copyright laws, it requires a note from your doctor which they have at their web site. They have audio of thousands of books and textbooks. It took listening to things many times but it helped more than reading. It may be it helped because I was doing 2 things at a time since it only really worked when I was driving. If at home or at school, I would listen to music when I studied which also worked for me. I found that studying for the NCLEX-RN worked best when I did it from an app, a few questions at a time here and there throughout the day. The advantage of going to school to be an RN later in life was I had a better knowledge of my ADHD and how it affected me. I knew more how to help myself through. Since school I tried going off medication and found it was still more difficult to manage life without medication. I am not sure why people think they have to survive without medication for ADHD. We take medication for a high BP which needs to be for the rest of our life. It is OK to take medication for ADHD when it works. I recommend everyone with adult ADHD read Delivered From Distraction by Dr. Edward Hallowell.

hopetogetmyADN, ADN, RN · Sep 28, 2016

I was diagnosed with ADD as a child. One thing that helps me is recording my lectures. I find that sometimes I am not focusing on pertinent information and when I listen to my lectures 2 or 3 times in 15 min increments I do a lot better. Hope these tips helps. I didn't do well on medicine as a child.