I need to know because after one year I am hating nursing school. I won't bore anyone with listing the reasons why. (Or maybe I should?) For example, I love the patient contact part of clinical but I hate the pedagogical, subjective, hot air part of the paperwork involved in it.
It's not because I'm struggling academically; I'm doing very well with the GPA part of things.
So tell me - Did any of you find that you found disliked nursing school but loved working as a nurse?
I guess I could just say "ditto." Nursing school seemed to be 30% useful information and 70% things that didn't help me but certainly took up time (weekly reflections, anyone?). Instructors seemed to spend a lot of time talking about what it was like when they were practicing (which from their descriptions were decades ago), rehashing the friction between MDs and RNs over and over again, even though no one in my cohort was ever going to kowtow to a physician (we were known as a "difficult" cohort).
Anyway, I love my job, and my coworkers, and even my patients mostly.
I enjoyed school and dedicating my time to learning.
Work is just a means to an end. I just enjoy my coworkers and learning new things but I don't enjoy it. Most people I work with don't necessarily enjoy it either.
LOL - a lot of that "hot air" is actually information you will need in your nursing practice. But students judge relevance by what they know -- so if it's not immediately clear how it would fit into the delivery of patient care, it's considered useless.
Specializes in Internal Medicine, Geriatric Medicine.
Hated my RN program's didactic stuff (bored with lectures, mostly slept through them and just read the material; actually liked the material, though--that was fun). Loved labs and patient contact. Liked the ADN-BSN program a lot better--more challenging, online so I could get to class in my pajamas. Liked the discussion with other classmates. MSN/ANP program--challenging and online. Liked the discussion boards, learned a lot, read the lectures, and generally just had a good time with it. DNP program--cried my way through parts of it, hated parts of it, loved the interaction with the instructors and my classmates. Nursing school in general is a pain in the rear end, but all that didactic stuff is necessary. Just depends on how you learn best. I hate sitting in lectures, but I love to read and then exchange ideas.
I liked my LVN program but hated my LVN-ADN bridge.
Hating nursing school doesn't mean you will hate being a nurse. Although, if it's the paperwork and politics that you don't like, there is plenty of that on the job as well. I still dislike workplace politics and the ridiculous amount of documentation, not to mention unit activities and committees, but I honestly love my job.
LOL - a lot of that "hot air" is actually information you will need in your nursing practice. But students judge relevance by what they know -- so if it's not immediately clear how it would fit into the delivery of patient care, it's considered useless.
You don't know what you don't know.
Good point and perhaps it will lessen my suffering to keep this in mind. Thanks.
Thanks, everyone, for your comments. I have one day to study for the final tomorrow and then the day after that is the final and then I have 100 days away from nursing school to work with patients WITHOUT WRITING NURSING PROCESS PAPERS. Figure that will give me enough renewal to make it through the last year.
Dogen
897 Posts
I guess I could just say "ditto." Nursing school seemed to be 30% useful information and 70% things that didn't help me but certainly took up time (weekly reflections, anyone?). Instructors seemed to spend a lot of time talking about what it was like when they were practicing (which from their descriptions were decades ago), rehashing the friction between MDs and RNs over and over again, even though no one in my cohort was ever going to kowtow to a physician (we were known as a "difficult" cohort).
Anyway, I love my job, and my coworkers, and even my patients mostly.