anything you wish you were told in nursing school that you werent?

wezzie, RN · Jul 17, 2010

Well I finish in about 6-7 weeks and have not been told (along with the rest of my class) how to perform a female catheterisation, take bloods, suction a trachea, have not passed a single med to anyone...so I'd like to you know, maybe learn that.
The only clinicals we have had were in nursing homes bathing and dressing patients for 4 weeks.
Not happy with my school at all.

Yikes!!! No offense but that school is sorely lacking.. My first semester in nursing school we were giving oral meds after passing the test out in the lab. I just graduated this May, 2010.

The last half of my senior year alone my Practicum was 200 hours and 6 weeks in the ER in my home town hospital 30 miles from my school.. I was working for 12 hour shift with my preceptors regular schedule. They required me to have 200 hours to graduate. I got proficient in passing all meds by all routes, other than rectal, but think I can figure out how to do a suppository if need be.. .. we did them in lab on sim man.. lol.. lots of IM's, IVP, SQ, PO.. not only that but got proficient and independent at NG's, EKG's, IV starts, Foley's on both sexes, enema's, bladder scans, blood, urine, stool, sputum collection, wound care, dressing changes, educating patients.. it was awesome. They did their best to place us in whatever area we wanted at whatever facility in the state of MN we wanted for our practicum. One girl even did hers at a hospital near her family in Iowa. I think total I had well over 800 clinical hours. My class was at different facilities all over central MN in every area under the sun.

Other than my practicum, I had rotations in mental health, med/surge, oncology, telemetry, peds, L&D, ortho/neuro, home health, public health, leadership and geriatrics. I know my school has an awesome program but I can't believe you only got 4 weeks at a LTC facility. My geriatric rotation alone was 8 weeks.. and so were most of those listed, except peds (4 weeks) tele (2 weeks), and ortho/neuro (4 weeks).

Wow.. sorry to hear that, seriously. I'd be :madface: too!

guest427013 · Jul 17, 2010

i was expecting to read some negative things, but nothing like this...it makes me really sad and cautious about wanting to pursue my dream job as a nurse. some of the posters on here make it sound like going into nursing was the worst decision they ever made...maybe i still have that "wide-eyed, naive, dreamy" outlook on my life and career and future, idk....but gosh, just reading this has made me doubt my entire future plan....anyone else feel the same?

This is exactly how I feel. I'm in my early 40s and have been through some pretty rough patches in my working life. I retreated to my home and raised my kids for 7 years. I've been hoping nursing would be a good decent job from which I could grow, help and earn a living. I don't know if it is good or bad that I discovered this board!

rn4ever? · Jul 18, 2010

That when you work as a new grad, most RNs you'll work with will expect you to know almost everything!