I have wanted to be a nurse for most of my life, and have been working towards this goal for a couple years now, taking prerequisites, etc. Well I'm towards the end of my first quarter of nursing school, and am doing great in the theory/ lecture aspect: getting an A- but, I really don't enjoy the clinical at all, this far! Please someone tell me it's going to be more than just basic, basic CNA skills at long term care facilities?! Maybe I'm just tired, from a week of 6am-2pm clinicals mixed in with cramming for my final exam but, I'm having a tough time getting motivated to be the CNA's assistant! I want to actually 'do' all the stuff I learned about in school! :wink2: Oh and just incase someone might be misunderstanding where I'm coming from: it's not that I don't think i should have to do peri-care because I do, I think every nursing student should, but after the 10th time in one day, I think I've got it down. I'm also extremely efficient at bed-making, oral care and feeding....Now I want to do the wound care that goes with the level 3 pressure ulcer on the coccyx of the client who's 'attends' I just removed! Or something of the sort!! You know what I mean?! I'm afraid that all this 'theory' isn't going to stick, without any 'practice'!
I've always wanted to be a nurse. I've worked in healthcare for 20 yrs, my first job at 19 in a doctor's office. It's always been administrative work, so Pt. care is all new to me. I'm 6 months into an LPN program and then plan on going on to get my RN. I'm feeling so down today. It does give me comfort to see there are others stressed out like me. I've done well in all my classes. At the moment I'm in a pediatrics and mental health rotation. I'm just feeling really overwhelmed with all the work and clinicals. We are doing peds clinicals at a facility where it's basically a nursing home for children. It just makes me so sad to see kids in this condition. Emotionally, I can handle most things, but this I just can't. They have children that will never get well and go home. Some of them are victims of abuse and thier injuries were so bad that they will never live a normal life. Some have seizures constantly. I have 3 more days to go. I've been there for one day. Everyone says just try to distance yourself from it and do what your supposed to do. How have other people handled a really hard clinical rotation?? I mean obviously I don't have a choice, I have to finish the rotation or I don't move on. Not only is the clincial hard emotionally, but then they give you all kinds of work to do (presentations, careplans, etc.) The instructors know this is a hard rotation..my peds instructor has even said..she knows it will be hard for some of us. How do I get through this? Thanks for letting me vent..
NS is not fun, I am stressed most of the time. But what does gets better is that everyday Im closer to graduating. I dont like my ns instructors, my school seems extremely disorganized and I dont feel like Ive learned much in clinicals. But I want to be a nurse, I do feel like I am pledging a sorority or in the army bootcamp. BUT this too shall pass. I just want to be a nurse.
Are you kidding? I'm a 3rd semester student and I don't know anyone in my class who "loves" nursing school. But I will say that the clinicals only get better: more hands on and more skills oriented as you progress through the program. As was said before, the bookwork/studying/writing papers/researching only increases, but slowly you will start to feel like a real nurse.
I would say i certainly do not hate nursing school at all. It is fun and challenging at the same time which i exactly what I need. I find myself doing things I could never have imagined of and getting involved in some of the craziest situations that none of my friends will ever witness or see. Our program is setup wonderfully to where we didnt even barely do CNA skills our first semester. We jumped in head first into IV starts and injections and got right to it on the floor. I guess you could say i "love" nursing school but i just look at it as a challenge and im very goal oriented.
But man there are those days ha ha. Today alone I had a patient punch me in the face twice and then call for help screaming that we were hurting her when no one was touching her. Ah i love my job.
I think it's really circumstantial. When you have to go pick a pt the day before, get paperwork done for your 6 am clinical the next day, get ready for a cath check-off, study for your l&d test the next week, and still try to get enough sleep to stay alive it can get really old really quickly.
I did not enjoy first semester at all, not only because our teacher made us dread going to the hospital, but also because of precisely what you said...we hardly did anything more than am care and paperwork. Not to mention it was almost impossible to pass tests due to the amount of studying needed to get done.
It really does change as you progress. But the best way to get through it is not to say "I hate nursing school." Because I bet you enjoy learning new ideas and skills, especially when you're good at them. Rather, look at it as a learning experience (because that's what school is). No one said you had to love school, but love the pursuit of knowledge.
You'll always be learning new things as a nurse, so learn to love learning and bed baths become new adventures...
I am in my second term of the lpn program. For the first term that was our focus was bedside care. Ok fine for the first 15 weeks but now that our second semester is almost over I am ready to drop out. I am not saying that it's beneath me to change people and make beds but I thought by now I would be focusing more on Pharmacology, wounds and trac care. i am so bitter about the whole thing right now! We have to be at the facility at 7am till 4:30 and that is basically all we do all day. Clean people and make beds. My clinical instructor is a very nice lady but there is 8 of us and when she is doing meds she does two students at a time. We only get to pass meds twice in 15 weeks!!!! I have gone to the nurses at the facility to kinda of hover over them to learn just about anything, the teacher said we should be comimg to her and not them. Somebody give me advice I have tried to suck it up and deal with it, but I don't want to get out of nursing school not knowing
I personally dont enjoy school but I love being at the hospital! Although, it is nice to see things that you learned in school being applied to patients. It really puts things into perspective! Luckily, only the 1st 2 weeks at clinical we had to do CNA type work ( I still do it now), but Im also doing meds, assessments, foleys, etc. & we had a code today. But overall, school is blahhhhh
Really don't like nursing school, not at all the level of what I had expected. This is my second degree, but I wonder, you'd think that since it is so hard to get into nursing school, that the program would be spectacular, right? Also that more of your classmates would be at least wanting to be spectactular since it was so competitive to get accepted. Last week in clinical, I really took a look at one of my classmates and thought, gee, how did she make it so far being insane? Doesn't show much for all my effort in school thus far, right?! And, I am actually monitoring one or two more, hope not to work with them, and sincerely hope they don't end up at a hospital where my family members might be. I know I will have them pulled off care of my family, and if asked why, I will spill.
Someone here read my mind...I absolutely love my clinical. We're in a rehab setting and I can see that I'm making some sort of difference with my patient. That is priceless. But I really am finished with the academic part...without boring everyone with the details, it has been rough to say the least. I'm sick of school, I don't want to see my professors anymore and I don't want to talk to my classmates. Glad I'm not the only one. Someone here said, Suck it up...probably good advice...I'm working on it!
Thank goodness I am not alone! I am hoping that I will enjoy the actual nursing field, however. Nursing school has been quite a miserable experience for me. I am taking it one day at a time.
bchlver596
9 Posts
I've always wanted to be a nurse. I've worked in healthcare for 20 yrs, my first job at 19 in a doctor's office. It's always been administrative work, so Pt. care is all new to me. I'm 6 months into an LPN program and then plan on going on to get my RN. I'm feeling so down today. It does give me comfort to see there are others stressed out like me. I've done well in all my classes. At the moment I'm in a pediatrics and mental health rotation. I'm just feeling really overwhelmed with all the work and clinicals. We are doing peds clinicals at a facility where it's basically a nursing home for children. It just makes me so sad to see kids in this condition. Emotionally, I can handle most things, but this I just can't. They have children that will never get well and go home. Some of them are victims of abuse and thier injuries were so bad that they will never live a normal life. Some have seizures constantly. I have 3 more days to go. I've been there for one day. Everyone says just try to distance yourself from it and do what your supposed to do. How have other people handled a really hard clinical rotation?? I mean obviously I don't have a choice, I have to finish the rotation or I don't move on. Not only is the clincial hard emotionally, but then they give you all kinds of work to do (presentations, careplans, etc.) The instructors know this is a hard rotation..my peds instructor has even said..she knows it will be hard for some of us. How do I get through this? Thanks for letting me vent..