I know some of these things are things that all students complain about, so they're not stupid. They just need to realize that it's not only our school that makes you do these things. Most are the standards for every program. But some of these are just dumb, I'm guessing because they just didn't know how intense a nursing program is, especially since our school has pretty easy admission compared to others (3.0 gpa and 75 overall on HESI A2)
1. The Community Nursing class/clinical is a waste of time.
2. The clinicals aren't in anything I want to specialize in.
3. Too many classes each semester. (It's a full time program where all your core credits have to be completed beforehand so there are 4 nursing classes a semester, 3 in the last semester)
4. You have to take med math tests every semester and pass with a 90.
5. Having to write research papers.
6. Leadership Management and End of life care class aren't easy A's.
7. Having to take exit hesi's every semester. (I think the minimum score you can get on it is 800 and if you fail you take a remedia class).
8. Making careplans.
9. You need 100 hours of community service before graduation.
10. The lecture exams are too hard. (I wouldn't say this is dumb but some students say this and then laugh about how their books are still in the wrappers they bought them in.)
The #1 on my list....and this from a LONG LONG list was "We are NOT going to be doctors, why the H3LL do we have to learn this stuff about diseases and how drugs work?!?!?" She failed.
But I've heard everything on the OP's list..oh and "C gets me the degree! C=continue!"...then if they fail, "the teacher just wants to fail us!!" I hate when ppl aim for the bare minimum.
Another favorite is "why do careplans exist?!?!? why do we have to learn drug math!"
And another complaint, "everyone who passed just got lucky!"
And one last, "schools stupid...we're gonna learn everything on the job"
Specializes in Onc/Med-Surg, ER, Nursing Supervisor.
"C gets me the degree! C=continue!"
My class says C=Degree, myself included. This isn't because we are going for the bare minimum, more for the fact that the majority of us are over achievers and we were all devastated when we didn't get A's. This is our way of making each other feel better. Trust me, we are all busting our butts. Anyone who has done bare minimum is gone now anyway. (4th semester! RNs2K10!!!)
I'm a grad-entry student, and while they all complain like crazy, it seems to be different stuff. They complain that the labs are disorganized; the instructors seem unprepared; the instructors don't know what they're talking about; the "NCLEX-style" questions on exams aren't really NCLEX-style, but poorly written; why do we have to have 80% to pass our classes if you only have to get 70% to pass the NCLEX; it's not fair that you have to have 80% on the clinical practical exam to pass the whole class when it's only worth 10% of the grade and you have an A in the class without it; blah blah blah...
My class says C=Degree, myself included. This isn't because we are going for the bare minimum, more for the fact that the majority of us are over achievers and we were all devastated when we didn't get A's. This is our way of making each other feel better. Trust me, we are all busting our butts. Anyone who has done bare minimum is gone now anyway. (4th semester! RNs2K10!!!)
While alot of nursing students say that, meaning that doing their best, even if it results in a C, is good enough to get through school, I think we all know that for alot of people, it DOES mean just aiming for the minimum amount of work they have to do. There are people in my class who ONLY passed each exam because of questions that were nullified. I know some of those people did their best, and I feel for them. But I happen to know that alot of them just don't study, because they think as long as they get a C, they're good.
I have to say, that "C's get degrees" really irks me. If that's the case I might as well get a degree in astro physics. I'm sure I could scrape up a C. What's more important than the grade is understanding the material. Its my opinion that if you get a C, you don't really get it - because if you did your grade would have been better. So someone barely makes it through nursing school with C's. Bravo?
Specializes in Onc/Med-Surg, ER, Nursing Supervisor.
I see what you guys are getting at. My school does NOT nullify questions. They don't grade on a curve either. If you know it, good. If you don't, then you fail. Their passing standards for HESIs are 900 or above. Anything below 75% on Exams is failing. I've been working very hard and have been pulling off B's. My point was that not everyone who can't make A's will be a bad nurse.
I may be wrong on this, but I have heard that you also learn a lot more (or maybe what you have learned will click better) once you are practicing.?
Just my two cents. Didn't mean to ruffle feathers.
You do learn a lot once you are practicing, but in some students' minds...that turns into, "school doesn't matter, I'll learn everything on the job". How can you build on a foundation that isn't there??? If you don't learn much from school, then what? I doubt a lot of jobs will take the time to re-teach it all in orientation...which is why you see threads about people getting fired in orientation or told they aren't progressing well( and I'm not saying that's true for all threads on here)
I see what you guys are getting at. My school does NOT nullify questions. They don't grade on a curve either. If you know it, good. If you don't, then you fail. Their passing standards for HESIs are 900 or above. Anything below 75% on Exams is failing. I've been working very hard and have been pulling off B's. My point was that not everyone who can't make A's will be a bad nurse.
I may be wrong on this, but I have heard that you also learn a lot more (or maybe what you have learned will click better) once you are practicing.?
Just my two cents. Didn't mean to ruffle feathers.
You didn't ruffle my feathers at all. I saw what you were saying. My friends and I tell each other the same thing when we don't do as well as we would like on an exam. I definitely think that you don't have to have all A's (or even B's) to be a good nurse. I just get tired of all the complaining I hear about how my classmates are barely passing, and yet some of them don't seem to be doing anything to make it better.
Well C doesn't even equal degree in my school. You have to get a minimum of a C+ in nursing classes lol. I think what most people were saying is that, some people don't put any effort in doing better than a C. They do minimal amount of reading, studying ect but then when they get to either a HESI exit or something else, they want to complain about how it was too difficult. If you worked hard for it then that's fine. But there are some people who aren't overachievers and don't put in the effort if they know all they need is to maintain a C. Getting a C in maybe two classes isn't bad, but I don't know if it looks all that good if all of your nursing classes are C's. Even if the program is hard.
For example, I did get a C in one of my pre-req classes and I did as best as I could, got A's in the rest of them, but there were some of my classmates who were like "The minimum GPA is 2.75 for the nursing program so I don't care as long as I have that". I'm also an overachiever, but I keep it in mind I might get lower grades in nursing school. I think it's very difficult to maintain an A throughout nursing school and I don't expect me to, I'll try my hardest but if I get B's that I REALLY worked for, I will be thrilled. Especially if it's one of those classes that you were so positive you were failing because you thought you did worse than you really did.
Mine either! We have to get a B- or retake the class.
That reminds me of another complaint! That if you retake the class you have to get a B or better, students don't understand why it's still not a C+. Umm if this is your second time taking the class, then yes you should be able to do much better since it's the same material over lol.
1. The Community Nursing class/clinical is a waste of time.
You only take Community Health in BSN programs. Clinical consisted of group meetings. Zzzz.... I wouldnt say it was a waste of time. It just seems like a waste of time when you are doing 130 hours of clinical time outside the hospital--- most nurses don't dream of being a community health nurse.
2. The clinicals aren't in anything I want to specialize in.
I don't know what you mean. But, some did better in clinical than theory-- I was one of those people. Some of my friends has stellar grades.
3. Too many classes each semester.
We had fewer classes than before, but they were 6 credits each. We generally have 12-13 credits a semester, but 12 credits in Nursing school is more like 16-18 credits, in MHO.
4. You have to take med math tests every semester and pass with a 90.
Not every semester, but most of them. By the time I was in critical care, doing my clinicals in a level-1 trauma ICU, they didn't ask us to do a med calc test. But they did do them mostly through med-surg.
5. Having to write research papers.
Ugg.. so many. If I hear Evidence Based Practice one more time.....
6. Leadership Management and End of life care class aren't easy A's.
I had Leadership my last semester of nursing school. It was pretty easy, but you HAD to study for the tests. Many of us made the mistake of not studying for the mid-term and did pretty poorly. The content is so straightforward, you would think the test was easy, but my instructor spend many sleepless nights coming up with ways to make the test difficult.
7. Having to take exit hesi's every semester.
We didn't have HESI exams, or any other exams in my program.
8. Making careplans.
Careplans were treacherous. Some classes they would end up being 30-35 pages and we only had 3 days to do it. Some nights I would be up till 1:30am working on careplans and roll into clinical with only 4 hours of sleep.
9. You need 100 hours of community service before graduation.
Never heard this.
10. The lecture exams are too hard.
There were some tests that I left & class mates were crying outside. My med-surg 2 final was so hard that my mom had to hold my hand (literally ) while I checked my grade because I was so scared. We also lost 15% of our class that semester.
But, it's not as bad as people make it sound on here.. Nursing students are drama queens, heh. When I first started nursing school I would read some of the posts on here and think "OMG, I'm doomed" & "I'll never graduate" but in reality if you are in, chances are you will finish. Best of luck!
) while I checked my grade because I was so scared. We also lost 15% of our class that semester.
kgh31386, BSN, MSN, RN
815 Posts
The #1 on my list....and this from a LONG LONG list was "We are NOT going to be doctors, why the H3LL do we have to learn this stuff about diseases and how drugs work?!?!?" She failed.
But I've heard everything on the OP's list..oh and "C gets me the degree! C=continue!"...then if they fail, "the teacher just wants to fail us!!" I hate when ppl aim for the bare minimum.
Another favorite is "why do careplans exist?!?!? why do we have to learn drug math!"
And another complaint, "everyone who passed just got lucky!"
And one last, "schools stupid...we're gonna learn everything on the job"
My list goes on and on lol