Considering nursing school

Shagce1 · Jan 15, 2015

I think answering the pros and cons of nursing school is a hard question. A better question might be the pros and cons of actually being a nurse. Since I am not a nurse yet, just starting my second semester I can't answer that. The workload is what you make of it. Me personally I spend at least 2 and up to 6 hours/day doing school work most days of the week. Worth it? I think so since I had straight A's my first semester. I know there were some in my class who put in minimal/no effort and they did not move on to 2nd semester or barely scraped by with the minimal passing grade. As far as nursing school and what I wished I knew before starting....a 2 or 3 credit class requires more time and energy than any other 2 or 3 credit class I had taken in the past. The learning is just different. Not just memorizing facts, but being able to apply the information learned. I am sure others will chime in with different opinions.

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Jan 15, 2015

well, it was definitely worth it to me. I have a good career doing what I enjoy with people I respect. Nursing school can be tough. It is like learning a new language and new culture all at once. You have to be disciplined to get thru it. If you are looking for a job that pays well without a lot of effort, forget nursing. It is hard. But there are other rewards. Choose well.

NurseGirl525, ASN, RN · Jan 15, 2015

Each person is going to have different pros and cons as each person reacts to nursing school differently. I find that if you can be an organized person you will be fine. There is a lot of work and it is challenging. But that is my opinion. I find clinical and lab a breeze where other people think lecture is easy but have a hard time in the other 2. It depends on your personality. I would go research some schools, go shadow a nurse for a day, and talk to advisors at the schools you are considering.

MurseJJ · Jan 15, 2015

Hi I am considering nursing school. Can anybody tell me the pros and cons of nursing school? What is the workload like? Is it worth the time and effort? What would you have liked people to tell you before you started nursing school?
Thank you!

I think nursing school is worth the time and effort only if you actually want to be a nurse. :)

The workload can be heavy at times. I don't think the material is complicated or hard, it just takes a lot of time to do the reading, care plans, practice clinical skills, papers, going to clinical rotations, etc. There is so much to learn, and very little time, so everything happens quickly.

I would tell people going into nursing school to do a little reading/studying every day of the week. This makes it all much more manageable. Also, try to get a part time, flexible job in the hospital as soon as possible. You have limited clinical hours, so having a hospital job can help you see more and sometimes do more. This can also help in finding a job after nursing school.

A lot of people outside of nursing don't know what nursing actually is, nor what we study in school. Yes, you will learn how to put a patient on a bed pan, how to make a bed, and how to give a bed bath. These basic or fundamental skills in nursing are very important, and are most certainly part of nursing care that you will be doing at some point (and never think you are "too good" to do such things, since there may not be a CNA available to help all the time). However, that is a very small, almost minuscule part of what you will be learning in nursing school. The way I describe it is applying physiology to caring. Anatomy and physiology will come back up again. In your nursing courses, you will be learning physiology and pathophysiology and applying that foundational knowledge to how you care for patients in various disease states and conditions. Nursing is the diagnosis and treatment of human responses to real or potential health problems. That's what you'll be learning!

Good luck!

theladyemma17 · Jan 15, 2015

Thank you so much for all of your different inputs! It has really helped me a lot!

windsurfer8, BSN, RN · Jan 15, 2015

Pros and cons of nursing school? Well if you graduate you may qualify to take the NCLEX and become a licensed RN. The con? I guess if you don't want to be a nurse and you pay to attend nursing school that would be a con. Nursing school is a means to an end. It doesn't matter pros and cons because it isn't an option if you want to be a nurse. Determine IF you want to be a nurse. If you do then pros and cons are non existent because you HAVE to complete school.

anh06005, MSN, APRN, NP · Jan 16, 2015

As others said nursing school sucks. It sucks. It is your life while you're in it if you're someone who actually tries BUT I think it was all worth it.

Being a nursing sucks at times too. You sometimes get yelled at by patients/families/doctors, long hours, work nights/weekends/holidays, lots of stress (you have 6 patients who all need something RIGHT NOW or, say, you just walked in and your patient is in the floor, IV yanked out, not breathing). There are plenty of pros, though. You may be the only one with a patient holding their hand as they take their last breath. You recognize a complication from a medication or procedure and intervene to possibly save this patient's life. You get to laugh and cry with the patients. You'll remember some patients for the rest of your life (for good and bad reasons).

Besides all of the above nursing is also very diverse. In nursing school you learn how to be any kind of nurse. When you figure out where you want to be you may be a school nurse, ICU nurse, OR nurse, clinic nurse, home health nurse, neonatal ICU nurse, work with insurance companies, help rehabilitate stroke patients....you can work anywhere you please (so long as there's a job opening of course). You can go on to become a nurse practitioner, nurse anesthetist, and there's even an area that interests me called forensic nursing (working crime scenes and such).

It's up to you if this is what you want to pursue. Some people like the healthcare field but don't want to go into nursing. If you don't like bodily fluids of every kind you may want to look into other areas like occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy, etc.

kbrn2002, ADN, RN · Jan 16, 2015

Hi I am considering nursing school. Can anybody tell me the pros and cons of nursing school? What is the workload like? Is it worth the time and effort? What would you have liked people to tell you before you started nursing school?
Thank you!

Wow that's a lot to cover! I bet you get a ton of different answers, for what's it's worth here's mine.

Pros and cons of nursing school can be largely program specific, but no matter where you go to school expect it to be very tough! For every hour you spend in class expect to spend anywhere from 4-8 hours out of class studying and doing homework. It is very time consuming.

The workload is enormous! No way around it, to succeed you will put in a lot of hours both inside and outside a classroom. Again, very time consuming.

Is it worth the time and effort? Well, that is entirely up to you. It is a commitment with the end goal of becoming a licensed nurse. Do you want to achieve that goal badly enough to make that commitment? Only you can decide that.

Advice I wish I would have had? Be prepared to feel like you don't know anything. Eventually those random things you are actually learning, even when you don't think you are learning them will come together and make sense.

_firefly, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Jan 16, 2015

Pros: you will attend classes with all the same students so you will make some great friends. The information is practical and interesting (if you tend to like science and social science). There are a ton of really different things you can do as a nurse (though just to correct a previous post, forensic nursing does not involve crime scene investigations, it involves collecting evidence from victims of sexual assault). The work life of a nurse can be very flexible, generally pays pretty good, and is highly in demand (except when you have no experience). The job is highly respected.

Cons: it is sometimes a lot more money than other programs. You can be dropped from the program for failing classes so there is that added threat. Because nursing pays more than teaching, you tend to constantly get new or minimally dedicated professors and therefore many days are chaos. The job is dangerous.

The workload is generally a lot of reading, papers, presentations, and learning skills. Nursing classes are mostly just a lot of tasks more so than trying to learn difficult concepts. For example you will get assigned maybe 23 chapters in a week, but nobody actually reads all that. A lot of it is common sense and repeating material. You figure out ways to be efficient with your time.

I would have liked to have been told that it is extremely difficult for most people to get a job after graduation and that it is even worse for those getting an associates. Start working in hospitals, nursing homes, etc early and talk to people because that is how you will get a job when you graduate.