degree changers, was nursing harder than your previous degree?

Anonymous1257 · Feb 25, 2015

Its a professional degree and is typically more difficult than most other undergraduate college degrees.

VANurse2010 · Feb 25, 2015

No, my BA was significantly more difficult and contributed far more to my critical thinking abilities than anything I've done related to nursing.

Infofreak411 · Feb 25, 2015

No, my BA was significantly more difficult and contributed far more to my critical thinking abilities than anything I've done related to nursing.

May I ask what your BA was in? I have a secondary education degree and would get chuckled at when I mentioned how stressful it was because people though teaching was easy. But it truly was stressful, you couldn't get anything below a B or you would fail the class and consquently the whole program as did half of my cohort.

ShelbyaStar · Feb 25, 2015

I have a BS in animal science and I would say the ADN in nursing is harder. But then I kind of slacked off with the previous BS so maybe that was it.

I don't think nursing is quite as hard as some people make it out to be, but there is a lot of pressure. It takes a lot of time and there is a lot of stake as you will be responsible for people's lives. But I am also enjoying the learning as it's much more practical than my previous degree was.

ETA: plus, at a lot of programs there is the saying that "Ds make degrees". In my nursing program, a 78 is passing.

VANurse2010 · Feb 25, 2015

I have a BS in animal science and I would say the ADN in nursing is harder. But then I kind of slacked off with the previous BS so maybe that was it.
I don't think nursing is quite as hard as some people make it out to be, but there is a lot of pressure. It takes a lot of time and there is a lot of stake as you will be responsible for people's lives. But I am also enjoying the learning as it's much more practical than my previous degree was.

It is time consuming and a lot of responsibility, but I chuckle a bit when nursing organizations and textbooks repeat dozens of times in their publications how "highly educated" nurses are. Nurses are educated, but let's tamper down the delusions of grandeur, por favor.

VANurse2010 · Feb 25, 2015

May I ask what your BA was in? I have a secondary education degree and would get chuckled at when I mentioned how stressful it was because people though teaching was easy. But it truly was stressful, you couldn't get anything below a B or you would fail the class and consquently the whole program as did half of my cohort.

I don't wish to reveal too much, but I'll put it this way - it was a social science that blends a lot of numbers and stats.

sourapril · Feb 25, 2015

I don't think nursing was harder than my previous degrees. I went to nursing school in a competitive state university. It was stressful at times. I had another undergrad degree from another state university and a master from yet another state university. Both challenged me physically and mentally. I don't think nursing was as intellectually challenging as the other two. Sure you have to memorize a lot of stuff and think critically but I think my master degree made me think on a different level. You can do it. Nursing is not as hard as most people tell you. (It certainly wasn't "the hardest thing" I have ever done in my life :)

Infofreak411 · Feb 25, 2015

I don't think nursing was harder than my previous degrees. I went to nursing school in a competitive state university. It was stressful at times. I had another undergrad degree from another state university and a master from yet another state university. Both challenged me physically and mentally. I don't think nursing was as intellectually challenging as the other two. Sure you have to memorize a lot of stuff and think critically but I think my master degree made me think on a different level. You can do it. Nursing is not as hard as most people tell you. (It certainly wasn't "the hardest thing" I have ever done in my life :)

What were your previous degrees if I may?

iPink, BSN, RN · Feb 25, 2015

Yes, because I went through an accelerated program. Also with nursing I had to change the way I thought. What is considered "common sense" is different in nursing.

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sistrmoon, BSN, RN · Feb 25, 2015

My BA in English with a minor in Spanish(graduated highest honors) was significantly easier than my 2 year nursing degree. The testing and clinicals and checkoffs are just so different than my other college experiences. Also the minimum grade to pass was higher in the nursing program.

Aliareza, BSN · Feb 25, 2015

My BBA in accounting was much easier than doing my nursing degree has been. As another poster said, nursing forces you to think in an entirely new way. It blends so many different points of view. It isn't just simple memorization; it's prioritization and application, too. It's not enough to know things if you can't recall the intricate details of several different things at once and lump them together to make the decisions you have to make as a nurse. They don't give you as much leeway for mistakes academically because the leeway for mistakes in the real world is also much smaller than with other professions.