degree changers, was nursing harder than your previous degree?

Bubbly26, BSN, RN · Feb 26, 2015

I am still in nursing school but yes nursing is way harder than my previous degree. But, then again my school is considered one of the hardest nursing programs in the area.

CHESCCRP · Feb 26, 2015

Yes, my BSN was harder than my BS in public health. The public health degree took longer because I went part time, but there was no way to complete my pre-licensure BSN part time. The papers were not more difficult, but the time management was trickier due to balancing clinicals, work, and my family's needs. I think there was also more pressure since nursing dealt with life and death on an individual level, versus the population-level of public health.

calivianya, BSN, RN · Feb 26, 2015

It depends on what you think is hard.

My nursing degree was more work because there was more material, but it was lower-level, easier-to-understand material than my psych degree. I used my intellect and comprehension more in psych, and I used straight rote memorization more in nursing.

I have a really good memory and remember things relatively easily if I paid attention in class, so I'd say the psych degree was harder.

sourapril · Feb 26, 2015

What were your previous degrees if I may?

Bachelor in biology and Master in public health

MoonlightRose · Feb 26, 2015

I think it depends on the school you go to. My program was very competitive and less than half the class graduated. The material was accelerated and the clinical facilities were more of an "eat your young" rather than a teaching hospital mentality. My previous jobs and education were in finance and I found nursing school much more difficult.

zmansc, ASN, RN · Feb 26, 2015

I'm not sure you can put "difficulty" or "harder" on a likert scale and come up with a valid representation or comparison of one program vs another let alone one type of degree vs another. I have a classmate who transferred from one RN program to another and was amazed at the difference between the first and second program. Let's say her grades changed dramatically. So, I would take much of what you gather here with a very large grain of salt so to speak.

Having said that, I'll try my best to answer your question. My undergraduate science degree was a double major, and I felt like it was stripped to the bare bones, very little fluff or make work. I don't think that is the case for all undergraduate degrees, or even most, but in my case with the majors I picked and the professors who taught those particular topics there just wasn't alot of fluff. For example I probably wrote more pages of BS in any one class in the RN program than I had to in all of my BS degree.

As for my RN degree, I felt there was a very high ratio of fluff or make work to the amount of actual information I was learning. This may have been partially my program, it may have been the fact that I had a deeper understanding of A&P, Micro, and cell biology than the typical student, I don't know for sure. But I did feel like many of the assignments were just there to give me something to do so that they could say that I wrote x papers, etc. I also felt that the professors were more interested at times in being English professors than being Nursing professors.

In all the papers I turned in for publication in the 25ish years in my past profession let alone in my previous BS program, none have had as many BS comments about silly rules in formatting something than in papers for my RN program. For one professor the title page stuff would be too high, the next professor it was too low. The same reference would be marked off even though it met the guidelines in the book. At first I was offended and upset and I would argue it, but then I realized it was some sadistic right of passage nursing school professors felt they held over students and I just had to grin and bear it.

My MSN degree has been much closer in signal to noise ratio to that of my undergraduate science degree. There are still occasional assignments I would consider to be very subjectively graded, and where my classmates and I are left baffled at why one person got such a drastically different grade than another person, but for the most part I consider the work to have educational value and the grading to be a fairly good gauge of the quality of the work turned in.

In summary I guess you could say that we had to work harder for each x amt of information we learned in my RN program than in my other BS or MSN programs. I hope that helps.

CalNevaMimi, LPN, LVN · Feb 26, 2015

Even though I had absolutely no science background, my BA and teaching credential programs were much more difficult than my LVN program. Finished first in my class, go figure. Maybe it was due to my advanced age. :-)

Infofreak411 · Feb 26, 2015

Even though I had absolutely no science background, my BA and teaching credential programs were much more difficult than my LVN program. Finished first in my class, go figure. Maybe it was due to my advanced age. :-)

What kind of a teacher were you? And you really did find the teaching program more difficult? How so?

CalNevaMimi, LPN, LVN · Feb 26, 2015

BA major required a ton of reading and special projects. Teaching was K-8. There were very few right or wrong answers. I did much more critical thinking while getting my BA and credential. There was more memorization with nursing school. My LVN program was more time consuming at around 60 hours a week (homework time included). The nursing program was also much more annoying in my opinion!

Infofreak411 · Feb 27, 2015

BA major required a ton of reading and special projects. Teaching was K-8. There were very few right or wrong answers. I did much more critical thinking while getting my BA and credential. There was more memorization with nursing school. My LVN program was more time consuming at around 60 hours a week (homework time included). The nursing program was also much more annoying in my opinion!

Annoying due to all the busy work? I found my teacher education program to be a lot of critical thinking too And very little memorization which I am very good with!

Guttercat, ASN, RN · Feb 27, 2015

Great post, zmansc.

Astute observations.

ohiobobcat · Feb 27, 2015

I think it's hard to compare the two because I was at a very different point in my life for each degree. I have an undergraduate BS in health/athletic training with an emphasis in exercise physiology. I was right out of high school and LOVED college. All I had to worry about back then were classes, and covering practices/games/rehab for whatever sport I was assigned to that quarter (we were on quarters back then!!). I also got 800+ clinical hours of athletic training before graduation. The content was broader, and the material was not easy. I probably should have studied harder, but I'm sure I NEEDED to be at that party down the street at the time. I still graduated cum laude.

My ADN degree came after a divorce while raising 3 kids under the age of 7 as a single mom. Way different circumstances. My partying days were behind me at that point. It was juggling act between work, parenting my kids, and studying/school. The content was different than what I learned before, but I didn't feel it was any harder. The concept of "critical thinking" came pretty easy to me. Obviously there is WAY less clinical time in a nursing program, which I think is unfortunate.