Did anyone find that their previous degree was harder that nursing school?

[Nursetobe25]

I know most programs you have to get at least a C in your courses? Is it really difficult to get a C in nursing courses?

I was an education major and we had to maintain a B in each class or we would fail and be thrown out of the program. Needless to say only a 3rd of the people passed. So I was thinking maybe if I could handle that I could handle nursing

[Code Red]

I have a Bachelor's in Education. I thought my nursing program was MUCH more difficult. That doesn't mean you will agree, though.

On a positive note, I got a 3.67 GPA for my Education degree, and made a 4.0 in my BSN program. So it's possible to still do well even though one might feel it is more difficult. :)

Thanks for giving me hope. (*wiping the sweat!)

[Code Red]

That C can mean something a little different in nursing school.

F'risnstance, in my nursing program grading went like this: 80-86=C, 87-93=B, 94-100=A. Anything below a C was a failing grade. My average at graduation was 93, so I was a B student.

Omg im going to faint again!!!

[annie.rn]

I started out getting a Biology degree and switched to nursing half way through. With the exception of pathophysiology, I found the intellectual part of nursing to be easier. It was the quantity of work that was the real challenge. In addition, the time requirement was re-donkulos! I remember the day before clinicals having lecture until 6 at night and then I'd have to leave straight from there to go to the hospital to look up my patient's information. I'd get home and do 4 hours worth of prep for the next day. Most clinical days, I'd only get 2 or 3 hrs. sleep prior. That was tough! I guess they were prepping us for the stress of real world nursing :-)

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

Thanks for giving me hope. (*wiping the sweat!)

The initial learning curve can be a bit steep. The hardest thing about nursing school is the exams. Frequently they're written NCLEX style so that you're exposed to this type of question early on and you'll be used to it when you actually take the NCLEX.

These questions go a step beyond requiring you to simply regurgitate what you were presented in class or what you read in the book. They're written so that you're presented with a problem and knowing the material you've been presented as background, what's the most appropriate answer. You might see 4 answers: one clearly wrong, one distractor, one that's right and one that's even more right. In other words, two of them aren't wrong, but one of them is the better of the two answers.

They won't be hugely difficult at first, but at some point, they will be. Your first exams may actually be "standard" regurgitation exams because it's the basic stuff like vital sign ranges or things like that.

As far as how well you do, it's truly up to you. You will get out of school what you put into it. I put my all into it and did fairly decently, all things considered. I went to school full-time and had to work full-time and occasionally manipulate my work schedule around a little bit to make it all happen. I feel that had I not had to work, I probably could have had a much better GPA. Given how hard/difficult nursing school is compared to many other programs, I'm completely thrilled that I graduated with >3.0 GPA! I actually suspect that if I'd gone into another field that was more similar to my original healthcare education, I probably would have maintained my post-grad 4.0 GPA, especially if I didn't have to work while going to school.

Nursing school is doable. Don't get discouraged if some things just don't make too much sense at first or in a certain semester because by the end, the "lightbulb" usually comes on and the pieces will suddenly fit together. A lot of students have their Eureka! moment during their next to last or their last semester. Mine wasn't so momentous... the lightbulb for me started off dimly and brightened, so it was more of an awareness that everything just fit together. My own Eureka! moment happened in paramedic school, during my field internship. The culmination of all of my past education and my paramedic education just suddenly clicked. That knowledge hasn't left me... I just added to it in nursing school, and that's the reason for the brightening bulb for me. More like Jello, the knowledge of the relationships of things just gelled.

Just have faith in the process and allow it to work... but to make it all work, you must do your part too. You're headed into one of the toughest, most interesting times of your life! Enjoy the ride!

[ceccia]

honestly, i didn't have to put much work or time into nursing school to learn the material and make A's.

[happyinillinois]

Nursing school was WAY harder.

[chevyv, BSN, RN]

I was on the wait list for the RN program at the local tech school and decided to get a BA in Health Care Admin at a private college while waiting. I did very well in the BA and thought I it would be smooth sailing in an ADN program. After all, it's a 2yr compared to a 4yr degree. I couldn't have been more wrong! It was the hardest degree and the most challenging classes I have ever taken, and I've taken many courses while figuring out how to not answer my calling to nursing, lol.

[sistrmoon, BSN, RN]

No way. I got a BA in English with a Spanish minor first(Summa cum Laude, btw:)) It was a fair amount of work, but the testing style, clinicals and sheer "boot camp" feel of my nursing degree(ADN) were much harder.

[grandpaj]

My first degree, in dual major liberal arts with completion of upper and lower division honors programs, was equally (if not more) difficult when compared with my BSN. Rather than tests, however, the workload was primarily reading dense theory and writing long, heavily researched papers - many per week. I ended up with a 0.15 lower GPA in nursing school, but I attribute that to having to work 40+ hours all the way through nursing school to support myself and pay a mortgage.

That said, I think my first degree made me a more successful nursing student - I aced research and theory while the majority of my classmates struggled. I think I'll have a leg up when starting a master's degree as well.

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

I definitely thought that the courses for my previous bachelor's in Psych were a lot more difficult than my BSN courses, but nursing school was a lot more time consuming. It is not the difficulty level of the material that makes nursing school hard, it is the volume of the material. I did a lot less work on more difficult material in my psych program overall, but I had a ton and a half of free time and barely looked at the material at all outside of class, which was exactly the opposite of how nursing school went. It really depends on what makes things difficult for you.

[FLAlleycat]

I had a bachelor's in physics which I found to be much more difficult than nursing (esp quantum mechanics . . . ugh). It did, however, give me a good background in research. To me, nursing was relatively easy, but I found the time requirement insane! As someone has written, we'd have to go to the hospital at 6PM (after a full day of classes) to pick up our pt assignment and then spend the rest of the night writing up care plans, researching etiology of abnormal labs, etc. Unbelievable. But, I'm glad I did it as I absolutely love my career!

[jamisaurus]

I have a BS in biology, got a 3.3 cum and busted my butt for it too. For my 13 month Accelerated BSN, I got a 4.0 with half the work. I attribute it to actually enjoying learning and being able to apply the material, which was difficult in my first degree.