most difficult part of nursing school?

Nursing Students General Students

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Hello all :)

I am not yet a nursing student...still contemplating whether or not to apply to nursing school. I have all the pre-reqs done and have a lot of healthcare support personnel role background.

I am wondering if some of you nursing students would be willing to share what you think is the most difficult aspect of nursing school.

I'd love to hear what you have to share and would really appreciate it :)

Time management, Hands down.

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1) Being so incredibly exhausted that your ability to handle the smallest things outside of nursing are shot and you find yourself a little over emotional all the time

2) working your heart out but still not getting the A's like you use to, getting the praise like you use to, in fact getting called out on things that may not even be your fault

3)jumping through so many hoops i think i could join the circus

4) realizing that nursing school is just something you have to survive in order to achieve your really awesome goal of becoming a nurse, no one ever said it was going to be easy, and well my dream of it being fun wasn't realistic either

5)people saying they understand but unless they're in nursing school they have no idea

6)being broke all the time

7)i'm burnt out when i'm at school or studying and guilty when i'm not at school or studying

8)it turned me from a type b to a type A anal personality

9) i'm now 3,000 miles away from my family

10) it feels like nursing school is taking forever

***with all this being said I have met some amazing people, professors included, in nursing school and I still can't wait to be a nurse...in the end it's all worth it

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I completely agree with so many of you here.

I hate...

1) 5 choices/question, choose the best answer or select all that apply!!

2) many long chapters you need to read (some of them are really unreasonably long)

3) having so many reading assignments per week (there's no time to catch up if you fall behind)

4) plans of care/concept maps (time-consuming)

5) some clinical instructors are not so great

6) incredibly long lectures (hard to stay awake especially when it's early morning)

7) some nurses/CNA's could be difficult to work with or not receptive to students (for whatever reasons)

8) show-off/ass-kissing/loud-mouthed students

9) the all-white uniform we are required to wear

I'm just trying to get through it as quickly as I can (while getting good grades of course). Sometimes you just have to suck it up and try to get through it.

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Specializes in NICU Level III.

1. clinicals. most of mine were adult med/surg and that's the bane of my existence.

2. so many group projects!

3. care plans.

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I think that I agree with all of the pp's. If I had to pick just one thing though, it would probably be the enormous amount of reading and the total lack of time in which to do the reading!! :banghead:

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Specializes in E.D..

It depends on what type of person you are. For some, it will be the exams. For some, it will be the skills. For some, it will be clinicals. For me, because I have no previous medical background (came from banking) it was definitely learning the skills. This was a foreign concept to me. I always thought of school as attending lecture and taking exams. This is far from the truth in nursing. You know how you elect a "Best All Around" person in high school? Well, in nursing school, you kind of have to be that "Best All Around" student. You have to be good at exams, but you also have to be good at learning and demonstrating the skills. It's also easy to get caught up in exact procedures when performing skills. This doesn't work in the real world, because you have to be flexible, and each situation is different.

The other difficult thing about nursing school is managing your time. You have to make decisions each day. Do I study? Do I practice skills? Do I review some A&P? Do I work on my clinicals??? Each day is different, and you must take advantage of each and every minute. Each time I think I have some breathing room, they announce some type of new assignment...SHEESH! At first, I wanted to quit. Now, though, I almost laugh because I've been at it long enough to realize that I will survive...somehow...

My Nursing 101 instructor gave me a priceless piece of advice the very first day..."you gotta just keep on swimming". That's the only thing which has gotten me through so far. Some days, I swim a mile...many days, I can only swim a few strokes...but, I do some type of swimming each and every day.

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Time management and the continual lack of sleep!

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Specializes in Critical Care.

1. Lack of time. Not enough time. I have a bunch of assignments due.....which one do I work on first and for how long. Also a test and a presentation coming up. When I feel like I am finally catching up more things come up. Not having enough time for friends/husband/kids/cleaning the house.

2. Oh yeah and the tests with more than one right answer but we have to pick the best one.

3. School was always easy for me. I did not ever have to try very hard. Even the prereqs and general classes were a breeze. Nursing school you have to put a lot of time and effort into everything.

On the plus side, I have grown more than I ever thought possible. I have grown as a student and a person. I have gained a confidence I never had. I have a better outlook on life and I am more grateful for everything than I ever have been before. And I still have one more year to go. I can't wait to see who I am when I graduate. :wink2:

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I forgot one thing on my last post. Learning all those medications.

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Specializes in Ortho/Neuro/MedSurg.
1.) If you are an over achiever, coming to terms with the fact that you will no longer be an A student, then accepting this fact after fighting it for some time.

2.) Feeling stupid even though you can recite the book inside out.

3.) Learning not to critically think, while trying to learn how to critically think.

4.) Feeling like giving up because you think you might seriously hurt someone after your first mistake at clinical.

5.) Having this constant nagging feeling of "what the **** have I gotten myself into?"

WOW!!!!! I totally agree.

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For me, its been accepting that I will not get perfect grades.I mean,I got a B on a test yesteday and in any other major that may be O.K but in nursing school you won't get in to your next required class if that "B" slips too far,so you have to constantly study..Lots of memorization.I used to have an active social life and that's GONE,but I can't wait to finish school.:nurse:

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Specializes in ICU.

The hardest things about nursing school are:

-not having enough time to ever go back and study what you've learned

-not seeing anyone outside of the nursing program for weeks (maybe even months) at a time

-time management, absolutely 100% the biggest challenge.

The classes aren't that hard, it's just that there's So. Much. Information. My absolute best advice is to get an uncalendar (http://www.uncalendar.com), plan out your time realistically and don't get behind or you are sunk.

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