Do experienced students (cna, emt) do better in nursing programs than non-exp???

OhioCCRN, MSN, NP · May 31, 2011

I will tell you my personal experience...

I went into the Nursing program without having stepped my foot in anyones hospital to work.. I heard it all in terms of horror stories where i would 'fail' because i had no prior hospital experience..

Our first semester was basically the only place that 'experienced' students had a leg up, and this was largely in terms of practical skills.

By the First Med-surg class, the 'unexperienced' masses had caught up. Because Nursing is like no other field. where being a CNA or an EMT may help you with some concepts (Paramedics totally rocked the Acute Cardiac portion) most of the concepts are foreign to other fields and as long as you work hard, you should in no way lag behind...

Some instructors say its sometimes easier to grasp concepts if you have had no prior hospital experience as this can cloud you skills in answering NCLEX style questions. Always remember, in a question, You are at NCLEX hospital, which has full staffing, all types of machinery, nothing is malfunctioning and the doctor is always available. If you use too much 'real world' experience you may end up getting the question wrong.

Good luck in the Program! :nurse:

Samantha79 · May 31, 2011

In my experience, being a CNA or EMT actually hurt many of the students (not all). They have to "change gears" from their current or previous role to the one of RN. I found that EMTs really were awesome in the parmacology and cardiac areas but had a hard time applying the "patients feelings" to the mix. In their world the patient is often not with it, and it is their duty to perform life saving care and transport. They aren't worried so much about the patients feelings. They just simply don't have the time for it. Works great in the EMT world, not so much in the nursing world. I've found that the CNAs would often argue with instructors because that's "not how the RNs at MY hospital do it." The reality is this... there is a school world and a hospital world. We are taught the ideal way to do it in school. The ideal way may not always be possible in the real world. Arguing with an instructor who has a degree and a license is rarely a good idea as a student. You'll be just fine going in with no experience. Good luck!

SummitRN, BSN, RN · May 31, 2011

If your program didn't require experience to get in, then your program is designed to make you into a nurse from scratch without prior experience!!! :)

That said, experience will help, especially at first, but only if you can keep these things separate:

Real world

School world

NCLEX world

Samantha: the EMT issues you described are probably a personality thing as well as the difference between emergency acute world and sub acute/med surg acute world

redmango · May 31, 2011

Not necessarily, they are more familiar with the hospital and they would be more comfortable in it. Just study hard and make a few friends that are CNA or EMT's because they do know what they are doing during clinicals and can help you make your clinical life more easier. In lecture it's a different story so study hard and don't worry about how much more experience another student may have. In the end it's you thats going to be doing all this stuff on your own.

Aka Mommy · May 31, 2011

Thanks you guys, that helps.....and that's pretty much what I've been hearing too. My school does require you to have your CNA license, however I went to an accelerated school where they basically teach you how to pass the state license exam in like 8 days. Sooooo, I have no "real" experience. I heard a girl on the day of my exam totally poo,pooing the accel. programs for CNA's and said there's no way they could walk in here and pass this exam just before I passed mine! Hello, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to get the ideas taught for CNA work.....with that being said...it does takes smart, compassionate people to "be" a great CNA! Will this slow me down in nursing school??? Only time will tell:)

mangopeach · May 31, 2011

I'm in my 2nd semester. Interestingly, the first person to fail out of our program last semester was someone with prior healthcare experience. My school does not require it and most of us came in with no experience. You'll do fine as long as you commit yourself to working hard.

JROregon, ASN, BSN, RN · May 31, 2011

HI AKa Mommy, I have my CNA certificate also because we had to be certified to get into the nursing program and I got my training at a hospital, blah, blah, blah, nearly 2 years ago. When we first started clinicals, I noticed how comfortable my experienced CNA classmates were compared to me. I was a little jealous. They were ultra comfortable trying out all the new skills as well. Where they had trouble was thinking through some of the problems that came up during skills demonstration and many had a lot of trouble with the biweekly tests we take. Of course some of the completely inexperienced people had test taking difficulties as well. I will say that there are a couple of superstars that are not only experienced and good CNAs, they are good with everything. I can also say that the people getting the A's in class, for the most part, have prior bachelor's degrees. You can definitely correlate critical thinking skills (and I hate the term critical thinking) with doing well in nursing school. It also helps to have good eye/hand coordination, people skills, and decision making ability.

SpookySqueeek · May 31, 2011

I was a nurse aid for two years before starting nursing school. Like the others have said, it has it's pros and cons. Some of the pros were that I did indeed have a leg up on basic clinical skills like vital signs and patient ambulation because I did them all the time and I was already used to trying to read docs' handwriting and common medical terminology and procedures. However, there's something to be said for starting with a fresh slate. Old habits are harder to break than new ones are to make. My cons were that I really needed to make an effort to switch my mode of thinking because now when I identified a patient problem it was my responsibility to treat it, not to report it to the nurse. Also, as Samantha pointed out, the ideal way is not always the realistic way unfortunately, and consequently I was very nervous that I'd picked up bad habits at work and that I would slip in clinicals.

Like redmango said, make friends with the folks with experience. I loved to help whenever I could when someone was struggling with something I knew how to do. As long as you work hard though, you'll do just fine.

ImThatGuy, BSN, RN · Jun 1, 2011

I think, like all things scholastic, it depends upon the student. We had an RT who did ok, a LPN who flunked out, and myself (former paramedic). I've done really well. This is a BSN program, and we all started out with fundamentals. A few of us in the cohort, like me, already have bachelor's degrees.

Experience will always help with a myriad of things related to nursing and nursing school, but there are still new things to learn to make it through the program. That said, the things you need to learn to do well in school don't necessarily translate into success in the workplace, and the things you need to do well in the workplace aren't necessarily learned in school. That's probably where the most helpful part of healthcare experience comes in. That, and other work dealing with people, made clinicals easy, if not boring, for me.

Academically, I'm really interested in all things related to biology. Physiology, pathophysiology, pharmacology, etc. have a nexus to biology and are the attractive elements of nursing school for me, and since I like it all of that is interesting yet easy as well. I'm much more interested in knowing that than I am in anything related to directly treating a patient.

Clinically, there are certain ways that I do things, and I shall keep on doing them that way even though that's not precisely the way the specific nursing program I'm in teaches it. As an example, they teach to palpate the arterial pulse before taking a blood pressure at whatever location you're assessing such as the brachial artery. I don't see that as a necessity and thus don't do it. Fortunately, the clinical faculty here want the job done safely so as long as you accomplish what you're supposed to do they don't really care.

KCMedicRN · Jun 1, 2011

To answer both your questions, IMHO..

My experience as a paramedic is helpful, but my life experience and interest in healthcare has been equally as important. That said, my EMS experience was very broad. Am I doing better then a lot of other students in my class, yes. Is there anyone with no previous experience that is doing as well as I am, yes. A big piece of it comes down to individual students determination, study habits, professors teaching abilities, and how much one is willing to sacrifice..nursing school does take effort. :)

Secondly, if your ADN program is designed for those without previous healthcare experience then you shouldn't worry about being behind or keeping up with anyone else in the class....unless your own personality is of those competitive types-which I understand... Just learn, do the work, and pass the exams.

DLS_PMHNP, MSN, RN, NP · Jun 1, 2011

Define "better"...