Do you guys see a lot of people saying they are nursing students....

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or go to nursing school and than find out they are still in the Pre Req phase? I swear I have seen a good number of people do this, and than when I say, "Oh what semester are you in, I am in this semester" they are like, Oh well I am not actually in yet but I start pre reqs soon, or I just started pre reqs. I wonder why that is. Before I started the actual program I would say if asked that I was doing Pre Reqs to get into the nursing program. Or I am on the waitlist for the nursing program.

Specializes in Geriatrics.

My poor husband, hes so proud of me that he brags to everyone he knows and sees..He was telling me about how one of his customers (sales homes), She was an RN and so he bgan bragging about how his wife is in Nursing School to become a....wait for it.....

"Licensed Registered Nurse"

LOL I about died when I heard that...laughed so hard. Im going for LVN...:rotfl:

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

Get this...my kids thought I was studying to be a doctor when I first started school. I cringe when I think about how many people they said that to at their own school. :o

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
Get this...my kids thought I was studying to be a doctor when I first started school. I cringe when I think about how many people they said that to at their own school. :o

I should say I am in med school since everyone and their mama now comes to me for medical advice knowing I am in nursing school :|

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I say Im a nursing student just b/c saying "Im taking classes toward getting into the nursing program" or "Im a pre-nursing student" takes up too much time time and opens the floor for too many questions. Nursing student is straight forward and to the point

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
I have a friend that is a CNA (nothing against CNA's I understand they are the ones that get shafted in the end) This friend made a comment on how they helped at an accident. They made a comment, Now I really feel like a nurse. At the time I got my acceptance letter to school so I was OFFICIALLY a nursing student. I didnt say anything to this person but took offense to them calling them self a nurse when they hadn't even been through official nursing school. I felt like, you are a nurse Assistant not a nurse.

Again I have nothing against CNA's personally i feel they are paid CRAP for what all they have to do!! I don't know about anywhere else but most Cna's around here only get paid like $8-$9 an hour. That is WAY to little!!!

I have told my CNA friend if once I graduate if I ever talk down or put down CNA's smack the sh*t out of me because without yall, a lot of jobs wouldn't get done.:bowingpur

Amen to that. Our 1st semester clinicals were in a nursing home and we were basically CNA's for that rotation. They are way over worked and underpaid. I couldn't do it. In the hospital it wasn't as bad and I could handle being an aide there. But in the nursing homes it's deplorable.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
I say Im a nursing student just b/c saying "Im taking classes toward getting into the nursing program" or "Im a pre-nursing student" takes up too much time time and opens the floor for too many questions. Nursing student is straight forward and to the point

Pre-Nursing seems pretty straight forward to me and is easy to say and not time consuming. I had no problems using the term Pre-Nursing before I was in nursing school. If someone says they're Pre-law or Pre-Med I know exactly what they are meaning.

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Yeah I do notice people saying this. Actually, I noticed people have been saying since I myself was a Pre-Nursing student. Then I would ask them things like what are clinicals like or what school they go to or how long did they wait before acceptance, and then they admit they're as Pre-Nursing as I was!

I never really minded, but now that I am a nursing student I do find it a bit misleading. Before I get berated, let me explain.

I'm happy to talk to anyone whether they're Pre-Nursing or Nursing Students. I have volunteered two semesters in a row to mentor the first semester Nursing students so I am beyond happy to share my experience and give tips and advice. However, I wear my heart on my sleeve... and when someone tells me that they are a nursing student, I am overjoyed to hear about other people's experiences with nursing care plans, clinical rotations, different hospitals, and of course, the fact that we just don't see our families as much, and how much that sucks. After this initial flood of excitement about endless topics to discuss, once they find out that I actually am a nursing student, and then backtrack and tell me they are just starting prereqs... it's like... oh. Then the discussion changes completely from one of sharing experiences/joys/torturous moments to one where I am basically giving advice the entire time. Which I don't mind! I love doing that. But it's just ... it would have been nice to know from the beginning. I hope I don't sound condescending. I love helping Prenursing students all the time because when I was a prenursing student, I knew no one who was a nursing student OR a nurse, which is why I'm so determined to help out.

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

It's so funny that you should mention this:

The other day in Fundamentals, our instructor told us that when CNAs and others introduce themselves as "Hi, I'm So-n-so, and I'll be your nurse" she always asks them where they went to school, what level degree they have etc. Her point is that it takes fairly extensive, expensive and harrowing education to be a nurse. It's not just a series of classes in procedures and so on and that having RN or LPN/LVN after your name means something and that if you don't have RN or LPN/LVN after your name, you have no business calling yourself a nurse even if the provider you are working for expects you to "because it puts the patient at ease".

That said, I was in a gen ed class recently, and we were going through introductions and several people in pre-req's wrongly identified their major as "Nursing". I told one of them afterward that their major is not Nursing, it's "Pre-Nursing, Health Professions" and went on to explain, as gently as I could, and without saying that the odds were that they would not be making it, that getting into nursing school is really hard and that they really should not be doing that.

Additionally, our DoN has told us on numerous occasions that we should have no compunction at all about affixing "BSN, RN" after our names once we've graduated and passed boards. We paid a crap ton for it in time and sweat as well as money, and it's an accomplishment beyond the baccalaureates of many other disciplines.

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At my school I have not seen anyone do that. I only tell people that I just applied to the program if they ask. Before that I said unsure or just doing gen-eds. Its so hard to get into the program I wouldnt take it for granted.

Also, the only time I have ever seen that is when people are doing a 4 year university and going for a BSN. I dont know how those programs work but many people say they are nursing students as freshmen in college.

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All of last year (my first year of college), I said that I was a nursing student even though I was just in my pre-nursing classes...but it wasn't a false statement because at my school, you are admitted right into the nursing program, and not as a pre-nursing student...it's just that the first year is the prereqs, and you start the nursing classes and clinicals in the second year.

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.
I say Im a nursing student just b/c saying "Im taking classes toward getting into the nursing program" or "Im a pre-nursing student" takes up too much time time and opens the floor for too many questions. Nursing student is straight forward and to the point

I feel the same way. Honestly, the average person does not understand or care if we got accepted into a program, how hard it was to get in, or what the difference actually is. If someone at school asked me, I would go into specifics. But if I was at a party with my boyfriend (pauses to remember having a social life with parties), the person asking is just being polite in getting to know me. It matters to people who want to be nurses and I love to gush over the specifics with them, but for everyone else it makes me feel narcissistic to give a 5 minute explanation. I think it mattered more to me before I got in because I wanted in SO BAD and I thought those that got accepted knew something that I didn't!

I don't see it as equal to the misrepresentation of CNA's calling themselves nurses is because that is a legal distinction. That is something I would get upset over. But this? Meh.

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Pre-Nursing seems pretty straight forward to me and is easy to say and not time consuming. I had no problems using the term Pre-Nursing before I was in nursing school. If someone says they're Pre-law or Pre-Med I know exactly what they are meaning.

Before i started nursing classes, if someone said pre-nursing, i wouldnt have known what that meant. Meh...I dont think its that bigga deal

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