fed up with nursing school

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I am less than 2 months away from graduation and I am totally fed up with nursing school. My instructor has turned into the wicked witch of the west, and I feel that I am learning NOTHING!!! We have some pretty stupid assignments that aren't teaching anything, and I feel like all we are doing is busy work. What has happened? Have any of you experienced this??? How did you get thru it? I'm just looking for some advise/encouragement or anything you may have to help me! Thanks!!!

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Just think about all the people that wish that they were in nursing school and were denied or put on a waiting list and that may give you a different outlook on your situation and you may actually appreciate the fact that you're one of a few chosen that get into a program and then graduate.

Count your blessings!

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Be happy you are 2 months away from graduating and then you are finished. I am only in my first semester. I would love to be in your position right now.

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Yes, I am in a similar situation and completely agree about the busy work. For me it is also being at the point when we are taking the various specialties in medicine (OB, peds, mental health) which I have no desire to pursue as a licensed professional. I understand why they are important but am certainly counting the days until I never have to think about them again in such detail.

My biggest gripe with nursing school, however, has to do with a lot of the academic literature and standardized methods (textbooks, ATI/HESI). They really go out of their way to overcomplicate scientific material and bog down concepts with arbitrary and senseless crap. This is a big source of the theory to practice gap and wish we were given more of an opportunity to problem solve and think critically as opposed to memorizing "12 steps of a clinical procedure."

I am also fed up with some of my classmates' behavior. So many of them are wasting hours and hours of their lives memorizing as opposed to learning. Making flashcards and cramming when they should be reading and analyzing. Blows my mind. Time is valuable, ladies.

Good luck to you on your successful completion. Maybe we should become instructors and be the change we want to see in nursing education. I know I would take a very different approach to teaching and testing this material.

Cheers.

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

It happens to almost every nursing student (to at least some degree). There comes a point at which you are just fed up.

How to deal with it? ... Now is the time you simply need to be strong, buckle down, and "get'er done." That's what sayings such as "When the going gets tough, the tough get going" were developed for.

Yes, it's difficult. But you're this close to finishing. Give it one last big push and do it!

Good luck.

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I'm also a student and I WISH I only had 2 more months to go.

That should be you're motivating factor - YOU'RE ALMOST DONE! :yeah:

Hang in there, there's noooo way you came this face to throw in the towel now. :)

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Specializes in Urgent Care NP, Emergency Nursing, Camp Nursing.
My biggest gripe with nursing school, however, has to do with a lot of the academic literature and standardized methods (textbooks, ATI/HESI). They really go out of their way to overcomplicate scientific material and bog down concepts with arbitrary and senseless crap. This is a big source of the theory to practice gap and wish we were given more of an opportunity to problem solve and think critically as opposed to memorizing "12 steps of a clinical procedure."

Actually, the biggest source of the theory/practice gap is that a lot of the highest-level nursing theories aren't theories at all (as they don't predict anything), but are conceptual frameworks. The mid-level theories are great from a research perspective, at it allows one to talk about a specific aspect of nursing in relationship to the whole. The low-level theories get used all the time as part of evidence-based nursing, at least when people bother to go looking up the evidence...

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Specializes in CVICU/ER.

Try2, I feel ya. I am less than 40 days away from being done and I am forcing myself to do any homework and studying. Like you, all I do is write reflection papers, write papers on my growth as a student, write letters to legislators about nursing issues....It's bugging the hell out of me. All of this, not to mention the 45 clinical hours of leadership, the 90 clinical hours of community and the 165 clinical hours I am putting in at a CVICU.......on top of work and raising my little boy. I am just flat done with this crap.

Cathy, I don't think it is question of somebody not counting their blessings, I think it is a problem of being so saturated with nursing, that something has to give. I liken it to ice cream, everybody likes it, but nobody likes it shoved down their throat. I feel my learning has been stagnant the last semester of my BSN program. I feel as the learning I do, I do in clinical and my job. It annoys me to no end.

AGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

I just can't wait to get pinned, walk and take the damn NCLEX so I can give my 4 year old his daddy back. Dad missed ya son.

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Specializes in CVICU/ER.

Try2, I feel ya. I am less than 40 days away from being done and I am forcing myself to do any homework and studying. Like you, all I do is write reflection papers, write papers on my growth as a student, write letters to legislators about nursing issues....It's bugging the hell out of me. All of this, not to mention the 45 clinical hours of leadership, the 90 clinical hours of community and the 165 clinical hours I am putting in at a CVICU.......on top of work and raising my little boy. I am just flat done with this crap.

Cathy, I don't think it is question of somebody not counting their blessings, I think it is a problem of being so saturated with nursing, that something has to give. I liken it to ice cream, everybody likes it, but nobody likes it shoved down their throat. I feel my learning has been stagnant the last semester of my BSN program. I feel as the learning I do, I do in clinical and my job. It annoys me to no end.

AGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

I just can't wait to get pinned, walk and take the damn NCLEX so I can give my 4 year old his daddy back. Dad missed ya son.

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Specializes in GYN/GON/Med-Surg/Oncology/Tele.

I got fed up my first semester in nursing school and like most of you thought the same thing. That I wasn't learning anything and that going to class was a complete waste of time. After failing my finals and being kicked out of the program, I realized, the program wasn't the problem...I was. Definitely push through it, it's well worth it in the end. Just think of how far you've come. Entirely too far to give up now! Try to keep a positive attitude even if you believe you're doing some BS assignments. I'm sure you'll someday realize they had a purpose.

Good luck!

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I was totally in your shoes as far as fed up last semester but you have to think that you are almost done and you won't have to deal with it anymore in a few more months and look at how far you've come. You will be relived when you are graduated. Hang in there!

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
QUOTE=chuckz;4180796]. . . . . .I just can't wait to get pinned, walk and take the damn NCLEX so I can give my 4 year old his daddy back. Dad missed ya son.

Awww. . .too cute. :) It will all be so worth it in the end. But you knew that.

It's so normal to get a little skittish when you see the finish line there. It's interesting that some are saying they feel their schools are emphasizing the 1-2-3-4 steps in a procedure stuff at the expense of theory. It is very common for nurses in their first year after licensure to complain that they wish they had more experience with the nuts and bolts stuff. Best wishes to everybody who is in school/graduating!

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