First week- will I die of boredom?

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This is my first week of ADN nursing school and already I'm wondering if I will make it. Not because its hard or overwhelming, but because the intro to nursing classes are so unbelievably boring. Today we role played communication situations and I felt like I was in kindergarten. Nursing theory? That **** has to be BS. Someone tell me that it gets more interesting. Even hard would be good at this point. Yes, I have 20+ years of CNA experience and aced my pre reqs, have walked through the medical system with critically ill family, and have taken a ton of other college courses but I wanted to come into this humble and willing to learn. I want a challenge. I'm suddenly more worried about being bored than about being challenged. I don't have the option of another program or PA school or whatever right now. Advice appreciated. Anything so I don't fall asleep in class and never wake up. :dead:

Specializes in Critical Care.

I think when it comes to nursing school, critiquing the presentation is fine. Critiquing the information though? How can you do that if you are just learning it?

The role of the CNA is critical in patient care and is a task oriented role based on concrete information that does not require dissection and analysis.

The RN role is completely different. In nursing school you build a foundation of learning how to think critically in a nursing and medical context. That's why all those awful careplans, believe it or not, they help to teach you to think like a nurse.

As a long time preceptor of new nurses I have to say, you do not know what you do not know. You have to realize that to be successful. Humility. I still do not know what I do not know and I've been doing icu nursing for 16 years.

Nursing school is not about memorizing content. It's about the very beginnings of having an understanding of WHY nurses do what they do.

It's going to get tough. I have never in my nursing career met any nurse who didn't say school was hard. I think you need to adjust your expectations and attitude.

The best of luck to you.

Btw, I'm kinda stunned by the knocks at nursing theory here. Theory is our history! I recommend any book by Patricia Benner (especially "From Novice to Expert" for any new nurse in their first couple of years in nursing).

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Haha. Honey, you will be soon be so far up the creek in mind numbing unbelievably overwhelming amounts of information to memorize that you will look longingly back on your days of boredom and nursing for dummies fundamentals. Enjoy the calm before the worst storm you've ever been through.

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Specializes in Emergency Department.

Senior nursing student here. The answer is yes, it will get MUCH harder. You won't be bored for long.

You will eventually bless those theory questions on tests because they'll serve as a buffer for the rough questions. "Well, that right answer [nursing theory] will balance that one [potentially wrong] on my test score..."

-Someone who also thought nursing theory was tedious

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It may be boring but stuff like nursing theory, therapeutic communication, ethics and nursing law are all over your NCLEX so pay attention!!!!

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When people complain about long drawn out useless care plans that have to be written in nursing school that we dont actually do in real life you have to think about basics. For example in real everyday life you are not using much stuff you learned in chemistry class but as a whole that class was a building block to have other things we use everyday "make sense". This is how I look at care plans. They are godawful but they make you understand the basics of nursing and what we are really working for.

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I can guarantee that medical students don't spend an entire semester in a physician theory class trying to define "doctoring". Why nursing students have to endure all that whackadoodle nursing theory excrement is beyond me! Nursing holds all that high brow pseudo intellectual nonsense in such high regard when in reality, they should be embarrassed. I've shared some of that nursing theory crap with physicians and other academics. They just look at it and laugh. Holding nursing theory in such high regard just holds nursing, as a whole, back. Makes us all look,..well,...stupid for embracing such drivel.

Nurse: Code Blue, ICU!

Physician: What happened? What's going on?

Nurse: My patient is suffering from altered energy states and his focal and conceptual stimuli are misaligned and they are suffering from a self care deficit!

Physician: Oh, they stopped breathing,...why didn't you say so?!!?

SHEESH!!!

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I know nurses who thought nursing school was not that hard.

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AMEN TO THAT. My textbook just told me that nursing," is the only caring profession in medicine" Bull. Nurses don't own caring or planning or anything. The sooner nurses dump this garbage the sooner we can move on.

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The sooner nurses dump this garbage the sooner we can move on.

"We?" You're a nurse already? I thought you mentioned being a CNA. Maybe I missed a post about us being a "we."

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I know nurses who thought nursing school was not that hard.

No, not hard at all for me. Frustrating, infuriating, boring and generally disorganized? You betcha!!! Your mileage may vary!

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Specializes in Med-Tele; ED; ICU.
This is my first week of ADN nursing school and already I'm wondering if I will make it. Not because its hard or overwhelming, but because the intro to nursing classes are so unbelievably boring... Advice appreciated.

I feel the need to point out the foolishness of drawing any sorts of conclusions based on such a small sample size as the first week.

You might want to brush up on your probability and statistics.

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Actually I think first impressions are important and in this case probably accurate.

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