Did anyone hate nursing school?

LaceyRN · Dec 3, 2007

I am in second semester and I am just sooooo tired and run down. Every week I feel like quitting. I have an hour commute and 2 small kids so thats an added difficulty. Is it normal to dislike nursing school so much? I know Im probably just not thinking clearly at this point being so exhausted, but please tell me it all pays off in the end!
I, like many others worked toward this goal for so long, just trying to get in. I have always loved school. But since becoming an actual nursing student, I can barely get B's much less A's. I guess I thought nursing school would be so fun and interesting and full of cool new things to experience. But hard instructors and hours of clinical are more the case. And I feel so dumb all the time!
Just trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I need help seeing the good in it again. Thanks.......better go study!

I am still in NS and I can say there are times when a LOVE it (few), and times when I 'think' I hate it, though I really don't hate NS per se but rather the stress it brings.

You bring up an interesting point about how hard we work to get into school and what a reality check it is once we're in. I try to remember to take the time to smell the roses... when a pt. says "thank you" and smiles, that is a rose. When the MD/NP makes critical decisions about you pt. based upon your detailed assessment and observations of your pt., that's a rose. These experiences help keep me focused on my goal and remind me of why I am working so hard to become an RN in the first place.

Just keep working hard and remember look for the positive! It is the only way I can stay sane through NS!

mark3274 · Dec 4, 2007

hate it.. no Would I want other male students to attend my particular school...... well that is up for debate.

I have already had talks with some old Biology professor's and said You know theres another Nursing school on the other side of the county that I would probably send my male students to first and they both said we here that from alot of male students about our particular program.

It is a excellent school... I just think the bs a male student endures from some teachers is beyond what is called for.

bubablur · Dec 8, 2007

I am just finishing up nursing 3. One more to go.......and when anyone asks me how's nursing school, I tell them.....it's like being in a two year hazing! 4 if you include the classes you took just to get in to nursing school. I am so thankful to hear all the responses, almost every RN I have had the opportunity to work with has told me. Just get through it. Hang in there and we will teach you to be a nurse when you get out. Just get the foundation, pass the n-clex and hang in there!! Good luck everyone.

slevin · Dec 27, 2007

I just graduated 2 weeks ago. Let me tell, I HATED the last 2 semester. Most of all I hated the clinicals, But i took on day at a time and i made it. I guess its a normal feeling. NEVER GIVE UP.

KrysyRN, BSN · Dec 27, 2007

The classroom portion of school was ok, but I loathed clinicals. Our school tacked on so much homework to do the night before and during clinicals, that it was impossible to get a good night's sleep. Our homework was always due at 6 a.m., and the rest at the end of the clinical day. The amount we were required to complete was rediculous. We never had a day of clinicals where all we did was patient care and charting, etc. Never. If we found time to take a bathroom break or a 5 minute lunch, it was a rarity. Now that I'm done with school, I don't even want to think about job hunting. I'm exhausted.

slevin · Dec 27, 2007

The classroom portion of school was ok, but I loathed clinicals. Our school tacked on so much homework to do the night before and during clinicals, that it was impossible to get a good night's sleep. Our homework was always due at 6 a.m., and the rest at the end of the clinical day. The amount we were required to complete was rediculous. We never had a day of clinicals where all we did was patient care and charting, etc. Never. If we found time to take a bathroom break or a 5 minute lunch, it was a rarity. Now that I'm done with school, I don't even want to think about job hunting. I'm exhausted.

Yeah I know what you mean. I hated writing the APIE sheets every morning. The head-to-toe assessments. I really hope that when I start working, the real thing will be different from clinical, other wise I feel like I will hate my job.

sunnydaydream · Dec 27, 2007

I guess the nursing school that I went to was different.:uhoh21: We didn't have any pre-clinical day assignments, but had paperwork that had to be filled out during the day. The class at the beginning of the semester would vote when it would be due usually we made it due on lecture day. (There was an understanding that if we did that it may take longer to get it back then if we turned it in the day after clinicals, but we were okay with that.)

Our clinical instructors adviced and advocated breaks and lunches for us. There were many days when I would be up on ICU doing meds and caring for my patient and it'd be 1pm and the instructor would pull me out of the room and say, "The staff nurse can watch your patient while you go to lunch". Her reasoning was that she didn't want us getting burnt out on nursing while in nursing school. She also adviced us to be pro-active in ensuring we got our breaks when we did become nurses and not "donate" our time.

Did I "hate" nursing school? No, sometimes I loathed some of the stuff that they had us do, but looking back I see why they made us do it.

As a side point there was also another college that did clinicals at the same hospital and they would have to do pre-clinical day paperwork etc... and would be there on the days that we were doing clinicals. They hated us because we were talking about all the clinical skills that we were able to do (IV's, foley's, respirator care, etc) and many of them graduating in May said they have never done any of those things because they were swamped in paperwork.

matokokepa · Dec 27, 2007

I am also in nursing school and can sympathize....i too am struggling and doing my best to keep my head above water cheer on my fellow classmates.....and laugh thru tears when not getting enough sleep and at the 50 mark this is quite interesting...luckily kids raised and just have hubby and i surviving........kuddos to you........i think i can i think i can.......or better yet.......i KNOW I CAN I KNOW I CAN......like the mailman thru snow and rain etc etc

dortizjr1 · Dec 28, 2007

I hated my first year of nursing school. I'm a career changer though and maybe it had something to do with that. I'd been a programmer analyst for 12 years and I found the terrible attitude of most of my first year instructors coupled with the unspoken rule of no men allowed really grating.

The misandry aside, the worst part of nursing school was that there was simply no agreement between the instructors. What one would teach, another would tell you was wrong. There was absolutely no sense of conformity or consistency from instructor to instructor. The way the school I went to does it, is that they have two teams: and first year team and a second year team. The second year team was over all very good. The first year team stank.

I recently saw a first year instructor at a local store and she said hello to me. My exact reply to her was " What in our shared history makes you think that I'd want to trade pleasantries with an a-hole like you?" I left her with that thought and she had a mystified look on her face.

I read above another post about what it took to make it through nursing school, something about super smart or stubborn. I fall into the category of stubborn.

eldragon · Dec 28, 2007

I recently saw a first year instructor at a local store and she said hello to me. My exact reply to her was " What in our shared history makes you think that I'd want to trade pleasantries with an a-hole like you?" I left her with that thought and she had a mystified look on her face.

I understand completely. I am 44 years old and just graduated from a nursing program. My instructors were 45 and 42 years old. The younger one, especially, was a nightmare. She made it a personal goal to flunk every student she could, and succeeded in flunking 60% of the class. She was bipolar, unpredictable and by the end of the program, everyone had experienced her personal wrath at least once. Because I am close to her age, older in fact, and consider myself to have aged well and to be a well-spoken individual and I have traveled all over the world and have a unique background coming into nursing, this particular instructor put serious effort into trying to make me look like a fool. She rarely succeeded. She did, however, make the program much more stressful than it had to be. In fact, she almost ruined it for me. I graduated with all A's and B's throughout the program and I never missed a single day, or was late coming to class, but my diligence was never noticed.

I am a published writer, but yet all my writing assignments were graded poorly compared to students half my age who couldn't spell.

So if I run into this particular woman, I have alot of bitter and cruel things I'd like to say to her. She tried to ruin me, but failed in her quest to do so.

Should I forgive her? No. We aren't friends. I woudln't be her friend outside of school, because she wasn't civil to me while we were in school. And so if I do run into her again, I hope I am honest enough about my feelings toward her that I will disregard her completely. So I completely understand how you feel.

GIRN · Dec 28, 2007

Isn't it amazing that these instructors continue to teach year after year. Don't the students complaints and evaluations mean anything to the Dean? I was so excited to start nursing school but quickly learned that it wasn't going to be a typical college experience. I was so relieved when it was over. It was a very frustrating experience. I learned a lot and love my job now, but having to jump through so many hoops and put with up with poor instructors was disheartening to say the least.

I did have some excellent instructors and work side by side with them now in the hospital. But the instructors that purposely tried to make their students lives miserable....I wouldn't even speak to if I saw them in the community. It's pretty sad that people have these bitter feelings about nursing school throughout the country.

eldragon · Dec 28, 2007

The instructor I am referring to was teaching for the first time. And she had no skills.

Everyone complained. In writing. It was useless. They shipped her to another campus, and after one block of teaching new students, she received death threats. She didn't care, she still managed to flunk two students she didn't like. Funny how the two students she said she hated, both flunked out the fourth block when she started teaching them.

The whole thing was so shady, it was overall a bad experience for me. I had imagined a college nursing program would be a good experience, and that people who showed up on time and studied for tests would be rewarded for such things. Not! Instead, she didn't lecture at all and refused to answer questions. She made you regret even asking them. So before long, nobody bothered. To ask her the simplest of questions was to stick your neck out, you never knew what her response would be.

She was such a bad teacher, she once called a student at 10 pm, two days before a final and told her she had flunked the class, not to bother coming in the next day or the day after for the final.

So, on the day of the final, the other instructor checked that students grades, and she hadn't failed! She called the student two hours before the final and told her she could still take it. The student, who had been depressed and obviously not studying for the final, didn't bother coming in.

No reprimands for that. And it wasn't the only time that teacher miscalculated a grade and told a student they had failed. It happened to another student, too. But that student knew she had passed, and challenged the teacher, who put the student on hold and came back on and told she had, in fact, passed. (Next block...that student failed for real, yes - by the teacher in question.)

It was awful.