Post Nursing School Blues

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in ED, Cardiac Medicine, Retail Health.

Since school ended on Tuesday more than a few of my classmates have been feeling blue. They have crying spells and a general feeling of sadness. I have not experienced any of those symptoms as I am glad that school is finally over. Has anyone else experienced the end of school blues? What causes it? For the longest time all we wished for was school to end, so I dont quite understand whats going on with some of my classmates. I wish to offer support, but I dont quite understand and dont want to seem insensitive.:confused:

0 Votes
Specializes in Critical Care, Pediatrics, Geriatrics.

I will be SO interested to hear some replies on this issue...Right now I am feeling a little detached myself. I'm not sad, no crying...but I do not feel as happy as I think I should feel. I guess I am feeling a little apathetic. I have been really irritable for no reason and I am reluctant to go back to work (orientation doesn't start until the 8th of Jan). I don't want to look at a hospital right now and my pinning is tomorrow and I don't feel excited about it, or Christmas, or anything. I wonder if it is just a little depression settling in during this transition phase.

0 Votes
Specializes in hospice.

It's "community"; a feeling of family you get when you go through hi-stress experiences with others and all of a sudden it's over. It will pass and hopefully they'll feel community at their next job. Those effected need to plan a cook-out or something to be together one more time. The emotional ties don't go away when you graduate.

0 Votes
Specializes in ER/Trauma.

It has been strange, I will admit myself. I felt almost lost on Monday afternoon, no reading/clinical paperwork to prep/tests to study for etc. As far as the blues, I have not felt that. I dove into Christmas shopping, getting back in the gym and the giant mountain of laundry that has accumulated.

I think it is strange though, I miss everyone I hung with everyday. We have pinning tomorrow night and I am in disbelief. I almost expect a call telling me there was a mistake and I really am not eligible to graduate.

Monday is the first day of orientation so I have new challenges waiting for me and I am getting nervous too!

0 Votes
Specializes in ED, Cardiac Medicine, Retail Health.

Most of the class will be taking a week long NCLEX class in January so it will be the last hurrah. i do understand the sadness as i think about it. We were a "family" for two long hard years and now the family members will be leaving the nest.

0 Votes
Specializes in Rural Health.

I think NS has sucked the life out of me and for the most part, my entire class feels this way. We have walked around for days now trying to decide if we should be happy we are done or sad or what we should feel.

We have pinning tomorrow night and I'm hoping that maybe this will give me some closure and some type of emotion about the entire ordeal.

0 Votes
Specializes in OB.

I think for me- when I get there- is the loss of seeing fellow students everyday that I have made friends with.. also it will be the aimless wandering feeling I will get with no one telling me what to do, how to do it and when! wow- I can pee when i want.. I dont have to raise my hand to ask a question....:w00t:

0 Votes
Specializes in Assisted Living Nurse Manager.

Yes I do believe the "Post Nursing School Blues" are very real. I graduated in May took the Nclex in June, passed and here I sit feeling very blah. I am working at the same job I did as a medical assistant (here they use medical assistants and LPN's in the clinic) for the same pay. I feel like I should be striving for more but yet I do not have the gumption at this point. A part of me misses studying and absorbing all the information thrown at me and the other part is glad that I have free time. So as you can tell I am in the midst of the "post nursing school blues". :confused:

0 Votes
Specializes in Freelance Writer, 'the nurse who knows content'.

I think it's normal to go through a "letdown" period whenever one chapter of life ends and another begins. I know, personally, I always go through a blue period when I leave a job or move to a new home or anything like that. I went through a letdown period when I graduated from high school and again after I finished my first bachelor's. I even go through it after I finish a big writing project. In fact, novelists often report going through a period of depression after they finish a book.

The good news is you'll cope with it and move on. That's what we humans do: keep moving forward.

Best wishes to you!

0 Votes

Boy, I sure went through a depression when I finished LPN school. Looking back, now I can see why. For a year it was my whole life, EVERYTHING revolved around school. Not just for me but my whole family.

And then one day it was all over and I was on my own. I remember it being a sunny autumn day and I had gone out for a walk. The landscape actually looked ugly to me and everything seemed like a letdown for awhile. I did not understand why I felt that way at the time, but I understand now.

I don't know if any of my other 11 classmates felt that way. I attempted to keep in touch with one of them but she was into her own thing, I guess.

I didn't suffer from post-RN school blues the way I did from LPN school. I guess it is partly because I went through Excelsior and the "community" thing wasn't there.

Whenever I go through a life altering experience it does take some getting used to. For example, when we moved to our new house a few years ago, it was very hard for me to let go of the other place (even though this new place was 3x nicer).

I actually grieved over moving away. We still own the little shack, and my husband doesn't understand why it still upsets me to go there...well, it is where I raised my babies and to go in there and still see their little drawings still on the wall

(which you couldn't pay me a million dollars to paint over) brings back memories and I just feel kind of sad that those times are gone forever. Makes me misty eyed just thinking about it.

Anyway...

If a year or two brings about depression in us nursing students, I wonder what it's like to get out of medical school??? Geez...

0 Votes
Specializes in Infection Preventionist/ Occ Health.
I will be SO interested to hear some replies on this issue...Right now I am feeling a little detached myself. I'm not sad, no crying...but I do not feel as happy as I think I should feel. I guess I am feeling a little apathetic. I have been really irritable for no reason and I am reluctant to go back to work (orientation doesn't start until the 8th of Jan). I don't want to look at a hospital right now and my pinning is tomorrow and I don't feel excited about it, or Christmas, or anything. I wonder if it is just a little depression settling in during this transition phase.

I feel exactly the same way. This happened to me after my first degree as well. I think that some people just have a harder time with transitions than others.

For me, I think that my stress is caused by the fact that I feel like everything is changing all at once. I am finishing school, leaving my job, moving to a new home (hopefully in January) about 30 minutes away, starting graduate school, and starting a new job.

I am going to have to find ways to keep myself busy over the next month until my job starts.

0 Votes

oops, double post.

0 Votes
+ Add a Comment