how hard is nursing school?

laurab2jb2 · Jul 2, 2001

Before I started the BSN program at Chico State, I was scared to death! I was told that the A students in junior college could only expect C's in the nursing program. This is because the requirements are so much more for nursing.

Well, I have found that I do have to work harder to maintain my grades, but it is definitely do-able. I am married, have 2 boys (10 and 16), and still try to run the house as I did when I was a stay at home mom. The house is never as clean as it used to be, and my children stare at me as if they don't know me when I actually have time to cook dinner!:) Priorities have shifted, but in my opinion, for the better. I feel I am setting a good example for my kids - that you can do anything you want to as long as you are determined. Also, my husband has become a better cook!

Don't let anyone scare you about nursing school. You will have to be dedicated and study if you want to pass your classes (if we get anything below a 75%, you don't pass the class and have to repeat the semester ), but it can be done. You also don't have to give up your social life completely, but choose your leisure time activities with more care. There will be less time for fun, but make sure to take it when you can or you will go crazy! :rolleyes:

AgidaeRN · Jul 7, 2001

Laura you are so right. Iam from Jamaica and will be doing my prerequisites for nursing college at the university of south florida in the fall and am looking forward to do good.

I am a mother of two children and will be taking care of my two-year old while in school but I wont let this discourage me because I know what I want and I think I am focussed. What I need to know is after doing the prerequisites if it is possible to take two years to do my BSN and where do I go from there in getting a job in the hospital in the US.

I love nursing and from I was a child this has always been my first choice.

I respect a person who works hard to achieve his or her goals and "lift my hat" to you as a mother who is so assertive and hardworking.

BrandyBSN · Jul 7, 2001

I am aware of some programs that you can take to get your BSN to 2 years after you have already recieved an RN from a Junior college, but I am not aware of any BSN programs that are accelerated to the point that you can get your BSN in less than 4 years when you are not already an RN. If you go to school to become and RN, take the NCLEX-RN, pass that, and become a registered nurse, and THEN take a BSN program it is possible to get out in 2 years but starting with only prereqs and no nursing degree, i do not think that is possible to get a BSN in 2 years.

let me know if someone knows differently

laurab2jb2 · Jul 8, 2001

I am not sure how all nursing programs work, but where I attend (California State University, Chico), the actual nursing program (all classes in the major) is 5 semesters long. You of course have to have all the general ed's in, as well as your upper division "theme course requirements", which is nine units above and beyond all the other courses. Some of the general ed's and prerequisites must be completed prior to beginning the program, but some can be taken concurrently, or even after the program is done (you just won't receive your diploma until all classes are completed).

I completed all of my general ed's and prerequisites at a junior college before transfering into Chico State. I do not have any experience in nursing, nor do I have my RN yet (that will happen upon passing the NCLEX - some serious optimism here, as there is no room to doubt otherwise!), but the program will take only 5 semesters (I'm starting semester 3 in the fall). So, I will have my BSN in two and a half years of starting the BSN program, because I completed the prereq's before. If you count all the time it took for the prereq's, it will obviously be longer. But, at Chico, these prereq's are not considered part of the program. I guess it's all in how you view the "actual program" to determine how long you must be in the program to obtain your BSN.

As for how to find a job once you are finished with nursing school, I still am not so sure about that. I guess I will find out once I am finished! :rolleyes: I am hoping that one of the hospitals or clinics where I am doing my rotations will appeal to me, and I to them, so the job hunting could prove to be easier (I hope! :confused: ) Anyone out there have any experience with obtaining your first job after graduation who would like to share? I'm sure we'd all be interested in others' experiences!

Thanks, and you all have a great day!:)

Laura

AgidaeRN · Jul 9, 2001

Laura

I am planning to do my rerequisites at the University of south florida starting august of this year and do the summer courses in order to finish less than two years ,then go to the nursing college at the same university and finish up my BSN so I guess I will be through in four years with everything.

I am going to work very hard and hoping to do partime job on campus to help with my rent and tuition. I am an international student from Jamaica and so the tuition is very high for me but I have to go through school.

rgolatt · Jul 9, 2001

adigae,

I too will be starting at a community college next month to begin taking my pre-requisites. I am a 27 yr old married mother of a 3 year old and sometime wonder if or how I will be able to make it through school. However, I have learned over the years that procrastination will get me nowhere and in order to be an achiever I must take the first step.

I too have wanted to be a nurse for as long as I could remember. That's where my heart is and will always be.

I truly am ready for the "Challenge" of nursing school and thanks to you all for the encouragement-it really means a lot.

Originally posted by agidae
Laura you are so right. Iam from Jamaica and will be doing my prerequisites for nursing college at the university of south florida in the fall and am looking forward to do good.

I am a mother of two children and will be taking care of my two-year old while in school but I wont let this discourage me because I know what I want and I think I am focussed. What I need to know is after doing the prerequisites if it is possible to take two years to do my BSN and where do I go from there in getting a job in the hospital in the US.

I love nursing and from I was a child this has always been my first choice.

I respect a person who works hard to achieve his or her goals and "lift my hat" to you as a mother who is so assertive and hardworking.

xrayedRN · Jul 9, 2001

I believe that it has nothing to do with how smart you are and it has all to do with how dedicated you can be. In my program there are single parents, a grandmother, and some of us that have to work a full time to support our families. If you can be financially able to go into a BSN program and not have to work a full time, you should do fine. If you have other responsibillities, it will be a little more challenging due to the lack of time. Do not let anyone discourage you or tell you how hard it is, you will never know until you try it. You can make it, just make sure that you are prepared for the sacrifices that you will have to make.

JenKatt · Jul 9, 2001

I have a unique spin on this. My mom has taught a highly successful LPN program ofr 10 plus years now. I graudated from a sadist BSN program in 99.

I watched year after year and listened to my mom and her students. It was never the brightest student that held her attention. In was the one who went to extra mile. Usually it was someone who really wanted this, who wanted to be a nurse, not just change jobs, but really be a nurse. She would always say to her students that a good nurse knows what to do, but all of us, even us veterans don't memorize the textbooks.

Thats the biggest difeerence between nursing programs and regular liberal arts degrees. As a biology major, or criminal justice major, if you can memorize your textbooks you will succeed. You can memorize your nursing text till you are blue in the face and it won't mean a damn thing. You need to think like you have never thought before. Nursing is like a jigsaw puzzle. Your patients and docs hand you peices and it's your job to put it all together and make it work and look nice. Nursing school teaches you what the finish product should look like and how to do it. It's up to you to get there.

Oh and as for LPN programs being easier than BSN. Bull doody. My mom's students get 11 months to learn what I got about 2 years to learn and I got summers off. If someone here knows of LPN programs that people breeze through than I would look very hard at that school. I would bet you would find subpar teaching and program. LPN students and LPNs temselves should be proud of what they accomplish and know that they work hard and not let some silly BSN tell them otherwise.

laurab2jb2 · Jul 10, 2001

Wow, JenKatt, I think you may have misunderstood some of the previous posters - at least I would certainly hope so! I hope there are not students out there that think being an LVN/LPN is a less than worthy job. Some of the best and hardest working nurses I've worked with in clinicals are LVN's. They tend to be right there in the muck of it all, doing all the hard work and not receiving the well-earned praises that is sometimes given only to the RN's. That is not right.

As far as saying the LVN program is a breeze, I would tend to believe that it would not be at all. Any form of nursing school is going to be tough, simply because you know that the decisions you make day in and day out could adversely affect another individual! But, I believe the coursework (all those text books again!) is more challenging because we are expected to know so much theory, and all the while concurrently working toward a bachelor's degree. And the papers!! But, I'll bet the LVN coming out of a program can outperform the average BSN in clinical skills just about any day! We are taught so much diadectict versus clinical that I'm told we are in school to learn how to learn to be a nurse when we graduate!

I certainly hope that when I graduate, there will be the support I'll need from current nurses to help me learn how to be a nurse for real, whether it be a RN-BSN, RN-ADN, LVN/LPN! When it comes to patient care, the person who is in need is not going to give a rat's tail what initials are after the name of their nurse - they are just going to care that the nurse cares about them!

peaceful2100, BSN, RN · Jul 10, 2001

What you get out of your nursing education is what you put into it. Nursing school is hard no matter what type of program you are in. It is hard but it is very doable and the more positive you are the better everything will be. Sure you will have your bad days and it will seem like the pieces of the puzzle are falling out instead of staying in but when you see the pieces falling out pick them right back up and keep putting the puzzle together. When you have a bad day do something relaxing and calming. Listen to some soothing music, take a walk or other form of exercise, talk to a friend (preferrably someone who is not in the healthcare field), take a soothing back, if you have a loved one or someone who would not mind giving you a massage ask for a back massage. Read the comic section, look at a comedy. When you see yourself falling behind get help fast. Sometimes the teachers may look scary but generally most of them want to help you out. Form a study group. I agree with someone I think it was Laura when she said the patient does not care what initals you have after your name as long as you are licensed and provide good, quality care. I am a BSN student but I will never ever think I am better than anyone else because I am a BSN student. I just like to warn all my friends who think about becoming a LPN/LVN that the hospitals in my area are slowly phasing LPN's/LVN's out. The children's hospital I work for is going to stop hiring LPN's inpatient which I think is crazy myself. I don't think LPN's are not good because they are and they should be more valued. I Just like to warn my friends that if they want to work in a hospital in may be really hard to find a job somewhere.

AgidaeRN · Jul 10, 2001

Hi guys,

What is the difference in gong to a University to do your prerequisites and doing it at a community college? Does it take less time to do it at a University?. The University of South Florida has a Nursing College which will accept me as soon as I have the required credits. Am I lucky or what?

I dont know much about the school system in the US as I have lived in Jamaica all my life. Please tell me if I am taking the right route. Another thing is, does working on Campus reduce the tuition?

I am not qualified for a scholoarship just now because I am an international student.

My tuition is very high just now, almost 9600 per year and I want to finish my 4 year course but I need to know if the campus job pays enough to cover the tuition and rent. Can anyone help?

peaceful2100, BSN, RN · Jul 10, 2001

The differences I can think of between doing pre-req's at a community college vs. at a university is that a community college is much cheaper, I will give a example the community college I took my pre-req's at costed me about an average of $1,000 a semester and that is including books and I was a full-time student when I went to the community college for my first two years and then I transferred to a four year university to start the last two years of the BSN for the nursing classes and at the university I attend it is private and cost about $15,000.00 a year and that does not include the books. So I saved about $32,000.00 including the price of books attending a community college for my first two years and then transferring. Also at a community college the class sizes are usually much smaller than a university. At the community college the average class size may be 20 students depending on the college while at a larger university the class size may be 75 or more students and the teacher at many large universities has to go by number and at the community college the teacher takes about 4-6 weeks and knows you by first name. Although this should not be a reason for choosing a community college over a university I just had to throw this one in. AT most community colleges the parking is better than many universities. Those are just a few reasons I can think of off the top of my head.