Not as hard as I anticipated....

[MikeyJ]

O.k. I am only a first semester student, but I was under the impression from other students that nursing school was going to be insanely difficult. (I am in an accelerated BSN program by the way)

But I haven't found it to be that "difficult". There is a TON of work and information thrown at us, but I have excellent time management skills and read everything before we are lectured and read over my notes after class. But this isn't nearly as difficult as Anatomy & Physiology or Microbiology. And a lot of the clinical tasks are simply common sense tasks with an added bit of nursing/medical knowledge.

Am I the only one that feels this way? I am actually a little disappointed that it isn't any harder, because if it were harder I would probably actually study it a bit more. I am hoping it gets a tad more difficult.

And the most dreaded class (patho/pharm) is actually incredibly enjoyable for me, thus I don't need to study it that much because I am intrigued by it. Furthermore, its basically anatomy & physiology with a little twist thrown in.

Anyone feel the same way as me?? I know this isn't because I am some insane genius, because I am far from that!

[smk1, LPN]

I'm about to enter the 4th semester out of five. The second semester was endocrine and cardio in adult health, so I've already done that. What do others find so hard about those two systems? I have yet to figure that out. They are what they are, nothing tricky. My advise is to not memorize, but learn how things work. My pet peeve is people who won't go back to the A&P book to learn the pathway of blood through the heart or the chambers. I suggested this to a few students that kept asking me how I was passing the tests and not freaking out and they were like "we sold that book a long time ago".

I can figureout almost anything in our nursing classes by referring back to A&P and anatomy. I don't see what was hard about that either. That WAS mainly memorization.

I'm like sistermike; a positive attitude will take you far. If the instructor sucks, I just go home and get out my nursing journals and read away or get on the internet. I don't freak out about anything and if you don't read before class, well you are just hurting yourself.

This is a good point. I had a very intensive A&P program so I really didn't have to re-learn things for nursing because a solid foundation was already there. Makes a huge difference in regards to study time and understanding the concepts at the cellular level. Again it definitely gets harder (advanced concepts with fluid and electrolytes/acid-base/cellular patho etc..)but it is doable. (so far at least lol!)

[Lisa CCU RN, RN]

Well.....all I can tell you is I DO know of what I speak. I saw LPNs fail out, and single people who failed out as well....that wasn't my point. My point was that extraneous activities CAN impact negatively. And the educational background I mentioned impacts how you study: are you already a college grad, used to studying at that level, or did you complete high school 20 years previously and haven't studied since? Issues like that. Actually, our best students DID tend to be those with alot going on, jobs and children included, but it does depend on what kind of support system you have and how you, personally, handle scholastics.

I found "working" on my kids to be useful, too :)

As for no subjectivity, all I can say is how very rare that must be! I never heard of a nursing school that didn't have subjectivity as part and parcel of the process, but then again, none of us knows all that's out there, do we? Hard for me to imagine NOT having subjectivity come into play when it comes to clinicals and skill evaluations, but obviously different schools will do things differently. Probably one of the biggest complaints students have is how very subjective so much of the clinical work is.

For what it's worth, I also can't imagine any school TELLING you that there IS subjectivity in their clinical grading. It'd be akin to saying "we decide if you should be a nurse or not", and you'll never hear that. I'm pretty sure if I looked through my school stuff I'd see something about how all the grades=pass or fail. But I can absolutely, without question tell you that there were those students with passing grades who did NOT pass clinicals, or skill evals, because of that unwritten subjectivity worked in there.

Regardless, I wish you the best and hope you continue to have a great experience in school.

We have checklists in our clinical classes that say what you have to do in order to pass, step by step. I know there are instructors on power trips, ones that will lie, or ones that may just not see you do something. I haven't gotten one of those thank God.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

We have checklists in our clinical classes that say what you have to do in order to pass, step by step. I know there are instructors on power trips, ones that will lie, or ones that may just not see you do something. I haven't gotten one of those thank God.

And boy, I hope you DON'T get one of those! We also had step-by-step, "do these and you pass" skill lists. And most of the time, people passed. And sometimes, unfortunately too often for those of us watching the carnage, the instructor saw a breach of sterile field, or something not done to standard (did it happen? who knows: subjective!), and that was that. That's what I meant about subjectivity: even if they say it isn't there, who's to say you DID do that foley insertion, central line change, trach suctioning perfectly? Certainly not the student: you have no say, they have all of it

Man, I don't want to sound like a downer, just want those of you who ARE finding it easy thusfar to keep on top of your game, keep your eyes open and be aware that there are usually power plays going on: if you're careful and attentive, you won't get tripped up by them! We need smart nurses :)

[Megsd, BSN, RN]

I personally wouldn't call nursing school easy out of respect and the fact that it's not easy. However, I enjoyed the knowledge and the challenge of its application. Maybe you find it "easy" because you are enjoying what you are doing. I sure did.

This is pretty much how I feel, most days. I'm almost 3 quarters done with my ABSN program and 99% of the time I LOVE studying because I LOVE the things I'm learning! I don't find studying to be difficult or a chore because I am excited to learn the material, and I try to find ways to make it easier to understand for me.

I don't usually feel too stressed out, although when I asked my boyfriend the other day if I seemed stressed he shouted a resounding Yes, so I guess I just don't notice it. After a while stress becomes my norm, so it's not even noticeable.

[FNPhopeful]

How is it possible for her to be gravida 1 para 3? Isn't she pregnant now? I assume so since you ask about the baby's condition. She would at least have to be gravida 2.

Sorry! Grav 3 Para 1 you guys know what I mean! LOL

[FNPhopeful]

Whoa... I am sure you didn't direct this at me, but rather were probably speaking in general. However, I do not do well in school by memorzing facts. In an earlier post I had stated that I flat out stink at rote memorization. I have a horrible time just memorizing information -- I need to learn it. Thus, when I study (whatever subject, nursing or non-nursing), I focus on learning the material, and not memorizing. So I am not doing well in school because I have a good memory. I do well because I try extremely hard and try to learn it.

And as I stated before, I understand that there will be plenty of challenges in nursing school -- especially in the latter semesters. I am not trying to imply that nursing school is easy for me. I am just saying that it definitely isn't as hard as I thought it was going to be.

Like CRNAHopeful, I think a lot of it comes down to attitude. I am probably the most cheerful and optimistic person you will meet. I rarely have bad days, and when I wake up in the morning, I tell myself "today is going to be a good day!" I am also big into running (training for my 1st marathon actually) and that helps me focus on school as well. I think my attitude helps me out a ton in school -- because a lot of people around me are "freaking" out and getting stressed out because we are in nursing school. I, on the other hand, am excited to be where I am, excited to learn, excited about my professors and classmates, and as a direct result I am doing awesome and not having much difficultly.

Sistermike, yea I just meant in general- thats good your a cheerful person, mindset will help alot in nursing school. I was depressed most of the time, because I went from A's in micro, A&P, and everything else to barely passing Fundamentals. I had always thrived on the competition to get the best grade in class.

I think I was in a state of shock for most of my first semester and it took me awhile to adjust.Not to mention the curve is high 76%. Its kinda like boot camp- your in class everyday 4 days a week with the same group of people (not always good) and struggling to not the let pressure get to you. Just doing return demonstrations was soooo scary for me because of my fear of public speaking.

I also have 2 small children. I dont know if you said you have kids but that helps alot if you dont have kids yet. Anyway just get through one exam at a time! I can see how some might say its easy. It depends on your situation.

Good luck- sorry if I sounded rude, its hard to get tone of voice across on the message boards.

[Princess74]

I felt the same way my first semester, easy as pie. Just wait until next semester it gets soooooo much worse.

[Thedreamer]

I am entering fourth term next week. I just finished patho of the systems and of course their medications as you could see from my medication lists posts. (BTW i have a new set of meds for musculoskeletal) To be honest it was an odd term. Of course I loved the amount of information I have learned but thats not what I mean. Im talking about how I did exceptionally well in endocrine, cardio and respiratory, (the "harder" subjects) and did less then my standard on GI, musculoskeletal, and neuro, (the "easier" of the subjects) Odd how that worked out ^^

I am just glad to be closer to graduating! And next term I get to care for babies and mommys! Woot!

[HididiScribbler]

I had the exact same reaction in my first semester as the OP. I just finished my third semester out of four. I have to admit, it's gotten MUCH harder. I've still managed to do really well in the classes, and while the material does get more conceptually difficult, that isn't really the hardest thing in nursing school to me. It's getting such a good understanding of things that you are able to apply them both on tests and in clinical. Med-Surg II was supposedly the hardest class in the program. The material wasn't easy, but it was the competencies and the amount of knowledge expected in CLINICAL that made the difference.

So, it will get harder, definitely. But also more interesting.

[firstyearstudent]

Sistermike:

For you this is a second degree, but for many this is a first degree. Imagine not only learning nursing but how to study, write papers, organize, etc. It can be overwhelming for someone who has had only high school and pre-reqs. I'm at a community college and many of the students did not have the best high school education. Some do not speak English that well. The program is really difficult for them and I am really impressed.

As a second degree student what I do find is the extremely difficult multiple choice questions they give us, I assume in preparation for the NCLEX. It's not enough to know the material, you must also decipher the questions...

[S.N. Visit, BSN, RN]

I'm glad it's easy for you. May it always be that way. My last 2 terms of nursing school were extremely difficult for me, but then again I have 3 active children and a work-a-holic husband that took top priority over my school work. I was grateful to receive 1 A, and 2 C's for my very last grades. Several of my friends failed a class or 2 and didn't graduate. (One close friend was getting an "A", took the Hesi, failed it and ended up with 77%=F for the class. I think the difficulty of nursing school greatly depends on how your program is .

[smattles1of2]

I'm in an accelerated BSN program too and I haven't found it to be crazy difficult either. I'm in my second semester (of 4) and so far so good. Just got my first adult health 2 test back and I got a 94! Whoo hoo!

I find it helps to organize my notes from each lecture into double column notes. It's the only thing that works for me.