Stressed Out

Nursing Students General Students

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Hey everybody! I hope all is well with you all. I am a first year nursing school student. Today I am extremely stressed out and feeling hopeless. Seems like I started off Nursing School doing great and last week the horrible 82 I made on my nutrition test has really gotten me down. I tried really hard and I always study, I have no idea what happened this time. Also, in the same class today we had a 33 question test and I am pretty sure I messed up that one as well. I wonder why I am all of the sudden doing bad.. Do you all have any tips on why or what is happening? Could it be stress? If so how did you or do you deal with the stress of nursing school? Any tips will be greatly appreciated.. Thanks!

You can find many posts on AN that discuss this. The basic answer is that nursing school is not like any education you have had before, because it is cumulative (meaning you can't forget a course after you finish it) and the types of information you have to internalize and be able to work with are different from your former academic subjects.

Lots of people with As before nursing school are totally blown away by 1) the competition-- all your classmates had to be A students, or pretty close, to be there, and this is probably different from your previous school, and 2) the change in the type of education.

Remember that you do belong here. Make a very, very serious effort to get to know your faculty early on. Make appts to see them every week to make sure you're keeping up (missing key concepts at T (time)1 will translate into disaster at T5, because you will have had to use them at T2, 3, and 4). After every quiz or test, be right there for your standing appt to find out why other answers may have been better than the ones you agonized over and got wrong.

You never had to do this before? You have to do it now. Now you're learning to think like a nurse, and it's different. You can do it, and your faculty will want to help you succeed, they really will. But you have to come to the table in a different way than you're used to. Embrace it. It's an opportunity for growth!

You are totally right ! I do appreciate being in this spot and feel that it is an honor to be in the position that I am currently in. I am happy to be here. I just pray that I learn from my mistakes and that I can move on. Thank you :)

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