Going into Pre-nursing after high-school

SoldierNurse22, BSN, RN · Dec 15, 2015

Hey guys and gals~ So, I'm a high-school student at the moment. I've been reading on this forum how stressful, difficult yet how rewarding nursing is as a career.
Anyways, here's a lame story I'd like to share. I never really thought much about Nursing as something I would want until a few days ago. I had my mind set on pursuing my career in Graphic design and I realized something. Is a graphic design degree going to bring up opportunities? Not as much as other degrees. I realized I wanted to live a different life. I wanted to try something new in life and make, if I could a little difference in this world. I want to have a rewarding career where I can come home and feel good about what I just did. And at that moment I realized designing logos wasn't for me :/
Another reason why I want to be a nurse is self-fulfillment. I tend to feel selfish sometimes. I feel like I need to give back. The feeling of selfishness will go away if I become a nurse, right? ... I also am really interested in the medicine/disease in general.

Wrong. Just because you'll be a nurse doesn't mean you'll cease to be human.

Anything that is worthwhile is usually difficult, so I don't want you coming into nursing thinking it'll be the most wonderful thing ever, only to find yourself in a soul-sucking situation and regretting your decision. Some shifts are great, some are mediocre, and some really suck.

Nursing is all about interacting with people, and people (nurses included!) can be less than pleasant (for lack of being able to post the word that I actually mean). I strongly suggest you look to something else for a source of satisfaction and fulfillment.

Also, you say you're going into nursing in an attempt to not be selfish and at the same time, you're going into nursing seeking self-fulfillment...does that not sound somewhat selfish to you? (just a thought!)

I'm entering pre-nursing this Fall 2016 and I've been reading soooo much about nursing. It's gonna be hard, I'm gonna cry, I'm gonna get a 4.0 (hopefully, yeah I am ;-; , apply to a Nursing program and hopefully get accepted. And then ima set fire to the nursing school and pass >.
Two things:
1. You may not cry. I never did.
2. While getting a 4.0 would be commendable, some of the best nurses I've ever worked with were the B-students in class. I'd much rather have one gal who I know got B's as my nurse than the class valedictorian.
Here are some questions for you fabulous peeps
1.) Does Nursing keep you busy? I'm afraid my bedside shifts will be boring and unproductive ;-; Something that keeps me occupied will keep me happy.
Please, please PLEASE do some research. Read around this site about exactly how busy nurses are. You will be so occupied, sometimes you won't have enough time to pee, eat, or drink.
2.) I know it's stressful, but when entering a nursing job, such as ER nurse, how stressful is it? Like for example, describe a scenario why it is.
Why is it stressful? Because you will be tending to sick people who are often scared, angry, lonely, unable to cope with what's happening, and afraid of what's happening next. People don't seek care when they're healthy and happy. Death, pain, illness, injury and the trauma of life are what precipitate healthcare experiences, and you will encounter all the emotion and turmoil that accompany those events.
On a more nursing-oriented note, the job is often stressful because you'll realize you have XX number of tasks to do and about X minute(s) to do them. Understaffing and a huge amount of responsibility on the nurse are enough to make the job stressful. Add unappreciative/difficult/disruptive patients and/or family members, and the situation can be downright painful.
Let's say a patient comes into the ER drunk and high. They are in need of treatment because they fell and sustained an injury. The patient is punching, kicking, screaming obscenities and generally unappreciative of your attention.
Or, perhaps there is a child who is in the ER who has an ear infection, and the parents are really afraid. As a result of that fear, they lash out at you and make your job difficult (lack of trust often makes for the hardest patient interactions).
Let's switch to a medical-surgical (general inpatient) unit, where many new grads are first hired after school is done and they've passed the boards. Let's say you need to feed your patient in room 3, get your patient in room 4 to the toilet, perform a dressing change on your patient in room 7, and at the same time, you're overdue to give a med in room 10. Now, imagine if your patient in 3 was an old man in hospice, but his family is there and they don't want him to die. They're actively trying to take control of his medical care, but he's still able to make his own decisions. Imagine your patient in room 4 is a total care and so ill from chronic diseases that she's unable to help herself. Your entire shift could be spent in her room, but you have other things to do. Your patient in room 7 is the drunk, angry swearing guy. Good luck with his dressing change. And the patient in room 10 is your pediatric patient who really hates his meds, and coupled with his parents' mistrust of you, you're in for the fight of your life to get that antibiotic into that kid.
You have 1 hour to complete all the tasks above. Your CNA is busy and can't help you. Go!
Does that help explain some of the stress? And I haven't even touched on what happens when you butt heads with an angry doc, a lazy coworker, bad unit management...
3.) When accepted into a Nursing school, are the hours like High school? ;_; Or are there less hours? I know it depends, but I need a general idea.
No, they are not. The classes are going to be college classes, so they could be at any time of the day and they will be multiple days per week. Once you are into nursing school, you will also have clinical rotations in hospitals that will usually last about 8 hours. All of these things will generate more homework than high school could ever dream up, and you will be expected to complete clinicals, attend labs, attend nursing theory, come up with care plans, do your homework, write papers, prepare for tests and quizzes and come out on top.
4.) What would you recommend me to do before I start my prereqs next year? Should I study A&P to get ahead? Should I learn some biology? (Oh yeah..CNA cerification is on my list, I'm discussing it with my dad, so yeah. )
In general, biology, A&P, chemistry, etc are all recommended. You will likely have to take remedial classes/lower level science classes in college if you don't come in with some basic knowledge of the foundational sciences.
5.) Is it better to take prereqs at University or Community college? Not to sound like a lazy person but Community college workload tends to be lighter so that could mean more A's. But then again University prepares you for High--stress load courses too. What do you guys think?
That really depends on what you can afford, what the university will accept in terms of transfer credits, and what you think is important. I would strongly recommend you not choose a certain class because the workload is lighter than another. Tempting though that may be, I found the more rigorous instructors better prepared me for nursing school and to function as an independent RN.
I apologize if these are too many questions. Anyways, Thankyou all so much for reading. Hope you enjoy your day/night ~
Hope this helps a bit. There is a lot of good information on this website. I strongly recommend you use the search bar at the top right of the page and look for preexisting threads. You are likely not the first person to have the questions you have. Good luck!

ThatOneDude822 · Dec 15, 2015

I'm just starting my 2nd quarter of nursing school, so I'll do my best to answer some of your questions. But hopefully someone with some more experience than myself can come and offer you a more experienced view.

1.) Nursing definitely keeps you busy. I was on a pretty low acuity floor for clinical last quarter, and we (students) only had one patient at a time. We rarely had any down time. There was always something we could be doing, even if it was just working on a careplan or answering call lights.

As far as the nurses, they were VERY busy. They have multiple patients they're caring for, they have doctors to call/take calls from, preparing patients for discharge, taking report for newly admitted patients, charting/other paperwork. You definitely don't have to worry about being unproductive. It's amazing how much work they were able to get done on their own.

2.) I'll leave this for a more experienced person to answer. Like I said, my only experience is on a pretty low acuity floor as a student, so I really can't speak on this from my personal experience.

3.) The hours are going to vary each quarter, just as they do for gen ed/pre req courses. At least they do in my program. Our theory/lectures are twice a week for two and a half hours each meeting. Our clinicals really just depend on the course. Some are twice a week for 5 and a half hours, they could be once a week for 10 hours each, or you could be going to clinical twice a week for 12 hours each. There have been days I went to school at 8 am and didn't get home until just before 9pm. But I've also had days where I went at 10am and was done at noon. Then you have any gen ed or cognate classes that you have to take. Just prepare to have a schedule that is fairly inconsistent.

4.) CNA is a good idea if you plan on using it to find a job as a CNA. Most programs typically don't offer extra points for just holding a CNA certificate, but a lot offer points for having worked (or even volunteered) in a healthcare setting. If you get a job as a CNA and it starts affecting your grades at school, I would try to cut back hours, or quit. Your goal is nursing, so don't let anything affect that if you can help it.

5.) Honestly, community college courses aren't any easier than university courses. They cover the same material (or most of it) as the university course that they transfer as. For example, if you take Bio 1 in CC and it transfers as Bio 150 to your university, then Bio 1 at the CC covers the same material as Bio 150 at the university. Hopefully that made sense.

So, basically, I would look at it from a financial standpoint. How much financial aid is each school offering? How much does each cost? For me, my university offered me enough financial aid that it was actually cheaper to go there than it was to go to CC for my prereqs, so I chose that option. I'm glad I did, too, because the nursing program gave me extra points during the application process since I was a continuing student.