Hardest class in nursing school

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What was THE hardest class you've ever taken in nursing school. Some people tell me "med surge", some say "pathophysiology was the hardest", some say "OB", some say "pediatrics"...

Is there one that tries and weeds out students the most?

What was your hardest nursing class you've EVER taken. Is there one that reminds you of that everyday?

Specializes in Cardiac (adult), CC, Peds, MH/Substance.
TheAtomicStig_702 said:
What about for you personally? What's ED nursing? Emergency dept? What's chronic? Pharm sounds like pharmacology. I don't know what that is other than you learn about dosage calculations.

Chronic was basically med surg. ED is emergency department. Pharm is pharmacology. Dosage calculations in pharm were minimal. That was expected to be known. It was more memorizing pathophysiology related to a thousand medications, interactions, AE, contraindications, assessment, nursing considerations, etc. Acute and chronic had a lot of pathophysiology, nursing considerations / how to treat, protocol, etc.

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Specializes in Cardiac (adult), CC, Peds, MH/Substance.
TheAtomicStig_702 said:
Wow! My VA PCP's son, who graduated from the school I'm trying to get into, said pediatrics was hardest for him.

A lot of it depends on your program and the instructor. I was in an ABSN program. Several people with 4.0s in previous degrees lost their 4.0 in nursing school from community health, which the previous class said was easy. But we had a different professor. Our peds was harder than I expected.

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nicktexas said:
Chronic was basically med surg. ED is emergency department. Pharm is pharmacology. Dosage calculations in pharm were minimal. That was expected to be known. It was more memorizing pathophysiology related to a thousand medications, interactions, AE, contraindications, assessment, nursing considerations, etc. Acute and chronic had a lot of pathophysiology, nursing considerations / how to treat, protocol, etc.

Wow, I thought pathophysiology was just by itself and I didn't think it spreads across or builds up in the other classes. I know at one university, they require Pathophysiology as a pre-req for extra bonus points for your application. I guess you don't have to take it to get in but if you do, it's bonus points. Maybe you do have to take it, I don't know, but I've been told it's hard. Someone told me "patient has whooping cough, these are the other symptoms, this is the medication you use" TO ME it sounded a lot like some of the immunology questions I've seen my microbiology instructor asked us. Clinical questions he asked us. Like C-diff does not require antibiotics because it worsens the infection, what would be an effective treatment, and we'd say something that neutralizes the membrane of the bacteria to prevent it from releasing endotoxins worsening the disease. One girl who already took it said it wasn't bad but that there were quizzes that had a pt quality equivalent of the exams. :eek: I thought NO WAY but then I thought, if they're all the same then that could balance out how you could do if you fail some and pass some. It's like the more exams and quizzes worth the same points, the easier it is to get a good grade instead of having maybe 1 or 2 exams throughout the course.

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nicktexas said:
A lot of it depends on your program and the instructor. I was in an ABSN program. Several people with 4.0s in previous degrees lost their 4.0 in nursing school from community health, which the previous class said was easy. But we had a different professor. Our peds was harder than I expected.

Lmao I forgot who told me but they said "you care about getting perfect grades prior to nursing school, but once you get in, you could careless about your grades. You just care about passing." I thought yeah giving a damn would be pretty pointless.

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I talking to my friend who is in a ADN program and he was working on pharmology dosage calculations and he said you can only miss 1 question. And he said I'm having trouble remembering where to put the decimal . I didn't know what to do but I asked him if he asked his teacher for help and he was like no some teachers don't help you.

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Specializes in ED, psych.
TheAtomicStig_702 said:
I kinda am that way. I don't do it on purpose for attention. I just want to really do it and I've heard it's hard to get into, hard to stay in, and hard to keep a job. I really want to get in and maybe I will I don't know. The school I want to apply in, the people that graduate or fail from there, they don't tell you anything.

So, you're familiar with some of my posts? Did you see the one about the time I failed to understand why a girl who was in the school I wanted to get in wouldn't talk to me for any reason even after she graduated? She wasn't a nice girl like "Hey, I'm down for just being friends" or "I'll share my nursing experience with you, but I don't want to date because...". I got no excuse for any reason about anything. She's very selfish. I've moved on already:sarcastic:. She is an example of the people who graduate from that program that don't tell you anything. So, I have no one to ask questions. That's the idea of winning a war: Knowing is half the battle.

I'm not saying help me with tests because that's lazy and not fair to those who worked hard for it. But things like how many instructors are in each class you take throughout the program(are some easy and some hard), what are ways you could learn materials that might be too much information or because it's an intense accelerated program how you can prioritize what is the most hardest class to study, what is a good way to organize your time, how many hours do you spend in class, how can I be successful in nursing school, are there teachers you could recommend me that maybe offer tutoring on the side, etc. etc. etc. These and many more questions I'd have would have been at her disposal but she took the easy way out in life and chose not to tell me anything.

You can be a decent person and if it's not what you want, at least be nice enough and say,"Hey, I'm sorry, I'm not interested BUT I'll do you a favor! I'll answer any question you want about nursing school. If you really want it that bad, I'm willing to help someone who wants to help themselves." She couldn't even say something like that. I should start my own tutoring program for nursing students or biology students. Selfish people piss me off if I get into a nursing school and graduate. I'll be like the Crash Course on youtube with the guy with glasses, Hank.

I don't remember that one, no.

I think there is a difference between being prepared, and being overly anxious.

Each program can be so different, and heck -- the program itself can differ yearly. Like I said, the class before me had a really challenging time with their med-surg prof; however, our class had a phenomenal prof and learned a great deal. I think it's good to have a general idea of what the program is like going into it, but be open to your own interpretations. If I only focused on what the previous class said about the med-surg class, I would have been stressed to the max.

For example, several students in the class before ours said, "you'll have no life once you start nursing school!" Well. That's not helpful to me, and, while they may be trying to be helpful, it's rather fear mongering. I still need that life. Did I have a life? You betcha! Was it altered? Yup. But I made sure I had one.

Being successful in nursing school is also very individualized. Biggest word of advice that is universal, however: don't skip lecture, and don't skip clinical. You'll see posts on AN periodically from posters lamenting that they skipped class and their classmates won't give them info and woe is me blah blah blah. Can you guess the amount of sympathy they receive here?

But as for *how* to study for each class, *if* you should partake in a study group along the way, *what* is the hardest class, *who* are the recommended teachers (you usually won't get a choice on this one btw), you'll find this out along the way.

It's best to enjoy the journey, roll your eyes with your classmates, go wth? with new friends, cry sometimes, laugh a lot, complain a TON, and finally earn your degree. It'll go by faster than you think. And be that person who will answer questions for the incoming class.

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Specializes in Cardicac Neuro Telemetry.

Probably pharmacology but it was still my favorite class!

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The hardest class for me EVER in nursing school hands down was PHARMACOLOGY. I cried everyday after I finished taking a pharmacology test. I was literally on the brink of failing with a 74.5 (you need a 75 to pass). It seemed like no matter what I did wasn't good enough. Our final exam was going to make or break me with 100 questions all on meds. Thanks to God, I passed.

It's really based on the individual interpretation of what they found easy or hard. Some found pharm easy while others found maternal hard. I found maternal and pharm both hard actually lol. Depends on the teacher and class. I was bored with fundamentals..reason why I didn't put any effort and got a C :rolleyes: Guess what my weakest point for studying for NCLEX is....

Don't ever rely on another individual's perception of the class as a crutch. Go in there prepared, ready to learn, and make up your own personal interpretation. Nursing school was not easy it's hard work and commitment..but once you get that degree it makes it all worth it.

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Specializes in Cardiac (adult), CC, Peds, MH/Substance.
TheAtomicStig_702 said:
Lmao I forgot who told me but they said "you care about getting perfect grades prior to nursing school, but once you get in, you could careless about your grades. You just care about passing." I thought yeah giving a damn would be pretty pointless.

That is true of many nursing students.

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So I go to a community college - ADN program. First year is three semesters and then you have an LPN. You roll right into RN year, two semesters. For me hardest was 1st semester of RN year, Advanced Nursing I and Community Health. I cried so much. Pharmacology was okay for me. I found the first year easy-ish but didn't particularly enjoy maternity/peds.

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Specializes in NICU, RNC.

My answers are different for each question you ask.

The class that "weeds people out" aside from pre-reqs (which obviously weed the most people out): Pharmacology. More people failed out of pharmacology than any other class. I personally didn't have a hard time with it. It was straight memorization. A lot of straight memorization, but memorization just the same, which I don't really struggle with.

The class that I did the worst in was Fundamentals because it was so boring that I struggled to put a lot of extra time into it.

The class that was most difficult was Critical Care (ICU/ED). This was our final 4th semester course and the material was very complex and detailed. Although this was the most difficult course, it was also the most interesting.

I took a pathophys. class before starting the program and it was easy-peasy compared to actual nursing courses. Nearly all of my nursing courses were pathophys. in nature. (med-surg, peds, OB, critical care) And all were much more detailed than standard pathophys. If you think about it, pre-reqs teach you how a normal human body works. Nursing courses teach you about the disease processes and what interventions are needed to treat those processes and help the body return to homeostasis.

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I thought Pediatrics was hard.

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