How much from nursing school do you retain??

Ausculapius · Dec 22, 2008

The truth is.. not much. I used to worry about that too, then I just looked to my left and my right in class. Everyone is in the same boat so to speak. I had instructors who, god bless them, could talk all day about sickle cell anemia but could not speak with any authority on psychiatric illness.

Ive been told that you learn what you need to on the floor. You will meet nurses in your travels that have a lot of general nursing knowledge, but not necessarily stuff you are expected to know right out of school. Perhaps others have a different take on things but this has been my experience.

R*Star*RN, BSN, RN · Dec 22, 2008

You don't remember a whole heck of a lot from nursing school. Enough to pass NCLEX but then you get to the floor and . . . it's gone. You learn what you need to learn on the floor you go to. That's what orientation is for. If you have questions, you can always look it up. It's not a test, there are tons of references available, and there are always other nurses and doctors to ask questions of.

The important thing is to always ask questions if you have them.

racing-mom4, BSN, RN · Dec 22, 2008

It is there in your mind and it will come back to you. It took me actually being a working floor nurse to finally figure out labs-Abg's/etc.

As far as pharm, I took pharm before I even did a clinical--the only meds I could remember were the ones I had seen on TV. I passed the class and moved on, it was not till I was working as an RN did some of the things I had learned really sink in.

Good luck in your studies!!

dreamon · Dec 22, 2008

This makes me very nervous to think about. I'm the type that if I don't use information or skills after I learn it- I will forget. It makes me very worried.

nursemike, ASN, RN · Dec 22, 2008

You remember more than you realize. I read once that everything you ever learn, see, hear, smell, imagine--whatever--is stored in your brain, forever. The trick is remembering how to access it. I think more modern models are more dynamic, and info can get lost as unused pathways get restructured into something else, but still, you know a lot more than you know you know, and it can be spooky how something you learned in school and never thought about again can pop out of your brain just when you need it.

As far as Pharm, there are thousands of drugs, but there are about 25 you'll give every day. Maybe a hundred you give often enough to know from memory. The rest you look up. But the 25/100 vary, depending on where you work. So you can get a good laugh watching a trauma nurse put nimodipine in the pill crusher, then page a cardiologist to see if you should hold amiodarone for a pt whose FSBS is 80.

ETA: A PDA with a drug guide is really nice to have, and can save you some goofy pages.

Esther2007 · Dec 22, 2008

Depends on how you study. I remember everything I have learned from 2006 because I

try to understand the material rather than than memorizing. I also try to apply everything

I learned in the clinical setting.

kimima01 · Dec 22, 2008

...I try to understand the material rather than than memorizing. I also try to apply everything I learned in the clinical setting.

This is a great learning technique! I never thought of trying to apply all knowledge to the clinical setting. Thank you for sharing!

Rabid Response · Dec 22, 2008

Of course you will forget nearly all the details, BUT you should remember the general principles of administering medications. Practice the five rights and know why you are giving a particular medication to a particular patient. Always keep a drug reference nearby, and do not administer a medication until you look it up if you are unfamiliar with it. With time you will learn a ton about the drugs that you administer most frequently, and you will rarely have to look one up.

Also, do not blindly follow orders and administer meds just because they are scheduled. There was a patient on a med-surg floor in my hospital who had morphine scheduled(!) for q 2 hours. The patient had never complained of pain and was in the advanced stages of liver failure, which two factors alone should have caused the nurses caring for him to question this order. Not only did they not question the order, but even AFTER the patient was written for and given NARCAN d/t his (inevitable) respiratory depression, the nurse caring for him (same nurse who'd given the narcan!) administered his next two scheduled doses of MORPHINE since the MD had neglected to d/c it from the MAR--ARGH. This patient ended up intubated in our ICU.

If you follow the five rights and also ask yourself WHY am I giving this drug to THIS patient, you should be fine. It's normal and healthy to worry about your perceived lack of knowledge. The nurses who most put patients at risk are the ones who DON'T worry. Good luck to you.

poopsie9466 · Dec 22, 2008

Not much. I had a rude awakening when I actually started practicing. Just don't ever hesitate to ask questions and do the five rights everytime you give a med, those are the best lessons I learned in school.

iteachob, MSN, RN · Dec 22, 2008

I believe that what you learn (not memorize) is not gone! It changes, makes more sense, and you are able to apply it in various situations. I think it (what you learn) is built on....may develop and mature so that it is unrecognizable from where you began...but not really lost.

Nursing school is just the base. You will add so much more to what you've learned when you start working.

Relax, I think most everyone feels / has felt unprepared at one time or another.

rngolfer53 · Dec 22, 2008

I am a nursing student, and was just wondering, how much knowledge do you retain from nursing school??
I just got done with my pharmacology course, and honestly, i feel like (or wait, I KNOW) i forgot everything i learned.... can you honestly say that you remember everything from that course, all the drugs, names, s/e, everything?????????????
I just wanna know, because i'm terrified of the day when i'm actually a nurse working on the floor........literally terrified.

Outside of those I see day after day, I find I remember the broad outline of a class of meds or a condition. Then it's time to pull out the PDA and find the details.

My one piece of advice is don't forget to be humble. There are quite literally, thousands of meds out there, many with similar sounding names. Look it up every time until you are sure of what you are giving and why.