How does Nursing rank in comparison to other majors in difficulty?

peds4now, RN · Dec 18, 2005

I have a BA in History and German and attended a semester of law school. I'm at a CC studying nursing now as a 2nd career (or 1st real career!). I don't find it as intellectually challenging as my previous studies or even my science prerequisites, but it is challenging because of the applied aspect-for the first time I'm applying something I learned yesterday on a real person today! In that way maybe it is like med school: you have to be a doer and a thinker. I think if you have good English and writing skills, broad general knowledge, basic algebra, and organizational skills you can do well in nursing.

And I'm gonna just say it: the hardest part about nursing school for me is dealing with the stress of bad teachers. There's a shortage of them too, so even poor ones get hired. The lecture component of my program so far has been basically self-taught from the book, if you know what I mean...

karmyk · Dec 18, 2005

mercyteapot said:
I knew people who were acing Organic, but just squeaked by in their humanities electives, which were easy for me.

It could have very well been that they were simply prioritizing what grades or classes were more important or worthwhile for their time and efforts.

The college where I got my bachelors from didn't have a nursing program, but its hardest major was considered a tied between Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, mostly due to how many classes you were taking and how intense the classes were (imagine taking 23+ credit hours of high-level math and engineering courses-- beyond what you had to take for your nursing prereqs-- and you can kind of imagine what our lives were like in either of those majors).

Most of us in the major focused primarily on our engineering and math classes, only doing minimal effort to simply survive or skate by on the fuzzy general education classes... With 23 credit hours, you tend to have to learn how to prioritize your time, since you're obviously not going to be able to excel in everything unless you're a super-genius (which most of us aren't...)

HealthyRN · Dec 18, 2005

I think that it definately depends on who you ask. All individuals have different abilities and aptitudes for certain subjects. In general, I don't consider the nursing curriculum to be particularly challenging when compared to the upper level chemistry and math that I took prior to entering nursing. However, I still believe that nursing is much more difficult than many other majors on campus. How many other majors begin their days at 4:30AM and have clinical and class right up until 8:30 PM? My non-nursing friends can't believe the schedules that I keep. Some of my friends are able to schedule classes only two days a week and manage to go out and party every night. At my university, which offers over 100 majors, the credit hours required to graduate for nursing are nearly double that of many other majors!

Another thing to keep in mind is the amount of responsibility that nursing forces you to accept. There are real consequences if you don't go to class and learn the material. Patients could suffer and ultimately die as a result of unsafe practices by a student. Fortunately, there are a lot of checks and balances to prevent that from happening, but the point remains that very few students, including the pre-meds, have to consider being responsible for another human's life.

I was pre-med for a year prior to entering the nursing major and I found that year to be much easier than the years since. I thought that nursing was going to be a breeze compared to the courses I was taking. The nursing major definately does not get the respect that it deserves.

Undecided7 · Dec 18, 2005

Don't even try to compare to nursing school to medical school, unless you are going for your PhD. "med school" is a graduate program- AFTER you have earned a BS or BA in something. In typical nursing programs you will earn a BS in nursing or less (Associate's). Also, if you are going into ANYTHING for the "prestige" or because of what other people think, STOP RIGHT NOW. DO NOT DO IT. You may be young and following the crowd now, but that is no reason to go into a career. Unless you truely love nursing, you will regret it and your education will be a waste of time and money.

CRNAhopefulguy · Dec 19, 2005

well im going into the nursing field for a CRNA, i like that area of the field and would of gone the pre-med way but i felt it was a bit longer and didn't see any benefits over being a CRNA vs a Dr other than the pay. Same responsibilities and more interaction. Im in a program now but just was curious how ur majors stacked up.

Maisie · Dec 23, 2005

I think it depends on the person. To me, nursing is my hardest major. I have a degree in computer science and an associate in electronics. Nursing is certainly more time consuming. Most people find it hard to work and attend nursing school. This is not true of other majors.

BunnyRN · Dec 23, 2005

stressgal said:
I attend a community college and nursing is seen as the toughest program. The hardest to get into as well as the toughest grading scale.

At my school, NURSING is the HARDEST MAJOR. There are so many people who apply to the program, and so little actually get accepted. So in my school, most people that I know give me RESPECT because I'm in the program. But one of my friends, she's a pre-med student taking science and liberal courses at BMCC, believes that nursing is EASY. (Imagine how she'll treat nurses when she becomes a doctor). When I worked alongside nurses and doctors, I came to a realization that nurses knew more about their patients than the physician. God bless ALL NURSES!!! :nurse:

RedSox33RN · Dec 23, 2005

I view nursing as a hard major, mostly because of the time requirement, and credit hours needed for some courses. I also studied advertising and marketing, and rarely did you ever have a class worth more than 4 credit hours. Now I have one worth 10, another worth 9, etc. A lot more work and studying and reading and writing is crammed into one week than I ever did for marketing.

But I think it's all relative. No one's life is on the line if the wrong colors are used in a print ad...

SFCardiacRN · Dec 23, 2005

My first semester nursing class had a 50% fail out rate. Ever hear of that in any other major?

flowerpower · Dec 25, 2005

At my school, nursing is a pretty stressful and tough major. Although, when I'm sitting @ home studying & everyone else is out partying I like to tell myself, "If nursing was so easy, everyone would be doing it!" :)

FutureIsBlue, LPN, LVN · Dec 25, 2005

flowerpower said:
At my school, nursing is a pretty stressful and tough major. Although, when I'm sitting @ home studying & everyone else is out partying I like to tell myself, "If nursing was so easy, everyone would be doing it!" ?

I totally agree with you...

marissa81579 · Dec 26, 2005

Nursing is not hard; it is a lot of work - busy work. I am in law school now. I find people do not respect the fact that I am a nurse. The most common question asked is "why not medical school?" Even though in reality, most of my law school classmates came from majors in undergrad that are incredibly easy. It's frustrating. At any rate, nursing school DID NOT adequately prepare me for grad school. Having the license is valuable to capitalize on, but I really wish I had just majored in some easy liberal arts major because nursing does not teach you to think in college, only to memorize. I do not have the intellectual advantages many of my classmates had, who pissed away 4 years of undergrad in some liberal arts major. Believe it or not. :madface: