I want to be a nurse

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Hello, I'm new to this site, have always been an anonymous browser, but finally decided to create an account today.

I have a dilemma, I think I'm too stupid to become a nurse. Growing up, I used to get bullied excessively which led me to mentally neglect my academic studies.

So, all though I was always physically in school, mentally I was absent because I was always worried about getting teased. So, academically I really feel like I'm stunted. This is very embarrassing, but I don't even know my times tables by heart. That's how bad I am in math. Because I do not know my times table, I tend to shy away from tutors. I'm embarrased that when I'm being tutored, the cat will be out the bag, and that my tutor will look at me like I'm crazy.

I'm pretty good at every subject BUT math. I struggle with mathematics past the 5th grade level.

I'm 30 years old, not married, and have no children. So, I have nothing really holding me back and have attended community college on and off through out the years with little sucess.

I have been working as a nursing assistant for ten years. I must say.....I'm tired of being at this standstill in my life, I do not want to be a CNA for the rest of my life. The very thought of it saddens me, because for once, I want my mom to be proud of me.

Tired of complaining, this past semester, I spranged into action and went back to school. Being as though I was not getting financial aid, I registered for just remedial math. Math is the one class that I have always taken, and continued to fail at. This time around, I went in with a positive attitude and studied hard. It was very encouraging to see the fruits of my labor come into fruition. I was passing all my exams; albeit it was passing grades that ranged between the 60's and lower 80's (in the college I attend, 60 is a passing grade) but for me, someone who has always struggled mathematically, that was a huge improvement.

Finally, the final exam came up, and just the other week I found out the that I got a 59 on the examination. (passing grade on final exam is 70)

Needless to say, I have been very discouraged this past couple of weeks. I feel as if I'm going to never have a career that pays well being that I can't even get through a simple remedial math course.

My question is: What do I do? I want to be a nurse, but don't know if the steps I have been taking have been the right one. Should I just pursue something else in life? I would open up a buisness but my credit is horrible. At this point, I want to be realistic. I'm 30 years old, and have nothing to show for it. Help!!

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

Welcome to Allnurses.com! We have moved your thread to our Pre-Nursing Student forum with the goal of amassing more responses that will be targeted to your specific situation. Good luck to you.

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Specializes in ICU.

You need to learn math. You won't get into nursing school without it. You have to be able to do dosage calculations or you could kill a patient. That's how important math is. It is life or death to people. Doctors can make mistakes, the pharmacist can make a mistake, as the nurse you are the last safety line. You will be administering the medication, therefore you are responsible.

I am not saying this to discourage you, but times tables are second and third grade math. You need a tutor, it's that simple. You will have to get passed the embarrassment if this is something you want to do. To get into pretty much any decent program, they will require college algebra or statistics. You need to start this work now in order to reach your goal. Math can be learned, but for some reason you have not grasped it yet. You need to find the right teacher. Sometimes, that is all it takes.

Getting into nursing school is very competitive and even the science prereqs that you will take will require math. Especially chemistry. I also used it in physiology which included chemistry. We also used math in microbiology. You have to learn how to calculate how fast certain bacteria multiply.

But the most important thing is dosage calculations. On every test we take in nursing school, 10% of the questions have to be math problems. That is an accreditation thing. I'm fairly good at math but this semester, the math was crazy and I had a hard time. Where in last semesters I could count on those points from the math, I could not this semester.

Good Luck. If this is really what you want, you will hire a tutor and tackle math. Stop being afraid of it, and learn it. Once the light bulb goes off, you will feel silly for putting this off.

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The first thing that is limiting your ability to learn math is that you're both ashamed and afraid. You have nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone has different struggles. One of the smartest girls in my high school was a bully who made others feel inferior to her. The bullies should be ashamed. I'll tell you, I had a hard time with graphs in math. To this day, they frustrate me to no end, and I wasn't a happy camper when i realized graphs were included in my pre req math classes for the nursing program. Everyone struggles with something, and that is very much ok.

The fact that you are afraid of what others (namely tutors) will think of you is holding you back. Tutors are there to help, and they enjoy helping others. A tutor would be so happy to help you get from square one all the way into a nursing program. They wouldn't be there otherwise. I do realize that overcoming fears is easier said than done. I'm sure being bullied was very difficult for you psychologically and perhaps it would benefit you to speak with a counselor or psychologist. Or you could simply ask your tutor if you could take a little extra time to share a bit about yourself before the tutoring session begins. Let him or her know that you're intimidated by math and that you're afraid as coming across as unintelligent; let him/her know why you struggle with math.

Work on things while you're not in classes. Do you still struggle with times tables? Practice them. Buy multiplication and division flashcards. Practice practice practice while you figure out what your next step should be.

I don't know your situation enough to tell you whether you should continue to pursue nursing or not--nobody here does. I wouldn't feel comfortable telling you that you should or should not go for it. As others have said, math is something you need to master if you want to be a nurse. Maybe you'll find another career path, or maybe you'll just have to take a bit longer on your path toward nursing.

Best wishes to you.

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Specializes in Critical Care Transport, Cardiac ICU, Rapid.

Math is a very important subject in regards to nursing. If it makes you feel any better i too struggled with math but recently ended up making it into nursing school. I believe the most important part is finding a good teacher, ratemyprofessors should be your bestfriend. If there are multiple colleges around you look for the teacher with the highest ratings as they typically will help you to succeed in this academic endeavor. Although i'm not the greatest at math (I succeed in the biology and literary classes) i was able to earn a 4.0 in statistics pretty much because of the teacher I took it with

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Tutors are there to assist you; majority of them won't judge. That's your low self esteem talking. In fact, I bet if you reveal your weaknesses and fears to them, many tutors will be more than happy to help you find a way to understand math better. If you really want to be a nurse, you have to do things you are uncomfortable with and you should do everything you can to tackle your weak points. Utilizing the resources around you, including tutors, is a good way to do that.

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Specializes in Ortho.

The math in nursing school is pretty much the same. It's a few formulas, but once you know how to do those then you've got it.

It can get complicated when the question has a bunch of distractors and you have to recognize what is necessary. Once you learn what the problem is asking, then it's the same type of math all throughout the program. You will use those same formulas, just with different numbers.

I am not great at math. I'm starting my last semester in 2 weeks. I've made it this far. It can be done. You just have to apply yourself and keep doing it until you're good at it.

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