I'm so NERVOUS!!!

Nursing Students General Students

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I start the ADN program on August 15th... and my nerves are driving me crazy. I'm so afraid that i'm going to absolutly hate it.

What if it's not at all what i thought it was? What if it's all charting and no "fun". I originally went to school with the intention of going to Med school. I wanted to be a surgeon. I like the inner workings of the human body. I love watching surgery on tv, i'd love to be involved in that; i find it fascinating.

But i'm worried that nursing is going to feel mundane and boring and i'm unsure if it's for me. I know there are different areas of nursing some more hands on than others but how hands on is it? Is it enough to peak my interest?

I know that nurses have to love what they do. I remember when I was in the hospital. I was sick and they didn't know why, they were running tests and i had spent what seemed like hours trying to down this horrible liquid for another one. I vomited it all up on the floor and i started crying because i felt so sick and i had to start all over again. The nurse sat down next to me and told me that she knew how i felt, she was going through Chemo and was puking every morning. I was humbled by this woman, taking care of me when she was probably feeling sicker than i was.

Do I have that level of dedication? I want so badly to love it like some of you do. But then i hear horror stories from some of the more bitter nurses that seem to really hate their jobs. What if i go through all this and hate it? Will i know while going through school if it's something for me or is that not a realization you come to until actually in the field?

I need some words of advice, encouragement, anything to ease my anxiety about this.

I know I'll do great if i put my mind to it. I just want to know it will be something I won't regret later. :uhoh21: :stone

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Specializes in PeriOp, ICU, PICU, NICU.

hello, and welcome to the wonderful family of allnurses. being nervous is absolutely normal but i am sure you will do very well in it. good luck to you. :icon_hug:

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there are a lot of different things you can do with a nursing degree. it's extremely varied, with all sorts of niches. you can find a job you like and make decent $$ with. learning the industry will do you nothing but good. keep the head down, and plow forward :).

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Specializes in ED.

Hunny everyone is nervous going into school. And let me tell you, it probably won't be what you expect it to be. Everyone has a preconcieved notion of what it will be like. Thats natural. Just be ready to flow with change.

There is plenty of charting thats for sure. There is a ton of paperwork that doctors do as well. But what you experience while at clinicals is different. You might come home one day feeling totally stomped on and the next you might have helped a women get out of bed that refused for any other person. That gives you a great feeling doing stufflike that. Or seeing a little baby smile cause you just eased its pain. Or just the patient that said thank you at the end of your shift. Plus all of the technical stuf you learn during some of these courses is mind boggling and keeps you saying "ok, give me more to learn".

You'll do ok. Just bob and weave with the punches.

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Specializes in Telemetry/Med Surg.

What if you really like it?

What if you learn so much it's amazing?

What if you feel really proud of yourself and empowered.

It's normal to be nervous--I was so nervous before I started school I was making myself gag just from nerves. Turns out I love it.

Try to relax--take 1 day at a time. Deep breaths now hon! :)

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Specializes in Critical Care, ER.

I can't say that nursing is the bomb everyday. However, I work with surgeons around the clock (in a very high acuity, teaching hospital surgical intensive care unit) and honey let me tell you none of the residents feel that it was worth it. They have to work their asses off for 80+ hours/ week for so many years. Even when they become attendings they still belong to their jobs. I wouldn't even want to be married to one, with all the perks that entails (read beacoup $$$$), because they would never be around. I have on many occasions voiced my ambition to be a physician to a number of physicians I work with. They all without exception told me that they think I was more than intelligent enough to make it but that the lifestyle leaves no room for a real life beyond hospital walls. I mentioned the whole social status respect thing to one of the residents who laughed and said, "Sure, I get plenty of respect in those 5 minutes that I get to leave the hospital". While at the hospital, you are entrenched in a centuries old intellectual and social hierarchy populated by really smart egotists out to prove that they in fact are the smartest. Of course there are exceptions, but you get the picture.

While problems abound in nursing ... horizontal violence, intellectual stalemate unless you challenge yourself, poop duty... at least you can have a life outside the hospital.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ER.

YOu know if you want to be close to surgery, you can always be an OR nurse, a CRNA or a surgical P.A.

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I just completed my first semester of nursing school. The first few weeks I was completely miserable and absolutely sure that I had made the wrong decision about nursing. Looking back, I think it was just the stress that was getting to me. We were having 7-10 tests per week and it was really getting to me. I remember the point when everything that they were teaching me started coming together. It was such a relief! When clinicals started and I actually got to work with patients, I knew without a doubt that I was right where I needed to be and doing exactly what I should be doing. I love nursing! That's not to say that the stress goes away, because it doesn't (I'm already studying for next semester and it's several weeks away), but you learn to keep it at a reasonable level. Just stay on top of things and don't get behind in your reading and studying and you will do fine!

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Thanks so much for your input everyone! I think i'll feel much more at ease now knowing that others were unsure and came through. And i would like to have a life outside the hospital. Do you know what kind of duties a OR nurse and such have that might interest me? Do they give sutures and such? what kind of hands on exciting stuff is there? Do we go through these rotations in school?

And what is a surgical PA? Do phys assis. have the same education? is that a nursing major? What do they do?

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