Is there anyone who thinks school is not that bad?

[2bnurseTV]

All I see, hear and read are negative things about nursing school. From endless hours of studying, never seeing your children, broken relationships, instructors that fail you the last week of school...and it goes on.

Is there anyone who is finished or almost finished who thinks it is not that bad. Not the hell it is made out to be.

I would love to hear some good news instead of gloom and doom!!!!

[whichone'spink, BSN, RN]

I like the hands-on part of school and learning from the RNs. It's the care plan constructing, paper writing stuff that is getting me.

[haunani, BSN, RN]

I'm not finished with school, so I hope I'm not jinxing myself here, but in all honesty, I haven't found school to really be that tough. I have classmates who do nothing but read, study, study, read, and so on and so forth. They are never without their notes or books, complain of lack of sleep and lack of life. These are people with no jobs and no kids and no other demands on their time (by their own admission).

I'm on the other end. Have a job, no kids, but I do have a 45min commute to/from school. I study for the tests the day before, just look over my notes, go through some practice questions, and that's about it. Check up some stuff on the things I'm a little 'sticky' on, but no in-depth hard-core studying or cramming for me. Clinicals aren't intimidating to me, neither are care plans.

I'm near the top of a class of 58 (current size). To me, it's no more stressful than my first time through college, which was for an engineering degree.

[Work in Progress]

Don't listen to the horror stories that you read on here. I read all of these before starting nursing school and got really worked up about how hard it was going to be... and then it wasn't.

I am lucky that I have a good memory and good critical thinking skills. I know that some people struggle a bit more with the material, but I haven't found it difficult. I got pregnant after the first semester, had a baby, was a new parent, worked full time as a CNA/Nurse Intern on night shift. My marriage is still happy and intact. My son is happy and well adjusted. I have been able to witness his first steps, first word, etc. My laundry, cooking and cleaning got done. I spend time with my family, had great holidays and vacations and socialized. I got a solid 8 hours of sleep a night (other than when the baby kept me up). I tutor junior nursing students as another part time job. My son will be one next month and in two months I will be graduating Summa Cum Laude with a 4.0. If you work hard and manage your time well, you will look back on all the worrying and laugh.

The only things that made nursing school difficult were things that weren't really related to the coursework: being poor, waiting for the unorganized clinical coordinator (kind of an oxymoron, right?) to give me my placements so I could figure out childcare and work schedules, dealing with bad attitudes. It is fine and you will be fine. My advisor once said that nursing school is like drinking out of a fire hose. Take in as much as you can, work hard and learn, but if you think you can memorize EVERYTHING, you are going to set yourself up for unnecessary stress.