First I'd like to mention I'll be starting the nursing program at Ivy Tech in January so any experiences from there would be a great help.
Anyways, my girlfriend's aunt is a RN and she said I'd do fine as long as I know my stuff. I've looked on these message boards for experiences on people's nursing school experiences and the only thing I'm finding (and in quite an abundance) is horror stories of people doubting themselves or bad experiences in clinicals. I'm assuming that's because those who get by okay don't come here to vent or tell their stories?
Id just like to get as many responses as possible how your experience was in nursing school. In no way am I expecting an easy time...I know I'll be spending most of my free time studying, but assuming there's a passion to succeed, willingness to devote the necessary time to study, and maintaining a positive attitude, should I expect things to go fairly well?
Specializes in mental health / psychiatic nursing.
What program did you attend where the administration told a class of 100 students that most of you wont pass? What kind of BS is that?
place
Nursing schools/programs take two different primary approaches to reaching high NCLEX pass rates for their students.
Some take the attitude that they weed students out with the pre-reqs. This means that the competition for the program is sky-high but once you are in you are in, and they tend to keep full classes through to graduation.
Other programs allow in much larger cohorts, but then use the nursing curriculum to weed out students who they don't think will do well on the NCLEX. This means there can be high attrition rates from term to term.
Personally I chose to go to a program which is very competitive to get into, but once admitted is supportive of students and tends to retain full-cohorts term to term. (We lost one student in my cohort because they decided in the first 3 weeks this wasn't the right program for their needs and dropped; no one failed out). During orientation faculty told us that if we had what it takes to be admitted then we have what it takes to succeed in nursing school, and while tough, they were also very committed to seeing all of us through the program, AND building a cohort where students supported one another.
Nursing schools/programs take two different primary approaches to reaching high NCLEX pass rates for their students.
Some take the attitude that they weed students out with the pre-reqs. This means that the competition for the program is sky-high but once you are in you are in, and they tend to keep full classes through to graduation.
Other programs allow in much larger cohorts, but then use the nursing curriculum to weed out students who they don't think will do well on the NCLEX. This means there can be high attrition rates from term to term.
Personally I chose to go to a program which is very competitive to get into, but once admitted is supportive of students and tends to retain full-cohorts term to term. (We lost one student in my cohort because they decided in the first 3 weeks this wasn't the right program for their needs and dropped; no one failed out). During orientation faculty told us that if we had what it takes to be admitted then we have what it takes to succeed in nursing school, and while tough, they were also very committed to seeing all of us through the program, AND building a cohort where students supported one another.
Sounds like you chose the right nursing program I would hate to be in a program that weeds students out AFTER admission that sounds very counterintuitive.
But I guess it's pretty hard to find out how many people fail in each cohort without directly asking about attrition rates
Nursing school was very busy but not very challenging academically/intellectually.
Perhaps the worst part of it was the high-stakes nature of each exam and activity. In my program, we were required to earn no less than a B in each class and there were no options to repeat anything; failure to meet standards meant dismissal from the program with no option save application to the next cohort to start 6 months after ours finished.
The pace was unrelenting because there was a ton of material to cover in a fairly short period but the material was pretty superficial survey of broad and complex topics... the classic "mile wide but an inch deep"
verene, MSN
1,793 Posts
Nursing schools/programs take two different primary approaches to reaching high NCLEX pass rates for their students.
Some take the attitude that they weed students out with the pre-reqs. This means that the competition for the program is sky-high but once you are in you are in, and they tend to keep full classes through to graduation.
Other programs allow in much larger cohorts, but then use the nursing curriculum to weed out students who they don't think will do well on the NCLEX. This means there can be high attrition rates from term to term.
Personally I chose to go to a program which is very competitive to get into, but once admitted is supportive of students and tends to retain full-cohorts term to term. (We lost one student in my cohort because they decided in the first 3 weeks this wasn't the right program for their needs and dropped; no one failed out). During orientation faculty told us that if we had what it takes to be admitted then we have what it takes to succeed in nursing school, and while tough, they were also very committed to seeing all of us through the program, AND building a cohort where students supported one another.