Is Nursing school Hard?

Nepenthe Sea · Jul 20, 2009

It is fairly hard, so far. The hardest things, though, to me are the time management aspect, because we had assignments, reading, required videos (tons!), online work, exams, quizzes, skills to learn and practice, plus all our other classes, families, friends, etc. And that was the classes WITHOUT clinicals! Another hard thing is getting the critical thinking thing down. Just get some NCLEX review books and practice as you go along to help with that, and you will get it. The actual material has not been so hard for me so far, but my understanding is that it gets harder this next semester.

NS is like no other major. I majored in Art and Psychology in my former life. They were a joke compared to what we will do, but peoples' lives will be in our hands, so it NEEDS to be hard. We don't get to go out and party and go to school or clinicals hung over the next day. I read an account in a book recently where a nursing student talked about how while her roommates were coming home at 4:00 A.M., she was getting up then to get ready for clinicals. So, that is hard if you are young and haven't gotten to socialize in the college environment. We have to give up alot of time with family and friends. My kids watch too much t.v. when I am in school, and my friends know that they will not be seeing me until there is a break. I saw my boyfriend about once or twice a week last semester. But it's not permanent, and you will probably have a great career when you are done.

I agree with the previous poster about resenting having to take non-science or nursing classes, because you DO feel that it's taking away from what you really want to learn! :lol2:

DLS_PMHNP, MSN, RN, NP · Jul 21, 2009

I graduated from a BSN program 3 months ago.

Was it "hard"? The material wasn't difficult to understand, but the sheer volume of it was a challenge.

Time management is essential to get through it. So is making sacrifices.

Good luck

Agrippa · Jul 21, 2009

I think everyone has pretty much covered all the bases here regarding the difficulty of nursing school. Any answer is really only speculative. Too many variable to take into consideration, ei. the school's actual program, professors, retention/grading policies, student's individual academic aptitude, etc.

However, when you ask whether this new step in your life will be difficult, it seems to me that the question stems from anxiety. You're undertaking this big goal that you've been preparing for for a long time. You want to be assured that things will be OK. Even better, it would be nice if someone said nursing school would be easy for you and guaranteed it. But I think we both know that such assurances would be hollow. No one can tell you what the future will bring.

This anxiety is perfectly natural. By my nature, I am also a generally more anxious person. I like to prepare myself for whatever potential events may occur in the future, sometimes to an obsessive level. What I have learned however, is that in life there are things that you can control and things that you can't. Wisdom is being able to distinguish the two and not worrying about things you can't control.

That being said, here is my approach to nursing school. I'm nervous as all heck right now. How do I know if I'm making the right choice? What about the extra loans im taking out? What if I can't handle clinical? What if I can't keep up academically? If I let myself, I could probably will myself to a panic attack.

Yet I tell myself, this is life. The only thing you can do is go after what you think is the right decision at this moment. You can't know the future so no point trying to predict it.

Even if I had knowledge that nursing school would be hell, would it change my goals? No. If I heard it was easy, would it change anything? If im wise, then no. No matter whether other people find it easy, hard, so so, I can't really trust their approximation since it is all very subjective, even if they went to the same school and took the same class with the same teacher.

So, not quite sure how to wrap it up. To conclude, I suppose that all I can do is to advise you to bravely go forward and embrace this challenge along with all the unknowable potentialities that lie ahead!

deleern · Jul 21, 2009

It's different strokes for different strokes. We all come to the table with different ability levels and academic preparation, and one person might think nursing school is difficult while another student feels it isn't challenging at all.
Unfortunately, the rest of the academic world doesn't regard nursing as challenging or a career field for the "best and the brightest."

That may be the case. but it was the hardest thing I ever did. the classes were very challenging. When I took the College assessment test...(back in the 70's they didn't have them) I scored very high in the 98th percentile, I struggled to maintain a 3.5 grade point average. that dropped to a 3.12 in the ADN Program. I am currently taking classes for my BSN... at my age I probably won't need it but I love school.

awoods0042 · Jul 26, 2009

Nursing school is INCREDIBLY HARD. It's the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. Your life is suddenly ripped away from you.. you lock yourself in your bedroom, for 6 months at a time, and you come out long enough to go to class, eat && work if you dare attempt too. Everything becomes more complicated.. you can't just take a test and pick an answer, all the answers are right. You will never find two teachers who agree on anything, and the teachers are strict. They are nurses themselves, so they know how hard it is. You don't have homework, as much as reading and careplans. You have to stay a chapter ahead so that you can know whats going on in class. At the end of last semster you couldn't say the word nursing around me without me bawling. It's hard and emotional. but It is so worth it. School starts back in about 20 days, and i'm already preparing. You have to be very organized. I do everything before school starts, I clean my room from top to bottom, and clean my car, because you never have a chance while school is in. And i spend a lot of time with my friends because once school starts.. you don't see them much. It's a big committment, but you have to know you really really want this.. after that all the tears, and loss of sleep and the exhaustion becomes worth it.

JBGC4 · Jul 26, 2009

I think finding the information interesting is helpful. A craving for knowledge if you will. If the subject matter is dull and uninteresting to you, I think you would have to work much, much harder to retain that info. I think you could do it, it would just be harder.

swirlything · Jul 26, 2009

Nursing school is INCREDIBLY HARD. It's the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. Your life is suddenly ripped away from you.. you lock yourself in your bedroom, for 6 months at a time, and you come out long enough to go to class, eat && work if you dare attempt too. Everything becomes more complicated.. you can't just take a test and pick an answer, all the answers are right. You will never find two teachers who agree on anything, and the teachers are strict. They are nurses themselves, so they know how hard it is. You don't have homework, as much as reading and careplans. You have to stay a chapter ahead so that you can know whats going on in class. At the end of last semster you couldn't say the word nursing around me without me bawling. It's hard and emotional. but It is so worth it. School starts back in about 20 days, and i'm already preparing. You have to be very organized. I do everything before school starts, I clean my room from top to bottom, and clean my car, because you never have a chance while school is in. And i spend a lot of time with my friends because once school starts.. you don't see them much. It's a big committment, but you have to know you really really want this.. after that all the tears, and loss of sleep and the exhaustion becomes worth it.

Wow. I really have to disagree with this posting. Yes, nursing school is hard, but it's not THIS hard! You're not going to have to lock yourself away for the entire semester. If you have good teachers and TAKE GOOD NOTES, you may not ever have to open your book... let alone read ahead. On the tests, not every answer is correct. Most often, only one is correct, but you really have to understand the physiology of the issue to pick it out. Often times it will be difficult to pick out the right answer, but you can usually narrow it down to 2 options. Then when you find out the correct answer and the reasoning, it's obvious that there really was only one correct answer.

It is a big time committment. Nursing school is a full-time job. You do need to prioritize and realize that maybe it's ok if the laundry doesn't get folded and put away... stuff like that. I still had time to spend with my family, and I still had time to continue my hobby. I also took 1-2 extra classes every semester during nursing school, working toward my BSN at the same time as doing the ADN program (and about 30 of my classmates did the same thing). Your nursing school friends will likely become your social life, but I still met with friends outside of school about once per week.

If nursing school is the hardest thing that this poster has ever had to do, then s/he has had a very nice and comfortable life. I, personally, have been through much worse and can assure you that there are many things in life that are more difficult than getting through nursing school.

DAVISJA · Jul 26, 2009

I would not say that nursing school is hard; I will say that it can be challenging. But as with anything, if you want it bad enough you will do what you have to do to get it. Just be sure to stay ahead on your reading material and you should be ok.

yesdog, BSN, RN · Jul 26, 2009

Nursing school is the hardest thing I ever did in my life and I already had a master's degree in Communicative disorders and worked as a speech pathologist. I guess it really depends on what school you go to and how much you really want to dedicate yourself to learning the material to be the best nurse possible. All my hard work paid off though, and I am now an SICU nurse in a level I trauma hospital.

LifelongDream · Jul 26, 2009

Before completing my BSN program, I already had a BS in Biology. Nursing school is a totally different experience from other degrees. I think the thing that makes it so much more difficult is the time commitment. Nursing school is totally doable. Hang in there! :lol2:

vashtee, RN · Jul 26, 2009

Wow. I really have to disagree with this posting. Yes, nursing school is hard, but it's not THIS hard! You're not going to have to lock yourself away for the entire semester. .

This probably depends on the school you go to - not all programs are equal. If I wanted to maintain As (and I did) I pretty much had to lock myself away for the semester and focus on nursing school. My pre-nursing school friends went out the window, because any tiny bit of spare time I had was given exclusively to my family.

happilymarried · Jul 27, 2009

It's funny, my priorities have changed a lot in ns but they changed because I changed them. My family has always been my #1 priority and they still are. However at times I have to put school higher on the immediate list than my family but it is for them that I do this. My ns friends have started becoming a kind of second family to me. I see them as much as I do my real family. My extended family and peripheral friends have kind of gone by the way side because I just don't have the time to visit them.

Ns is so different from typical degree programs that I have found that regular people do not understand the amount of time/dedication you have to exert to succeed. That is a large part of why I don't bother discussing ns with those people. Because of how it consumes most of my time/energy it is hard to talk about anything else and those peripheral friends/extended family don't necessarily want to hear me talk all the time about ns.

I work with several people working on their degrees. I hear them talk about how hard their programs are and I want to say, you have no idea! But I don't because until that person is in ns they will never understand how difficult it is. So I use this forum. You all do understand what ns is like and I appreciate what you have to say about it! Thanks everyone for being there for me, this forum is like my third family, lol.