Is nursing school REALLY that hard?

I just started the 2 year ADN program at my community college about a week ago. I am actually the youngest in my program at 18, and I have no nursing experience. Before I started, I obsessed over blogs and spent a lot of nights wondering if I could even make it through nursing school. I graduated high school in the top 5% of my class with a good ACT score, and I'm generally a hard worker. I am just wondering, was nursing school as hard as you thought it would be and if so, why?

[Beldar_the_Cenobite, CNA]

KindaBack said:

As a degreed engineer, that sounds absurd to me. Much of engineering studies require the students to work as teams because (a) real-world projects are generally much too large and complex to be done by an individual, and (b) generally require multidisciplinary input.

"You will all be against each other because engineering is not easy?" Doesn't that sound apocryphal to you? Why would the rigor of something set people against each other? In fact, it would tend to be just the opposite. Teams prevail where individuals fail.

This makes me chuckle. The effort required to learn engineering is enormous and, like nursing, is just beginning with the completion of the formal education.

I will say with supreme conviction, though, that engineering was orders of magnitude more difficult and rigorous an academic discipline than was nursing. That's not to cast aspersions on nursing at all but simply an observation from someone who has done them both.

I agree why would an instructor say something like that? Engineering students I knew worked in teams but I only knew engineers that worked on robotics projects and they competed against other schools.

It was an elderly guy who is a math tutor at my school that studied chemical engineering in mid to late 70s. He told me that. It's what he said..

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

KindaBack said:

As a degreed engineer, that sounds absurd to me. Much of engineering studies require the students to work as teams because (a) real-world projects are generally much too large and complex to be done by an individual, and (b) generally require multidisciplinary input.

"You will all be against each other because engineering is not easy?" Doesn't that sound apocryphal to you? Why would the rigor of something set people against each other? In fact, it would tend to be just the opposite. Teams prevail where individuals fail.

This makes me chuckle. The effort required to learn engineering is enormous and, like nursing, is just beginning with the completion of the formal education.

I will say with supreme conviction, though, that engineering was orders of magnitude more difficult and rigorous an academic discipline than was nursing. That's not to cast aspersions on nursing at all but simply an observation from someone who has done them both.

I need to save this post and paste it every time someone trots out the "nursing is the hardest major" tripe. ?

[baleen]

Completely ridiculous. I spent the whole time wishing nursing school was harder.

[Daniel, RN in TX]

Nursing school is not tough through the basics: A&P, Micro, Nutrition, Pharmacology, etc. because most of that is simply memorization. However, when you begin your actual nursing - medical/surgical courses, OB, Pedi, etc. it can get a bit trickier until you learn the art of "thinking like a nurse" and you have grasped an understanding of the basics. There is a method for studying for nursing exams and a way to read nursing exam questions that they should teach you. After you have mastered the art of thinking like a nurse, it gets a bit easier. There is an abundance of time that you will need to spend reading, preparing, writing, and studying as the volume of work that you will be expected to complete is a lot. Just get organized, tackle one thing at a time, stay focused, and do not let yourself fall behind. It is not so much hard as it is a lot of work. You can do it! You got this! Also, congratulations on starting your journey in nursing school; the hard work will be worth it!

[Beldar_the_Cenobite, CNA]

baleen said:

Completely ridiculous. I spent the whole time wishing nursing school was harder.

Lol I hope you're being serious

[Beldar_the_Cenobite, CNA]

courtneymann said:

I just started the 2 year ADN program at my community college about a week ago. I am actually the youngest in my program at 18, and I have no nursing experience. Before I started, I obsessed over blogs and spent a lot of nights wondering if I could even make it through nursing school. I graduated high school in the top 5% of my class with a good ACT score, and I'm generally a hard worker. I am just wondering, was nursing school as hard as you thought it would be and if so, why?

Fingers crossed! Head up high and, I guess this is the only thing you can do, STUDY!!!!!!!! Good luck to you!

[umbdude, MSN, APRN]

TheAtomicStig_702 said:

I fear the work load and I lack the confidence because of the tricky questions and I won't know if the school will show you how to read those questions.

Stay ahead with studying at all times and start doing NCLEX practice questions half way through your Fundamentals course until the end of the nursing program, and you'll do fine on those questions. I use the online Saunders Q&A tool throughout nursing school and it's great (not the hardest questions but very comprehensive). I did about 2,200 questions just in Med-Surg (my school covers all organ systems in one semester). Know grading criteria so you don't waste too much time on "busy work" that don't actually count toward your grades or if it's "pass/fail."

[Beldar_the_Cenobite, CNA]

umbdude said:

Stay ahead with studying at all times and start doing NCLEX practice questions half way through your Fundamentals course until the end of the nursing program, and you'll do fine on those questions. I use the online Saunders Q&A tool throughout nursing school and it's great (not the hardest questions but very comprehensive). I did about 2,200 questions just in Med-Surg (my school covers all organ systems in one semester). Know grading criteria so you don't waste too much time on "busy work" that don't actually count toward your grades or if it's "pass/fail."

2,200 questions on your own or they made you do? That's a ton of questions

Are you already done with nursing school? I don't worry about the NCLEX because I guess schools like CSN and UNLV here have a 90+% avg pass rate. I'm just worried about the school itself. Nothing after school bothers me other than school itself.

Btw, did your school have an entrance exam? We have the TEAS and the HESI. How do you improve your grammar? Here grammar gets A LOT of students. How or why I don't know but I'll do anything to know how to pass it the first time.

[umbdude, MSN, APRN]

TheAtomicStig_702 said:

2,200 questions on your own or they made you do? That's a ton of questions

Are you already done with nursing school? I don't worry about the NCLEX because I guess schools like CSN and UNLV here have a 90+% avg pass rate. I'm just worried about the school itself. Nothing after school bothers me other than school itself.

Btw, did your school have an entrance exam? We have the TEAS and the HESI. How do you improve your grammar? Here grammar gets A LOT of students. How or why I don't know but I'll do anything to know how to pass it the first time.

On my own. It's not a requirement but it really helped. I want a good grade for grad school, possible scholarship ($_$), and I actually enjoyed what I was learning. I'm in my final semester (preceptorship) and just took the HESI exit exam (we took ATI for subject exams every semester).

Yes I had to take TEAS V for entrance (not hesi). I basically read the manual, then did practice questions and read the rationales. I didn't do anything specific to improve grammar or other sections. Perhaps you could use school's resources and tutors?

[baleen]

TheAtomicStig_702 said:

Lol I hope you're being serious

Absolutely serious. Unfortunately. If nursing school is hard, I don't know what hard is. It's not a prideful boast. I am in it too. So it's actually just frustrating and demoralizing.

[bgxyrnf, MSN, RN]

TheAtomicStig_702 said:

I don't worry about the NCLEX because I guess schools like CSN and UNLV here have a 90+% avg pass rate.

Nothing special about that. The first-time pass rate for US-educated student is more than 85%.

It's just not that hard...

[Xlorgguss]

Its exhausting! To give you an idea my program is considered 'part-time' because it's only 9 credit hours since all my non-nursing courses are done. We have to watch a minimum of 3 hours worth of lecture prior to each weekly class. Some weeks it is closer to 5 hours. Then there is reading anywhere from 3-7 chapters for the week. I don't consider myself a slow reader by any means but reading from a text book is significantly slower especially if you are trying to pick out key information. On top of that we usually have some project to do weekly. It might be a paper, a concept map, a presentation, but it's always "something". Then there is usually 1-2 case studies for clinical a week. And every three weeks or so there is an exam. The content of nursing school can be challenging because it isn't just route memorization but also prioritization. So for instance I can study for hours to get the content of my exam down but sometimes it all comes down to the way a question is asked to determine if you get it correct. It can be discouraging walking out of an exam knowing that no further amount of studying would have bettered your grade. It all comes down to one moment of time while your are answering a question. That can be daunting. On top of all of that add in working full-time (like I do) and having a family with kids (thankfully I dont) and you can see how it quickly becomes overwhelming. The actual content of nursing isn't the worst or most difficult. It's the testing, constant busywork, workload, and outside comitments that can make it overwhelming.