Just how difficult is nursing school going to be?!

[CYR]

Is it really THAT difficult?!! I have heard some say that the prereqs were more difficult than the nursing school and others say just the opposite. I'm curious! I start my community college nursing program in the fall and I have been taking really tough courses for my eventual transfer to a 4 year university...demanding classes like Molecular Biology and Genetics, Biology for science majors, and the full year of college level Inorganic Chemistry (I just have a semester of Organic Chemistry to go). I'm hoping that these critical thinking type of classes have prepared me well enough for what lies ahead. I keep hearing about the masses of students who fail out of nursing school? And students who got all As in their prereqs who are barely passing the nursing courses? Are most of these people trying to work while they attend school?

[smk1, LPN]

Haha.

It helps but I still have to do the work. Its just nice that instructors know if they subjectivly give me a bad grade, the same might happen to them. Subjective is a two way street .

so starting now, you need to keep that tid bit of info strictly to yourself. The teachers may or may not know you are related to their boss, but the bigger problem will be spending 2+ years with classmates who are always going to think you are getting special treatment. BOY WILL YOUR EXPERIENCE BE AWFUL! Nursing school is very "close knit" there is a lot of gossip Good and bad, but you don't need to give ammunition to those who will readily use it. There will be some who will be jealous of your grades as it is and try to cause problems for you, they don't need any other way to add fuel to the fire's of rumour and innuendo. Just my humble thoughts as a current nursing student.

P.S. as you can see you already have two posts responding to your "connections" in a less than positive way. Take that as a warning.

[all4schwa]

yeah, well....speaking of tests, there are ways to fail out of nursing school while passing your exams. it's a system of checks and balances...you fall behind on the paperwork/homework, you're outta there, don't go home and practice your skills and can't pass the lab checkoffs? book smarts won't save you there. and trust me, with the issues that i deal with at my c.c., i wanted to go to the dean, but my gpa won't back me up when the attack is perhaps coming from another direction such as my clinical work and yes, i was afraid of retailiation. at one point i said to myself "self, you've come too far to let anyone mess with your bread and butter now!" and i bit my tongue. BTW, i get pinned a week from today, and i'm glad i kept my mouth shut. you get out of nursing school what you put into it anyway.

[nursecher]

This thread is valuable to me! I am not normally a bite my tounge kinda gal, but when I start school this tounge is gonna be hurting.

I think alot of it comes with maturity and knowing when to speak up and when to zip it. Also, if you do speak up using tact and quoth.

This is another reason I am glad I did not go to nursing school fresh out of high school.

[Chrystal Flippo]

Well I passed every single test for 5 semesters except the very last one and flunked out, it was the final I made a 72 on it... If the school had averaged my other scores i would of had an 80 average and passed... I personally hate the nursing school. We had one class where the instructor only taught 4 out of 10 classes, the rest of the time we did group work, another one would teach in the morning and sit on her duff in the afternoon and watch us do group work... It was her test I flunked with a 72, she prepped folks on the first 3 test and deserted them on the last test and made it harder on purpose, 7 out of 15 people flunked it. I personally will never attend that school again not for any reason... I am through with one shot deals, I think all nurses should reconsider when you have to go 3 or 5 semesters and you flunk just one test and you are gone... think of all the wasted time, effort and money.... I think it is best to do a lpn program somewhere and then go to excelsior or something. At least there you can have up to 4 tries to complete a class... what was i thinking.

this school makes you complete a lpn program, then repeat the course you missed... Which will take one year to complete... amazing... stuff... what does lpn have to do with rn when you are nearly finished? I do not know.... lol

[alir1983]

Thanks, informative!

[surgetechreject]

I'm pretty lucky though, the dean is my uncle.:)

Please let me know where you practice because I wouldn not feel comfortable with you as my nurse. I have met many nurses like you, they are very book smart but have zero people skills.

I am not a nurse, but I do know that the two go hand-in-hand. There must be a balance. I know that Nurses have a lot of interaction with Doctors and family members. Unfortunately nurses must tell family member things they do not want to hear. That is not the time to be quoting from textbooks and fighting with them. Here is where the skill to bite your tongue and let the family members go through the steps of grieving comes into play.

A famous quote " The way you do one thing is the way you do everything." While some instructors may be wrong, mistaken, or just being a pain, they are also looking for the students that already have good habits they can build on. This is most likely not my place to say it, but you are not demonstrating good habits by runinning to your uncle for support. That to me shows that you can not fight your own battles.

If I were your uncle I would have let you handle it your self. Plus If i were you i would not be flaunting that the Dean of my school is also my uncle it would just make me look like an ass.

This is all my opinion and most likely i am the only one that thinks this, but i had to put this out here.