Just wondering how is the second year of RN school?

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Oct 30, 2010

So far I have found the second year (I am in third semester and done in 5 weeks) to go a lot smoother than second did. Some people though haven't thought so. I think it's all pretty individual.

2ndyearstudent, CNA · Oct 30, 2010

I enjoy nursing school, but am also feeling done. Pep talk please from those of you in the last stretch!!!!!!!!!! :redpinkhe Thank you!

Sorry I cannot give you a pep talk and my comments apply only to my community college program.

So far, the second year of my two year program has been a bit hellish. It feels like the instructors are trying to construct tests with the purpose of washing people out. Halfway through the semester, almost 40% of the class (16/41) is either failing Theory or in danger of failing. This isn't just the people who have 4 kids and work full time, some good hardworking students are on the edge.

The stated reason for doing this is to ensure high NCLEX pass rates. However, I suspect they are washing out some students who would easily pass the boards. A while back, they raised the score needed to pass to 77%. Fine. Recently, they moved the exams to what they call "NCLEX Style" but the problem is the instructors sort of suck at writing "critical thinking" exams and end up writing a "How well can you flip coins?" exam. This is depressing exam scores too much.

I'm doing fine, but result of the test structure we are under is that you can study 20 hours in a week and end up with the same score as if you had studied 5 hours. Now, I don't study merely for the grade, I study so I can absorb the material and do well at my job. So I'm not going to study any less, but I am telling people to avoid my Nursing program. Go somewhere else. I've seen nurses who graduate from my program and they don't stand out or otherwise benefit from the abuse we go through.

I used to tell people, "Cut down on your hours at work, get loans and skip some family events. Put that time in!" I cannot in good conscience give that advice anymore because it just doesn't affect your grade if you study more. You fail or succeed (according to your grade) just the same if you work full time or 2 days a week.

The good news you already know, we are that much closer to finishing.

Good luck!

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Oct 30, 2010

The tests have gotten a lot harder in my program as well. But I don't know, it still seems to be flowing much smoother. First half of this semester was Psych, I breezed through that with little effort. We have advanced pharm but apparently the pharm we took first semester was more than we needed so they have scaled it back a lot. So it's been a lot of review. We just started advanced med/surge 1. We are 2 tests in. The first test was a shocker. It was given a lot different than exams we had up to this point, we weren't expecting it and I believe the class average was 78% on that one. (77% is passing in our program). But we knew how to study after that and from my understanding majoity of people did much better on the second exam. We have our pharm final on monday so we will be able to put all our focus into the Med/Surge alone. We start clinicals next week too.

But all in all, I feel a lot better prepared, a lot less stressed and so on. We just got done with "hell week". It seems we have one in each semester, 1st semester was the worst. But we had 3 exams and our skills return and clinical orientation all this past week.

ShantheRN, BSN, RN · Oct 30, 2010

I'm assuming you've started clinicals by this point.

Good news? You should be used to the testing formats and getting into the critical thinking mindset. By this point it should be second nature. You should be more comfortable with assessment. The "omg, this schedule is ridiculous!" first year flusters should be over and done with. If you're not to this point by now, you might want to work on this.

Bad news? Your instructors will expect you to have a certain level of knowledge and call you out on it if you don't. The training wheels will come off. You will get questions about care on clinical and you'll be expected to know the answers. The paperwork will get more intensive and critiques will be tougher. People will get As in theory but fail clinical, and vice versa. If your instructor doesn't think you're safe, you won't move on to role transition.

From my own experience.....with each term it's gotten easier because I know what to expect and my organization has improved 200%. I have really enjoyed my advanced med-surg clinical. It's brought everything together and made me feel like a nurse. Yes it's been challenging, but....I love the feeling of accomplishment when I see "excellent" written on my work or receive compliments from the staff nurses. I work full time at night and go to class in the morning....so I've really had no life to speak of, but I know that ends very soon.

Now there are people in my class that have hated this term and don't think anything has gotten easier lol so I guess it's all about perspective.