What's nursing school like?

**RosesrReder, BSN, MSN, RN** · Jun 14, 2005

Well I made a mistake and thought that it was an intellectual, academic environment....
When they say they like questions = stop asking so many questions.
The first round was kicked out for low test scores, fluids and electrolytes got a lot of people. Everyone else seems to be getting kicked from the clinicals.
You will not get the information that you think you need or deserve...when are the tests/classes, what they will cover, when can I re-take my skills lab.
You will be asked questions that you never had the information for, or the answer that you memorized won't be a choice, or the 'right answer' directly contradicts the book.
The clinical instructors are all crazy....I mean that with respect of course, and they can and will kick you out for arbitrary reasons.
It is not a...if I study hard I will get through this. It's a 'if I study hard, I'm lucky, I'm a good clinician, and my clinical instructors like ( believe in ) me I'll get through this.
I hope this wasn't too sardonic, and it helps. I wish I knew this before I started.

:stone 4 Words

Run for your life :uhoh3:

Ingo456 · Jul 13, 2005

I'm working on my prereqs and hope to attend a nursing school next fall. What can I expect? Do you feel overwhelmed and outnumbered at times?

What can you expect? Where the hell do I begin. First off all lets talk about the people you will be dealling with perticulartly your classmates. Women will talk about you stab you in the back tell on you and so on. Use them only for study parteners. DO NOT get intimatlly involved with them. I graduated out of a class of 12. 3 were guys and the rest were women. I have come to dislike maybe even hate all the women except for like 1 or 2. Next the constant assult on your self esteem. Basically the school i went to the teachers in the begining had this mentality of if your were not born a nurse then you should not be a nurse. Next the amount of material is colosal. No way to put it all in your head. Next item is the clinicals i hope you are prepare to wipe ass give bed baths and showers, insert folies deal with crazy people give shots, start IV and see peple in alot of pain. NOw if you can get through all that and still want to be a nurse there is a great pay off at the end. You make a difference in peples life every day and save lives everyday.

RudyMvp1 · Jul 19, 2005

Im done with Pre-reqs and now on the waiting list, looks like i will get in in Fall of 06, maybe Summer 06. In meantime i just have to take Microbiology and I will have all the Gen. Ed. classes done for a ADN.

When I start Nursing School I will have 2 classes per term, 1 class 3 days per week lecture and the other is a clinical 2 days a week.

From what Ive heard in here is that Nursing School is pretty freaking hard and I can understand that, now problem there,,,but what I cant stand are snobby @#*$%& instructors. How do you people handle these teachers?

In one of my pre-req classes the teacher was all over my case and yelled at me in front of the whole class because I wiped my hands dry and didnt PLOT my hands dry. This was a 1 credit class and we spent a whole week on how to CLEAN OUR FREAKING HANDS! Basically when she yelled at me,,,I was this close to just losing it :angryfire !!!!!

It was totally uncalled for and I think the only reason she yelled at me cuz I was a guy and shes a 60 yr old hag lol After I got an "A" in the class I went straight to the DEAN lol. (I was very calm since 4 weeks had passed when she REAMED me a new one in front of everybody.)

I just told the Dean it was emabrassing, uncalled for,,,and pissed me off!!! :chuckle

I also told him I didn't want to make a big deal over it, just that this is a community college,,,not ROMPER ROOM. I can handle tough classes where teachers are fair and treat you like a PERSON, but when someone tries to bring me down or intimidate me or attack my self-esteem,,,I GET PISSED!!!!

:angryfire

Please tell me that Nursing instructors are halfway cool and not PRICKS like the one I had!!!

If they are mostly PRICKS,,then I guess I will be getting alot of 77%'s :chuckle

JohnRN04 · Jul 19, 2005

I'm working on my prereqs and hope to attend a nursing school next fall. What can I expect? Do you feel overwhelmed and outnumbered at times?

NURSING SCHOOL IS HELL.

OUTNUMBERED? not so much but sometimes (a lot of times) I missed the testosterone. I had to tone it down quite a bit. Also learn this: Men are different from women, not better. But anyway...i do miss having guys around. I'm not gay. No offense to gay guys...or girls

Adam D. RN2005 · Jul 19, 2005

I'm working on my prereqs and hope to attend a nursing school next fall. What can I expect? Do you feel overwhelmed and outnumbered at times?

I didn't feel outnumbered at all. But there were plenty of times when I felt overwhelmed. And there were several times that my anxiety got knocked into highgear.

And I definately did feel the stress. There will be times that you go home and cry because you're so stressed out. Take up Yoga. And make time for you. Because nursing school will take a strain on your mental health.

And be prepared for the unexpected. Like a patient you researched one way makes a turn for the worst and everything you knew gets thrown out the window. Remain calm when you're patient's BP is 220/130. They need you to be calm.

Don't bring your patients home with you, leave them at the hospital. Not only does it mean that you will be taking care of them for 24 hours instead of eight, You won't have time to pee, eat, or sleep. Seriously, leave them at the hosipital because it will wear on you. I had a pt die on me, and I brought them home with me. I took it very hard. And was extremely upset for an entire weekend. Forget what you see in the hospital when you leave. It is better for you emotionally.

And don't take things personally. In the heat of the moment, people will say things that they don't mean.

But most of all, keep your sense of humor, you'll need it. And use your support system, because you will definately need it.

Good Luck.

Adam

SteveNNP, MSN, NP · Jul 19, 2005

Hi!

I felt the need to contribute, as someone who graduated a mere month and a half ago from a BSN program. The past four years have been the most challenging and fun yet. I don't miss the hundreds of hours I must have spent working on the care plans and clinical write-ups you will never even see in the "real world." Having been homeschooled all of my education up until college, I wasn't sure I was ready for organized education, eg college. While the biology, A&P and chemistry classes were hard the first year, every year brought its own challenges, You just need to be ready for a new challenge. it may not be solving a chemistry equation, but basing your clinical interventions on your developing assessment results. I was one of 2 guys in my class. We're best friends, and even work at the same hospital now. Even though you will hear that things taught in school are different in the real world, don't brush them off. Old nurses haven't learned some of the new tricks we are taught now. Focus on what's best for YOUR patient, not what's most convenient. I am a Neonatal ICU nurse, and I love it. Preemies are the greatest patients. Even as a guy I melt at the sight of those incredibly fragile patients. It makes me want to be super-vigilant and give the best care. In adult care, you often let things slide that you don't feel are important. In NICU, you HAVE to give it all! I am so paranoid about giving drugs to these kids. I gave 0.085 mg of morphine the other day, the average adult dose is 4-12mg. The challenge and awesome responsibility of all this is why I still love nursing. School was hard, I still have the occasional bad day, and the pay is somewhat crappy in my area, but the rewards of seeing that baby who wouldn't be there without the care you gave it for months go home with their parents. THAT will make a grown man cry!!

Well, I've digressed from the original post, but I hope this gives you some encouragment. Keep going. It's hard, but the choices and rewards of nursing are limitless!!

Take care!

Steve RN

Jul2bRN · Apr 23, 2008

Thanks stevern21,

I just read your post because I'm trying to prepare for NS this fall and am trying to get some tips. After reading your post, it made me remember why I am putting myself through all this hardship with what seems like never-ending challenges. Your post makes me remember why I wanted to become a nurse in the first place and hopefully in a couple of years I will get to experience the joys you are getting as an RN too. :)

SteveNNP, MSN, NP · Apr 24, 2008

I actually got a little misty reading that post I wrote as a new grad almost 3 years ago.... a lot of water has gone under the bridge since then...

rddsnurse · May 1, 2008

Also, the testing format is just plain odd. All of our tests are given NCLEX style. I find that it doesn't seem to matter if I study or not. The q's are old NCLEX questions so they don't necessarily correlate with the lecture notes or the texts.

And neither do the current NCLEX questions if the LVN test was any depiction. Even the one cut and dry question on my test, the learned answer was not there, you had to make the leap.

sistasoul · May 1, 2008

What is nursing school like? It horrible!! It's constant assault on your self esteem with nothing but negative reinforcement. On the bright side, only 20 days to go ....
-S

I am a female and I 100% agree with your post. I have 7 days left to go.

My CI drove me to almost withdrawing last Wednesday. At this point I only had 15 days to go. We all know how hard NS is and for me to want to withdraw after going through almost 2 years you know I was under tremendous emotional stress. Thank God the Director of the program stood by me and had my CI call me up and have me come back.

This CI had me in tears at least 7 times in Clinical. I have never been harrassed like this before.

I don't know if I would do nursing school again if I had known it was going to be like this.

Music in My Heart · May 2, 2008

First semester winding down and it's not that bad, IMO.

It is a lot of work but isn't any harder than the other subjects I've studied. It's not easy but I don't find it to be that hard.

We're fortunate to have a terrific clinical instructor and awesome resource nurses on our clinical floor.

We're in a DEMSN program so that may be part of why my experience is atypical.

Steve, you're half my age but I find you to be an inspiration. I've read many more of your posts than I've responded to.

mlblmt · May 7, 2008

I just started my first week of Nursing school and it's been utter chaos! I'm taking a pharmacology class online, and of the 4 classes I'm taking, it's the only one for which I've been able to access the syllabus and other course materials. I truly hate going into a new class "cold" but what can you do. I'm taking night/weekend classes which was a spur of the moment last minute decision that occurred during orientation a month ago. I've been chomping at the bit to get started and now that it's here I'm scared *********!!! Interestingly, posts from a few years ago lamented the lack of testosterone in class, but not my school. Perhaps because its the night/weekend track, but 60% of my class of about 24 is male. For this term, of 96 admitted, a LEAST 40% of the total enrollment is male. The one constant I've found in my journey to nursing school is that nothing is as bad as its rumored to be......it's MUCH, MUCH worse! In 16 months when this part of my journey has ended, I hope to look back and still be able to identify with the idealistic, hopeful, energetic, eager to learn and to help person that I am today. Not only to identify with, but to BE that person, only matured, refined and a nurse!