Hello everyone..Let me begin by saying I have browsed this website nearly every day ever since I found it about 2 years ago while I was a senior in high school. As of now I am working extremely hard in my second year of college to finish up my pre-reqs so I can (hopefully) begin my journey through nursing school in Fall of 2014.
The first time I was interested in nursing was in the 10th grade. I was taking a health science class which was taught by an RN. The class started off the first few weeks with learning about all different kinds of health occupations, mainly focused on those in nursing (we studied the history of nursing a little bit and she had many of her own experiences to share with us as a nurse). At that point I still didn't really "know" exactly what a nurse does or what the difference between an RN, LPN, MA, etc is. I just had a general idea of a Nurse as being a doctor's assistant or some such (forgive me!).
She also taught a nurse assisting class through which you could take the competency evaluation upon completion, which I intended on doing as well after taking her health science class. However, any interest that was sparked in me by Nursing was shut down and squashed by this woman almost every day in class. I was fascinated with everything we were being introduced to and would even borrow some of her nurse assisting books and health occupations books from her shelf to take home with me to read. However, when it came to class work and assignments, she was a pain to say the least.
She would have us practice random skills like taking vital signs or putting on gloves, etc. We were also required to turn in a 3 page essay every friday on a disease or condition found in our health books. I tried very, very hard in this class. But this teacher would berate and belittle me every chance she got, in front of everyone. She would constantly tell me I would never be a nurse or that she had no idea why I was even taking the class, and that she hoped I was not planning on taking her nurse assistant class. Which I didn't understand at all because I made sure my assignments were always good, I always put forth an incredible amount of effort in everything I done because I was desperate to prove her wrong. I held back a lot of anger and resentment toward her and always behaved respectfully. I averaged a C in her class every quarter but was just glad she didn't fail me.
I know I'm ranting here a little bit but I'm almost done I promise! Anyway, whenever I would answer questions CORRECTLY in class she would totally dismiss me as just GUESSING, and then she would single me out to lecture me on how difficult it is to be a nurse and how impossible nursing school would be for "someone like me". It was hard for me to comprehend all that because I had never told her I even wanted to be a nurse in the first place, plus I was very shy and I rarely had the confidence to speak up in class, and when I mustered enough to raise my hand to ask a question or answer one, I got completely humiliated. To sum it all up she was the reason I didn't want to be a nurse anymore and I ended up not taking her nurse assistant class. Mind you I am not the only student she made feel this way, but there weren't too many of us.
Fast forward to my senior year and I start planning for college and all that. I can't really explain the process but I became interested in nursing again - not that I had totally lost all interest since my experience with my health teacher, but I hadn't thought seriously about it since then. Anyway, I enrolled in a nurse assistant course through my community college and that is when I truly knew that Nursing is what I wanted to dedicate my life to. Everything in the class was fascinating to me, I loved reading in my text book and completing the workbook. I loved practicing and checking off on the skills even more. When Clinical came around I was ecstatic. I don't like poo and wiping urine off of my shoes but I do love taking care of those people who otherwise couldn't care for themselves.
I felt as if my instructor really helped me better understand what role Nursing plays in healthcare. We don't work for the doctor, we are there for the patient! I found that nursing and medicine are two whole different professions altogether and I finally "got it". The class was a total eye opener and I had such a positive experience. I am not saying this will determine my future experiences with instructors in nursing school, but it felt good to see that it is in fact possible for a teacher to encourage her student instead of telling them they aren't good enough. I know it won't always be that way but this one class has given me enough confidence to know that if I try hard enough I can succeed.
My pre-reqs are almost finished and I have several schools I'm hoping I get accepted into! I also passed my competency evaluation and happily informed my old health teacher of my status on the nurse aide registry (couldn't resist!).
As for Allnurses.com, browsing these forums answered A LOT of questions and reassured me when I had a lot of doubts. It is so comforting to know that if I need help or I just need to vent, I (hopefully) have the support of many students and nurses who are willing to listen. It feels wrong not to give this site credit after the integral part it has played in my life so far. I've jumped through so many hoops for my school of choice it is ridiculous, but hopefully I will be accepted. I will know the first week of April. In the meantime I am finishing up my last pre-reqs and happily working as a CNA!
Thanks to all of you kind souls who took the time to read this, and the ones who have shared all the info I've read through on here over the years!
I'm thankful that our BSN program requires all pre reqs to be finished before starting nursing classes, which is 15 credits every semester anyways. However our ADN program just requires A&P I and II, math, speech and micro to be completed first and the rest of the classes can be taken with nursing courses. I'd have to agree with the previous post, keep at it! I honestly couldn't imagine taking anything else on top of nursing courses!
Exactly, I really do not want to add to the course load! At the rate I'm going I will have Micro finished in the summer before the fall NSG classes begin. I have to talk to my advisor first about this because she says Micro may be required to be taken simultaneously with the Fundamentals course but she wasn't sure. Hopefully that isn't the case!
AlliD
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Exactly, I really do not want to add to the course load! At the rate I'm going I will have Micro finished in the summer before the fall NSG classes begin. I have to talk to my advisor first about this because she says Micro may be required to be taken simultaneously with the Fundamentals course but she wasn't sure. Hopefully that isn't the case!