Not as hard as I anticipated....

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  • Specializes in Peds, PICU, Home health, Dialysis.

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Lisa CCU RN, RN

1,531 Posts

Specializes in Geriatrics, Cardiac, ICU.
I think part of the consideration for how "hard" the program is would be where you (the student) are coming from: what's your educational background? How many hours a week do you work, and in what field? How old are you, and what are your other responsibilities: parent to how many children, etc?

Beyond that, the actual program will of course vary from school to school: I know for a fact that people who have failed out of my alma mater went on to get A's and B's in another school (known for a much easier curriculum). Then again, their board passing rate was nothing to brag about, and ours is :)

The focus of instruction may make a difference in how hard the program is: for instance, the hardest thing to survive in my program was the skill evaluations. It didn't matter how well you performed then in clinicals, if you didn't do it to the Gold Standard in the practicum exam, forget passing. Two attempts at the same skill, fail the second and it doesn't matter if you got A's in everything else up until then. So, A students didn't feel that the program was easy, either: getting past the clinical instructors for these tests made the difference in passing and failing, regardless of grades.

I hope for your sake the program you're in remains less stressful for you than most others find them to be. But please remember that at any time, all that can change: be on top of your game at all times, and do NOT slack off on anything!

I don't know about that. I know LPN's who failed out of the program, single people with no children who failed too. The only thing I don't do is work full time. I have an extern position, but I go pretty part-time. I have two children age 7 and 5 who demand a lot of attention, so I use them to study and they learn something in the process too. Now my daughter asks her teacher for workbooks to complete and does them with no prompting form me and is always tellin me how she is trying to learn and be smart like her mommy.

Our skills tests are very fair. There are EXACT steps we have to pass that are spelled out. All you have to do is complete all the steps and you pass. There is no subjectivity.

Our pass rate is 100%.

FNPhopeful

307 Posts

Just wait until 2nd semester and 3rd and so on.

Its hard because you have to apply your knowledge, and figure out what is going on with your patients with what available data you have on them. There is also alot of ethical dilemmas you have to think through, how would you handle this crisis?

Its not just about memorizing facts or being able to pass hand washing-

which yes may be easy....

In maternity the instructors gonna tell you,- ok 30 year old patient who is a gravida 1 para 3 has vitals that read BP 165/110 Temp 101.2 Resp are 28 and HR is 99. She is complaining of headaches and appears to be hyperventilating. Her platelet count is such and such and her WBC count is this. What do her vitals indicate and what meds should you administer? What is the number one priority? When do you call the physician? What is the baby's condition? and so on.

Now we all might find the answer to these situations easy as we progress, but initially its kinda like woah!

Thats just an example. Thats why I think nursing school is hard. But different things are hard for different reasons. Like the others said just stay on top of your studying- know your vitals in all pertaining situations, know your lab values and signs/symptoms!

Then you can begin to apply them.

KEL2BanRN

117 Posts

MMW, you study 8-10 hrs in ONE day? I think after several hours, the info would go right out of my brain and I wouldn't be retaining any of it.

MikeyJ, RN

1,124 Posts

Specializes in Peds, PICU, Home health, Dialysis.
Its not just about memorizing facts or being able to pass hand washing-

which yes may be easy....

Whoa... I am sure you didn't direct this at me, but rather were probably speaking in general. However, I do not do well in school by memorzing facts. In an earlier post I had stated that I flat out stink at rote memorization. I have a horrible time just memorizing information -- I need to learn it. Thus, when I study (whatever subject, nursing or non-nursing), I focus on learning the material, and not memorizing. So I am not doing well in school because I have a good memory. I do well because I try extremely hard and try to learn it.

And as I stated before, I understand that there will be plenty of challenges in nursing school -- especially in the latter semesters. I am not trying to imply that nursing school is easy for me. I am just saying that it definitely isn't as hard as I thought it was going to be.

Like CRNAHopeful, I think a lot of it comes down to attitude. I am probably the most cheerful and optimistic person you will meet. I rarely have bad days, and when I wake up in the morning, I tell myself "today is going to be a good day!" I am also big into running (training for my 1st marathon actually) and that helps me focus on school as well. I think my attitude helps me out a ton in school -- because a lot of people around me are "freaking" out and getting stressed out because we are in nursing school. I, on the other hand, am excited to be where I am, excited to learn, excited about my professors and classmates, and as a direct result I am doing awesome and not having much difficultly.

Cherish

876 Posts

Specializes in Junior Year of BSN.

Some people find things easier than others. Just like in reg. classes, English can be easier on one person than the other or math. I am not in nursing school but I don't doubt that there are students who will find school easier compared to others.

I think some people are getting a little defensive because your intentions might be to say it's easy but their reading it as I must not be that intellectual compared to this person because it's not easy for me. Not saying you said this but you can probably relate. When one finds something easy and the other is having difficulty and doing everything in their power to comprehend the other person feels not as smart and is wondering how that individual finds something so easy.

I myself can't judge how well I will do in NS until I start but I know it is an extremely hard program (diploma school sort of militaryesque). But I might strive in a program like that since I have served in the Army for 6 yrs and love that sort of hardwork. We will see. But I am glad you are finding the program not as stressful or hard as others perceive it and hope you become a great nurse.

LadyEJ BSN, RN

222 Posts

Specializes in Clinicals.
In maternity the instructors gonna tell you,- ok 30 year old patient who is a gravida 1 para 3 has vitals that read BP 165/110 Temp 101.2 Resp are 28 and HR is 99. She is complaining of headaches and appears to be hyperventilating.

I was just wondering gravida 1 para 3...isn't this impossible? (Confused, I'm not in nursing school yet)

TazziRN, RN

6,487 Posts

Nope......gravida 1 = first pregnancy. Para 3 = triplets.

Lisa CCU RN, RN

1,531 Posts

Specializes in Geriatrics, Cardiac, ICU.
Just wait until 2nd semester and 3rd and so on.

Its hard because you have to apply your knowledge, and figure out what is going on with your patients with what available data you have on them. There is also alot of ethical dilemmas you have to think through, how would you handle this crisis?

Its not just about memorizing facts or being able to pass hand washing-

which yes may be easy....

In maternity the instructors gonna tell you,- ok 30 year old patient who is a gravida 1 para 3 has vitals that read BP 165/110 Temp 101.2 Resp are 28 and HR is 99. She is complaining of headaches and appears to be hyperventilating. Her platelet count is such and such and her WBC count is this. What do her vitals indicate and what meds should you administer? What is the number one priority? When do you call the physician? What is the baby's condition? and so on.

Now we all might find the answer to these situations easy as we progress, but initially its kinda like woah!

How is it possible for her to be gravida 1 para 3? Isn't she pregnant now? I assume so since you ask about the baby's condition. She would at least have to be gravida 2.

Lisa CCU RN, RN

1,531 Posts

Specializes in Geriatrics, Cardiac, ICU.

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MB37

1,714 Posts

When I said I study 8-10 hours some days, it's not exactly intensive sitting in the library studying. I might play back my lecture from the day before while typing up my notes, which takes a few hours (we have 3-4 hour classes), then make lunch and fool around on this site, then read my chapter for my online class and do the module, then move to the couch and start reading patho. I can't focus on anything for that long either. I mostly just have a book in front of me most of the time, and that keeps me from having to pull all nighters or move into the library before an exam. So far I'm ahead, so it seems to be working.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN

3 Articles; 10,428 Posts

I don't know about that. I know LPN's who failed out of the program, single people with no children who failed too. The only thing I don't do is work full time. I have an extern position, but I go pretty part-time. I have two children age 7 and 5 who demand a lot of attention, so I use them to study and they learn something in the process too. Now my daughter asks her teacher for workbooks to complete and does them with no prompting form me and is always tellin me how she is trying to learn and be smart like her mommy.

Our skills tests are very fair. There are EXACT steps we have to pass that are spelled out. All you have to do is complete all the steps and you pass. There is no subjectivity.

Our pass rate is 100%.

Well.....all I can tell you is I DO know of what I speak. I saw LPNs fail out, and single people who failed out as well....that wasn't my point. My point was that extraneous activities CAN impact negatively. And the educational background I mentioned impacts how you study: are you already a college grad, used to studying at that level, or did you complete high school 20 years previously and haven't studied since? Issues like that. Actually, our best students DID tend to be those with alot going on, jobs and children included, but it does depend on what kind of support system you have and how you, personally, handle scholastics.

I found "working" on my kids to be useful, too :)

As for no subjectivity, all I can say is how very rare that must be! I never heard of a nursing school that didn't have subjectivity as part and parcel of the process, but then again, none of us knows all that's out there, do we? Hard for me to imagine NOT having subjectivity come into play when it comes to clinicals and skill evaluations, but obviously different schools will do things differently. Probably one of the biggest complaints students have is how very subjective so much of the clinical work is.

For what it's worth, I also can't imagine any school TELLING you that there IS subjectivity in their clinical grading. It'd be akin to saying "we decide if you should be a nurse or not", and you'll never hear that. I'm pretty sure if I looked through my school stuff I'd see something about how all the grades=pass or fail. But I can absolutely, without question tell you that there were those students with passing grades who did NOT pass clinicals, or skill evals, because of that unwritten subjectivity worked in there.

Regardless, I wish you the best and hope you continue to have a great experience in school.

decartes

241 Posts

I share your sentiments about nursing school. I have just graduated with high honors from an accelerated BSN program and I agree that absorbing and processing the AMOUNT of information was the challenge. I personally wouldn't call nursing school easy out of respect and the fact that it's not easy. However, I enjoyed the knowledge and the challenge of its application. Maybe you find it "easy" because you are enjoying what you are doing. I sure did.

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