nurse told me prereqs are the hardest part

kaydensmom01 · Oct 30, 2013

Understanding a&p's content was hard because it was the first introduction to the body and you have to understand it thoroughly to have a good base, but nursing school was harder because of the vast amount of reading and homework. Content was also difficult especially second year with pharmacology and patho.

libran1984, ASN, RN · Oct 30, 2013

I agree that A&P along with the other pre-reqs were insanely difficult for me. However, nursing school, while difficult was not quite as bad. In nursing school I could get C's and still pass. In my pre-reqs, everything had to be A's.

**NICU Guy, BSN, RN** · Oct 30, 2013

I agree that there is extreme pressure to get As in pre-reqs, but a 1 yr ABSN is still going to push your sanity to the edge. I am in a 15 month ABSN and there are times that I question if I can get all the papers, journal articles, care plans, and homework in on time in between studying for tests, clinicals, classes, work, and sleep.

windsurfer8, BSN, RN · Oct 30, 2013

I did an ABSN in 2006. It is all hard work. Nothing is easy and it SHOULD NOT be easy. Do you want a nurse who completed an easy program? Everyone wants the big time, but hardly anyone wants to work for it. If someone tells you it is super hard are you not going to do it? That is the reason not to? Because it is hard? That is a pretty weak reason to not do something. I have been a nurse 7 years and I still find it very difficult work. There is a reason nurses make decent paychecks. Forget what those people say...When you have a test just smile and say "here we go!" Look inside yourself and make a decision. It is all on you. Do whatever you want. You have this time right here and right now. Make the decision and then forget the talk and hit it hard.

carefulcare · Oct 31, 2013

I did an ABSN in 2006. It is all hard work. Nothing is easy and it SHOULD NOT be easy. Do you want a nurse who completed an easy program? Everyone wants the big time, but hardly anyone wants to work for it. If someone tells you it is super hard are you not going to do it? That is the reason not to? Because it is hard? That is a pretty weak reason to not do something. I have been a nurse 7 years and I still find it very difficult work. There is a reason nurses make decent paychecks. Forget what those people say...When you have a test just smile and say "here we go!" Look inside yourself and make a decision. It is all on you. Do whatever you want. You have this time right here and right now. Make the decision and then forget the talk and hit it hard.

thanks for this! :yes: i had my chem professor who spent a whole lecture period talking about testing and how we should take every exam we do seriously, the closer to the exam the closer to the 90 k we will get. he was using one of his friends who was an RN who makes 90k a year. he asked us how much do we want that. i know nursing is not about the money but im sure it helps to pay the bills and put more food on the table.

SwansonRN · Oct 31, 2013

That was my experience. I'm not sure if it was because I was straight out of high school, but I definitely struggled with A&P and biochem. When I started my nursing classes I was surprised by how much easier the classes were for me in comparison. Not saying that nursing classes weren't stressful or hard in their own right, but so much better than memorizing bone markings

queserasera, RN · Oct 31, 2013

I guess this all depends on the individual. How you learn & how difficult memorization is for you could definitely make pre reqs tougher. A lot of it for me it how interesting I find the material.

A&P I&II were easier for me because I was interested in the material. I am still waiting for acceptance to my BSN program, however I have all of my aunts old nursing books and I just LOVE reading them. I am genuinely interested in Pharmacology, Med-Surg, and Nursing essentials books. I think for me, nursing textbooks will be WAY easier for me to read than a statistic textbook based on pure interest.

smoup · Oct 31, 2013

While there may be more emphasis now to get all A's in pre-reqs, there is still more education to be had after a BSN. If you plan on furthering your education with an MSN or DNP/PhD, then grades and GPA still matter.

As for which was harder, for me, nursing school. It's not the material so much as NCLEX style questions. Hopefully they will get easier before I have to take the NCLEX in 2014/2015. This is also my second degree and maybe I care about grades more? My GPA is currently higher in nursing school than my BA, but it seems like a lot more work has gone in to achieving that.

RHill9919 · Oct 31, 2013

Why assume that I was considering not doing nursing because it was too hard? I was only asking a question to get an idea of what the consensus was. My prereqs will be completed in December so that is not my concern of if they're too easy. I would never expect nor want nurses to have completed an easy program. You are absolutely right about that. I guess I'm just curious if my ABSN program is going to be as grueling or more so that what I've been doing for the past year, knocking out all the prereqs. I appreciate everyone's input, especially yours for being so honest.

I am so nervous about any nursing program. Scared of failing, like most people probably. I'm smart, sure, but I'm not a genius and all of the talk I hear about nursing school is how it's almost impossible to pass. If that were true, would there be so many nurses?

lifelearningrn, BSN, RN · Oct 31, 2013

That would be an absolute no. It's not just the difficulty level, it's the fact that nursing classes don't curve grades, don't give bonus questions and rarely 'give' it to you if you are 'close'. There is no wiggle room in nursing school, and the content only gets more difficult.

rubato, ASN, RN · Oct 31, 2013

I completely disagree with the nurse you spoke to. My pre reqs were EASY compared to the pace, critical thinking and over extension of nursing school. Then, you're doing an accelerated paced ASBN? I think it'll be tough. But, totally doable, no problem.