Nursing school: what to expect?

[want2learn]

Hello all! I just recently completed my degree in health administration. I am finding that it really isn't what I want to d, as I want to be more help than what it can offer (it is an associates degree and very broad). I have been thinking about nursing off and on. I have been told several times to look into it by family, friends, and career counselors. I honestly talked myself out of it because I didn't think at the time I had what it took to make it through school or deal with some of the more "gross" aspects of the job. However, I have cared for many who are sick and found that when I knew they needed me, I could care less if I got a little mess on me. After graduating from a distance learning course, I felt a LOT more confident to try my hand at nursing. I still have a bit of worry. I have no IDEA what ground compus college is like. I remember in high school taking a class at a college setting and freaking out becuase I felt so lost. I also worry about multiple choice test. For the past two years, all i wrote were APA format research projects. I am good at writing and always did great on papers, but it's all other aspects that I am freaked out about. Is this normal? Does this mean that I shouldn't go? There is a part of me that is saying "I can do this and maybe even graduate cum laude!" But then, there is this nagging portion "Do I really want more student loans? What if I fail? What if I hate it in school? What if I am not paitent enough?" Are the fears normal?

I have read what school is like on here and found it very helpful, but still have questions and concerns. Will my distance learning be good preporation for ground campus learning? Will my knowledge of writing (trust me, that's all I did in distance learning) help take some of the stress away? Do you really have exams where you have to fill a whole notebook with an essay (yes I have been told this)? I want to look into going back for my associates in nursing, but with all the worry, I need some good, sound advice from those there/ been there. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Every reply is greatly appreciated.

[Future-nurse]

It might not be the answer you are looking for but I just got accepted to a nursing program and I had the same sort of question "what to expect?"

I ended up going to the nursing dept and talking with the staff about sitting in on some of the classes to get a feel for what to expect. This ended up helping me alot as I got to see how tight nit the nursing program class was (felt like a family) and what they had to learn. I even got to participate in learning how to feed a blind patient (a student in the program closed her eyes while the teacher was watching me feed her).

This was a really cool experience that showed me just how much I want to become a nurse.

Hope this helped.