Whether is it from a Nursing Instructor or classmate, I keep hearing that Nursing School is HARD, HARD, HARD!!! This is no big surprise to me that is hard, but it seems strange that this is emphasized so much; it seems like people are trying to scare people away from Nursing, or maybe there are other reasons. I've never heard people emphasize this aspect of Medical School to the extent that I hear it about Nursing School. I think medical students know they are doing something hard, and I never hear anyone emphasizing again and again how hard medical school is. Why is Nursing School treated like the most difficult thing to do on the planet? OK, sure it is hard, but to keep emphasizing this makes it almost sound like the person saying it maybe didn't get any respect for how hard they worked, so they want everyone else to be impressed with how smart they are to have made it through. I just never hear Doctors going around saying how hard Medical School was, and I think it because everyone knows it is a hard thing to do. It sounds like Nurses have an inferiority complex. What gives?
The original post was asking why nursing school instructors tend to say over and over again how hard nursing school is. Many other fields of training and schooling is as hard as, if not harder than, nursing school; do those students get told as often as nursing students do how difficult their program is?
In some students (subjective) experience, nursing school isn't as hard as other schooling they've experienced, even though instructors in the other fields didn't comment on the difficulty of their schooling. And now they're in a nursing program which feels easier to them and the instructors keep saying how difficult it should be. And wondering why nursing school instructors seem to feel the need to say this so often to the students.
My thoughts... 1) for many students, nursing school *is* the hardest schooling they've experienced thus far; the standard pre-reqs aren't easy but tend to be easier than nursing school for most. 2) students coming from the hard sciences may come with an attitude that nursing school must be "easy" since the pre-reqs are easy compared to other coursework they've taken
As others have noted, just how hard any training/schooling is considered to be is relative to one's own personal experiences as well as ever-changing social trends.
I don't understand why nursing instructors say nursing school is so hard. I mean i know its not a walk in the park. But I cannot imagine it being harder than medical school. My cousin is in his first semester of medschool. His classes are Genetics, Histology, Qualitative Chem, NeuroAnatomy and one other that I forget. I'm pretty sure that beats the pharm and patho class i have to take my first semester of nursing school.
I don't understand why nursing instructors say nursing school is so hard. I mean i know its not a walk in the park. But I cannot imagine it being harder than medical school. My cousin is in his first semester of medschool. His classes are Genetics, Histology, Qualitative Chem, NeuroAnatomy and one other that I forget. I'm pretty sure that beats the pharm and patho class i have to take my first semester of nursing school.
What nursing instructor is saying that nursing school is harder than med school?
My guess as to why nursing instructors say that nursing school is hard.....is because they have nursing students say the same to them year after year.
That's exactly what I'm asking. And yes, I know you're taking a jab at me. My critical thinking skills are not lacking.
I don't believe it's nursing school itself that becomes harder when you're busy, not busy, etc. It's time management that is key.
I do apologize for the jab:-) However, I still fail to see why quantifying this point makes a difference (whether its course study or other factors/responsibilities in life - hard is hard, no matter how you slice it). Nursing school can be percieved as difficult for a number of reasons, from the difficulty level of the course study to whether you have too many responsibilities to put in the time required. They are all factors and can make it difficult on a student...as you say, it also depends on the student (heck, I go to school with someone who is a single mother of 4 and works full time - yet they are excelling in the program)...But I would find that to be an exception rather than the rule. My comments didn't focus on the school work aspect because that has already been discussed and it would be beating a dead horse - of course people might find the school work hard. I didn't see a lot of discussions about other factors that could make things difficult, so I threw in my .02...that's all
Ok, let's finalize it all. The title of the thread is, "Is Nursing School HARDER than Medical School."
The answer is unequivocably, no!
If you think it is then take the prereqs, MCAT, sit through a gap year, go to the intense interview process and supplemental interview, finish four years of school, take the USMLE I, II, and III and report back. You'll have two years of basic sciences, sometimes with the majority of the textbook being assigned as overnight reading, followed by two years of clerkships during which you'll rotate as a doctor would while teaching yourself the sundry medical specialties all the while being pimped out and made to do the bidding of your assigned resident. We'll see you in six years.....assuming you get in at all and assuming if you do you get accepted the first time you apply, and that, my friends, is unlikely. Good luck!
If that all sounds fine then you'll still need an intern year to get licensed along with a state licensing exam, followed by at least two years of residency in order to obtain board certification which will of course be followed by another examination with a psychomotor skill component. Sure, you don't have to be board certified, but good luck getting insurance reimbursement and hospital privileges without it.
Ok, let's finalize it all. The title of the thread is, "Is Nursing School HARDER than Medical School."
The answer is unequivocably, no!
If you think it is then take the prereqs, MCAT, sit through a gap year, go to the intense interview process and supplemental interview, finish four years of school, take the USMLE I, II, and III and report back. You'll have two years of basic sciences, sometimes with the majority of the textbook being assigned as overnight reading, followed by two years of clerkships during which you'll rotate as a doctor would while teaching yourself the sundry medical specialties all the while being pimped out and made to do the bidding of your assigned resident. We'll see you in six years.....assuming you get in at all and assuming if you do you get accepted the first time you apply, and that, my friends, is unlikely. Good luck!
If that all sounds fine then you'll still need an intern year to get licensed along with a state licensing exam, followed by at least two years of residency in order to obtain board certification which will of course be followed by another examination with a psychomotor skill component. Sure, you don't have to be board certified, but good luck getting insurance reimbursement and hospital privileges without it.
I don't see where I said critical thinking is strictly a nursing program issue.
I didn't mean that towards you, I just meant in general. And what's the big deal about people having responsibility vs. those who don't have as much. The topic of this discussion is whether nursing is harder than med school, not whether the mother of 2 is having a harder time than the spoiled snobby kid(very general examples by the way). Like it's been said before, some people will have more trouble than others. Some people with 195515 responsibilities will do better than the person who has almost no responsibility..and very much vice versa. And who cares who has responsibility, it's not limited to nursing students as some make it sound like. There are med students, flight school students, students in allllllllllllllllllllllllllll areas of study who have kids, pregnancy, drama, etc. I have friends in flight school gettin their licenses to fly for the airlines, imagine being pregnant while doing your checkrides in the sky. Those may be a little more worrisome and complex than the skills lab
From what I have gathered throughout my experiences is this.
A)
Nursing school and the nursing educational model contains what may be reffered to simply as ambigious and inconsistent language use.
Terms on tests may be refferred to using alternative language and the information presented may be presented in ways that the ambiguity of the meaning of a single word or phrase makes it difficult to understand what it is exactly is being asked.
In addition, there is a overcomplication of realatively simple concepts and ideas. I believe this is partially due to the fact the body of education would like to present itself as being far more sophisticated than it is.
is. The material, or at least much of it, is analygous in nature to the way in which psychology material is written.
In short, much of your success will determine on language analysis and trying to understand what it is exactly they are asking, and what do the answers mean. Skills I personalyl don't believe are a huge priority for the nursing profession. In fact I don't think that overcomplication and confusion ever helps anywhere.
B)
In regards to Medical Education, from my friends I have spoken with and the Doctors I have interacted with during clinical, I have come to believe is greater in the sophistication and volume of information but uses more scientific and concrete language. It's more difficult but it's difficulty stems from different reasons than the difficulty found in Nursing school theory.
-Also who it is that is teaching and how well they guide your focus of study makes a huge difference. But don't count on excellent educators as most have degrees in nursing, not education, and most are somewhat deranged and unhelpful.
i did have a 4.0 in pre req's, i also have a 4.0 in nursing school.
nursing school is difficult in the sense that it is a lot of info in a short amount of time. tests are on numerous chapters, not just one. you really have to study every day. yes, it is challenging to stay organized, but i have my methods that for work for me.
almost every student i have seen flunk out had a job they worked more than 12-16 hours a week. you will often spend at least that many hours a week studying, depending on how well you retain info and your individual needs.
what you said, plus, i can cite an even better example of set-up-to-fail: the diploma program that i am in subjects us to 6-7 hours of lecture three days per week, then two full days of clinicals for the remaining two weeks. the clinicals have pre-work ringing 3 to 6 hours, and followup reports that range from 2-4 hours of work. do the math, and you'll find that really leaves almost no time for studying for exams, let alone any recreation, family, exercise regimen, or job. the lecture content is "integrated" curriculum, i.e., they chop up topics into pieces and recombine them in whatever way it suits them. as a result, lecture material might cover bits and pieces of literally 2-5 textbooks, topics like acid-base and fluid/electrolytes will be taught in totally different semester, and all of that makes using nclex study guides impossible, because you'd have to skip through the entire nclex study guide to find questions corresponding to all of the subject material for any given exam.
In addition, there is a overcomplication of realatively simple concepts and ideas. I believe this is partially due to the fact the body of education would like to present itself as being far more sophisticated than it is.
is. The material, or at least much of it, is analygous in nature to the way in which psychology material is written.
In short, much of your success will determine on language analysis and trying to understand what it is exactly they are asking, and what do the answers mean. Skills I personalyl don't believe are a huge priority for the nursing profession. In fact I don't think that overcomplication and confusion ever helps anywhere.
^^^ THAT! It's absolutely true. Overcomplication and the mentality that "we don't spoon-feed you" is exactly what makes nursing school such a miserable experience for many students. I have a lot of college education, and it's all in science, technology, and business. In those fields, emphasis is on making learning a) efficient, and b) achievable for the majority of students within the time frame allowed. Nursing, on the other hand, has to make it all SO difficult. The only thing that could possibly result from "spoon-feeding" nursing students is that they would quickly and thoroughly grasp the concepts and will be successfully applying them in the workplace, in no time flat.
You don't need to have any education (except for HS diploma) and some pre-req classes to get into nursing school.
If you want to get to Medical school you need to have a bachelor at least.
So, all the lazy,sloppy,etc dropped out before medical school. And people who made it ti the Medical school realize what is learning is all about and not seem to complain. For many nursing student it's their first degree. Yeah... you are earning degree, so you supposed to put some work in it. Nothing to complain.
For me, I have a bachelor, I cannot say that nursing school is something enormously hard.
I never went to medical school so I can't compare... But... I assume that many who go to medical school don't also hold jobs beyond the undergrad degree. I asume most go before starting a family. Most people in nursing school also seem to have jobs, families, and other responsibilities. It is a LOT of info crammed into a short period of time. You can be an RN in just 3 years, including general studies and prereq's. I was a 4.0 nursing student. I worked minimal and chose to go before having a family. So I didn't have it nearly as hard as those who also had to work full-time and deal with babies waking up at night, toddlers crying and clinging while trying to study, toddlers getting into things they shouldn't, figuring out child care arrangements while in work/school/clinical and still having to be the one to do the cleaning and shopping/laundry etc. It was hard, not in the sense that the material was hard, it was difficult b/c there was SO MUCH INFO to learn in such a short amount of time. Then throw in the stress of clinicals! There is just so much info crammed into that 2 years it is crazy!
WOW, Gooey you just described my day trying to study to a tee!
I have a really pretty GPA now, I just pray to GOD it lasts.
OP, I completely get what your saying. It reminds me of that little saying we've all heard, "If a woman has to tell you she's a lady, then she ain't." I think the general public assumes med school is tough. Nursing just seems heaven bent on trying to prove it's toughness.
I second the other posters. LOT of info crammed into 2yrs. I do think that is what makes it so hard.
But with determination, it is do-able. If I can swing it anyone can!
jjjoy, LPN
2,801 Posts
The original post was asking why nursing school instructors tend to say over and over again how hard nursing school is. Many other fields of training and schooling is as hard as, if not harder than, nursing school; do those students get told as often as nursing students do how difficult their program is?
In some students (subjective) experience, nursing school isn't as hard as other schooling they've experienced, even though instructors in the other fields didn't comment on the difficulty of their schooling. And now they're in a nursing program which feels easier to them and the instructors keep saying how difficult it should be. And wondering why nursing school instructors seem to feel the need to say this so often to the students.
My thoughts... 1) for many students, nursing school *is* the hardest schooling they've experienced thus far; the standard pre-reqs aren't easy but tend to be easier than nursing school for most. 2) students coming from the hard sciences may come with an attitude that nursing school must be "easy" since the pre-reqs are easy compared to other coursework they've taken
As others have noted, just how hard any training/schooling is considered to be is relative to one's own personal experiences as well as ever-changing social trends.