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?
To be honest I have found nursing school to be quite easy. The most challenging aspect of nursing school for me was learning how to study. In high school and while doing my pre-reqs I NEVER studied. I was the student who would not go to class, who did not buy text books, and completely refused to do homework. I'll admit I was a very lazy student growing up but I believe it was because I was never challenged. Now that I am in nursing school I have learned that it does require me to actually put forth some effort to maintain my 4.0. I never learned good studying habits so that has been my biggest issue.
The material taught in the medical field isn't as difficult as everyone makes it out to be. The primary reason so many students do struggle however is because they focus more on memorizing instead of analyzing. I encourage all of my friends to not only memorize what drug goes with whichever disease but to focus more on the mechanism of action of the drug. When you comprehend how a drug produces its effect then 9 times out of 10 you wont have to overwhelm your brain with trying to memorize 30 different side effects. I believe that the reason I have always been so successful is because I focus on how things are connected and truly understanding things. I get that a large majority of people do not think the way I do but I believe you can achieve that skill set if you train your brain to think like that.
I am not saying nursing school isn't hard because it definitely is but more due to the amount of information that they require you to learn in a short period of time.
NOOO. Is this thread serious? I was so baffled by this, that I created an account to comment. No, nursing school is not harder than medical school. Is an associates degree/bachelors degree harder to obtain than a doctorate? No.
Any schooling can be challenging depending on your intelligence level. It also depends on your goals, aspirations, and level of determination.
I admire all nurses and the challenging work they do everyday. Yet, I have seen countless nurses give advice to patients supposing they know more that the physician. This simply is not true. There is a reason many nurses work while in nursing school: you have free time after your maximum 18 hours a semester to do so. Medical school has you doing up to 44 credit hours a semester, depending on your year and rotations.
While nurses have been trained upon the basics of medical practice upon graduation, their clinical knowledge and expertise is far inferior to that of a physician, even after 5-10 years in the hospital setting as an RN.
I bumped into this old thread and read some of it...This is ridiculous. I feel I am qualified enough to comment on this for the new comers (I am a nurse, currently 3rd year medical student).
1) short answer: hell no, nursing school is not even remotely as hard as medical school
2) if you talk about drop out rate: this is because every single medical student has been scrutinized to an extremity, ANYONE of them was once the top 1-5% of their class. You can't say that about nursing, hell even the stripper in our strip club got into nursing school.
3)if you talk about "volume of material in a short amount of time": are you implying that medical school has LESS material to learn than nurses and has a longer time? Think again, there is a reason medical school requires a bachelor, and THEN 4 years of school.
4) if you talk about critical thinking: this is ridiculous, we all know it's the docs that make the hardest decisions and nurses USUALLY follow the protocals.
Granted, I'll take a seasoned nurse's opinion over a freshly minted MD's any-day, but if you compare apple to apple: a freshly minted nurse vs a freshly minted resident, I'll go with the resident's opinion.
Why does it matter, though? Nursing school can be hard without people having to try and say it is harder than Medical School. Nursing school and Medical School are difficult and respectable each in their own right. What a weird comparison to try and make...
I always get so amused when people try and argue about which is better (nursing vs medical school), who knows more (seasoned nurse vs new resident), who works harder (doctors vs nurses), who helps the patient the most, who gives the most, who cares the most, who has the most important job, etc. The bottom line is both nurses and physicians are dependent on each other to get the job done. Everyone works hard, sacrifices, and has something valuable to contribute. Any amount of trying to inflate and compare on either side is really just a sign of insecurity in my opinion.
I am in nursing school as of now. I am in an Accelerated BSN program (16 months). I am now in my 3rd out of the 16 months. This is a very individualized topic. Why? Because everyone and every school is different. For my school, we do not have regular semester based courses where you tackle 4 classes, lab once or twice a week or maybe even clinical each week. My program focuses on one nursing course at a time (we call each course a "block" and there are 15 blocks total). It is basically like going to summer school for 16 months straight with minimal breaks. So each block (fundies, med surg, pharm, etc) would last from 2 to 6 weeks long. We also do the didactic (lecture) portion before the clinical portion (our clinicals are 3-6 weeks long, 12 hours, 3x week). I am now in Block 5/15. We also are required to pass each block with a 90% or higher to progress to the next. This means 90% on EXAMS, ASSIGNMENTS, LAB EXAMS, DISCUSSIONS, CLINICAL, ONLINE ATI QUIZZES, everything really!!!
So... IS NURSING SCHOOL HARD? Hard is a very broad term that needs more expanding. I would say... nursing school is challenging. From what I have been through, it really depends on how you study and how you manage your time. It is very challenging and tests your own abilities.
First.. you need to know you want to do this. Otherwise, you will be sitting in your chair, hating or crying or even complaining so much to learn the material. I am in med surg right now, and it is a very complex subject. However, I studied very hard in my beginning courses like health assessment, fundies, and pharmacology (BTW pharm was only a 2 week class LOL!!!), that now i am more confident in my studying and my reasoning.
Make the best out of it. MAKE FRIENDS IN YOUR CLASS!!! This is so important. You need to study alone when you review the material first hand, and when the time an exam comes, you need to review the material with your classmates (a group of 3-4 is perfect) and discuss the topics on the exam. I found this so helpful during pharm.
Nursing school is challenging, but very exciting and rewarding. When I pass my exam with a 90% or higher, I feel so great with myself. It is HARD work, being accomplished (referring to your "is nursing school hard?" remark).
ALSO DO NOT listen to @thepotatolover dude, a stripper? Really? You're really degrading a woman for being a stripper? So what are you implying man? That they aren't as competent as others? You don't know their lives and what they may need to do to prosper. And you call yourself a nurse lol. To further with that, NO not everyone can be a nurse. The hell? Not everyone can. Not even a "stripper".
Point is.. nursing school is what you make it to be! Be encouraged, be motivated, and don't forget to still LIVE A LITTLE. Notice I said "a little" because YES. Your social life will become altered and lessened, but it won't completely be gone. I have been in a fraternity for 4 years and coming from that life to this life was tough. But I still can make time with my friends, with my girlfriend, and with family. Just not as much as I was before.
If ever you're anticipating the overall forte of nursing school and really can commit yourself with all the HARD work: YOU CAN DO IT!
ALSO DO NOT listen to @thepotatolover dude, a stripper? Really? You're really degrading a woman for being a stripper? So what are you implying man? That they aren't as competent as others? You don't know their lives and what they may need to do to prosper. And you call yourself a nurse lol. To further with that, NO not everyone can be a nurse. The hell? Not everyone can. Not even a "stripper".
Funny, this.
I've a friend who is a nurse and he was in a strip bar and chatting up one of the ladies who, it turned out, was a CRNA in another city. She had started stripping to earn money before she became a nurse and kept at it because she pulled in about $3,000 for a weekend which she did once per month. Her attitude was, "It's the easiest money ever and as long as I've got the attributes to do it, why not?"
Having worked with an eclectic group of medical residents over the years I'd be surprised if some of them didn't have some color in their work histories. I know one doc who was a bartender for several years before he ended up going to med school.
I totally hear you. People get a grip! It's not med school, not law school, not going for a P.H.D. I'ts just the hardest few years of schooling that for some people IS all they will ever do. I think that's why you keep hearing about it over and over and over. Also, you are right, you never hear med school students or law school students griping and complaining about it either, because they know whats up!
I totally hear you. People get a grip! It's not med school, not law school, not going for a P.H.D. I'ts just the hardest few years of schooling that for some people IS all they will ever do. I think that's why you keep hearing about it over and over and over. Also, you are right, you never hear med school students or law school students griping and complaining about it either, because they know whats up!
As a mom of an upcoming 3rd year law student, I beg to differ. But in all fairness to her, law school IS much more grueling than nursing school was. On the other hand, all she has to focus on is law school. I went to nursing school as a mother of a toddler, then as a pregnant mother of a toddler, then as a mother to a toddler and an infant. That was really made nursing school seem so hard.
And no, nursing school is not harder than med school.
It's hard in the respect that we learn our whole profession in 2 years and go straight into practice whereas medical school they finish 4 years of study and still have years more of training as a resident which is rigorous in its own right.
But in the end the medical route is much more difficult I don't see how people can make the argument otherwise. Though nursing school certainly is one of the most difficult bachelors level programs out there! You're comparing BS to a post-grad study.
Ahollar4
9 Posts
To be honest I have found nursing school to be quite easy. The most challenging aspect of nursing school for me was learning how to study. In high school and while doing my pre-reqs I NEVER studied. I was the student who would not go to class, who did not buy text books, and completely refused to do homework. I'll admit I was a very lazy student growing up but I believe it was because I was never challenged. Now that I am in nursing school I have learned that it does require me to actually put forth some effort to maintain my 4.0. I never learned good studying habits so that has been my biggest issue.
The material taught in the medical field isn't as difficult as everyone makes it out to be. The primary reason so many students do struggle however is because they focus more on memorizing instead of analyzing. I encourage all of my friends to not only memorize what drug goes with whichever disease but to focus more on the mechanism of action of the drug. When you comprehend how a drug produces its effect then 9 times out of 10 you wont have to overwhelm your brain with trying to memorize 30 different side effects. I believe that the reason I have always been so successful is because I focus on how things are connected and truly understanding things. I get that a large majority of people do not think the way I do but I believe you can achieve that skill set if you train your brain to think like that.
I am not saying nursing school isn't hard because it definitely is but more due to the amount of information that they require you to learn in a short period of time.