nursing school THAT hard?

[happytypingirl]

I just finished my last pre-req (micro) needed to get on accelerated Nursing school list so a call or email is just right around the corner.

I was talking a fellow student who was rethinking nursing school because she was struggling through microbiology. I hope I tried to talk her out of "jumping off the cliff"...I said that nursing school is not going to be any harder than what she is going through right now. Am I right?

[emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Nursing school material isn't rocket science but there's a lot of material to absorb. Don't try to memorize, try to understand.

[LoriRNCM, ADN, ASN, RN]

Two years of: 6 hours composing one careplan each week for clinical, 1-2 clinicals per week depending on the semester, 1 lab a week, at least one test/exam per week with 20-40 hours of study time, 3-4 lectures per week. Factor in home life, jobs, other responsibilities. Tests/Exams = every answer is correct, two are most correct and one is the only truly correct answer. Naw, nursing school was a breeze! Pshhhh..... I kid. I'm just glad it's over...... P.S. If you stay organized, determined and focused, you can do it.

[jamathis]

For me, pre-reqs and nursing school were two different animals entirely. In nursing school, I had to wrap my head around the fact that there are always at least two correct answers for every question asked. It is completely different from Micro, A&P, psychology, etc. in that memorization of content can only take you so far. I personally think that a critical thinking course should be mandatory prior to starting nursing school...it would have helped me out a lot!

[ShelbyaStar]

It's definitely hard. It's easier for me than most as I already have a BS. I still have to remind myself sometimes I'm only in the ADN program- I feel like I'm working on some sort of postgraduate degree!

However, I think some people go over the top playing the martyr. It's doable.

As far as micro vs nursing classes, I think that depends on how your brain works. If you like to memorize and you're a black-and-white thinker, micro will be much easier. If you hate that kind of thing and you're better at abstract thinking, nursing classes might be easier. Like others said, it's just A LOT of material to learn in a short amount of time.

[HisKonstantine]

It certainly isn't a cake-walk. It's not a matter of memorizing a bunch of information and then regurgitating it back during a test. Learning the info is only the first step. The difficulty is learning how to think like a nurse. So you spend the time studying the information (which is time-consuming, for sure) and then for the test, they already assume that you know the information. Now they're testing you on what to do with that information as a nurse. It's not an easy skill to learn and a lot of people have difficulty grasping it. Nursing school is sink or swim, you either get it and do very well or don't and fail or severely struggle the whole time.

[CBlover, BSN, RN]

Nursing school is a beast of its own. I personally cannot compare my pre-reqs with obtaining my ADN degree. The amount of time in clinicals, late nights studying, case studies, and tests are not equivocal to any pre-req. Also with nursing school comes a special responsbility, level of accountability, and maturity that nothing in school that you experience prior will necessarily prepare you for. Hope all goes well.

[futurenurse2be]

It has definitely been difficult in my opinion. I have 2 semesters left until I graduate and it is definitely way different than my pre-req's were. I came into the program with all A's and was not prepared for the workload of nursing school. I thought sure, I did great in my pre-reqs, should be the same in the program, right? Not at all. I wasn't prepared for the unbelievable amount of information I not only needed to know, but to master. I wasn't prepared for getting up at 5 a.m. to make it to clinical's 3 cities over. I wasn't prepared for nursing school style questions, most answers were correct, but not the most correct. I wasn't prepared to have one day off a week to study and study from the time I woke up until the time I went to bed that day. I wasn't prepared for having to tell my family I could not attend birthday parties or studying up until the minute I left for my son's recital and then again when I got back. BUT, I wasn't prepared for the other things I learned, the satisfaction of seeing my patient smile, learning that communication happens when someone cannot talk to me but by the look in their eyes, being told I was taking good care of a patient, when I first had the feeling that I can do this! Hard, yes. Doable, definitely yes. Worth it, even more so..

[elijahvegas, ASN, RN, EMT-P]

Pre reqs usually are there to weed people out. ill have to say nursing school was much harder than any of the pre reqs I took to get into nursing school

[mirandaaa]

Nursing school material isn't rocket science but there's a lot of material to absorb. Don't try to memorize, try to understand.

This is basically exactly what my mom told me when I told her I was having issues memorizing areas in anatomy. She said, "Don't focus on memorizing; it won't get you anywhere. You need to understand it and what it does."

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

I felt like the pre reqs were worse. The worst part of nursing school is the hoops you have to jump through.

[Everline]

Pre-reqs were nothing compared to nursing school. Nursing school stressed me out the maximum amount. I really would never want to go through it again. It wasn't that the coursework was so difficult. It was the amount of reading, assignments and learning all packed into a relatively small amount of time. There was also an emotional component that was way more difficult than anything else for me. I had very tough clinical instructors and some very tough, almost cold, instructors. I learned what I am made of, that's for sure. I also put a ton of pressure on myself to keep a 4.0 GPA. So yeah, for me, nursing school was THAT hard.

[stevosmusic]

I'd study by re-writing my class notes. It was generally all the studying I required. I found that by watching my hand record the information, I was printing it on my mind, as well. I could close my eyes during a test and remember what section of the recopied page contained the info I needed. I thought it was an odd way to study but it was the only way I could figure out to work it.And it was quite successful for me! The time it took to do it was well spent, though others used to make fun of me for doing it all the time. But they frequently asked to borrow my class notes, too.

That's how I passed anatomy and patho lol glad I'm not the only one. I could also visualize the pictures on my handouts in my mind during my anatomy class when I got to the test haha