Nursing School vs. A&P - how much harder is it?

[Jmiami]

I'm finishing up my pre-reqs for nursing school which this semester entail college algebra and A&P1. College Algebra is challenging, but doeable if I put the study time in. I can get it. A&P1 is so interesting it's hard to put the book down or stop studying. I love it. It is challenging, but again doeable. It's just all about the time management and breaking the masses of info into chunks that are digestable so to speak. At least, that's how I do it. So far I have As in both classes.

I've heard horror stories about how nursing school is ridiculously hard (which I fully believe and am ready for. bring it on.). My question is: how hard is it in relation to something like A&P? Is it something that you just need to put the time and dedication into or is it something that is just really hard to "get"? My favorite parts of A&P are the clinical applications and applying critical thinking and problem solving.

I currently work 40 hrs a week. I do school about 20-30 hrs a week. I have a two year old and a husband (family responsibilities). The housework, quality time with the fam. all that.

How much time do to dedicate to school (class/study) each week? Are you in a FT/PT program? How much harder than your core science pre-reqs do you feel this curriculum is? For example: Sociology is an easy A. Anatomy is an A if you really study and prepare. Is nursing curriculum the same advancement of difficulty from Sociology to Anatomy? So if Anatomy was time consuming but doeable if you dedicated yourself, would nursing curriculum be out of this world difficult unless you are a complete whiz kid?

[Jmiami]

Thanks everyone for your feedback! It's helping me get an idea of what to expect.

Shade43, did your estimations include the amount of time spent in class or is there additional time added onto that for class time?

[b&g'smom]

I am in my last semester of an ADN program. I too enjoyed all of the prerequisite courses and fortunately had a 4.0 prior to starting my program. I would not say that the amount of time needed to study is any different during nursing school than it is taking your prereqs, however the application of your knowledge WILL be. This is just my opinion, but there is no black and white in nursing content, it is all a grey area. All of your tests will focus on critical thinking, meaning that when you get a multiple choice question with four possible answers, anywhere from 2-4 of the possible answers will be "right", however the "correct" answer will be based on prioritization or doing what will help your patient the most. "What will you do first?", "what do you anticipate being ordered?", questions like that which require an amount of prioritization and rationalization that I had not experienced prior to nursing school. With that being said, it is obviously doable. I personally have 2 children and work full-time and expect to graduate in December (with honors). In fact, the overwhelming majority of people in my program have children and work part/full-time jobs.

[Jmiami]

This is inspiring everyone! It sounds like NS will be a good fit as well, because as I'm learning these things in my pre-reqs my mind wanders to clinical applications of the info. It's like putting puzzle pieces together, many of which could be right )