Nursing school Vs. Nursing Prereqs

mammac5 · Mar 10, 2010

Career Changes -- your situation sounds like mine when I worked on prereqs. I had a full-time job, class 4 nights/week, online courses, and kept up my gym schedule. My husband used to remind me that it would all be worth it when I got to nursing school because I would ONLY be doing that, and he was right! No more night classes, I'm not working, and I'm not taking care of a big house. I'm trying to keep an exercise schedule but even that has diminished over the past 6 months.

That's part of the reason why NS is "easier" for me than prereqs were; I'm devoting myself to that to the exclusion of many other things I had going on previously.

Johnny_B · Mar 10, 2010

Well, I am going to a 2 year community college for an ASN/RN program. There are 2 types of nursing schools, those that follow the traditional method and those that follow a modular method.

My wife graduated with a BSN many years ago and it was traditional. It was harder, but similar to A&P, where you were taught everything and could follow in the book and lecture notes.

My brother-in-law got an ASN from another community college and it too was traditional. His nursing classes were similar, but there was more to learn/remember. He was previously a B/A student in is other bachelors degree, so it was definitely a lot more to remember.

The real difference is the thinking process for answering questions and the clinical practice.

Now as far as the modular method - I'd like to throw it as far as I can. It is nothing like the traditional class. We are given packets of hundreds of pages or more each semester. We are expected to find what to do by reading through the hard to read syllabus and calender each semester. Sometimes there are postings or announcements or bulletin board changes we have to be aware of. Nothing is consistent from semester to semester except writing care plans. The instructors write the tests from NCLEX questions, but try to be tricky and put a couple of alternative answers in and say choose the best one. Who knows what they were thinking at the time, but I think that their judgement is a little off sometimes. The lecture class is basically only a student review of material (without much teacher participation). The lab is only a 2 hour/week or less view of equipment (mostly that doesn't work), a quick demonstration or students leading students with very little if any instructor help. Clinical is the best experience, if you have a reasonable instructor that helps. Mostly my complaint is we have to learn and practice everything on our own time, about 40 hours a week. When we go to the lab, the nurses that are lab instructors are there doing module testing and have almost no time to correct errors for students practicing. Again, its students supporting students, and if they get it wrong they just don't do well.

And even though my school changed the program to do away with PE's, some schools do them. Clinical experience is mandatory, however it is not graded. Only the report you turn in is graded and mandatory to do, but doesnt really affect your class grade if you complete it. Everyone that completes the homework meets the criteria to do well. We have an end of semester, (and in the last semester - middle of semester), PE or Practical Exam. Its a 1 hour 15 minute test in usually 3 areas of care with a plastic dummy. Oh, first semester was with a partner. 4th semester will be on a live person, creating a care plan and performing areas of care. If you don't pass, you have to repeat the class. Since it is not being offered anymore, a failure means repeating the program. It basically comes down to pass your PE or repeat the whole darn program from day 1!

Yeah, nursing is harder because of the pass/fail, home study, working together with students and not getting much from the instructors. I would have done so much better in a traditional program. When I started back to school, I only needed all my bio and some other courses. I mostly got all A's with a couple of B's. I did very well in my BIO courses. In nursing I got a B, then a C, then a B and will hopefully get a C this semester. I suppose I could get a B, but I am having more trouble with the paperwork.

My recommendation - go to a school with a traditional program where the teachers actually teach and you get evaluated on your clinical skills in clinical!

John

SAHMStudent · Mar 11, 2010

A student in everything but Micro ( wish I had taken chem before I took micro) now I am a solid B nursing student, often a point or two away from an A in at least one class a semester. I have a toddler and a busy husband, no childcare, so less time for studying than I used to.

Johnny_B · Mar 11, 2010

Thinking back - I have a wife and 5 kids. I was working while taking the prereqs. One semester I had General Biology, Intercultural Communications and Sociology. I maintained a 3.7 GPA that semester and worked about 32 hours/week. I worked my first semester in nursing, but it was a strugle, especially since they wanted to alter some of the scheduled class dates/times to accomodate nursing education needs.

While there was memorization of normal values and key words, terms or phrases, they require critical thinking. This is because we have to be able to evaluate different situations and make good decisions/choices regarding patient care. Our test questions are not just "which is the best answer". The questions we get are like "what kind of care would you give to a patient as a top priority if the following variables exist". And 3 of the 5 choices may be good choices, but something is most important like airway or breathing.

My point is to those looking to choose a program - There is traditional school where nursing is taught like bioloby and there is modular teaching where the student must look-up/follow or plan completely for himself/herself and cooperate with other students to make the best of it.

It is not just important to choose a school by the number of graduates or reputation, but how they teach the curriculum. Looking back, I would have preferred going somewhere with a traditional method (lab really means lab), and you are observed in clinical for a grade, rather than a 1-2 hour clinical test.

MaryEMT · Mar 11, 2010

Stardust as a biology major I took Micro, A&PI and Organic Chemistry I all in the same semester! Not my most brillant idea. I did fairly decently in Micro, got through organic (it was my second time in the course so a C was a vast improvement). I did not have much time for A&P and got a C+ I retook over the summer and got an A. So I agree with what others are saying, it can be done if you have enough time and maybe don't take a chemistry with them =)

lorie101 · Mar 12, 2010

No comparison. Nursing school is way, way tougher than any other classes I've had to take in college. Maybe not so much in terms of material, but definitely in terms of performance standards.

completely agree

chicklet74 · Mar 12, 2010

I had a 4.0 GPA until I started Nursing school. Since being in Nursing school, I've gotten all Bs and today my first C Never an A. And I KNOW and UNDERSTAND the information. Applying it is a different story. I'm learning that part.

tag2007 · Mar 12, 2010

Thanks for all the great replies everyone! As others have mentioned, it appears that every school is different and it probably just depends on the school, instructors and the students and how they learn best. I am working on prereqs and although it isn't easy, I wouldn't say it is extremely difficult either. I am also working full time during the day. I am still deciding whether or not I will work during the day while I go to nursing school. I applied for the evening/weekend program so I do have the option to hold on to my current job while in school. I just don't know if I'll be able to handle nursing school at work and still do well. But if I do choose to not work, I'd have to live off of student loans which I don't know would be a good idea either. Ugh...it is all so up in the air right now.

Either way, I appreciate all of the replies about your experiences! It it cool to see how everyone is different so there is really no way for me to assume anything about nursing school. I suppose I will find out when I get there!

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Mar 13, 2010

For me it is like comparing kindergarten to high school. I would love for nursing school to be as easy as prereqs were.

I would have to disagree with this, Kindergarten wasn't easy for the new kindergartner, it was easy for the High Schooler looking at kindergarten from a HS's POV.

I struggled in my Pre Reqs, well the science ones anyway, I found nursing school classes to be much more my style. Now I did just struggle in one of my classes, but it had nothing to do with not understanding the material.

Your saying though just reminded me of an argument I just had with my son though. He has let his grades totally slack off because he is far more into his social life and girls. So he told me "you just don't understand, 8th grade is much harder then 7th grade, so you can't expect me to do good like I did last year"

I had to explain to him that starting the 8th grade posed the same challenges he had going from 6th to 7th, 3rd to 4th, school and classes build on themselves they are supposed to get harder and become more of a challenge. If you kept progressing to a new class and it had the same material only as the previous one, you wouldn't be learning anything.

Anyway, to the OP. I don't think that it's the Nursing School is harder, it's just a whole new way of thinking and testing. There are still memorization things just like in pre reqs, some of my pre reqs we were tested sort of like nursing school to give us a feel.

But it's not in my opinion harder, it's just different. Some find the new style easier, I have. I feel like now I can finally apply my common sense and critical thinking I have always had to my tests and it wasn't a matter of me having to memorize everything.