Nursing School vs. Real Life

[Hollyhocks720, MSN, NP]

Can those of you who have graduated nursing school and are in jobs now, please comment on what of the stuff you did in nursing school was used/not used on the real job?

I am told nobody writes care plans, but you write a ton of them in school.

We tested on procedures and were heavily warned to include certain steps, but in clinical the clinical nurse adamantly said no, those are not necessary and are wasted steps.

These are two examples I can think of from my limited experience.

Just curious - most of the career nurses I have talked to said the real learning will come on the job, and a lot of the classroom stuff will fall away.

Thanks!

[Anonymous1257]

You'll learn more about nursing in your first 3 months in the job than you will in all of nursing school. Nursing school teaches you the minimum you need to know to start practicing safely, not efficiently or realistically (in most cases).

Care plans have some value in that they get you in the mindset of what you should be doing as a nurse to care for a patient, but you'll never do them professionally, they're just a teaching tool. Nursing diagnoses are a complete joke. You will never need to bother with them once you're working.