Ok.....getting worried.

GrnHonu99, RN · Jun 10, 2005

1.FIRST RULE OF NURSING SCHOOL: ...is...learn to tune out all the negative! Don't go in with the attitude that you will "need to keep a low profile", go in, do your best, make tons of friends and have a good time! Don't worry about the drama, who cares, just do what you need to do!

Also, go in to learn! Dont go in to just pass, love what you do. A word on professors...DONT become invisible or slip into the background! Professers remember the students who do well...they like questions, they like to see that you are eager, atleast any GOOD prof. is like that. Not all professors are awful, and most profs wont single you out or want you to fail. Go in with the mentality that all instructors want you to succeed. I know you may have some bad ones but most arent! Every single one of my profs is WONDERFUL!!! They care what we are feeling, they do everything possible to help us out!! All of my profs are so supportive!

All in all...just go in and love what you are doing! Be excited to learn and work hard, tune out any other negative stuff going on in the background, rise above it, we are all adults! Most importantly relax and have fun.I know it sounds hard but in nursing school, if you dont, you really will drive yourself nuts. I know there are a lot of us out there, who, if we let it, nursing school would drive us crazy! I have to schedule time NOT to study or id burn my self out and study constantly...You get used to it, once you find your groove, youll be fine. Make friends with your profs, give them respect and im sure they will be great. Good Luck!

HisHands, ASN, RN · Jun 10, 2005

I'll be the odd duck here and tell you my experience (I'll be an LPN in 7 1/2 weeks!!! ):w00t:

1. Do NOT stay under the radar. Professors are NOT here to single you out and bash you. They want you to succeed. They are on your side. Your professors can be your absolute best resource. They are there to help you. Befriend them. One of the best choices I ever made in school was when I noticed one of my professors seemed especially stressed out. I ran to bath and body works and got her a pretty candle just to remind her that someone was thinking of her. She has bent over backwards to help me. Professors are people to. And, they will notice those that push hard to do the best that they can.

2. Everyone has a story that relates. Be strategic about what stories you share. It gets REALLY old when the same person shares stories regarding every disease, dysfunction and diagnosis.

3. You are who your friends are. Associate yourself with the hard-workers.

4. BE that hard-worker.

5. I am a full-time student and work about 25 hours. I have a fiancee, a brand new niece, and a dog. My life is VERY full right now. Unfortunately, life kindof gets put on hold in nursing school. But, it's worth it... believe me, it's worth it. You may hate and resent nursing school. You will definitely want to quit sometimes.... but don't. Push through and keep your eye on the prize, because I swear on all that's holy, it DOES come!

For me, nursing school has been a real bear... and there were so many times I would cry to my family about how I wanted to quit, but in the end I am so so so excited that I pushed through and did it. No one else can take credit for this accomplishment but me. I studied and put in the time, and now I get the reward. If this is your passion, you will not regret choosing nursing.

Best wishes,

Crystal

LilRedRN1973 · Jun 10, 2005

I'm proud to say that our class was the largest class to ever graduate from my school. We started with 40 students, added another 8 the second year, then lost 3 to graduate with a total of 45 students. Our school has a 98% pass rate on the NCLEX and is supposedly the best school of the 3 in the area. What makes it even sweeter is we had many, many non-traditional students. One was a girl from Iran who barely spoke English, another from Denmark who had just become proficient in English, another Czech student, one with 5 kids all under the age of 11, 2 that gave birth while in the program (one of them being a high risk pregnancy and the other girl had a toddler at home), several single moms, and a woman who had twins, a husband with severe MS that she cared for and held a 40 hour a week job....all of the above ladies graduated with at least a 3.5 GPA and two of them received special awards. One was Salutorian.

We had one young lady who was diagnosed with a very aggressive, invasive breast cancer at the of her 1st semester. Over the winter break, she had a double mastectomy at the age of 34. Over the summer in between years, she went through reconstructive surgery and graduated with a great attitude and even better grades. I think she inspired me more than anything. Going through chemo, radiation, several surgeries...and still managed to have such a terrific outlook on things. She's going to make an amazing nurse and I am proud to have been her classmate.

Don't let it scare you. I had to push that thought out of my mind once I was in school because otherwise, it would have led me to fail. I would get myself so worked up, I almost just gave up. I finally said to myself that I wouldn't worry about how many don't make it, etc. I watched my friend come 1 question away on her Pharm final exam from failing out of the program. It was hard not to think about it, but I forced myself to concentrate on how I was doing and keeping myself motivated to finish.

I just graduated May 24th with a 3.26 (not that great but I also had a two young children, a hubbie that works 12 hour night shifts and went to school full time, and I worked two 12-hour night shifts myself while in school). Were there times when I was scared? Hell yes!!!! My husband loves to tease me that my favorite line for the past two years was, "If I DON'T PASS this test, I'll FAIL out of nursing school!!!!". God, I used that a lot! LOL.

Don't let anyone make you stressed out and worried....that'll come on its own...LOL! J/K. If you want it bad enough, you'll get there. I watched so many of my classmates overcome adversity to graduate, it really inspired me. I start in the ICU in a few weeks and am thrilled. Two years of really hard work (okay, some hard, some not) paid off and I'm starting a job I already know I love (I have worked in my unit for 1 1/2 years now as an Apprentice Nurse).

Good luck and have fun!!! You'll meet some amazing people in your program and become close to them. I know it was weird after graduation not seeing these folks that I had been spending 4-5 days a week with for the past 2 years. I still see my instructors at the hospital because several of them are NP's there. I will look back on these past 2 years and say to myself that if I made it through that, I can make it through anything!!

Oh, yeah.....don't get behind!!! You'll play hell catching up (I learned the hard way).

Melanie = )

grinnurse, RN · Jun 10, 2005

NS is a scary thought or at least it was for me b/c I had so many of my friends that had gone through it before tell me the horror stories too. But, when I got to the point where I could reflect on the things that they said I chalked it up to their personalities! One was hugely negative about the program that I was in (which she graduated from) and the other friend was the kind that blames everyone else for her problems instead of bucking up and taking the blame for some of the things that she had done to contribute to her experiences..................so, with that being said, find positive, enthusiastic people to be your friends in NS. Be committed to your success. Know that there are going to be days when you want to quit, but, persevere through all the NS drama bs!!

One little motto that got me through NS, was given to me by 2nd semester clinical instructor was "Co-operate to graduate". Our class started out with 125 in Aug of 03 and we ended up graduating with 89. We lost 36 throughout the whole 2 year program which I don't think was so bad. A lot of the ones that we lost just "changed" their minds about NS, some failed but most of those were the younger students, no kids, wanting to party to much and then blaming the school for beng so hard............ :uhoh3: NS does "weed" out people to some extent, but, the ones that were weeded out in our program, from what I could see, were the right ones!!!

I tried to blend in with the wall paper so the instructors wouldn't know me and that worked pretty well until 3rd semester when I was forced to stand up for myself b/c of a lovely group project.............then the instructors knew my name which kind of scared me b/c I had always been told you don't want that. That ended up working to my advantage b/c if I had a problem, I knew I could talk to them. I think "blending in to the wallpaper" was the biggest misconception for me. Our instructors really tried to help the students to bring their grades up. Our study group ended up having a study session with who was supposed to be "meanest" of all of them and she was so helpful and truly wanted us to succeed.

Time with your family will be limited when you are in NS, but, make it quality over quantity!! Any situation you get out of it what you put into it. Make lots of friends, don't just hang with one or two. Be positive and have a desire to be the best that you can be in lecture and in clinical settings and you should do just fine. If I can do it, I think anyone can do it!!!

Good luck and enjoy the ride of your life!!!

jenrninmi, MSN, RN · Jun 10, 2005

I am hearing so many horror stories on nursing school. All the drama that takes place(I don't like drama), the terrible ratio on who starts the nursing program and who actually finishes. This years LPN class started with 30....maybe 10 are graduating. WOW! :uhoh21: That is not good. Everyone keeps telling me it is soooo hard and your life is over as soon as August hits. It can't be. I have a husband and a toddler. I hope nursing school is what you make it to be. If you study and stay out of the drama you should do fine. Can someone tell me if this is true.

I know all nursing schools are different, but this was certainly not the case with mine. It was not a weed-out process. 98% of the people that started 5 semesters ago graduated. Of course it's very stressful and there can be some childish things going on when it comes to the students but that was never anything I was ever involved in so it didn't affect me. Good luck! Just keep at it and I bet you'll do just fine! :)

And for me, I wanted my professors to know who I was, unlike Grinnurse. I always sat up in front, asked questions and I was the course coordinator and was also SNA delegate for a couple of semesters so I had to get up in the front of the class many times to talk about goings on and answer students questions, things like that.