Positive nursing school experiences please!

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Okay, so I haven't even started school yet and I'm already worried about lack of sleep, lost family time, lack of social life, etc. Please give me some words of encouragement. Does anyone like school? Do you find it rewarding, exciting, sometimes fun? Thanks for any positive words you can share with me!

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I'm worried too and I just started today. I had numerous break downs and anxiety/panic attacks last week just thinking about nursing school. I can just now finally talk about it without tearing up or breathing faster (crazy, I know).

I will tell you what a lot of my friends have told me and it helped tremendously; take it one day at a time. You know professors are going to try and 'scare' you with the things they say, the reading material, the assignments, the lack of time you're going to have and so forth. You cannot look at it like that... you will make time for the things you need to do. It will happen. My friends have told me 'I won't bother you... call me when you can' and I said 'Now wait just a minute, I WANT you to call me. Please do not leave me alone.. I am going to NEED that break when you call and if I can't talk, I'll call when I can but do not leave me alone!' LOL It will be ok. We're all in this together and we can get through it. Look how many people have done it before us and how many people will do it when we graduate.

I don't have any positive experiences because today was my first day so it's early but from what I saw, it wasn't bad. Just smile and take it one step at a time. It will be over before we know it (I hope!) and we'll be out on our own. I made a post similar to this post (asking for positive stories about NS) because all I saw on here was 'omgosh I have no time, I'm dying, I hate this' type of posts and I can't handle that. LOL I already have enough of that going on in my head without other people scaring me half to death!

Best of luck to you! When do you start?

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Specializes in Urgent Care NP, Emergency Nursing, Camp Nursing.

Don't get discouraged about nursing school based solely on this forum. What gets posted on this forum is not 100% gospel truth on what nursing school is like. People come here to complain, and my observational findings (using a convenience sample) are that the level of griping is inversely proportional to GPA. Does nursing school take work? Yes it does, but sucking it up and dealing with it will get you a lot farther in the end.

As for me, I have no positive, uplifting, chicken-soup-for-nursing-students-with-poor-self-esteem's-soul type of stories to tell you. I will say that I'm a year into my two-year program and I'm starting to have a small inkling that I might actually have a clue - and that's a good thing.

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I have made some of my best friends in nursing school. I also find school rewarding and exciting - it's nice to get skills and knowledge that I will be using right away after graduating. Keep an open mind... :)

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For all of the ups and downs that I have been through in school (I graduate in May from an ASN program) it has definitely been up there in the most rewarding things I have done in my life. For every bad moment, there has been a wonderful moment to trump it. For every horrible teacher, there has been an amazing teacher. For every bad time at clinical, there has been a great experience to make me forget the bad. Don't get discouraged. Keep your head up and know that you can do this! Last week I witnessed a life brought into this world (I observed a c-section) and I got teary eyed and it reassured me that this is all worth it! For the time lost from my family due to studying and class and clinical, it makes the time that I spend with them more special and makes me appreciate it more. Nursing school has given me appreciation for the little things and I promise you it's not all bad and the good definitely outweighs the bad! Hang in there!

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Specializes in Neurosciences, Med-Surg-CNA.

Of course you will have good and bad days. I had only few bad days in NS. I thought it was exciting and fun, because I knew this is what I am supposed to be doing. I had a very good support system. My then boyfriend, now husband, always helped me study. I got mostly B's and 1 C in NS and I am very proud of that. I didn't try to kill myself to get straight A's, I just did my best. I graduated on time and I have been a nurse for 5 months and I love it!!! However, its not much like what the books told me!! lol

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