I just attended my community college nursing program orientation. I have been planning and preparing for this program for years, so I was really excited to have the privilege to attend. It was a little bit disappointing in terms of information - mostly psychology topics on how to succeed in the program. One highlight was that a current student of the program spoke about the rigors of the program and advice on how to prepare for that.
I've been lurking on here long enough to know that nursing programs are intense. I get that. They have to be. But I was really taken aback at how he talked about the need to "stay on campus until 8:00", and the fact that "this program will break you". I guess I'm just really scared because I have three kids who I will be responsible to drop off and pick up from school. My husband works full time in another city, and I am commuting to this school for myself, and the kids for their school. I don't know people in the local area.
The theme of the orientation seemed to be that you can't be an island in nursing school. You need to rely on groups. This, along with the testimony of the current student, leads me to believe that, even if I can orchestrate the class/clincal/lab schedule, I will be expected to be on campus for additional hours with a study group. I am a social person by nature, but enjoy the independence of studying alone. This also allows me the freedom to work my schedule around my kids' school schedule.
I'm not sure what my question is...maybe, how does anyone handle this type of commitment? I know it must be possible. I'm just not seeing it right now with my current resources.
Also, is this a common thing in nursing school - lots of group projects, and expected group study time? I can certainly see the value, but honestly, I wish I had thought this through more carefully. I had envisioned burning the midnight oil in the comfort of my own home, having picked up my children from school, and kissed my husband good night. Maybe I was very naive to think that this was possible?
I am so sorry if I am rambling. I figured that if anyone would understand doubt and second-guessing, it would be those who have been there or are currently "there".
Fresh, 1 month and 9 day old new grad here, and I have to tell you, that that's part of orientation. It's a "worst case scenario" slap in the face to get you to square yourself away as much as possible before things kick off. Is it really as bad as they make it out to be? No, not really. Are you contractually bound to study groups? No. But, being socially available during nursing school has it's benefits. I'm sure you are not the only parent in your group and definitely not the only one reeling from the thought of having to deal with all this group work stuff in the face of family obligations. Did they mention a cohort Facebook page? This was a major way for the parents in our cohort who were unable to make it to all the social events ("study groups") to stay in the loop. If not, see if your school allows for it and maybe you can set it up yourself (one of the moms in our cohort was actually the one to start ours).
First things first, make sure your kids are taken care of. That's obvious.
Second, you will be kind of an island when you first start nursing school. Everyone is kind of feeling each other out, seeing who clicks with who the best, who has goals in common. It's kind of like getting married to someone you've never met before and now there's this awkward "getting to know you" phase. It's intense because nursing school is intense. There is a lot of bonding going on because it's vital, more for some students than for others.
Third, YES, if you've been on here long enough you will see the lamentations of others who have been burned doing their group projects. Nursing school is rife with nonsense group work that is allegedly designed to prepare us to work as a team on the floor (hah) and, perhaps, to work on committees later (much later) on in our careers (assuming you work in a facility like that). But, either way, good lord, it's awful. For my final group project, I ended up taking the reigns and just getting it done, not that my group mates seemed to care but I was just so over everything. I had too much going on and I knew I was just as busy (and, in some cases significantly busier -- when you have a mix of people who are just starting out in life and are a little, um, soft, and others who have been out in the real world and are ready to dig in, these things happen) than they were and I had no tolerance by that point for laziness. So, this may happen to you. And, that's okay. It's more reflecting on their ability to be successful later on than it is for you.
Finally, you will, whether you want to or not (at first, I was kinda hoping to maintain an island stance myself but it became impossible) find your core group of people. I felt I was too busy to have time for other people given my family, work and school commitment but, as nursing school progresses, you'll find that time starts expanding. You get so much done in a single day that you will be amazed. You will find a little extra time to squeeze in a study group if you want to (and study groups end up just being vent sessions -- I never went to a study group and actually benefited from it other than getting to vent, which is beneficial, too) but by no means feel obligated to. By the way, people saying, "Expect to be on campus until 8PM every day foreveeerrrrr." are either referring to that one day they actually did that and it was super hard wahh or were doing it wrong. You have hours you are supposed to do according to your state's board of nursing. Your schedule provides for the completion of those hours. Anything else you do outside of that is completely up to you (though I do caution you to make sure to clear time for extracurricular volunteer activities; by being involved, several of us got jobs at fantastic hospitals and getting your license and securing a job at the end of all this mess is the goal).
Good luck. Don't let them get into your head. I will gently remind you again that orientation is the "worst case scenario" to get your head into the game before nursing school starts. You'll be fine. The people who often did the best in nursing school were the moms who really had it together. One of my closest peers was a mom (and a stepmom) and I emulated her strength. What I had in intellectual horsepower she brought in leadership, organization and volunteering and she made more well-rounded and contributed significantly to my success (I can hope I did even half for her what she did for me). You will likely be that person to someone or several other people.
That's completely absurd. I completed a year and a half Accelerated BSN with honors. Almost every class had a project and paper. I did not do study groups, I prefer to study on my own. They were social hour imo. There's a lot of material and a lot of exams. If you are not a quick learner you will have to devote time to study. Staying organized and on top of everything is the most important. Do not get behind. I never stayed on campus after class and studied maybe an hour or two at home in the evening. So it is completely do-able. I had classmates of all sorts of backgrounds that managed just fine.
To the comment above about being on committees 'much later' I started on my unit shared governance after a year (from start date, not from finish of orientation) At one year six months I'm on the service line shared gov of five combined units and was asked to do the hospital research council. I work for a large teaching hospital. You can do it :) you have plenty to contribute already. New voices are important.
As someone who has recently graduated, that was a scare tactic. A good one. Meant to get you to pay attention and get your life in order now. Get it in order and prepare now, then it won't be so hard later.
People dont get that it does take time and dedication. This is not the prereqs anymore. It's just not. Will it consume your life? Only if you let it. You can't miss class. You most certainly cannot be late or miss clinical. It doesn't matter if your kids get sick. Seriously. They don't care. My cohort had family members die, kids in hospitals with a scary prognosis, I lost my baby, and we still showed up. I was not allowed to make up any hours. I showed up and took my lecture test 4 days later so I would not get a zero and fail.
All and all, it didn't consume me at all. I managed my life. I most certainly had a life outside of school. I was never at school until 8pm. I didn't do study groups. But you need to realize, the unexpected will happen. Life goes on outside of nursing school. Kids get sick, people die, you still will have to be a homeowner and an adult. You need to prepare now. Have people who will still take your kids if they are sick. Have backups for the backups. The sitter will get sick.
If you plan for this now, it will help you succeed later. I know I had many days of tears shed, days where I didn't know if it was worth it. And honestly, school doesn't prepare you for the anxiety of NCLEX or those first few weeks on the floor where you think, how the heck am I qualified to do this?
The toughest stick it out. The toughest know what it is worth. There was a small group of six of us in a group of aquaintances that started school around the same time for nursing. Four of them dropped. One ended up in LPN school and is now transitioning to RN. I'm the only one who made it completely through and is currently working as an RN.
I hope I'm scaring you a little. And I'm not trying to brag about me. I could have never made it without a strong network of people around me as I was a single mom. I screwed up plenty and I always had people wiling to jump in and help. I owe my career and newfound life to them, not what I did.
My 24 year old brother very suddenly and unexpectedly died halfway through my program. I was five hours from home at school so I missed a few days of class and clinical to attend the services and try to re orient my world. The school was luckily accommodating about make up hours but it was not easy to manage and because of the state requirements there is no option about making up for that time. If I wasn't willing to put the time in I would have to leave the program and could not return later. Due to being an accelerated program they only give you one chance. But I made it and I am glad I stuck with it and so grateful for the support of my professors, classmates, and Dean. So yes, life happens. You have to decide what's really important to you and what you're willing to sacrifice.
Oh hail no. I just graduated in May from a BSN program. There were a couple projects per semester that required group activity, but I never stayed on campus an hour past dismissal to finish them. There were some people in my class who did the group studying thing and stayed on campus until 6 o'clock at night, but I HATE group studying. I live an hour away, and I had my own home life to tend to. Also, I have my own way of thinking and studying that secured me A's and B's, and it would have been ruined by group studying.
I will say though, from my experience, it's very beneficial for you to stick close with your classmates and ask a lot of questions. I don't know what I would have done with out my classmate's input on some concepts. But anything I needed help understanding from a classmate was easily done over text or our class Facebook page.
My school had a saying - if it's going to happen it will happen in nursing school. People got pregnant. People lost babies. One girl in my cohort has a child diagnosed with a bone marrow disorder so rare that no one had ever heard of it. People had family members die. There were car wrecks. The list goes on and on....
For those of us that graduated, we graduated because no matter what life threw at us we still showed up at class and clinicals. We survived. We had people that would back us up if needed.
You can have a life with nursing school but becoming a nurse takes total commitment. You build your life around that core concept while you are in school.
I had a couple of group projects during nursing school, but we did much of the communication for them through email messaging. I would hope you could do the same. I don't have children yet, but I lived 2 counties away from school and was working full time. I planned my wedding and got married during nursing school as well. I also had to have emergency surgery my final semester. I never did the group study thing. In fact, I have found I can't study with other people. It's too distracting for me and I found it anxiety producing. I enjoyed socializing with my fellow nursing students, but I refused to join a study group. So despite all the craziness, commuting, and lack of a study group I still graduated top of my class. Granted it was the hardest thing I've ever done, but my point is its doable no matter your circumstances. You got this, don't let that speech at orientation get you down! I was given the same one!
I am sorry you went through that. It's true, they don't care. Which is sad because life happens, but apparently it's not supposed to during nursing school.
I have to ask, am I the only one who thinks nursing school is not as difficult as others have made it out to be?
I think it's hard for sure. The amount of information to learn and the critical thinking skills you need to apply make it hard. But stay in school until late at night every night? Never have time for a family? Zero social life? Expect to go from an A student to a B student if you're lucky? That's bull crap! Each person is different, will learn at their own pace, and manage their time for better or worse.
I think it's more like we joke about having no life, but it can feel that way sometimes, like in any other college major. Nursing programs carry with them a ton more responsibility and yes more lack of sleep generally (other majors don't require awakening at 4:30AM for clinical) but I think it's how you handle it and prepare.
Personally calculus and chemistry have harder material for me. There are some students who may go into nursing thinking studying 4 nights before the exam is ok, and maybe for some it is, but then if not they are hit with a hard reality. So it's extremely hard for those students. However if you go into this program with studying a little each day and staying ahead of your assignments it probably won't be the hell on Earth you've heard. I'm not an honors student either. Just stay on top of the workload!
I found that my BSN was much easier than my BA. Part of it was because I loved the subject and it was almost all nursing classes that I loved. But, in all honesty, the material is easier than my other undergrad BA classes. Just study Something every day and you'll be fine.
Specializes in Nephrology Home Therapies, Wound Care, Foot Care..
Hello,
I have to ask, am I the only one who thinks nursing school is not as difficult as others have made it out to be?
I think it's hard for sure. The amount of information to learn and the critical thinking skills you need to apply make it hard. But stay in school until late at night every night? Never have time for a family? Zero social life? Expect to go from an A student to a B student if you're lucky? That's bull crap! Each person is different, will learn at their own pace, and manage their time for better or worse.
I think it's more like we joke about having no life, but it can feel that way sometimes, like in any other college major. Nursing programs carry with them a ton more responsibility and yes more lack of sleep generally (other majors don't require awakening at 4:30AM for clinical) but I think it's how you handle it and prepare.
Personally calculus and chemistry have harder material for me. There are some students who may go into nursing thinking studying 4 nights before the exam is ok, and maybe for some it is, but then if not they are hit with a hard reality. So it's extremely hard for those students. However if you go into this program with studying a little each day and staying ahead of your assignments it probably won't be the hell on Earth you've heard. I'm not an honors student either. Just stay on top of the workload!
I agree- Physio was the class that nearly killed me- realized much later that it was the instructor and his style- but that semester was the WORST of my academic life, seriously.
Nursing school, maintaining the rest of your life, getting enough sleep (as often as you can), it's all about good organizational skills AND great prioritization skills. Which matters more right this minute? The NCP you have to turn in at 5:30 in the morning, or studying for the 8am exam day after tomorrow? It's the NCP- because if it's not done AND good- you're not even going to make it to the floor for your clinical hours, and THAT my friend is a deal-breaker. Which is more important, your son's Back to School or studying- the answer? Both, go for a brief time to Back to School night, then get your tail home and study.
But I think a huge part of being successful in any nursing program is attitude. My husband is a vet, and whenever he was given what he considered stupid or b.s. orders, he just thought to himself,"This is your house, your rules, I'm just passing through."I can't tell you how many times I've run this through my head, when the lectures are scheduled with a 1 1/2 hour break) not enough time to study, too long for lunch), when you have a lecture at 2 pm and the material is on an exam at 8 am the next morning and you had 2 full days without lectures earlier in the week. Grrrrr! Or when you bust your tail, staying up late or getting up even earlier than usual to iron your god-awful clinical uniform, and three other people show up looking like they slept in theirs- and the clinical instructor doesn't seem to notice. It's all just stuff, you have no control- complaining or obsessing won't change any of it and just draws attention to you. Bad attention. Take a breath, remind yourself of my husband's wisdom (he'd be so thrilled to hear me say that!), and use those newly burgeoning critical thinking skills to prioritize what you must do next- remembering of course that all answers are correct, but only ONE answer will be the BEST answer! LOL- you'll get that reference all too soon. Best of luck- you're in a program-yay for you! Literally thousands of students are SALIVATING to be in YOUR seat! Welcome to our world.
I did not have kids, a husband, or a job that required more than a few hours a week during nursing school. I love groups and teamwork, but my best studying has always been done alone.
I am so tired of those bootcamp lectures. Several instructors did that during orientation and it was pointlessly demotivating. I think it is something they saw in a movie or something. Just stupid.
Yes, nursing school is intense but hundreds of thousands of people graduate successfully every year, including me and including everyone reading this post.
I had never worked so hard academically, true, but I also never needed to work so hard at anything else before. My job and other schooling never required this much time, effort and organization.
It will be weird at first to prioritize schoolwork over almost everything else. You will be staying home while your friends are out. Even family events, you might be studying in a closet or something and then pop out for dinner.
My advice: Assess what works for you. I learned I could not study for more then 3-4 hours at a time so I had to plan for multiple study sessions per day. I wore headphones with wave sounds because I cannot stop myself from listening to the world around me. When I could not get my mind to stay focused while passively reading, I started reading to my dog. I would also explain things to my dog to help fix them in my mind. He is now really good at ABGs.
Feel isolated from your friends? Do head to toe assessments on them, learn their heart and lung sounds.
ARCHIVE EVERYTHING. I had several friends have their laptops crash or get stolen. You are going to need your old homework later for your portfolio or as your own reference material.
la_chica_suerte85, BSN, RN
1,260 Posts
Fresh, 1 month and 9 day old new grad here, and I have to tell you, that that's part of orientation. It's a "worst case scenario" slap in the face to get you to square yourself away as much as possible before things kick off. Is it really as bad as they make it out to be? No, not really. Are you contractually bound to study groups? No. But, being socially available during nursing school has it's benefits. I'm sure you are not the only parent in your group and definitely not the only one reeling from the thought of having to deal with all this group work stuff in the face of family obligations. Did they mention a cohort Facebook page? This was a major way for the parents in our cohort who were unable to make it to all the social events ("study groups") to stay in the loop. If not, see if your school allows for it and maybe you can set it up yourself (one of the moms in our cohort was actually the one to start ours).
First things first, make sure your kids are taken care of. That's obvious.
Second, you will be kind of an island when you first start nursing school. Everyone is kind of feeling each other out, seeing who clicks with who the best, who has goals in common. It's kind of like getting married to someone you've never met before and now there's this awkward "getting to know you" phase. It's intense because nursing school is intense. There is a lot of bonding going on because it's vital, more for some students than for others.
Third, YES, if you've been on here long enough you will see the lamentations of others who have been burned doing their group projects. Nursing school is rife with nonsense group work that is allegedly designed to prepare us to work as a team on the floor (hah) and, perhaps, to work on committees later (much later) on in our careers (assuming you work in a facility like that). But, either way, good lord, it's awful. For my final group project, I ended up taking the reigns and just getting it done, not that my group mates seemed to care but I was just so over everything. I had too much going on and I knew I was just as busy (and, in some cases significantly busier -- when you have a mix of people who are just starting out in life and are a little, um, soft, and others who have been out in the real world and are ready to dig in, these things happen) than they were and I had no tolerance by that point for laziness. So, this may happen to you. And, that's okay. It's more reflecting on their ability to be successful later on than it is for you.
Finally, you will, whether you want to or not (at first, I was kinda hoping to maintain an island stance myself but it became impossible) find your core group of people. I felt I was too busy to have time for other people given my family, work and school commitment but, as nursing school progresses, you'll find that time starts expanding. You get so much done in a single day that you will be amazed. You will find a little extra time to squeeze in a study group if you want to (and study groups end up just being vent sessions -- I never went to a study group and actually benefited from it other than getting to vent, which is beneficial, too) but by no means feel obligated to. By the way, people saying, "Expect to be on campus until 8PM every day foreveeerrrrr." are either referring to that one day they actually did that and it was super hard wahh or were doing it wrong. You have hours you are supposed to do according to your state's board of nursing. Your schedule provides for the completion of those hours. Anything else you do outside of that is completely up to you (though I do caution you to make sure to clear time for extracurricular volunteer activities; by being involved, several of us got jobs at fantastic hospitals and getting your license and securing a job at the end of all this mess is the goal).
Good luck. Don't let them get into your head. I will gently remind you again that orientation is the "worst case scenario" to get your head into the game before nursing school starts. You'll be fine. The people who often did the best in nursing school were the moms who really had it together. One of my closest peers was a mom (and a stepmom) and I emulated her strength. What I had in intellectual horsepower she brought in leadership, organization and volunteering and she made more well-rounded and contributed significantly to my success (I can hope I did even half for her what she did for me). You will likely be that person to someone or several other people.