Post semester blues

Nursing Students General Students

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It's the end of my first semester of my BSN program and though there is a sense of relief, and my grades have all been good, I feel like I have no idea what I learned. Over the holidays, when attempting to explain how things were going to my relatives, I struggled to bring details to mind and sound as if I know what I'm taking about. Though I am chalking it up to my brains being scrambled, burn out, whatever, it is still not a good feeling. I can't help but feel like my confidence is low. Anyone else feel this way at the beginning of their program? End of the semester?

Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

As I remember it the first semester seems to be mostly learning how to learn. The seemingly disjointed topics that you covered will all tie in later and make perfect sense. I know it doesn't seem like it now, but it will all come together eventually.

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I'm a second semester student and I felt the exact same way when my first semester ended. As my second semester is coming to an end I definitely feel like a lot of things have clicked into place and make more sense. I feel like I actually learned things and remember what's important about it! Just hang in there, each semester builds on the pervious one and things will start to stick and make sense

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Specializes in ICU.

I still have 3 more weeks. I thought I would feel ramped up to go again after Thanksgiving break when the truth is, I am tired. Not just from school though, the whole last 2 weeks of my life have changed dramatically. We are finishing up med/surg I. Next semester is going to be crazy with 2 clinical days and 2 or 3 days of lecture with Psych nursing, med/surg II, and pharm. I'm really not looking forward to it. Our semester doesn't end until the 18th of December. Then Christmas, spending the week after at my parents, then back home. Going to try and rest the first 2 weeks of January, then back to the drawing board.

I feel I have learned a lot this semester. Yes, we did basic vitals and such, but I have really enjoyed clinicals and learning about med passes and doing injections. It may have not been huge stuff, but you have to start somewhere. This past week or so has been extremely stressful personally and it made it hard school-wise. Just need to get my head out of the sand and back into the groove of things.

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Specializes in CVICU.
The trend in every nursing school seems to be that things really ramp up in the second semester when you start covering med-surg, so maybe we'll regret complaining about this later on :cheeky:

This is how it was in my program. 2nd semester was killer and we started that semester with 31 and ended with 21.

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This is how it was in my program. 2nd semester was killer and we started that semester with 31 and ended with 21.

Wow, that's crazy that you lost so many! Was this in a BSN program? I keep hearing that 2nd semester is the hardest.

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Specializes in CVICU.
Wow, that's crazy that you lost so many! Was this in a BSN program? I keep hearing that 2nd semester is the hardest.

No, I'm in an ADN program. 2nd semester, in my program, is when med/surg is first introduced and clinicals begin in the hospital setting. Test questions got a lot harder, there were more exams so less time to study the material, and more material on the exams.

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Hey Bert!

You are not alone! I feel like that, too. It feels like I learned more about how to be a nursing student that u did about nursing. We took fundamentals, health assessment, and pharmacology. Nursing math finially clicked for me and I gained confidence in asking patients super private information. Those are the big things I'm taking away from this semester. Good luck to you!

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Hey Bert!

You are not alone! I feel like that, too. It feels like I learned more about how to be a nursing student that u did about nursing. We took fundamentals, health assessment, and pharmacology. Nursing math finially clicked for me and I gained confidence in asking patients super private information. Those are the big things I'm taking away from this semester. Good luck to you!

Hey thank you for chiming in! Now going into 3rd semester I am gaining confidence yet still quietly freaking out inside (all the time) based on what is expected of me, by my instructors, patients, etc. I am eternally grateful for my CNA experience as it just exposes me to all the nuances of bedside care, how to act and talk with patients and their families, and the inner workings of the hospital. This semester is going to be particularly freaky as the clinical rotation is OB and PED's and as a male nurse I am nervous about how I'll be received by patients while they're giving birth. I have heard stories of male nursing students being asked to leave the room during L&D clinicals and the thought of that happening just sucks!

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