Two weeks in-not sure I can do this!

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Specializes in Gyn Onc, ICU, School Nursing, Health Education.

Hello, I am two weeks into my first semester of my ASN program, and I am not sure I can do this!!! I KNEW it was going to be hard, but I guess I didn’t realize how time consuming and complex it would be on day one. I am significantly behind on the reading (wasn’t prepared for the quantity assigned the first week) and feel so lost already. I have 3 kids and a husband, so cannot devote every waking moment to this, but feel like I need to. I would love any tips or advice you may have. I am still debating dropping out, as I can still get a refund on my tuition at this point. Also, at this point, I am just reading and highlighting, but I am told for MedSurg you have to take notes as you read. But what do you take notes on?? Help!!!

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Every parent with children in my program is only successful because they have a spouse that is willing to really step up and shoulder a much heavier family load. We talk about it. They have an understanding that the two years will be tough but a worthy sacrifice. So you need to talk with your husband-- and children too-- and they need to give you time when you can just go to a room, close the door and study.

Secondly, sounds like you need to get in a study group or tutoring stat!

Lastly, here on some tips on reading the material.

  • Only highlight one sentence in each paragraph. When you get better your highlighting privileges can be restored.
  • Pre-reading is clutch. Try this method. http://www.studygs.net/texred2.htm

Buckle down and fix things now. If you tank the first couple of tests you won't recover and this will be your first, and last semester of RN school.

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Specializes in ICU Stepdown.

When I read, my main focus is what my teacher highlights in the book (we use the Lewis med-surg ebook on Elsevier). From there, I focus on disease processes. For example, this week we're learning about strokes. So I make titles like Ischemic Stroke, Embolic Stroke, Hemorrhage Stroke. Then, subtitles like Subarachnoid Hemorrhage, Thrombotic Stroke, etc.

For each disease process I make notes on: clinical manifestations, etiology, risk factors, diagnostics, and treatment/management

And some things, you just know you should take notes on. Note taking is an art, watch nursing Youtube videos and see how they study as well.

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Forget what everyone has told you before you started school. They're not you. Don't make your experience the same as theirs. Whether bad or good, it'll never be the same for you.

The amount of work nursing school takes, depends purely on how much it takes for you to learn it. You need to calm down. You will fail if you panic your way through school. You're not learning med-surg in your first semester, so completely forget that it exists. There's no point to worrying about it when you haven't even passed your first semester yet. This is why it seems so hard to you. Forget about everything. The NCLEX doesn't matter. Med-surg doesn't matter. Finals don't matter. Focus on one day at a time. Plan how you're going to approach this. You don't have to commit 100% of your free time to nursing school. If you do, it's just not worth it, and you're probably going to burn yourself out and fail.

Then read Luchador's link on pre-reading. This is the majority of what you have to know. Charts, tables, pictures... that's the summary of the chapter. Those bolded words are bolded for a reason. There's your important points. Then when you go back and read after having gone through all of those, what you're reading actually makes sense now because you have something to apply it to. And pay special attention to sections that have certain key-words in their header, like physiology or assessment

If you get this done before your lecture, it'll make a ton of sense when you're in class. You don't want to be taking notes in class beyond just a simple reminder to yourself of something. Basically that moment when something finally clicks because of your teacher's explanation. In class, just sit down, and pay attention. If you don't understand something by this point, ask.

Keep note-taking to a minimum. Only take notes on what you need to take notes on. Values, vocab, stuff like that is going to be important. Your notes should be just that, notes. Don't go through and make a huge outline, especially if your teacher already has one made with a powerpoint. Don't distract yourself in class taking color-coded notes. You're just making it harder than it has to be. To give an example: At some point you're going to learn about a lot of different skin conditions and their signs. A lot of them are red or pink, but some come with blue or purple. Then there's a bunch that fall into normal skin tones or whites... Do you REALLY need to take notes notes on the fact that everything that causes reddened skin will feel warm and everything that causes blue skin will feel cool or cold? Have you somehow managed to never look at the red and blue temperature dial in your car? Trust what you know. It's not as hard as a lot of people make it out to be. Just relax. The worst thing that can happen is you fail and just do something else for a career. Don't stress over if you pass or fail. Just go to school, try as hard as you can, and if you fail, you fail. You didn't become a famous celebrity and you're still fine. If you fail out of nursing school, you'll feel exactly the same about not being a nurse.

I'd take your tuition you paid as a loss this semester, and just finish it. If you're failing so bad that there's no chance of bringing your grade up, get started with your teachers on how to reapply later, and just finish the semester. More than likely, after the first 1 or 2 tests, you'll understand what's important. But more likely, you'll take your first test and surprise yourself with how you do. And you CAN fail that test pretty badly and still bring your grades up to passing. But that's an important test, it let's you see exactly what the tests are going to be like. You can prepare for the rest of them way more easily after that.

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Specializes in Behavioral health.

Every person has their unique learning style. Unfortunately you figure it out only through the pain of trial and error. I found I could read everything but it still would not make sense or stick until I applied the information.

What worked for me was to 1) Read through the content normal speed not for detail, 2) Do study questions, exercises, ect... 3) Re-read the content as needed.

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Specializes in Neuro.

For what it is worth, the first 8 weeks of my 1st semester were grueling and we were also told this by our instructor. The last half of the semester wasn't "easy" but wasn't as stressful as the first half. It was trying to acclimate that was the hardest part. I have two very small kids, so know where you are coming from. But, I graduate in May cause I hung in. It's one thing if you are feeling stressed and another if you feel like I don't want to do this, consider which of those they are before dropping.

I'm a reader and learn best from note taking, but there was no way I could ever keep up with the reading. So, I skimmed the chapters, meaning I'd read the first and last sentence of each paragraph to get the main idea, if it was something really technical, I'd read the whole paragraph. The texts have a lot of fluff. Also, I really concentrated on topics instructor spoke about in lecture, instead of getting super heavy into a subject in the text, I would skim whatever was not discussed in some way in class. It helped. Basically, you need to figure out what works for you to study and learn and it took me several weeks to get a system down. If now isn't the right time or you don't want to do it, then drop, but, think long and hard before you do, if you really want to do this, you'll be able to find a system that works. Good luck.

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I'm a single mom, and believe me the mom guilt is so very real! I'm in an evening/weekend program and work full-time, so I have missed soccer games and practices and I can feel the strain it has placed on my relationship with my son. That being said, he has been a rock star so far and has been really understanding of when I need my time to just shut my door and study.

I'm not sure what kind of learner you are, and I know there are people who really emphasize the reading...but I focus far more on what is addressed in lecture. I skim for headings and charts before lecture, but do not do any real reading at all. I have the PowerPoint pulled up on my laptop during lecture, and type in notes throughout. As soon as I can after that lecture (usually the next day when I have a little downtime at work), I rewrite the PowerPoint with my notes as an outline. I have only read if there was something I really wasn't grasping.

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Specializes in Urgent Care, Oncology.
On 1/27/2019 at 12:45 AM, tonyl1234 said:

Forget what everyone has told you before you started school. They're not you. Don't make your experience the same as theirs. Whether bad or good, it'll never be the same for you.

The amount of work nursing school takes, depends purely on how much it takes for you to learn it. You need to calm down. You will fail if you panic your way through school.

Nursing school is a whole different beast. I agree with this poster, don't panic. Nursing education and nursing tests are different. You'll see with the first test that every answer is somewhat correct, but you need to pick the answer that is the MOST correct. And that's how you'll be successful in nursing school. I suggest trying multiple different ways of studying and see which one you do well with in the end.

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Start as study group! Get a few students together (4 is a nice amount) once/week or whenever you need it. Each student can bring flash cards and take turns testing one another. You will get study time without family interruptions, and you will also have classmates to commiserate with! Remember, it is brutal for everyone.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

As you are already finding out just a couple of weeks in nursing school is hard! There's a ton of learning to be done in a pretty short amount of time. Before focusing on the things you'll need to succeed like what study method will work best for you it would be a good idea to have a family meeting to make sure your family is ready for the commitment that nursing school requires.

Your husband and 3 kids really have to on board with this for you to be able to succeed. While you don't have to devote every waking moment to school, you will have to devote a good portion of your time outside of class for studying. A helpful guideline I remember is for each hour spent in a classroom expect to devote about 4 hours of study time outside class. That's a big time commitment no matter how you look at it. Having a supportive family that is willing to sacrifice some of their time with you is a must, especially since you are already feeling overwhelmed and your journey is just beginning.

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this is going to be so worth it when youre done. stick it out girl!

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Specializes in ICU.

This stress is worth it if you really want to be a nurse. You are doing something incredible for yourself and your family and nothing this amazing will ever come easy. If you quit now how will you feel knowing you had only just started? It's hard, many people from my program had kids and it was really tough on them, but they pushed hard and made it work. You can do it! Just take it one week and exam at a time. It's overwhelming but when you cross the finish line you will be so happy you stuck it out.

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