Was RN school easy for you?

Nursing Students General Students

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PLEASE DON'T ANSWER IF IT WAS HARD FOR YOU.

I keep hearing about how hard nursing school is. Well, I know that, or everyone would go and pass! I need to hear some positive stories! Have you heard of Hypnobirthing? One suggestion is to block out the negative stories that people always offer up so that that doesn't become YOUR reality. Please share with me what you enjoyed about nursing school and HOW you made it easy for YOU!

Thanks in advance!

It's good you're trying to go in without the mindset of success. I had to constantly remind myself that I am not everyone else's story. I have 5 kids, worked part time, still managed to help my sister with her special needs boys, make it to all the kids activities with school, and homeschooled one of my kids. All with an A/B average and could've been a straight A student if I gave up some of my time with the kids. Nursing 1 was the most difficult mainly because they went overboard with rules and expectations and there was almost no lecturing. It was all on our own. Plus, I did go in nervous about whether I could make it due to stories I had heard. Walked out with an 89. Find what works for you. I used NRSNG to help with bad lectures and solidify information. I always made at least some time to study no matter the chaos of life. I graduate next week and have been offered my dream job. Just went with the flow, did what I was told, didn't complain, and did my work. I found one person to rely on and work with and didn't jump in to a lot of friendships (and drama). It is not only is doable, it can be an experience you look back on fondly.

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I think it's much more nuanced than "is it hard or not." Grasping concepts was very easy for me. While I saw others struggle with certain concepts, I only had to read it once or twice or hear it in lecture. What was *challenging* was the pure amount of work in such a small time frame. In any given week you will have 1 or 2+ exams, a paper due, a care plan, and probably some type of time consuming assignment for clinicals. So then THAT depends on if you are good with time management, and if you stay focused. If I stay focused, I'm good with time management. If I don't and decide to procrastinate, then I'm not managing my time well. Not because I don't know how, but bc of what I said about this topic being very nuanced.

At times I buckled down and stayed completely on top of things. Therefore, for ME, getting good grades was easy.

Other times I allowed many insane life circumstances get in the way, and due to my depression and anxiety I procrastinated and watched tv all day every day. Then it was very hard getting 2 patho papers completed for clinical, one research paper done, a care plan completed and studying for 2 exams all in 2 days. Now THAT'S hard. But I made it hard on myself.

Overall, no. Academically, it wasn't very hard for me. I had an excellent grasp of anatomy, physiology, and microbiology that made the pathophysiology very easy to learn. I had excellent writing skills, at the time, with a lot of research paper experience and multiple English classes under my belt. I was a nursing assistant in a hospital, so navigating that environment came easy to me. I think one of the hardest things, and what makes the challenge of nursing school relatively unique compared to other degrees, is the pressure of "This is it." There's no, "it's ok if I don't pass this class. I can just repeat it next semester." There is zero guarantee that the program will allow you to. One class can get you completely kicked out of the program. There are, as you know, only so many spots available. And they will let the student behind you in that spot before you as they didn't fail or withdraw from a class. It is not first come first serve for signing up for a class like math majors, English majors etc...Also, most other majors, a C is a 70% and passing. For many nursing programs, an 83% is failing. The pressure is on. Whether or not that is "hard" is individualized. I don't see any reason a person who grasps A&P and stays on top of their school work can't pass just fine ? Be dedicated, and you will be just fine.

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I graduated just few weeks ago with very good GPA, I pass nclex in 75 questions. At one point I was thinking that nursing school is hard because my just hated my OB instructor, she could not teach to save her life, and her test was horrible written, so I had to study by my-self a lot without any support. Than it was guessing game on exam (I was asking my self what is exacly she is asking) She was also big on testing about small staff like risk factors of disease, she would lease 10 of them and on exam we would have to pick out specific one. To make sure we are confuse she would throw in different diseases in question.

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I'm going into my last semester soon. Hopefully, a job decided to overstress me and has my grade hurting...

Honestly, the school part of it was easy to me up to now. Nursing isn't that hard. You treat symptoms, the goal is typically the exact opposite of what the symptom, or habit, or risk is. How to get to that point is the same thinking. They have a fever, so they're hot, you cool them.

What is extremely hard is that not all of us are married or live with our parents and can just stop working to focus 100% on school. Normally, this is no problem. But this is nursing school, to their administration you have someone who can financially support you for the next 2-4 years. It's not uncommon that they expect that if an instructor can't make it to a clinical, you're calling out from work to go in when it's convenient for that instructor. You're going to be scheduled on what works for them for clinical rotations. So if you're working as a bartender or server, expect to lose some friday nights and a ton of money.

If you read these forums, you'll see a common trend of instructors who just don't teach. So it's not a bad idea to learn what youtube sources are accurate and current.

The content isn't hard, it's mostly common sense. The physiology and pharmacology are the only thing that really takes a lot of work. If you can't figure out that you should check blood pressure before you give blood pressure medicine, then you're going into the wrong field, you need something with constant supervision because you're going to struggle with most jobs. What's hard is the time commitment.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I found it pretty easy. Light on the science. Fundamentals was a challenge in the beginning because I knew NOTHING about nursing or knew any nurses prior. But as soon as I learned the nursing doctrine, it was easy to know the answers they were looking for.

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I'm a young person, no kids and not married. I didn't think nursing school was too hard. The first semester imo was the hardest because you are not used to going to clinicals + "Nclex" questions and being in a cohort with other future nurses.

I made a B in most of my classes and a few A's. Passed NCLEX in 75 q's. If you can manage your time + be organized, you shouldn't get anything less than a B in nursing school (assuming you don't have any kids or married).

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On 12/3/2019 at 9:34 PM, blenderbottle said:
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She was also big on testing about small staff like risk factors of disease

Mine asked questions that were very basic questions that students often overlooked. :drowning::roflmao:

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Those are exactly my thoughts! Everyone keeps saying how hard it is! I already have a PhD in another area and hopefully will be accepted at BcSN. Having a teenager and a preschooler with lots of chores to do, I am a bit nervous how it is going to be. Just in case, I study A&P (YouTube lectures, Khan Academy, coloring book and flash cards on Anki), after that in my plan is patho and pharm. Also, I watched different tips how to study different courses. I am pretty sure I will be fine.

P S hypnobirthing didn't work for me at all ??‍♀️?

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Specializes in Critical Care.

It could be difficult based on social circumstances but no, BSN material is simple.

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1 hour ago, NataliaSun said:

P S hypnobirthing didn't work for me at all ??‍♀️?

Me either! lol But the IDEAS makes sense to me! So I'm just trying to fill my head with positive thoughts.

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I don't think that it was necessarily hard, I just think it takes some getting use to. For example, the constant test every week in the beginning was a little crazy. But as you learn the program it will become easier. I just think that its hard because you don't have to much free time. The stress of knowing whats at risk is what can make your nerves bad like med math exams that you must past or will possibly be kicked out for not passing or having to maintain a high grade on every exam to feel safe, because you don't know if you will have a bad one and lower your grade putting you in jeopardy to be kicked out. I believe those pressures are what made.

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I know what you mean, I just had my final and I passed, but the pressure. Have to pass a dosage calculation test in the beginning and then you got to make sure your overall test and quiz scores in your theory class is 80 and above it’s a lot

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