Was it tougher?

gauge14iv, MSN, APRN, NP · Jul 29, 2006

Honestly - both were equally challenging in my opinion, just in different ways.

Anytime you are learning new ways of thinking, ways of applying learned material to real life situations and assimilating new material altogether it's tough.

I will say I thought I knew a lot more going in then I thought I knew when I came out! Both times - but I think that was actually worse coming out of the NP program. I just feel every day like I there is so much I DONT know!!

Trauma Columnist · Jul 29, 2006

For me, I felt LPN school was the most challenging because I was such a novice. Then, when I went to ADN - it was easier. I did a post-MSN clinical nurse specialist and I found this the most clinically challenging and I loved it. I plan to learn something new each day. That is the best attitude regardless of your career.

Spacklehead, MSN, NP · Aug 4, 2006

Speaking as a current NP student, for me the NP program is harder with regards to the amount of information that needs to be learned. There is SO much more reading to do and much more detailed info that needs to be synthesized and understood. There are also many more papers that need to be written, presentations to be given, and case studies to be analyzed (at least at my program). It seems like the amount of work required in one NP course is equivalent to the amount of work in 2 or 3 RN undergrad courses.

The one nice thing about the NP program is that it is all focused on nursing, unlike the RN (BSN in my personal experience) program in which you have to take non-nursing courses to fill certain requirements. It also seems like the info makes much more sense now, since you have already been exposed to certain diseases/drugs as an undergrad in clinical or as an RN at work. It is really cool to now finally understand the whole pathophysiology of a disease and how to treat it; or to learn the in's and out's of how drugs work and what they actually do in the body on a cellular level.

For me personally, working on my MSN part-time has made the program very doable. There are a few students in my courses who go full-time and they state that they are just bogged down with so much work.

I hope that my post has helped answer your question. I'm sure that others out there will both agree and disagree with me.

rnsrgr8t · Aug 4, 2006

I graduated from Nursing school 8 years ago and Graduate School for my PNP 2 years ago. They were both difficult and challenging in different ways. Graduate school may have a little more difficult only because I was in an accelerated program and completed it in 3 semesters (Fall/Spring/Summer) full time. I also had been out of school for 6 years and getting back into the study groove was also difficult. I also think it will depend on how much nursing experience you have prior to going back to school. I had a few classmates as new grads or only with one year experience and they had it a lot tougher than I did. What is great about Graduate school, you are focusing on an area of interest. For me, it was great to have every class be geared to pediatrics since that is the only thing I am interested in. Another thing to consider is how comfortable you are with the role of an NP in managing a patient's plan of care. As a nurse, I had a lot of autonomy in my jobs and I always would try to anticipate the future plan of care for my patients and often would have discussions with the physicians etc (once I was experienced) so coming into the NP role was easy for me. That is not the case for everyone and it takes some a transition period until they feel comfortable. One thing that I did find a little difficult about grad school was going from an enviroment as an experienced RN that was very comfortable and good at her job to going back into an enviroment where I did not know anything again. That was quite intimidating at first but I eventually got used to it. Hope this helps. Good Luck!