What makes Nursing school hard?

Nursing Students General Students

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I've always heard Nursing students complaining and losing sleep.What makes it so difficult? Is it the work load? Clinicals? I have a 7 month old and will be returning to school when she's 1 and a half yrs old.I graduated with my Associates degree in Liberal Arts last year so I have most of the liberal arts courses completed.I plan on apply to a ADN program.I took a look at the outlined courses at the school im interested in and it seems like I will only need to take a Nursing course and maybe one Liberal Arts course every semester.Will that make things easier for me? Plus I can chose to go just once a week for the whole day.I will not be working.What do you think?

Endless tedium and pressure/stress.

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I can agree with most of the responses that nursing school is not HARD but it truely is total consumption of your time. You must be organized, have your game plan established and stick to it!

I am a mother of 5, I don't work (though I would like to) and I explained to my kids what is going on and that I need their help to make this work. Everyone is on board. I start clinicals next week and with school around the corner it's going to be like everybody is in school so if there are some things in my scheduling that needs to be tweaked then it can and thing can continue as planned.

It is GREAT that you are looking trying to see what it is like because I am sure that you can take something from each one of the post. Congrats on beginning nursing just plan, plan, plan because you don't get to choose your schedule. The curriculum is already planned and established and when the program begins your instructor will be implementing. If you can get your pre-req's out of the way then that would be great. I am in an accelerated ADN program of 18mths and boy I am I stretched, but I know in the end it will be well worth it!

You can do it!! You have made it this far, there will be challenges and hills to climb you may get weary but just press your way. I always think of my kids and I press my way.

Good luck and may GOD bless you and all your endeavors

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In my opinion, the work is not very hard. However, there's plenty of reading, studying, and care plans for which I have full responsibility. In addition, most nursing programs adopt a tougher grading scale than other majors. Here's the grading scale used by the nursing program that I presently attend:

93 - 100 = A

86 - 92 = B

77 - 85 = C

Below 77 = failing

a 92 us a B?? OMG thats nuts!

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Most programs will not let you take just one nursing class at a time. In each semester they are usually all require to be taken at the same time. Even with all my core classes completed before I began the nursing program, there were weeks when I was snowed under. Just the reading alone can be very time consuming. With research and everything, care plans can take 10+ hours each week alone.

It is doable, especially if you have a good support network around you. Develop good time management skills. Learn flexibility. Just learn to study smart focsing on those areas you have not grasped yet. Have some portable way of studying that you can carry with you to take advantage of those free moments such as waiting in the grocery line or while you are getting you hair done. I had a PDA with NCLEX questions divided by topic. They are now available for the smart phones/iphones.

Thanks for your tips! I'll keep them in mind for next year.Hopefully :-))

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I start nursing next month and I've always heard that nursing is harder then A&P so if I think A&P was seriously hard....then for me nursing is going to be crazy! Like someone else said, it's a lot of reading and studying....much like A&P. I have 2 kids and I had just enough time do study constantly for A&P...now I'm getting into the hard part, so it's going to be worse once I start nursing....I can't imagine, lol. I'm scared yet excited! Good luck to you! And thanks for asking this...I look forward to continue reading the responses.

Thanks! Good luck to you too :-) You sound very motivated!! A& P is no piece of cake.You're totally right about that,but with the text book and daily studying,getting an A is definately doable.

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I'm watching this because I am in the same situation as you. i have a 5.5 month old girl and plan on going back to school for nursing...i will be doing that this upcoming semester because i have 2 classes i need to complete before applying to nursing. i am debating between the ADN and the accelerated BSN and i was hoping i'd start nursing school in the fall 2010 which will make my daughter a year and half almost also. so will have to see i guess

With only one child it shouldnt be too hard to pursue Nursing.At 1.5 yrs old she wont need your attention constantly so that will allow you to study! Good luck :-)

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IMHO...its not that the work is more difficult than any of the pre-req's its that unlike other classes there aren't any other grading opportunities than the 4 exams and one paper (at least not at my school) Each exam is worth 22.5% and the paper is 10% and its a 9 credit semester...our exams have 75 questions so a month of school is condensed down to 75. So you end up studying hundreds of pages of material inside and out and doing hundreds of NCLEX questions to try and learn it all. If a nursing course was set up like A&P and we had assignments, quizes, and "gift" grades I'm sure that my grade would be higher...but not so sure I'd be a better nurse...if that makes any sense at all. The hard work (and 4.0 that went down the drain) is so worth it in the end. I have 2 kids and nobody to help out other than my husband who has to work a ton so I can be in school and I just find a way to make it work. Good Luck!!! Oh if there is any way to get those liberal arts classes out of the way now while you are waiting to start that would be a great idea because it will certainly lighten the load!

Yes I think I have about 3 liberal Arts courses to complete .After thats its just Nursing.

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I can agree with most of the responses that nursing school is not HARD but it truely is total consumption of your time. You must be organized, have your game plan established and stick to it!

I am a mother of 5, I don't work (though I would like to) and I explained to my kids what is going on and that I need their help to make this work. Everyone is on board. I start clinicals next week and with school around the corner it's going to be like everybody is in school so if there are some things in my scheduling that needs to be tweaked then it can and thing can continue as planned.

It is GREAT that you are looking trying to see what it is like because I am sure that you can take something from each one of the post. Congrats on beginning nursing just plan, plan, plan because you don't get to choose your schedule. The curriculum is already planned and established and when the program begins your instructor will be implementing. If you can get your pre-req's out of the way then that would be great. I am in an accelerated ADN program of 18mths and boy I am I stretched, but I know in the end it will be well worth it!

You can do it!! You have made it this far, there will be challenges and hills to climb you may get weary but just press your way. I always think of my kids and I press my way.

Good luck and may GOD bless you and all your endeavors

Thanks for your words!! Very motivating :-)

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Specializes in CVICU/ER.

The hardest thing is the volume. Much like all of you, I have a 3 year old little boy that is my everything. It hurts that I work and go to school and can't see him like I want to. I want to be there all the time for him and it is just impossible because of the clinicals, the studying, the papers, the projects, the constant bombardment of tedious things (paperwork and lab writeups) that you get subjected to. You will make it as will I. I just have 2 semesters left and I will be a happy little man and so will my son.

YOU WILL do this.

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1. The faculty make your schedule for you, in my case I ended up with all of my classes in one day - 12 hours with 2 additional transportation hours. That makes it rough for the following day, especially if you have clinicals at 7 am across town.

2. Clinicals start early and do require a lot of prep which can be taxing if you have several clinical days in a row. Some clinical days are also just hard, either emotionally or physically depending on your patients. I had a patient for several weeks and some days were just emotionally exhausting while others were much easier.

3. There is a LOT of reading for classes, labs and clinical. I find that really stressful because there is ALWAYS reading to be done and some of it is pretty heavy, especially after a day of clinical or classes.

Still, with all the work it is a lot of fun! Hard work pays off and it is really satisfying :)

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Specializes in Operating Room, Long Term Care.

Nursing school requires a lot of time organization. I didn't think it was that bad until clinicals started. Course work, lack of sleep during clinicals, managing my house and making time for my children made the year rough. One good thing is it can be done and it makes the school year go by very fast.

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Its really easy except for the crazy amount of reading, long clinical hours, clinical paperwork, the 50 question exams over 35 chapters, and the vast amount of time it takes to complete everything so you don’t feel inept walking into clinical!! Lets not forget skill check off days!!

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