What does your nursing career repair bill say about you?

Nurses General Nursing

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The title just asks those about their experiences and what they learned they could have done better..

Question for those in nursing school or who graduated nursing school.

No sassiness, please! This post is for educational purposes only!

If you guys could go back in time when you failed or graduated nursing school, what advice would you give yourself that could have helped you be a little bit better? What would you change? What would you have said to yourself that you could say to those who are new in school? Those that graduated, I'm sure there are things you still would have gone back and changed a little bit.

I would tell myself the following: Remember that coworkers are coworkers and nothing more, nothing less. Learn how to take nothing personally and not have to be liked by everybody. Learn to be okay with not being everybody's friend. Not everyone will like you, and that's okay. Realize that when management and the system is broken and corrupt, you cannot fix it from within, and it is best to move on instead of beating your head against a wall trying to change things. Trust your gut, because it is rarely wrong. Speak less and listen more: to patients, to coworkers, and especially at the nurses' station when you are "charting" and everyone around you is chatting. You learn a lot about the unit culture that way. Keep your ears open and your mouth shut, this is a very valuable skill. Lastly, for the love of God, AVOID THE VENDING MACHINES. Especially after midnight.

Wow . This is absolutely excellent advice! I wish I'd known ALL of this when I was younger. :up:

Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.
How old were you? Isn't that associates to BSN? I'm 28 and almost done with pre-reqs. I'm so ******* tired of school and bored and burned out. I'll have a different attitude about school once I get into nursing. If I can't get in through entrance exams, I'll probably give up and let GI bill go to waste. I'm so tired of school and feeling like I'm not going anywhere with the pissass direction I've been given all these years from my family I trusted.

I have been in school forever — I did take a 3-year break between my paramedic associates degree and starting my ASN, and then a year between BSN and my first MSN, but other than that? Yeah. So I feel your pain, but I have only a few regrets from this mess of education:

AAS, paramedic, 2000-2003

ASN, 2006-2008

BSN, 2008-2010

MSN (Nursing Informatics), 2011-2015

MSN (Nursing Education), 2014-2016

My regret is that I went two courses too far into an NP program before switching to the Nurse Educator track for that last MSN. I didn't want to be an NP, but I was listening to a lot of NP friends and peers who were telling me that I would be good at it.

I have two MSNs because I ran into an issue finding a preceptor for my capstone in the Nursing Informatics program; when I came home from Afghanistan, our one Nurse Informaticist had PCS'd and was not replaced. I transferred my credits to an NP program at another school and kept on truckin'. Then about the time I decided to switch to Nurse Educator, my first school found me a preceptor. Yay! And I am in a job in which I truly use both MSNs, it's awesome. I am truly lucky, and I have worked hard.

Zero student loan debt here. Treasure your GI Bill, please do not waste it! That is my advice. But follow your heart, and your passion. I wasted 4 months of GI Bill benefits on NP. :)

Specializes in Ortho, CMSRN.

I almost failed nursing school but I learned a valuable lesson from it. I'm naturally an anxious person. Add nursing school, and it was crippling for awhile. I would shake while doing checkoffs, nearly faint in patients rooms. I talked to the school psychiatrist. They prescribed several prn antianxiolytics and prozac. It worked great! My anxiety was pretty much cured. However, around that time I quit studying as hard. I don't know... I figured I'd pass the tests just because I'm awesome. After failing my critical care class, I had to wait 8 months to go back to complete school. I was thankful just that they let me back in. I did without the meds and STUDIED! First year of nursing was rough too. But I learned that anxiety is not always a bad thing. We can use it to motivate. Apparently, I'm lazy as all get out if I'm not anxious :D As far as school goals go. I wouldn't change a thing. I got my BSN right away. I do NOT want to go back to school again though. The experience traumatized me! Haha! I like bedside nursing a lot now and don't know what I'd go back for at this time. Maybe later in life.

I hated nursing school from day 1. I flunked peds the first time around and passed it the second time. I finally got to psych and found I loved it. The first 15 years or so were great, as I had the best job possible. After that, as times began to change, I really regretted becoming a nurse at all. If you think you're going to hate it, look into some other careers and make sure you want to go to nursing school. See if you can shadow some nurses in different areas to see if there's any hope you'll like it. To this day I wish I'd followed my dream of working with horses, but my dad always said there was no money there and if it was fun, they wouldn't call it work. So my only real advice is to try to find something you're interested in and relatively good at, that pays a decent living. Good luck to you!

Specializes in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.
How old were you? Isn't that associates to BSN? I'm 28 and almost done with pre-reqs. I'm so ******* tired of school and bored and burned out. I'll have a different attitude about school once I get into nursing. If I can't get in through entrance exams, I'll probably give up and let GI bill go to waste. I'm so tired of school and feeling like I'm not going anywhere with the pissass direction I've been given all these years from my family I trusted.

That's an accelerated BSN and usually you go through those when you are going into a BSN as a 2nd Bachelor's. The process of getting through pre-reqs and getting into nursing school itself is very tiresome. But, once you get into nursing school, you will definitely have a new sense of purpose injected into your path. And then, you will get burned out on school again. And, then, 5 minutes later, you'll be on the very cusp of graduating wishing it wasn't all ending so soon and that you need just a little bit more time.

For me, I wish I had known nursing was a good choice for me from the start. I'm a second-degree BSN grad who had gotten a BA in psych back in 2007. I kind of bumbled around, took nursing pre-reqs as a "just-in-case" and got into nursing school (traditional BSN) on a whim in 2013. Lucky me. But, if I had been a little more focused, I think I would have been happy just getting my ADN back when people were getting paid bank for a 2-year degree and I wouldn't be balking at the idea of going and getting my PhD (no, no MSN here -- I may pick it up on the way during school for my PhD). I could have just eventually bridged to a BSN and then decided if I wanted to go the grad route. Now, there's not really any kind of a choice. Nursing has become kind of a race to see who can legitimize the profession the most in the fastest way and it's dizzying. I just want to work and get comfortable in my practice before being shuffled off to grad school.

That said, I've only been on my own for 2 months as of yesterday (I went through residency from Sept to Feb) and it was worth the ******** of being so damn tired of school. Keep pressing forward.

My advice is to listen to your gut instinct when interviewing or on the job. If something just doesn't sit well take a moment to reflect before taking action.

Specializes in NICU, High-Risk L&D, IBCLC.

I would advise my fresh-out-of-nursing-school self (BSN grad) that getting an advanced degree as soon as possible is not the ultimate goal. I fell into that trap (along with others in my graduating class) and enrolled in a NNP program within three years of graduating, all the while feeling that I didn't even have a good grasp on my bedside NICU nursing skills yet. My heart just wasn't into it, and I withdrew after 6 weeks to continue in my career at the bedside with no regrets. I'm so glad I saved myself the time, energy, and money by listening to my gut and withdrawing from that program, especially because the NNP role holds absolutely ZERO interest to me anymore.

Specializes in long term care Alzheimers Patients.
Wow . This is absolutely excellent advice! I wish I'd known ALL of this when I was younger. :up:

I still need to learn this , and I'm in my late 50 s

Specializes in public health, women's health, reproductive health.

If I could speak to my pre-nursing self, I say: Don't look around at what others are doing and compare yourself to them. Don't listen to others when they say you should or must do a specific type of nursing, when you feel in your gut it isn't right for you. Don't pay attention to people who claim that you aren't a "real nurse" unless...

Find what fits for YOU. There are a lot of different ways and places to be a nurse. It doesn't have to be in an acute care hospital as a floor nurse. There is nothing wrong with you if your aspirations as a nurse go in a different direction.

Specializes in Emergency.

BSN from the get go...avoid the so called "bridge" programs...

You lost me at "no sassiness". That IS my advice. Speak up for yourself and be strong.

Specializes in Private Duty Pediatrics.

Set aside at least 5% of your pay from your first paycheck and invest it in a Target mutual fund. I didn't know about investing when I was young, and so didn't start until I was 40.

I could have been rich! ;)

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