What did you struggle with most in nursing school?

[mrgaylordfocker]

I am finished with all of my classes so I am not currently enrolled in school and have a good 6-8 months until I transfer to nursing school to become an RN.

I want to get ahead of the game and start studying some things. I've already bought a pathophysiology book, considering getting a nursing pharmacology book, and i'm looking for more ideas. What did you struggle with in nursing school or wish you had more time to study for?

[ok2bme]

The content is not hard, it was actually a breeze compared to my BS in microbiology. I struggled with the busywork! Care plans, theory of caring papers, group projects, virtual clinical exursion exercises..

To tackle this I eventually learned to use old careplans as templates for new ones. I did a lot of cutting, pasting, and modifying..many hours saved!

I also would just do brainless busywork (research, papers) in front of the tv, made it more tolerable and made me feel more balanced, as opposed to spending 2/3 of my waking hours in the library. And it didn't take any more time.

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

Younger classmates who bullied me.

[Spikey9001, BSN, RN]

I struggled with a program where there are 8+ instructors. Every one of them does things differently, has different expectations, has different "right" answers, and even occasionally they contradict each other. There is only one lecture class they all rotate in/out of, so I never know who wrote the exam questions. I learned I cannot please everyone and that I should not get upset when someone is not pleased.

I struggled with learning to self-teach. Other departments at my college do things different. The nursing school is mostly self-study. If you're confused, they expect you to talk to a classmate instead of asking an instructor. The exam is to basically memorize hundreds of pages of a detailed textbook. Their "teaching" is limited to reaching power point slides line by line. This was very hard for me who always thought of teaching as more of a team experience: the instructor has at least some responsibility/credit for my outcome. And then they wonder a good 60% of students don't make it to graduation. It was hard for me to accept they did not care in the least if students did not graduate. All the seem to care about is a high NCLEX pass rate and meeting state requirements for clinicals. But that's their problem - not mine - and I won't let uncaring teachers slow my chances for success.

And it's been hard for me to reconcile what I thought nurses did and felt was important versus what the nurses in the hospitals I visit really do. It's hard for me to see a 1:7 ratio of post-op patients, all in pain and several call bells ringing, while between 0700 and 0800 they're pretty much ignored as night nurse gives Report to the day nurse(s) for her rooms. It's hard for me to see nurses who seem to spend so much time giving meds they don't do much else. And it seems like so much effort is spent in covering one's own butt (document, document, document) because apparently when things go wrong between doctor or pharmacy and patient, it's the nurse who is responsible for not catching others' mistakes. Or maybe I am growing cynical after doing rotations in too profit-focused hospitals?

This.

[swirlo]

I struggled with that stupid antedotal (the paperwork consisting of careplans, nutrition, etc.) My grade was a 90%, but they failed me on this antedotal. I feel this was wrong, because I pulled it all together on the last day and got it right, but they didn't care.

[armyicurn]

Foundations of holistic nursing. What a bunch of ****.

[DC Collins, ASN]

I didn't read all the replies here, but am going to throw in:

Concept Mapping/Care Planning. Know how to do one, fully and quickly. You will be well ahead of the game if you can get those concepts down!

DC, ED NOC RN ADN

Abbreviations R Us :)

[deleern]

You WANT to know your Learning style... google it. It is very interesting....When you know that you are leaps and bounds ahead of the pack....

[chinacatSN]

Oh, yeah, you've got to understand it, but who cares about explaining it to patients, lol. I just want to know the info! I'd just say "you've got HIV." Somewhere they've got internet access if they want to know more.

I understand that you already have an idea of what you want to do and I'm not going to to try to persuade you otherwise, debate with you, or judge you about that. However, in nursing school your instructors don't give a you-know-what about what you "want to do". You have to learn everything, do everything, and suck it up or you're out. Nursing school is the place to get as much experience as you can - that's why they make us go to different clinical sites and have different patients. They do it for your own good so if you can't get a position in your chosen area, you're free to get a position somewhere else.

And, most of the time, the nurse isn't the one telling the pt that they "have HIV" or whatever, the nurse is the person explaining to the pt on how to take their new meds for HIV and teaching them about virus counts, etc. The nurse is the one who holds the pt's hand and offers them a shoulder to cry on when they breakdown over their new diagnosis. I'm not trying to tell you what you already know, I'm trying to reemphasize a major point - nurses are teachers, no matter what. I don't want you to spend tons of money on an education and a career and not know how things are. The ONLY nurse I have ever met who didn't have to teach AT ALL is my aunt - she is temporarily disabled and stays at home going over medicare care plans. And she constantly complains about how BORING it is, but it's the only thing she can do right now. If you want to have any patient interaction, you will have to do some teaching. And if you want to pass nursing school, you will have to do A LOT of teaching - probably while your instructor is breathing down your back - and you will most likely even have special projects based on teaching alone. After nursing school, it will become second nature to you and you won't even realize that you're doing it - so if you don't think you're good at it or you don't think you like it, don't worry - you'll get better and you will like it! Patients look up to and respect a good nurse who can teach them and help them and not make them feel stupid (most of the time anyway). So, it's better to know your stuff know so you don't come off like an idiot later.

[metal_m0nk, BSN, RN]

Your sarcasm is not understood on this site.

Fixed.

[INLPN93]

In 1992 LPN school it was A & P.

In 2010 LPN-RN it was A & P.

I have no idea why, I studied until I thought my pea brain would explode. But that subject just would not completely sink in.

Passed with C's both times but to be honest I don't see how.

Pick up a comprehensive nclex-rn book; Saunders, Kaplan, Prentice Hall's Review & Rationales to name a few good ones.

They put all out there in a nutshell.

Good luck! :) :)

[macrophage1]

You say you have taken your prereqs, but these may be different in different schools. For instance, in my school, anatomy and physiology are prereqs. I WILL mention that we had a dosage calculation test on the first day of every semester, and I actually know of one poor student who flunked it on the last semester. We got three trys before we were tossed out! Needless to say, I reviewed my dosage each time that test came up! I graduated in May, and officially became an RN on 12/24 (at the age of 50!) Good luck in school!

[Cuezee2]

I would study drug calculations (or review your algebra, especially dimensional analysis--you'll use a lot of that), memorize your pathophysiology book, get a med-surg book off e-bay or amazon for cheap and get started on that! I'm struggling a lot with pediatrics now and I know a lot of other people who have trouble with it, but really knowing your pathophysiology will help with that. If you can get a good understanding of pathophysiology and med-surg then you'll be way ahead! Pretty much everything stems off pathophysiology. Good luck!!