What are the toughest classes in nursing school?

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What are the toughest courses in nursing school and what is your advice on how to prepare or do well in them? (Study before class starts?, use certain resources, ect.)

I have only taken pharm & fundamentals. For pharm I made flash cards and put the important information on each card for the drug and patient teaching. Example I would write Pepto Bismol on the front and on the back I would put check bowel sounds before administering & do not give to children because it can cause rye syndrome. The cards helped a lot and I made a B. For fundamentals we had powerpoints for every lecture. I would basically read the PowerPoints a million times and make flash cards and put the main points for each section. Your books will come with some type of CD or website that you can go to and take practice tests. This helped immensely and I passed the class with a B. Good luck!!

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Purely subjective, however, most people that I've spoken to say MedSurg is the hardest.

Agree. MS kicked my butt, but I managed. I think for my school, the transition from Fundamentals to MS was a bumpy one - Fundamentals was easy in retrospect (of course I didn't think that when I was taking it). I had to switch up my routine from Fundamentals to MS and quickly, cause the first exam told us all that this is where they separate the men from the boys.

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Pharmacology was the toughest for me, partly because I have been working as a certified pharmacy tech for many years and I went into the class thinking I knew SO much about drugs. Too bad I knew SO much about what a pharm tech needs to know about drugs, not what a nurse needs to know so I got my lowest grades in that class (my only C so far in Nursing school). This was also 1st semester and I was still working and trying to get the hang of nursing school. I think if I had the opportunity to retake it now with a different attitude and mindset I would do much better.

Medsurg I was also tough for me. I barely got a B in that class but most of the class struggled.

I found that it helps me to write my own notes. Whether it's outlining the chapters or rewriting and adding info into the PowerPoints. It really helps the info sink in compared to reading alone. It's also helpful for me to utilize the textbook resources (NCLEX questions). My maternal newborn text had PrepU software bundled with the text, which gave me access to thousands of NCLEX questions and doing those really helped me. I always read the rationales whether I was right or wrong which also helps.

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Agree. MS kicked my butt, but I managed. I think for my school, the transition from Fundamentals to MS was a bumpy one - Fundamentals was easy in retrospect (of course I didn't think that when I was taking it). I had to switch up my routine from Fundamentals to MS and quickly, cause the first exam told us all that this is where they separate the men from the boys.

I totally agree - I excelled in funds and finished the class with about a 97%. Then came medsurg and I was getting low C's on the first few exams and I was terrified that I would fail. I totally had to put on my big girl panties and study for real in medsurg and ended up with a B in the end (barely). Funds was so easy for me, which was interesting because tons of people in my class did poorly and/or failed. I just hope I end up doing better in medsurg II (critical care). I should because before when I took medsurg I was also taking mental health which was no cake walk but manageable. For medsurg II I only have to take an online leadership lecture in addition to all the fun that comes with medsurg II so it should be better.

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It definitely varies by person, but my weakness was Pharmacology. That was the only class that I had to fight tooth and nail, day in and day out to stay on top of. Pharm was also the only class that I ever failed (below a 75) an Exam in. I think the classes seemed to get easier after the first year but only because we KNEW more not because the difficulty was any less.

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Specializes in Prior military RN/current ICU RN..

JDK..."hard class" is a term that is based on perception. I would say forget whether someone says a class is hard or not. You are correct to work on different study methods. And experiment..if during nursing school you get a bad grade on a test..don't freak...look at what you did and make changes. Be fluid and light on your feet. I would see people say "I am so stupid" when they would get a test back..but then they would study the exact same amount of time and way for the next one. What will change? The one thing that helped me was to not worry about how "hard" a class was.I would make absolute certain I knew what was expected. Days when exams would be. What kind of papers we were writing. Get to know Owl at Purdue APA format. Practice it...show someone who knows if you did it correctly. Also yes..get some NCLEX books...don't worry all that much about memorizing info..practice questions..try to understand what they are looking for...learn how to narrow down your answers. I have a feeling you will do great!

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Specializes in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.

I think the biggest pitfall, especially with pharmacology, is that everyone expects something specific (i.e. like memorizing thousands of drug names and their therapeutic effects and side effects) and I initially entered it this way, too. However, as you mentioned about making connections, it turned out to be much more heavily concept and nursing management-based. We were expected to know the most commonly prescribed medications based on certain conditions (i.e. Flomax for BPH) but otherwise memorizing drugs within certain categories gets you no where, especially when it comes to actually working in a clinical site and the way the facilities list the drugs patients are prescribed is.........creative (and makes for difficult times looking things up).

I think it is just based on what you feel strongly about and are interested in, too. For example, I'm expecting this next quarter to be difficult for me because it's our OB/GYN quarter and that stuff scares me like nothing else -- I just don't get it. I know, however, for all the moms and dads in the class it will likely be much easier for them to engage the material, especially because they likely are so much more familiar with it. Get what I'm sayin?

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Specializes in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.

Oh, I also second experimenting with study methods. I actually have had to study 3 different ways for 3 different quarters so far. You have to be flexible. When it works, it works. When it doesn't, time to change it up.

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Physiology kicked my butt.

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The fluff classes in the BSN programs that make your eyes bleed.......

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Yeah I agree. I'm taking med Surg right now and it definitely is my hardest class. At my school it's called the weed out class :-/

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