What do you wish you would have known?

[wildwyo]

I've applied for an ADN program to begin this fall, and I'm very nervous about starting it! I graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2007, so it's been a while since I've been in full-time classes! I've been completing pre-reqs over the past 2 semesters and will have to complete a CNA course this summer (an entrance requirement for the program). I'm drastically changing careers (currently own a small retail business), and while I'm amazingly excited about it, I'm clearly nervous with the switch.

So, my question to those who are already on their way to their degree — what do you wish you would have known before your first day of classes/clinical? If you could go back in time and tell yourself anything about the next few years in school what would it be? Is there anything that you wish you would have studied more, or prepped for more academically before starting?

[CalenMay]

The thing I hated most about nursing school is the abuse of power from my professors. And it extends into my clinical work as well. There is a certain cocky-ness about this whole medical field that I will never understand. I know that you need to be educated and that you need to be confident about what you're doing but the lack of people skills between peers still baffles me. For a people profession it just sucks big time...sorry I got on my soap box.

Nursing school is going to be hard. And the profession is going to be hard. It's easy to say but to try and let God take the wheel so you can enjoy more of life is my advice. My other advice is to have some little hobby to take a break from studying. My sister posted a saying to my Facebook wall recently, "Don't give up. We all have gone home in tears. We've all second-guessed why we do what we do. We've all felt like failures at times. We all wanted to quit at some point. Just remember. You save lives. You can't expect that to be easy."