What's most difficult in nursing school?

Ruby Vee, BSN · Dec 16, 2017

I'm looking forward to start my Associates Degree in Nursing and eventually work toward my BSN. I know this question may be subjective; What is the most difficult subject(s) to learn while in nursing school? I hear pharmacology is one of them, what else can I expect? Any additional advice for a pre-nurse student would be appreciated
Thanks

This question is subjective. But you know that. So I'll just tell you what worked for me, and hope that it helps YOU.

I had no difficulty with Pharmacology, but Microbiology nearly ended my nursing career before it even started. In retrospect, part of my difficulties may have been the instructor and/or the style of teaching, but I nearly failed on the microbiology labs. So my best advice is to take that course with as many "fluff" courses as you can, leaving you most of your study time to focus on microbiology. Of course, you may find, as a classmate did, that "Nursing in Society" was the most difficult course of the program. (Usually regarded as a "fluff" course.)

Figure out how you learn best if you haven't already. I was one of those people who never had to study in high school, and still finished at the top of my class. When I got to college, I had no idea how to study. My first semester was nearly my last. You'll do much better if you figure out ahead of time how you learn best. In my case, it was outlining everything in writing. My friend, who has a pHD in education, tells me that there's a proven correlation between retention of information and writing that information down in cursive -- so there's evidently a logical reason why that worked for me. I made flash cards -- didn't use them all that often, but the act of making them seemed to help me to retain things.

For Pharmacology, I made drug cards. That really helped me later on down the road. When I was preparing for clinical, I sorted through my pack of drug cards and picked out the ones relevant to my patient -- and wrote out the cards I didn't already have.

If you know how something works -- and why it works -- you'll retain the information longer, and even if you don't, you might be able to figure out the correct answer to the test question using logic. I must have memorized the Kreb's cycle five times for six different classes -- it wasn't until I made the effort to UNDERSTAND it that it "clicked". Ditto with arterial blood gases and why X is a bad drug to give in Y situation.

Hope this helps.