When are you officially a nursing student?

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As the title says, when are you officially considered a nursing student? When you get your acceptance letter? When you start your first day of class? Looking for opinions on this.

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Specializes in progressive care. med surg. tele. LTC. psych..

I've considered myself a nursing student as soon as I started taking the required courses. Whether it be a pre-req or not, I'm only taking them for nursing. :)

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Specializes in NICU, Cardiac.

When you are accepted to nursing school.

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Specializes in Neuro, Telemetry.

You are not a student nurse (SN signed after your name) until your first day of class. When you call yourself a nursing student (as in taking classes for a nursing degree) is up to you.

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Specializes in Hospice, Palliative Care.

In our school, if you called yourself a nursing student when you are only taking your prerequisites, you would be misrepresenting your status. Add "future nursing student" and then that's a different story. At our school, there's a process. Acceptance, putting up a small deposit to accept the acceptance, and passing the dosage calculation. Once all three are done, you are an RN student until you either graduate (best and desired case) or fail or withdrawal.

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I've considered myself a nursing student as soon as I started taking the required courses. Whether it be a pre-req or not, I'm only taking them for nursing. :)

See I feel like that is a bit of a misrepresentation. If you haven't been accepted into the nursing program and you're not taking nursing classes, you're really pre-nursing as opposed to a nursing student.

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This reminds me of an aid I met at a nursing home. The resident's daughter didn't like something that the aid was doing and he said, "I need you to trust me ma'am. I'm a nursing student." I asked him what courses he was taking.

"English and Math."

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

The number of parents and visitors to my former unit who represented themselves as 'nursing students' because they were taking English 101 at the local community college was astounding.

Mind you, no shame in taking pre-requisites, obviously it's the first step in the process- but you are NOT a nursing student until you are in nursing classes.

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Specializes in psych.

I agree that you can say you are a nursing student when you take your first nursing class.

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Specializes in critical care.

I considered myself pre-nursing during gen eds and prereqs. I wanted to call myself a nursing student when I dumped a crap ton of money into my first nursing classes semester books and supplies. I became a nursing student, though, when orientation to nursing classes and clinicals didn't scare me away.

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Specializes in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.

I guess I could have started calling myself a nursing student after I found out I was accepted into the nursing program. I didn't, however, truly feel the transition until maybe about my 2nd or 3rd care plan and after my first g-tube dressing change on a combative patient about 6 weeks into clinicals. :yes:

Honestly, there is something that comes with saying, "I'm a nursing student." That thing is usually the tidy little package of gobs of homework, late nights, stress, stress, stress and more stress. Saying, "I'm a nursing student." conveys SO much more than what the simple, English definition states.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

I start nursing classes this fall, I wouldn't call myself a nursing student till I start classes.

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