Who is finding nursing school way easier than you were told it would be?

mom2a1c2 · Jun 5, 2011

That's good to know! I have two boys, a 4yo and 2 yo, plus I work part time. I'm starting the GCC weekend program in July, plus I'm starting the 16 week Bio 205 tonite...I've been stressing that I won't have enough time to put into everything.

You made me feel much better!

KristeyK · Jun 6, 2011

I definitely would not call it Mickey Mouse, but yeah, NOT what it was made out to be. The hardest part is figuring out how to answer the NCLEX style questions on the exams and quizzes. I do all my reading too, which is time consuming. (There have been numerous studies that show if you only study to remember something for a test, you won't LEARN it, and I fear needing the knowledge at a future date and BAM! Gone. LOL)

Good luck!

cindyloowho · Jun 6, 2011

It's different for everyone. I never opened a book all through school and graduated with a very high GPA. But I also had classmates that studied their butt off and still couldn't understand the simplest of concepts.

Chechy · Jun 6, 2011

Well it all depends in what block you are at. Block one super easy, block 2 you won't pass if you study the night before I found block 2 to be the hardest block and it is the most repeated block in all MCC nursing programs, block 3 easy, block 4 you need to study more because the semester is shorter and there is more material included per exam. :)

jjjoy, LPN · Jun 6, 2011

Here's my take on it...

Conceptually, NS may not be difficult; however, student strategies for pre-req classes rarely apply well in NS, even if one was acing the pre-reqs with minimal effort, or even if one has aced the entire pre-med curriculum in addition to the pre-nursing courses. Those who found pre-req coursework hard, then, are even more likely to consider NS hard. Though there are some for whom NS is their groove.

If one's successful strategy thus far in school has to been to review everything backwards and forward until every last tidbit is internalized and thoroughly understood, that probably won't work in nursing school. There just aren't enough hours in a day to finish all the day-to-day work such as careplans AND take a fine-toothed comb to the hundreds of pages of reading AND develop good test-taking strategies and skills for NCLEX style questions.

1) Quirky NCLEX-style test questions can negatively impact one's grade despite great retention and comprehension of material; lectures and book materials often do not offer any guidance on what to expect from test questions; reviewing NCLEX test questions can be a good test-prep strategy. Getting good grades on NS tests may mean one has a knack for NS test questions as opposed to having a better grasp of the covered material.

2) NS has massive amounts of assigned readings. Even if you are never tested on all of it, your instructors and future employers may expect you to know it. And you may want to know it. Though I do better conceptualizing many nursing texts more as reference books than instructional books. On the plus side, there is much overlap between many conditions and the nursing care; so some people may find that they can blow through some lenthy reading assignments.

3) you cover a little bit of just about every condition and specialty out there, set after set of summary overviews of pathophys, signs & symptoms, treatments, complications, psychosocial factors and repetitive of lists of nursing care. With so much to cover (geriatrics, labor and delivery, pediatrics, GI and GU conditions, mental health and more) in so little time, one rarely has time to fully process all the info being covered.

4) patient care plans can be lengthy and time consuming to pull together in very limited time frames, which can leave little time for other nursing school work.

jjjoy, LPN · Jun 6, 2011

As another noted, the first term can be really slow as it slogs through basics (spending 20 minutes on a 13 point step wash cloth folding technique) and then as NS goes on, they'll just toss out in a brief side comment on the importance of recognizing signs of shock.

Crystal74 · Jun 6, 2011

Just curious to know, what type of math are you doing in nursing school and how many blocks are you using the math? I know you mentioned it was like 4th grade math, but I have been out of school for quite some time and even the thought of 4th grade math scares me...lol:lol2: can you guys share some of the techniques you are using to make the program easy for you?

KristeyK · Jun 7, 2011

We were taught how to do dimensional analysis. It's EASY as pie and MUCH easier to catch your mistakes with when you end up with a funky answer. (It allows you to see all of your work.) If you Google it, you'll freak because I have yet to find a website that makes it simple. LOL

cannot wait to start · Jun 8, 2011

Thanks for this post, since everything I've read has been negative. I could use all the breaks I can get since I have to keep working full time. The idea of giving up sleep for the next two years was not looking appealing!!

fromtheseaRN, BSN, RN · Jun 9, 2011

jjjoy nailed it. i don't find it hard. block 1 was easy, but blocks 2 and 3 were a bit more challenging, which was mainly due to the teachers basically bottle feeding us in block 1. i start block 4 this fall, so hopefully that will be easy too.

as mentioned above, what's hard is learning how to study properly, think differently than you're used to, and managing your time.

also, each school is different. i'm at gcc and i think it's the hardest of the community colleges. i have friends at other campuses, and when we compare semesters, my school is taught and tested on far more info/pathos/interventions than they are. hopefully that will work well for me when it comes time for the nclex.

Cursed Irishman · Jun 9, 2011

I learned nothing useful in nursing school, it actually reduced my knowledge base because it focused on trivia instead of major concepts. Nursing school lays the groundwork for the endemic problems of the profession: its more about busy work, snide remarks and inflated egos than learning the fundamentals.