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

SBecker3 · Jul 5, 2015

I dont mean to step on anyone's toes and Im not even sure how old this post is, but i feel that many of these posts are concerning and actually scary. If you feel like your learning NOTHING in nursing school, your doing it wrong. There is nothing difficult about nursing school, but there is also absolutely nothing thats breezy about it. YES it is a lot of busy work. YES it doesnt always teach you the best way. But what nurses NEED to know in order to provide safe care and intelligent evidenced based care is imperative and we are life long learners. It is ignorant of nursing and degrading to your profession to essentially say nursing is a breeze, dig deeper than! Rant over. Not trying to start anything.

Ludim · Aug 24, 2015

I just started the Nursing Program here in Phoenix Community College and I'm definitely glad to hear that too. I have been stressing and do far it just seems like a lot of reading only:)

teapiglets · Dec 24, 2015

Nursing courses will be hard if you do not believe in yourself, just like in anything else you want to accomplish in life.

For my experiences, I've learned you have to surround yourself with positive hard-working people especially study mates. I was so appreciative of my two buddies who were always prepared to review micro and ap 1 and 2. Each of us contributed our strength; one recorded the lectures, one brought in textbook and online questions to do, one would always bring food, etc, etc. Got As and B+s thanks to them.

Don't let negativity fill your head. I dislike the how faculty and professors and seniors would say how hard it is. Its like self hyptonizing when you're preparing for failure. Why not say it's managable, you can do it? Provide our transfers and peers with encouragement and teamwork.

The courses can be challenging if you have test anxiety and bad time managment. Either cut back hours if your working or quit the job and apply for LOTS of scholarships. If you have a family and it's tough, the path may not be for you at the moment because family especially the little ones require a lot of time and love.

For anxiety, using your resources at school such as the learning center for extra time and use counseling . I suggest medication if anxiety is very severe. This may be only for academic stress. Anxiety is a serious matter because I see it often and when times are stressful, people get burnt out and depress and they realize they never coped with these issues during their development stages.

Additional advice for nursing courses: record the lectures, the professors already have questions made for the exams while they're lecturing. Focus on the powerpoints because the prof compact it from the readings and they're the key points. Use textbook to elaborate what you don't know and need to study. Read the bold words, black box warnings. Practice nclex questions daily and those relevant to what you're learning in class. Commincate with your professors. Review each of your exams even if it's a 100. Understand why you got the questions wrong. Think positive!!!!

When there's a will, there's a way.

You can do anything if you put your mind to it.

1_fit_male_nurse2b · Jan 3, 2016

I dont mean to step on anyone's toes and Im not even sure how old this post is, but i feel that many of these posts are concerning and actually scary. If you feel like your learning NOTHING in nursing school, your doing it wrong. There is nothing difficult about nursing school, but there is also absolutely nothing thats breezy about it. YES it is a lot of busy work. YES it doesnt always teach you the best way. But what nurses NEED to know in order to provide safe care and intelligent evidenced based care is imperative and we are life long learners. It is ignorant of nursing and degrading to your profession to essentially say nursing is a breeze, dig deeper than! Rant over. Not trying to start anything.

I want to agree to disagree with you.

Like the Military, training testing, etc,... is different for everyone.

That said, from what I am hearing from the consensus it that it all boils down to how one learns. Not whether you are learning or not. Some find it difficult to boil water even with proper instruction. While others find it easy.

Some could march in unison with others in boot camp, and some lunk heads couldn't even fold socks.

I am coming to understand even after having become a CNA, is that like with most in medicine "ATTENTION TO DETAIL" and following direction is and will TRUMP all. Learning nursing is like life in general. You have to learn and this is more about COMMON SENSE and OJT and learning how to SEE, LISTEN, DOCUMENT, AND LEARN THE HUMAN CONDITION. ASSESSMENT !

But, I could be wrong?

MsBruiser · Mar 28, 2016

Interesting older thread. Nursing school was like a goofy summer camp. The academics are pretty easy. You will be given a very intimidating reading list, and then learn within 15 minutes that you cannot read 10 chapters per night and possibly retain any of it. Unless you are brilliant in which case (for God's sake!) go to medical school. Take good notes and get used to NCLEX style questions. I only studied my notes and used the texts to reinforce as needed. Show up on time, do as you are told, and do not hurt any patients. The 30% of people who dropped out of my original class simply could not reconcile messy personal lives with the time-intensive reality of nursing school - or they learned quickly they did not want to pursue a nursing degree. Again, time intensive does not imply academically difficult. But you will log long hours at clinical and wade through meaningless busy work.

Your real learning will start after school - during orientation. I have had an incredible ride so far being a nurse for 9 years. Nursing school was completely forgettable.

sweetsthrnsass · Mar 28, 2016

I was told my second semester with patho and pharm would be the worst and while the content was most difficult, this current (and last) semester of nursing school has been the hardest. It isn't even hard classes, just a lot of clinicals and a lot of busy work and a lot of projects and a lot of trying to pass exit HESI and boards and get a job. So some of that isn't really nursing school but holy crap I'm ready for the real world. This is exhausting.

And wow sorry for the run on sentence. Punctuation takes up too much time lol.

injured1 · Jan 18, 2017

So, I know this post has had years of comments. How is everyone doing? I am contemplating between Nursing or Occupational Therapist.

I personally have had mixed reviews. I talked to someone in a Nursing program, and one said I would be bored with Nursing after Year 1. I have been told by many, That, " I don't think like a nurse." For instance, I liked learning beyond the text book in chemsitry on how Carbon 11 is used for brain scans and how you can see images an how it reacts with glucose. However, when I see people weight train, and I see many have an internal rotation of the head of the humerus. Many on men. It shows they bench press, however, lack thoracic extended movements like Back, Scapula, etc. So these people tend to have a forward deposition bc of them doing so much anterior movements..the, " Show Me", Muscles if you will( Chest, Biceps, Abs ) that they neglect the posterior, which have the biggest muscles, the back, triceps, etc. This can lead to Impingement, or Bicep tendon injuries. I can usually tell just by looking and confirming by seeing them train, and then touching their back.

I also like the psychology of illness. Put it this way,I dislike it, but like it. I dislike the physical can effect the mental. Ever see someone who had gastric surgery? Someone on Steroids( corti..not anabolic ) and they gain weight? A physical ailment now becomes mental in the form of anxiety, OCD( also in particular OCD...when something happens beyond your control, ppl tend to be OCD about things afterwards to gain some sort of control mechanism ). I pay attention to all these things, just even weight training with ppl. I am not a nurse, but loved AP....and Micro Biology I got a 97%. I got a 97% bc what we studied related to practical things. Like bacteria and hoe it attacks the mucus layer to kill the Epithelial cells, then after that is done, attack the tissue causing inflammation. To me that is practical.

I am just nervous bc of Horror Stories, and also bc people say, " I don't think like a Nurse." They say physician assistant etc....I do admit, if I learned something and knew it was right, I might clash with people who might put someone at harm. I cannot think of one class I did not raise my hand 2-3 times per class session. I am not scared to ask questions, I don't care if I asked q's and might have annoyed or got a pat on back from M.Ds with my questions....we are all human. If I were to go up to someone in an alley in the dark....being an M.D, Nurse, Physical Therapist, would not matter at that point lol. What I am saying is, we all bleed the same( unless you bleed old oxygenated blood ), so someone being an M.D does not matter, I still ask q's if I have them. That is my mentality in class.

So I am nervous to enter nursing bc of what ppl say to me and horror stories online, and I am caught between OT and Nursing. On top of that, how are you guys doing?