Why is NS so hard?

NursKris82 · Oct 27, 2007

Yes, nursing school is hard. There is alot of information to learn. You have lecture and clinicals and skills lab and physical assessment lab and med. math. It is a lot. Plus, you can't just memorize and forget like we all do with so many of our prerequisites, you have to remember and really know and be able to apply the stuff you learn in the program. You can't "fake it until you make it", you have to know it. So, yeah, it's hard, but totally do-able. As far as the pass rate- WOW! That is terrible. There may be a problem with the program itself- are the instructors helpful? do they have support in place to help? That really is a poor success rate. Maybe you should look into going into a better program- that can help there students to be great nurses and not just flunk them out.

crna2bkristan · Oct 27, 2007

Suggestions to make it LESS hard: Ask questions in class, sit up front to minimize distractions. Get to know your instructors and go to study sessions given by the instructors. Don't do student + student study groups (waste of time) or if you do, find the most anal people in the class :) to study with.

It's hard because they are teaching you an entirelly different way of thinking that integrates pathophys, a & p and critical thinking. Your test question answers are all right mostly, but you have to be able to critically think and prioritize.*********

Working as a nursing assistant was a huge help for strugglers in my class, if you can afford time away from studying. I used to pick the brains of nurses and doctors when I had time when I was an NA. PM me if you want.

4treasures · May 12, 2008

I think nursing school is hard for many reasons. It is time consuming. There is no way to study for the tests adequatly. I can go into a test KNOWing all the info, but I have a hard time applying it to the questions. The questions are senerios, with 'which is the MOST appropraite, best response, ect, ect, and some of the instructors answers have different rationales then I do.

The grading scale is greatly altered, so if I got a 90%, I got a B., and that makes it hard.

i study in a group for tests, and it really helps to hear other people say the info, and how to relate things. We ration out why things work the way they do (symptoms, treatments, ect) which really helps a lot.

Starting my 3rd semester!

heather:mad:

Kambili · May 15, 2008

Nursing school is not hard. It is a lot of information and it is different from other majors, like history for example.
You cannot just go to class (or not) and just listen to the instructor and expect to pass. Also, you cannot cram. Well, you can cram, but you won't remember anything and you do need this stuff because people's lives are in your hands.
Another thing is you cannot just spit memorized info back on a test; you have to KNOW the info and how to apply it.
Yet another thing you have to do is stay up the night before and do paperwork for clinicals until 2:00 am and then be expected to know every med, diagnosis, and treatment you patient has at 6:00 am.
Lastly, you don't have personality conflicts (not usually anyway) with clinical faculty that could pass or fail you. You are not under any of the pressure to do a return demonstration on a live person or dummy under the piercing eyes of a clinical instructor you swear doesn't like you.
Nursing school is not hard. You just have to master all of the above.
Good Luck.

everything you put up MAKES nursing school hard and more.

Kambili · May 15, 2008

1. why is nursing school hard? choose the best answer:
2. which of the following is a shade of red?
a. red
b. light red
c. dark red
d. blue
e. brick red
f. rosey red

i had to add those becos, i spent 3mins trynna figure out the diff. btwn the shades:chuckle and thkfully i got ti right. brick red is an abnormal stoma color while rosey red is viable stoma:bugeyes:

Kambili · May 15, 2008

1
4. complete the following sentence. a nurse must remember to always assess!!!
5. to pass a nursing exam, a nurse must remember that:
a. the abc's come first!
b. client safety comes first!
c. assessment comes first!
d. use critical thinking
e. not overthink the problem

i will love to kno the ans to ?tion 5 becos i am also confused myself. but if anything, i have learned not to overthink the questions but goodness that is my weakness. so, apart from option e, wats the ans. to the question:uhoh21: i have noticed that most times when i pick anything that has to do with assessment like asses for this or that, i end up failing it becos my instructor just never quits saying assess! assess!! assess!!! :yawn:

delta1961 · Nov 16, 2008

I agree with the above replies-it is hard because YOU are the difference between life/death-doc's are not at bedside like they are on television. Most of what you learn in NS is designed to sharpen your mind-(rote memory) but what you really need to be a nurse is critical thinking skills and that is learned at bedside-

talbrecht · Nov 16, 2008

I am just wondering to the current NS students in the forums what makes NS so hard. Is it the couse work that you are given or maybe it is the amount of work that is involved. Please explain to my why out of a full class in most school only about 2/3 actually finish the program. I check with my school and out of 79 students about 52 finished last year. I will be starting a BSN program in 2009. This information i very informative to me so that I do not make the mistake of drop or failing out of NS.

:nurse: I have been working on my BSN since 2002 and finally started clinicals in August. I drive 4 hrs a day to get to & from school, plus I have a large family! I give every breath that I take to school and get little in return.

I work really hard and know the material, I attend special study sessions with SI's and others with students. I am barely passing! Guess what so is everyone else! Our last Assessment test worth 100 points I only got a 61!

So did most of my friends. The highest grade was 75 and 80 is passing! That means that no one passed! Yeah it is hard way more than it needs to be. There is a nursing conspiracy... This is the big secret the school has to have 1 teacher for every 10 students. In order to hire a teacher they must have a PHD in Nursing. That cost a pretty penny. Plus there is a shortage in locations to do rotations. So they take in students take their $ and then weed them out. Good luck ! :crying2: