For me, the academic part is not hard, but I have a degree in Microbiology and academics have generally always come easily for me (also, I enjoy learning and studying...).
However, one of our nursing instructors is more like a boot camp DI. And my 2nd term clinical at first was pretty scary (but, I believe that is more due to lack of support, for a variety of reasons.)
So, what have you all found that was hard about Nursing School?
i went to college many moons ago, but want to return soon because my memories of college were such good ones to recall. :)
the only thing i found hard about it was one of my instructors who was obviously born without the ability to smile or laugh. no sense of humor in that woman! :rotfl:
I find nursing school to be very overwhelming at times. There is just so much to learn in such a short amount of time. I keep thinking to myself "Am I going to remember this very important piece of info when I actually AM a nurse and may change someone's life?" To me, it's very hard to remember everything, but everything seems to important to forget. Oy! I'm only going part time and I feel this way! I have a great deal of respect for all of you that go full time!
For me, the academic part is not hard, but I have a degree in Microbiology and academics have generally always come easily for me (also, I enjoy learning and studying...).
However, one of our nursing instructors is more like a boot camp DI. And my 2nd term clinical at first was pretty scary (but, I believe that is more due to lack of support, for a variety of reasons.)
So, what have you all found that was hard about Nursing School?
Thanks,
NurseFirst
Because for three years it has pretty much dominated my life, studying, clinicals, tests. You do a lot on your own time outside of school. Driving 90 miles to a clinical, getting home at midnight and having class the next morning. Driving an hour to get your clinical assignment at the hospital the day before, and waiting two hours for the teacher because she is late. Then having to drive an hour home and have two hours of paperwork to be completed for 7:00 the next morning. Graduating in five weeks and having your OB clinical teacher correct you in front of your patient (who assumes you know what you are doing) and doing her BP over because she did not believe you!
I don't think that it is extremely hard, just time consuming like many others said. I think you have to be disciplined as well. I went through school not having to study and made straight A's and all of that stuff, so when you get to nursing school and you have never studied, now you must. I think our school, which is supposed to be one of the best in our region, makes the 1st semester extremely hard to weed out the bad ones. Also, they want to look good and keep their high nursing board pass rate so we get NCLEX questions on our exams. You can know the book word for word, front to back, but you have to be more than just book smart to make it.
So far school isn't hard for me either. They just give us a lot of different things to do at one time. From what people around here told me I expected it to be a lot harder. The scariest part for me is being thrown into clinicals and expected to know how to do everything. Whew. Love it so far. :chuckle The only difference now is that I am 6 weeks pregnant. Just hope I can hang on. Baby is due 4 months before graduation. The hardest part for me is being self disciplined and staying organized.
The work itself isn't hard at all it's just the volume. Not that there's even a lot to study - I'm talking about the stupid group projects and mounds of "critical thinking" clinical journals. If nursing school was just lecture, study, clinical, test, that would be great but instead I'm arguing over what kind of food to serve at our culture project presentation and how much is too much to pay for stickers for the class handouts. WHY?!?!!
The work itself isn't hard at all it's just the volume. Not that there's even a lot to study - I'm talking about the stupid group projects and mounds of "critical thinking" clinical journals. If nursing school was just lecture, study, clinical, test, that would be great but instead I'm arguing over what kind of food to serve at our culture project presentation and how much is too much to pay for stickers for the class handouts. WHY?!?!!
not a lot to study?? damn, where do u go?. they might be practicing some other kind of nursing there.
Well, I mean that there's no more to study this semester than last. (when I was taking A&P 2, chem, foundations, 2 lit classes and an elective) So ok, maybe there is sort of a lot. But most of my time is spent doing stupid class requirements like huge sticker-encrusted (not my idea) notebooks over kids that we observed at a local rec center. When I break it down and actually think about how much I study for lectures, it comes out to about 2 or 3 hours a week - and that's only if I have a test coming up. I hope next semester is different.
Because for three years it has pretty much dominated my life, studying, clinicals, tests. You do a lot on your own time outside of school. Driving 90 miles to a clinical, getting home at midnight and having class the next morning. Driving an hour to get your clinical assignment at the hospital the day before, and waiting two hours for the teacher because she is late. Then having to drive an hour home and have two hours of paperwork to be completed for 7:00 the next morning. Graduating in five weeks and having your OB clinical teacher correct you in front of your patient (who assumes you know what you are doing) and doing her BP over because she did not believe you! 
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Tony35NYC
510 Posts
SUNY?? Where in New York are you?