Will I be able to succeed in nursing?

[Addiegrace1]

I am a senior in high school, and I plan to begin my freshman year of college this fall with a pre-nursing major. I haven't taken any health science education courses, except Anatomy and Physiology. I am worried that I will be behind the other students. I plan to attend Western Kentucky University this fall. My major is pre-nursing, and my goal is to get a BSN and become a RN. I have heard how hard the curriculum is and I am extremely worried.

Throughout high school I have taken honors biology and chemistry. I also took Anatomy and physiology. I am receiving college credit for Statistics and freshman English. When I began high school, I had the intentions of becoming a lawyer or teacher, but as I researched, I discovered that nursing sounded perfect for me. At this point it was too late to get into the health science program,but I did get the chance to take a&p. I am started to get worried that I will be behind students who got the opportunity to take these classes. Should I change my major? Thank you so much for reading this and giving advice!

[adamRn79, BSN, RN]

I think you'll do fine in nursing. However, in my opinion, physician assistant is a much better career, look into it

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

PA is a great option for anyone who wants to remain in an "assistant to the physician" role. Nursing offers a much better variety of career growth & academic options as well as the potential for independent practice.

[direw0lf, BSN]

I had a little tantrum today because somehow I went from A student to B student. (So far....still time left in the semester to pull my grades up). Nursing school is hard because it's a lot of stuff at once plus figuring out their Nclex style test questions, plus clinical. But IMO picking apart each subject, they aren't very hard alone.

PA school is very hard too. It's competitive to get in, not just your GPA but having the number of volunteer hours needed, and how well you score on the entrance exam. One PA school I know of has over 1,000 applications and only accepts 50 students. I think an NP is a better career anyway. But people who prefer the medical model and being directly under a physician would disagree.

Things really worth it to us usually come with hard work. Managing your time in nursing school is really very important and helps your success. It might help you not to think about everything at once like how hard the curriculum is because then it's overwhelming. Take each of your classes as they come.

I don't know what the health science program entails but you really shouldn't be that far behind since it's not a required pre-req (I assume).

[cracklingkraken, ASN, RN]

College is a whole different ballpark from high school, IMO. The only things I found that gave me an advantage in college were my AP classes.