Will I have a hard time getting into grad school?

[phassy21, BSN]

Hey everyone! I’ve been a nurse for about a year and a half now. I started my nursing career on a very large level 1 trauma centers cardiac stepdown unit and now I work in a different level 1 trauma centers CVICU that I moved closer to home to work at. Lately, I have been really anxious about going back to school. During my undergrad I was not a great student and finished with about a 3.2 GPA and didn’t form strong relationships with many of my professors  (I was having issues in my personal life for a majority of college, but once those resolved, I ended up getting a 4.0 my senior year). I have been on my current unit about 5 months and feel like I haven’t made much of an impression on people. I feel like I have picked up on things fairly quickly for being new to a CVICU and never even having ICU clinical experience in college, but I work with so many smart, impressive people I begin to feel bad about myself because I’m not on “their level”. I know I can’t expect myself to be on their level of knowledge this quickly, but it can be discouraging. When I first started here I never picked up extra because I was anxious the entire time I was at work since I knew absolutely nothing and didn’t feel like I’d be much of an asset picking up extra. Now that I’ve started to take some devices and learn how to be an ICU nurse, I feel more comfortable to pick up, however, I just started some prerequisite classes so I won’t have much time. I am just concerned I won’t be able to get great references for grad school because I’m not doing a lot of extra things that impress management enough to write letters of recommendation. I am also hoping to travel in about a year from now to pay off my undergrad debt before returning, so I feel like I’m running out of time to leave a good impression. I reached out to manager recently to ask about extra education opportunities and if there were any committees I could join but lately our management has had to be in staffing so she hasn’t had time to respond yet. Any advice would be appreciated!!

[Hannahbanana, BSN, MSN]

What's your big hurry on going to grad school so soon? You're not even close to getting to an expert level of practice in a year and a half. The purpose of grad schol is to educate you further on something you are already expert-ish in; you have to crave that extra level and have a specific goal in mind for what you will do with your advanced degree. I don't see anything about that here. 

If you're not happy about your GPA, you can take some grad-level courses for credit as an unenrolled student to demonstrate your ability while you continue to grow as a nurse.

 

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

There was a nurse that I oriented, was an RN less than a year and got into a Psych NP Program with less than a year of nursing experience. Now she has graduated and working in an advanced practive capacity with less than 3 years of nursing. Scares me. Started a post on another site about how bad the vaccine was (this was when it first came out). Doesn't even know the pathophysiology of mRNA and how the that vaccine works. 

You should not have any issues getting into grad school.  I agree w/PP though-why rush? get some decent experience. If you are anxious now, how are you going to feel when you are the one that others have to go to?