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I have been called a professional student by many people. Since graduating high school, I have received two associates degrees, and one bachelor’s degree, while currently working on second bachelors and considering a graduate degree in Nursing. I have only taken one year off from school in the ten plus years since graduating high school. My resume includes small universities, large universities, and community colleges. I have every combination of being a full and part-time student while working either full time, part time or both. I can say, I have had a broad range of college experiences. One thing is the particular Nursing School is like no other.
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#1 Nursing school has a severe learning curve.
Several people after learning about my status in a nursing program have approached me with comments, like, “what do you mean you can’t come out, it’s not like you’re studying to be a doctor.” Although nurses are legally not able to make a medical diagnosis, the nurses are with the patient the most. If medication seems to be too high or two drugs could cause a reaction, the nurse advocates for the patient. If a patient shows signs of a complication, we prepare for the doctor’s next move. They evaluate the patient’s level of understanding after the physician initially speaks to them, and either answer any questions they may have, or at least find the answers to their questions. The material begins with small pieces, and slowly builds and interconnects into the other parts and branches if a student starts not to understand sections or concepts the misconceptions will follow the student.
#2 The most studying I have ever done.
A friend had once told me she could always identify the nursing students at her university. They were “the ones with the stack of thick books and huge bags under their eyes.” During my time as an Animal Science student, I have been able to take five classes at one time and keep a full-time status. In a semester as a full-time student, I don’t think the combined number of hours even compared to the semester in nursing school with only Medical-Surgical and Pharmacology class. Every week was the same: read the textbook, notes from lecture and the readings, and make note-cards. I wanted to be done with the note-cards early enough in the week to run through the collection of note-cards from the weeks prior. My previous classes, as an animal science student, allowed either a basic comprehension of the topic or straightforward memorization. So many years are taking classes I knew how to study for each different subject. Math classes only practice the problems; humanity classes know the people, the concepts, and vocabulary; and science classes understand the vocabulary, memorize and comprehend the theories. Nursing you study everything you can and never feel ready for the exam. Intensive study sessions barely put a dent in the goal of a particular study session.
#3 Your friends and family are put on hold.
Nursing school will test relationships between the amount of studying, the clinical paperwork, and physically being in class or in clinical. Nursing school becomes the top priority. I did not have children in nursing school, but many family functions were put on hold, or I became famous for making an appearance and quickly disappearing, and that’s only when I got guilted into going in the first place. My friends never saw me until the summer break came around.
Every relationship whether husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend was heavily tested. I had my troubles during the first semester, and the second was trying to balance and rebuild my romantic relationship. A friend of mine was living with her boyfriend. Their relationship became strained. Their relationship was faced with stress and issues prioritizing, and the significant others acted out. He became needy, irresponsible, and the polar opposite of supportive. My friend spent her first year of nursing school with him. She struggled; she also had a son. Her son began to act out in school. During the summer vacation, she broke up with her significant other and moved in with her mom. She went from a B- student to an A-student and became an overall happier person. Another friend married with adult children got to see how supportive her husband was during her two years in the program.
#4 Do not work full time.
I have lived my twenties with two jobs, sometimes three along with school. Nursing school whether you take it as a full time or part-time student will need all your attention. My program was technically a part-time program, never having over eleven credits per semester, which made financial aid students very upset, but that’s for another article. The balance of study, family, and friends, a person doesn’t have time to work. Before the Nursing program, I use to work forty hours at my full-time job and another twenty-five at a part-time job, meanwhile taking one to two classes and quickly got A’s. I went to Nursing School knowing I would have reduced my hours, I was a department manager in retail and demoted myself or dropped down to a cashier. I had financially prepared for Nursing school. The amount of studying and clinical paperwork made me cut my hours at my part-time job to four hours a week, and working retail, I found that anything over twenty hours began to be challenging. I cannot stress enough to get yourself prepared for nursing school financially. The second job became useful for when I had my vacations from school, and I could pick up extra hours. Classmates had other responsibilities, like rent, and kids, while some lived rent-free with parents without working. A small number of classmates did work full time, and they had too. Now keep in mind that the small amount who attempted full-time employment, some were not able to make it through the first year or even the first semester. Those who made it struggled, every semester could have been their last, and added stress. I would highly not consider working full time.
#5 College credit does not match the class work.
In most of my college classes, the number of credits of a course would roughly indicate the amount of work expected to be done during the semester. An English composition class that was three credits would include one or two lectures a week with a total of three hours per week. The homework and studying required for the said class were an additional two to five hours a week. For two semesters, I took Organic Chemistry one than two, a five-credit class. The typical three-hour of class per week with a two-hour lab. The same two to five-hour of study time and an additional one to three hours to go back to the lab to finish distilling or extracting the compound of the week, then testing the finished product and then writing up my findings in the lab notebook. These are extreme generalization I found between the number of colleges and Universities I’ve attended. My nursing classes included four hours of lecture time, fourteen to sixteen hours of clinical and then approximately ten extra lab hours are strewn over the semester. The time spent reading, going through lecture notes, study cards, and searching for the answers and to clarify questions from class added a study time of six to ten hours. The clinical paperwork was an additional five to eight hours. My first-semester class was eight credits and took up to twenty hours of class time between lectures/lab/clinical and eleven to eighteen hours of study and paperwork.
Also, Check out 5 Financial Obligations I Didn’t Budget for in Nursing School
and 4 Realities of the second-degree student.