I am not really pleased with my college's IT department, classes, teachers, etc, and was thinking of switching over into nursing. I just have a few questions for you all. I keep hearing that the classes are very hard and all that crap. I have two close friends that were in the nursing program and switched into something else saying it was too hard. Is it really that bad? To me it's like any else do the work, study, etc and you should have no problem passing. Do you like your job? Wish you went into something else? Tips/Suggestions?
Nurses (RN's, LPN's, etc)
- Thread starter reallyfull
- Start date
Professional Student Here: Nothing is really that hard. If you want it bad enough and you try hard enough it is all doable.
I can't comment on the nursing profession tho... I'm a medical student and I think it all pretty much applies; anyone can do it if they try hard enough
I can't comment on the nursing profession tho... I'm a medical student and I think it all pretty much applies; anyone can do it if they try hard enough
you just answered your own question
...and no, not me personally, but i know a few people in nursing school, and several RN's and your above statement is right on the money.
You should also consider that INCREDIBLE demand for nurses in the industry. Especially RN's.
Did I point out what a high demand there are and will be for nurses? Here, let me say it again...
An RN can get damn near ANY job in the nursing industry he/she wants
Go for it, but do somthing short like a LPN first to see if you will like the medical field.
-sean
-sean
My fiancee is about 3 months out from becoming an LPN. She's gonna go on to get her RN after we relocate.
She has made straight A's throughout the schooling, whereas she was a B/C student during 2 semesters trying to be a Music major. She just couldn't dig the "normal school" routine, but LOVES Nursing. Just goes to prove that you typically do a lot better in something you actually enjoy doing. It's actually not tons of outside work (at least what I see)...she never complains about having "too much homework" and does extremely well.
LPN pay isn't nearly as good as RN pay, thus she is going to get the RN as soon as it's feasible. For what it's worth, she goes to "ECPI". These are scattered about, but they're extremely well respected Nursing programs. If you love Nursing, GO FOR IT!
She has made straight A's throughout the schooling, whereas she was a B/C student during 2 semesters trying to be a Music major. She just couldn't dig the "normal school" routine, but LOVES Nursing. Just goes to prove that you typically do a lot better in something you actually enjoy doing. It's actually not tons of outside work (at least what I see)...she never complains about having "too much homework" and does extremely well.
LPN pay isn't nearly as good as RN pay, thus she is going to get the RN as soon as it's feasible. For what it's worth, she goes to "ECPI". These are scattered about, but they're extremely well respected Nursing programs. If you love Nursing, GO FOR IT!
My girlfriend is getting her Associates in Nursing and then going for Bachelors. I was interested to learn that regular floor nurses can make about 60K in the 50th percentile. That is good money IMO. The interesting thing I didn't know about nursing school for a long time is that you don't need a college degree. So no wasted money on all that education you aren't gonna use. Basically you can be a 22 year old making 60K a year without a huge amount of undergraduate debt. Nice eh?
It is just as hard as most other programs. The RN program in Canada require more writen paper than many other program, practicums are very expensive and is un-paid work, and 4th year final exam is 8 hours. The actual work isn't that mentally chalenging, however it can be physical at time (only if you try to be a good nurse and help instead of do it by the union book, and hospitals seems to employs more grumpy RN/people than other professions).
ICU is the most elite of nursing because it require more knowlege than the regular nurse (at least 2 year of experience ++ an additional year of school), however you only have to take care of 1 patient at a time.
CT, MRI, and XRay tech normally are 2 year program that are well paid (just as much as nurses), and the work/shift are much nicer than nurses (most tech are nurses that went back to school for these cushy jobs).
Pharmacist is another very well paid job that aren't stressfull and doesn't require the education, overtime, or comitment of a doctor.
Orthotic/Prosthetic tech education is only 2 years and it is very interesting job that isn't stressful and is very well paid.
<-- GF is an RN, and I help edited over 20 papers in her last 2 years.
ICU is the most elite of nursing because it require more knowlege than the regular nurse (at least 2 year of experience ++ an additional year of school), however you only have to take care of 1 patient at a time.
CT, MRI, and XRay tech normally are 2 year program that are well paid (just as much as nurses), and the work/shift are much nicer than nurses (most tech are nurses that went back to school for these cushy jobs).
Pharmacist is another very well paid job that aren't stressfull and doesn't require the education, overtime, or comitment of a doctor.
Orthotic/Prosthetic tech education is only 2 years and it is very interesting job that isn't stressful and is very well paid.
<-- GF is an RN, and I help edited over 20 papers in her last 2 years.
^^ Yep.
No "real college" required. However, she hadta take an English course and several Psychology courses in the Nursing program. Thankfully, she got those waived since she took them during her 1 year stay at college.
And here's a HUGE tip: If you can stand working w/ the elderly and those in Nursing homes, you have money just waiting for you. Nursing homes ALWAYS pay higher than a doc's office or any other nursing position, particularly when you're new and have little expierience. Hardly anyone wants to work in them though, thus the high pay.
EDIT: ^, wtf? My fiancee's LPN program was one-year full time (8am-5pm everyday). 1 more year and she'll have her RN. Sounds like Canada is farked up...and also, the 4-year RN degree isn't necessary unless you're planning on eventually getting a Masters/Ph.D and teaching.
My fiancee has never written a paper over 4 pages. Her program focuses on real-work experience over "bookwork". 2 days out of every week she's at either a local hospital, nursing home, or therapy/development center working with various types of individuals.
No "real college" required. However, she hadta take an English course and several Psychology courses in the Nursing program. Thankfully, she got those waived since she took them during her 1 year stay at college.
And here's a HUGE tip: If you can stand working w/ the elderly and those in Nursing homes, you have money just waiting for you. Nursing homes ALWAYS pay higher than a doc's office or any other nursing position, particularly when you're new and have little expierience. Hardly anyone wants to work in them though, thus the high pay.
EDIT: ^, wtf? My fiancee's LPN program was one-year full time (8am-5pm everyday). 1 more year and she'll have her RN. Sounds like Canada is farked up...and also, the 4-year RN degree isn't necessary unless you're planning on eventually getting a Masters/Ph.D and teaching.
My fiancee has never written a paper over 4 pages. Her program focuses on real-work experience over "bookwork". 2 days out of every week she's at either a local hospital, nursing home, or therapy/development center working with various types of individuals.
Another non-nurse here that has a girlfriend that is an RN. Here's what I know:
1) Nursing students are generally subjected to stricter grade/GPA requirements than other students. Many of my girlfriend's classes had a grading scale in which a 92 was a B, 84 was a C, and lower than 70 was an F. In addition, there were no pluses or minuses on her grades. If she got what would be equivalent to a B+, she was SOL because she would have been stuck with a B.
2) When my girlfriend was hired, a RN with a BSN got paid a bit more than a RN with an associates degree. Though with the nursing shortage, they may have reduced the salary difference in the past couple of years.
3) There is a HUGE nursing shortage right now, so new RNs are starting to receive decent sign-on bonuses in addition to a good salary. I see around 10 to 15 want ads for RNs alone in the Sunday paper every week. Makes me wish I had gone into nursing
4) As JinLien said, the ICU is basically the elite nursing unit. The nurses that work there are among the strongest nurses in the hospital.....which makes sense because they usually take care of the sickest patients. They're also usually called upon to race to another part of the hospital if a patient in another unit starts to crash and burn.
5) Just because you get licensed and get a job as a RN, doesn't mean the tests and learning are over. You acquire a wealth of knowledge on the job and depending on what unit you're in, you may have one or a bunch of certifications that need to be updated every year or two.
-Tom
1) Nursing students are generally subjected to stricter grade/GPA requirements than other students. Many of my girlfriend's classes had a grading scale in which a 92 was a B, 84 was a C, and lower than 70 was an F. In addition, there were no pluses or minuses on her grades. If she got what would be equivalent to a B+, she was SOL because she would have been stuck with a B.
2) When my girlfriend was hired, a RN with a BSN got paid a bit more than a RN with an associates degree. Though with the nursing shortage, they may have reduced the salary difference in the past couple of years.
3) There is a HUGE nursing shortage right now, so new RNs are starting to receive decent sign-on bonuses in addition to a good salary. I see around 10 to 15 want ads for RNs alone in the Sunday paper every week. Makes me wish I had gone into nursing
4) As JinLien said, the ICU is basically the elite nursing unit. The nurses that work there are among the strongest nurses in the hospital.....which makes sense because they usually take care of the sickest patients. They're also usually called upon to race to another part of the hospital if a patient in another unit starts to crash and burn.
5) Just because you get licensed and get a job as a RN, doesn't mean the tests and learning are over. You acquire a wealth of knowledge on the job and depending on what unit you're in, you may have one or a bunch of certifications that need to be updated every year or two.
-Tom
Yes it's hard, but my mother went through an associate's program at age 40 while speaking horrible Engrish. For her first year, she basically could not understand 50% of the lectures and thus her entire learning was from reading the textbook.
If you put your head to it, it is definitely doable. I believe about 40% of her class had been weeded out by the end of the program, however, my impression seems that this was more of an anal retentive "you did not follow the format for the assignment to the T, thus I am giving you a zero" failure, rather than a "I completely do not understand WTF is going on in this organic chemistry course and thus I had to completely leave my test blank" type of failure. Also, she gives me the impression that she had somehow managed to pick the most anally-retentive program in a 10 mile radius, thus the average program should not be as bad.
You should keep in mind that many nursing programs will be associates degrees at community colleges. If you are currently in a competetive four-year university and are doing well, it should not be a stretch to say you should be able to pass the program if you apply yourself. Your average community college student has less college preparation and less study time than the average non work-study university student, thus the competition should theoretically be a little easier. Yes, the nursing programs are more competetive than the average associate's program, but you are still going to have a higher % of kids who work 40 hours a week and thus cannot even do all their homework on a regular basis than when at UCLA going up against people who want to go to med school.
edit: As for the work itself, my mother isn't so hot on it. It can be very physical, dirty work at times, especially with the obesity rate among Americans today. She is now conditioned to hate every single fat person she sees because she probably will have to lift their 200lb leg at work some day, when they become so fat and sick they cannot even walk anymore and come into the hospital to treat their diabetes and bedsores. Then she will have to search among numerous mounds of blubber to find and lift up the correct 15lb fold of fat to find their urethra so she can put a catheter in it, while holding her nose to avoid the stench of sweat wafting up from inside the fat mound.
In an urban area, ie the southern California/Los Angeles region, the pay is GREAT, considering the education is community-college level. With overtime and shift differential if you work nights, you can break $80k a year in L.A if you work in a hospital proper (not a doctor's office or a school nurse). With a COMMUNITY COLLEGE degree.
However, your body pays a price for this, and the work environment is stressful and taxing. The same shortage of qualified nurses leads to staffing shortages in hospitals. Your coworkers will most likely be fellow recently-graduated nursing students like yourself, not knowing WTF is going on or how to do anything (exaggeration but true to a degree). Your previous shift will likely not do 100% of the work that was prescribed by the doctor, thus your workload will be higher, then you will end up passing on some of YOUR work to the next shift, as well. Your hospital probably is following the letter but not spirit of the new minimum nurse-staffing level law, thus the minimum RN-to-patient ratio is being met, but there will only be one nurse's aid for the entire floor so if someone shits themselves, you gotta clean it up yourself.
The work environment is not a cup of tea, however, that can be said about very many other jobs as well. Just don't expect a low stress mail-it-in-every day and go home relaxed but bored paper-pushing gig.
My 22 year old daughter went to a nursing school, just graduated with straight A's. She passed her test and is an LN. Continuing to her goal of RN. The hospital that she works at is paying for that. She is a bright girl. she just put some time and effort in it. Go for it. You will never be without a job.
Schadenfroh
Elite Member
- Mar 8, 2003
- 38,416
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4 people in my immediate family are RNs.
I considered going into the nursing program at the university here.
It's a absolute minimum of 2 years, most likely 3 to get your basic requirements out of the way. Most universities have a nursing school that you have to apply to get into. Some of them have very limited seats and the program only starts once every two semesters. Expect to have a full boat schedule every semester and then in your second year plan on doing full time work study while doing full time school. So holding a full time job while you do full time nursing school is EXTREMELY hard, if not impossible.
It's a job that you have to love. You have to love people and not mind touching them, and cleaning up their messes constantly. Nurses must have good attitudes, you're dealing with people who are sick and miserable. They don't want to be in the hospital anymore than you want to deal with them. As a nurse you can move to anywhere in the country, and the world for that matter, and walk directly into a job.
I considered going into the nursing program at the university here.
It's a absolute minimum of 2 years, most likely 3 to get your basic requirements out of the way. Most universities have a nursing school that you have to apply to get into. Some of them have very limited seats and the program only starts once every two semesters. Expect to have a full boat schedule every semester and then in your second year plan on doing full time work study while doing full time school. So holding a full time job while you do full time nursing school is EXTREMELY hard, if not impossible.
It's a job that you have to love. You have to love people and not mind touching them, and cleaning up their messes constantly. Nurses must have good attitudes, you're dealing with people who are sick and miserable. They don't want to be in the hospital anymore than you want to deal with them. As a nurse you can move to anywhere in the country, and the world for that matter, and walk directly into a job.
My GF graduated with honor (A average) in BSN, and she worked part time as a nurse aid. It is not impossible, but it require love & dedication.
boomhower
Diamond Member
- Sep 13, 2007
- 7,228
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LPN's are a dying profession, at least in NC. They are being replaced by med tech's who can do 80% of the job for 60% of the pay. The employers hire a couple of RN's to fill in where needed and overall save money. Hospitals don't even hire LPN's here anymore. Nursing homes, retirement communities, and some doctors offices are you only options. My wife was laid off a couple weeks ago and is look 60 miles out just to find somewhere to apply for a job.
Nursing school is not hard as long as you are willing to put in the hours. The material is not difficult, just just throw a ton of material at a time at you. Most fail because they are not prepared for the curriculum. Especially those straight out of high school. If your mature, reasonably intelligent, and willing to work you won't have a problem. There's not many other professions out there that you can spend two years in school and get a $40k+ job at the drop of a hat just about anywhere in the country.
Nursing school is not hard as long as you are willing to put in the hours. The material is not difficult, just just throw a ton of material at a time at you. Most fail because they are not prepared for the curriculum. Especially those straight out of high school. If your mature, reasonably intelligent, and willing to work you won't have a problem. There's not many other professions out there that you can spend two years in school and get a $40k+ job at the drop of a hat just about anywhere in the country.
Zstream
Diamond Member
- Oct 24, 2005
- 3,395
- 277
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A 4 year BS in nursing is hard, at least in terms of needing a ton of common sense. A few hours a day doing paperwork and you should be fine. You can memorize the heck out of things for a test and forget it all the next day but those are the terrible nurses and it shows in the work ethic. Oh, don't be a LPN or RN, get your BSN.
It depends on where you are as to whether or not you need the degree. Some states are fine with RNs, some require a BSN. My daughter graduated with a BSN last May, top of her class. She worked her but off and tutored other kids. It's a lot of work, with a lot of memorization - particularly with anatomy/physiology and pathology/pharmacology. If yu have a genuine heart to serve/care for people, it's a good profession. If that's not who you are, I'd advise against it. You'll be spending a fair bit of your time cleaning up disgusting messes.
SheHateMe
Diamond Member
- Jul 21, 2012
- 7,251
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My roommate will Graduate from the Nursing Program (4 years & Clinicals) here at MSU and is taking her State exam before Graduation.
She had a hard time and she did it....so, anyone can do it.
I have another friend from Korea that was here as an International student. Graduated last May, Visa was about to expire, took the State exam..passed. Hospital sponsored his Visa and gave him a jerb.
She had a hard time and she did it....so, anyone can do it.
I have another friend from Korea that was here as an International student. Graduated last May, Visa was about to expire, took the State exam..passed. Hospital sponsored his Visa and gave him a jerb.
slightlyhuman
Lifer
- Oct 9, 1999
- 19,632
- 38
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I would get your LPN in 12 months so you can start working immediately getting real experience and better pay then transition to your RN BSN(don't do ADN) ASAP.
After that got for your Masters and become a CRNA. Trust me on this.
After that got for your Masters and become a CRNA. Trust me on this.
How the heck do you resurrect a 7 year old thread???!!!!!
Slaps head
It was a spammer who brought it back.
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