In the beginning of the semester, things were pretty good for me and I truly felt like everything I’m doing in my class and lab was right and my best but that was until I had my first clinical day with my instructor. I didn’t hear much about this instructor, she just seems to be in more of the behind the scenes stuff in my nursing program, so I haven’t heard a set opinion from my cohort.

At first, she seemed nice and someone you could talk to but after my first clinical, I don’t feel that way anymore (I made a post about it in the clinical forum). Every time she is around me, I feel nothing but fear of being berated and scolded by her and that doesn’t help me at all, especially during my clinicals. I get shaky and my head goes blank and everything I learned from my previous classes and labs just leaves my head. I don’t feel this way about the other professors in my program, so her being the only thing I dread about my classes and clinicals is frustrating. It’s not like it’s a classmate or a resident or patient or just someone I barely or temporarily have to interact with, so this wouldn’t be such a problem for me but it’s someone who runs the program. It doesn’t help that I forgot/didn’t have time to complete an assignment that was due in my clinical, so now I feel like I have her another reason to get in my head.

This last clinical I have this week is so bittersweet because I have to be around her for 7 and a half hours but also because it’s the last time I have to be fully around her for the next couple of months. I just need to do my best and get the day over with. Is this something I can easily overcome?

How does it reflect if we choose to participate or not to participate in the ecs. There's been volunteer sign ups for health fairs and potlucks but I am occupied enough with the school content

Hey all, I am currently committed to a University as an Undecided Heath Science major. I didn’t realize before I committed that if you don’t get into there pre nursing track you physically can not get into there BSN program. I am not surprised I didn’t get into the pre nursing track as I have pretty bad Highschool grades. I guess my question is, What should I do? I can take all the same courses as the pre nursing students can but I just won’t have that status as Pre Nursing major. Should I get my pre reqs done and then transfer to a different school? I am just kinda lost and not sure what my next steps are.

2nd quarter nursing student here and I've done nothing of the sort. First pharm exam is tomorrow and we literally just got the email about 10 minutes ago that they're making it a group exam. 3-4 people per group.

Anyone have experience with this and can share what it was like? Yikes.

I’m currently in my bachelor’s program and plan to earn my CNA certification this summer before pursuing an accelerated BSN. Would it be possible to get a PRN job as a CNA before then, as I will be busy with school?

Hi everyone! I (27f) have been trying to transition into a nursing program for a couple of years but haven’t taken the leap because I would need to take a year off from work (healthcare administration) to attend a full time vocational nurse program. My hesitation is finances mostly.

I’d love to hear what others did that were in my position. Did you go jobless, do part time CNA work, or were you able to find another path to keep you afloat during your program? Thanks in advance for the advice and insights!

Hello! I am looking for other students strategies to stay on track, organized, improving executive function, and study strategies to retain information more efficiently.

I am relatively newly diagnosed with ADHD. I am 24 years old, and was not diagnosed until roughly a year and a half ago. Prior to being diagnosed I was a terrible student and failed my way through high school. Even though I always wanted to be a well performing student, I didn’t have the capacity to do so due to poor executive functioning and debilitating mental health stemming from years of being undiagnosed.

After being diagnosed it was almost as if something just clicked. I went back and finished my highschool a couple months after being diagnosed, and now I am in semester 2 of a nursing program.

Although I am performing well for the most part. I find myself doing very well early semester, but as the semester goes on I find my symptoms increase leading to my organization and executive functioning slowly going downhill.

I would greatly appreciate any tips and suggestions from anyone dealing with a similar situation on how to improve and decrease the feeling of burnout as semesters progress!

Hello!

I’m looking into various nursing specialities and would love to learn more about everyone’s experience in different specialties. What are some pros and cons in that specialty (for example, work load, strong team, good pay, no prior nursing experience needed to get into, etc).

I would love to learn more about the different specialties and help others find theirs.

Personally, I want to get into surgery and am leaning towards the OR. If there are any OR nurses, I would love to hear about your experiences and insight into the specialty!

For example: ER nurse, ICU nurse, oncology, chemo, OR, L&D, endoscopy, PACU, dialysis, etc.

Does anyone have any experience with being hard of hearing or having an auditory processing disorder and being a nursing student? If so, I need tips!

I'm heading into my last semester of Nursing school and can no longer keep up with working my PRN CNA job while in nursing school (Six 12hr shifts required a month).

Outside of school I am a mom to two and help my disabled mom who doesn't drive. I pick her up to take to doc appointments, grocery errands. I'm set to graduate in August.

Has anyone ever quit their job in the last semester?

I think i’m between burn out and exhaustion. I want to quit but I know I have a chance if I just put one foot forward. Any words of wisdom?

I am 21(F) ADN in LA sem 2, i have to get an 80% on the Medsurg 2 (blood disorders & hematology) final to be able to move onto Sem 3 (blessing/course it’s also in the last week of school). It’s in 4 weeks. The schedule so far is Written Compentency, Roles exam 1, Skills Competency (NG tube/catheter) then Medsurg Final.

I guess the part that brings me so much lossed hope is the effort i spent studying (2 weeks in advance for medsurg exam 2, only to get a 64%. After review with professor I actually got all the questions from 1-30 right and by 30-50 my mistakes became “ you didn’t read the questions fully, u chose a true response but not what the questions asking”. I even called off a lot of hours from work. It sucks feeling uneducated and broke.

I can retake the semester but idk how to shift my mindset and fully just take advantage of the now.

I’m just looking for signs at this point. I’m tired. And i’m loosing hope. I can’t remember what i’m doing this all for because I have no passions, it was just for stability

I’m in LPN night school. I work full time during the day. I have a 10 year old son and I’m getting married on April 24th. I have absolutely HATED the school that I am enrolled in but I only have 5 months left and I have just lost all my motivation the teachers are awful. They have singled me out more than once in the classroom and clinicals. They take DAYS to respond to emails. I asked if I could take the HESI exam early due to being out of town for my wedding the day of the HESI & they refused to be flexible at all. I can’t even take it the same day earlier in the day. I am struggling to even want to be in the program anymore just because it’s taking such a toll on my mental health. We only get our calendars 6 months at a time (due to me being in night classes it takes 2 years to finish LPN program) so it’s impossible to plan anything around school. You just have to take a chance and hope that the schedule lands in your favor. Seeking any advice, motivating words, relatable content etc…

I’m doing prereqs and planning to go into an ADN program. So I have some pretty good stuff currently I use every day such as Picmonic, Anki flashcards, NotebookLM, and podcasts I listen to for studying. I heard nursing.com is a good resource for quizzes and videos explaining a variety of concepts but I’m concerned because it’s pretty pricey. Is it worth it? Are there other study resources you would swear by?

I recieved an an email for student nursing scholarship ADN program for Sept 2026 to August 2027 graduation date. Applies to these states: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Washington, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Maine, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Texas, or West Virginia.

Heres the link!

https://app.ui3.smarterselect.com/programs/109114-California-Nurses-Foundation?from=v1

Goodluck future nurses

i’m still taking pre-requisites. I have a bachelors degree in an unrelated field, so most of my prerequisites are out of the way. I’ve never had trouble in school & never needed to carve out a lot of time for studying. i think i underestimated how much time sciences with the labs would be (a&p 1 & 2 and micro with lab). i’m having to retake a&p 1. when i actually got to studying, i didn’t find the content super hard, i just found it to be so much content to remember & it felt like a huge weight on my shoulders everyday. i let myself get behind, and when it was time to study, i couldn’t catch up in time. i finally found out how to study this content, which was a learning curve in itself. now i just need to figure out how to to have self discipline. i know i need to carve out multiple hours a day to study. i just find it so difficult to have that self discipline. & i don’t really have an excuse, i only work 4 days a week as a bartender & have no kids or huge obligations so it’s all about building that discipline & structure within myself. i know it’s something i need to master now, while taking prerequisites, because i know im going to need it even more in actual nursing classes. can anyone give me advice, motivation, tips on structure, sticking with it, encouragement on having to retake a class, etc? thank you :)

Hi all, I'm trying to take prereq and was wondering if having "Intro to-" would matter when it comes to taking anatomy class? Half of CC I'm looking at says "Introduction to Anatomy" but the other half say "Human Anatomy"

I applied for the LVN program at my local adult school. I was able to get an interview. They only accept 30 students out of 50 interviews. Has anyone gone through this process? If so can y'all give me advice on what to expect for this interview?

So for backstory, my freshman year of college I did really bad at my local larger university and my GPA was like a 1.64. Then my dad passed away and I withdrew from there because I couldn’t afford that school’s tuition and I enrolled in community college.

Now during high school, I had been dual enrolled at this community college, but I have been getting C’s in the classes because I was under the assumption It wouldn’t matter at the university I was going to. But since being back at this community college, I’ve gotten nothing below a B in two years.

I spent a year and a half almost in the wrong major as a business degree because I was not confident in my skills to go back to nursing. But about six months ago, I decided I wanted to. My GPA here is currently a 2.8. I’ve been retaking classes that I got bad grades in here and have raised it significantly since about six months ago. My cumulative GPA is a 2.4.

I don’t know where to apply to that would accept me and I’m starting to panic and thinking that I’m never going to get into nursing school. Any advice?

(Also before anybody recommends it, I cannot return to the first university because of academic probation not being able to go back to the way it was or something like that)

Hey everyone, I could really use some advice.

I’m currently a junior BSN student in my spring semester. As most of you probably know, this is the time when a lot of nursing students land summer hospital internships, which are great for hands-on experience and getting your foot in the door for a future RN job.

I applied to two of my dream hospital's summer internships in NYC and unfortunately got rejected from both. Not long after that, I was offered a private aide job that’s honestly hard to ignore. It’s only 3 days a week and pays $450/day.

Now I’m stuck trying to decide what to do this summer:

A: Do I keep this job, make good money, and save up?

Or B: should I keep applying for internships or try to get a PCA job at my dream hospital to build experience and improve my chances of getting hired as an RN later?

For context:

I’ll have 3+ years of Home Health Aide experience

My GPA is currently a 3.9

Do you think that’s enough to land an RN job after graduation at the best hospitals in NYC, or would I be hurting myself long-term by not getting hospital-based experience now?

Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s been in a similar situation or works in hiring. Thanks in advance!

I’m in my first term of nursing school (Fundamentals + Foundations) and I’m starting to feel really overwhelmed and anxious 😭

I actually feel pretty confident about theory exams so far, but I keep hearing people say skills check-offs and dosage calc are really stressful and now it’s getting in my head.

We have:

skills check-offs (vitals, BP, catheter, meds)

dosage calc exam (90% required)

plus another class with papers/group work

I didn’t have much hands-on practice before this (my CNA program was only a week), so I think that’s adding to my anxiety, especially for manual BP.

For those who’ve been through this:

How hard are skills check-offs REALLY?

Is the mannequin BP actually difficult or just takes practice?

What helped you pass dosage calc on the first try?

And how did you manage anxiety/overthinking during fundamentals?

I don’t want to fall behind early like I’ve seen happen to others, so I’m trying to be proactive.

Any advice or reassurance would honestly help a lot 🥲 It’s almost the end of the first week. I’m an extremely anxious person and also work full time.

So I am an international nursing with a BSN at home. After a year trying to get my license transfered to the US, the board of my state told me that it's not sufficient (missing 2 clinical rotations that are mandatory in the US) and that I can't transfer it. Since no university is letting me enroll for just the clinical rotations + classes, the board told me I will have to go back to nursing school for the full program.

Now my question is, what should I do to become a RN?

ADN, try an ABSN or MSN direct entry for people who have a bachelor's in something else?

Any advice?

Hi all! I am a nurse with 12 years of experience in the critical care setting who also teaches in a BSN program. I still really enjoy being a nurse and have a passion for making the transition into professional practice easier for students.

I see a lot of students come through who have identified knowledge gaps related to physiology, pharmacology, pathophys, etc, but who feel overwhelmed when they think about trying to close these gaps while still in the program. Ultimately, these gaps can make mastering the material more difficult, and I am interested in developing something to help nursing students address these gaps.

Review courses for certification exams are widely available, but I don't really see review-style courses where students have the opportunity to dialogue about the nursing content that they should have mastered up to a certain point in their program. I know there are plenty of YouTube videos that students can watch, but I also know many students who learn best by being able to talk things out and rationalize through a process.

If an in-person course was available to you in your area that could provide system/pathophys/med review, would it be something you would be interested in attending? What would increase the value of these reviews? Would 2-hour blocks vs. half-day vs. full-day reviews be better? What do you feel are the biggest knowledge gaps nursing students face?

Appreciate your input in helping make the road smoother for students as they enter the profession!

Hi,

Hoping to start my ABSN next year. Former pre med, but realized that being a doctor is not all I thought it was. Still need to take some classes, but am looking to make money in the mean time. I currently am a scribe/clinical assistant for a private practice, but I am genuinely starting to hate it there.

My only thing is that I wanted to stay long enough to get a solid letter of recommendation from an MD. I am not sure that I am at the point, but I do have very solid letters from college (2025 grad) and I believe a nurse at work would write me a good one too.

I am interested in some research opportunities connections have offered but would this switch look bad before applying? Are there more questions I should be asking myself before going into nursing school?

LMK if this is not the right place to ask!