Reflections on Nursing School

It has been three years now since I made the decision to go back to school to study nursing. It has been a long haul since that time. Made it through the prerequisites I need doing quite well. My second semester was more general education classes as I figured I may as well get more of those finished so I could concentrate on nursing classes. In my third semester, I had one nursing class and more gen ed classes. My fourth semester was all nursing classes except for Microbiology. This semester took a lot of adjustment and there was lots of studying but was not too bad. The end of this semester is when school took an interesting turn for me. I had to retake one class due to failing a skills test for the second time. So, the next semester was my fourth semester where I retook that class and passed it quite well. Retaking this class was nerve wracking and my anxiety levels went up. Phew, I made it through this class. Then my fifth semester. This semester included two clinical experiences. The first one started out great and we had a wonderful clinical instructor. Then, things changed rather quickly. The clinical instructor had an accident and was not going to be finishing our clinical. The school quickly found a new instructor. She and I did not start off well, but we did make it through the clinical. Second clinical, well this was the same clinical instructor. It went okay though it was pretty obvious that she preferred the younger students to the two of us who were older and had other medical experiences. These classes were Basic Nursing Concepts and Women's Health. It was during this semester that I quit school. Yep, I quit school. For less than 24 hours that is. My advisor wanted to talk with me and I had friends who told me not to. They knew this is something I wanted. The stress of my clinical was pulling me down. The school let me take a mental health week. I got into a therapist as I had also sunk into a depression. New meds and having lots of support from family and friends and I made it through the semester. My sixth semester of school went rather well. Not without stress though. Advanced Nursing Concepts and Mental Health. Lots of homework. I enjoyed my clinical experiences and I really rocked the Mental Health one. I think I found my niche. My seventh semester did not turn out how anyone expected it to. I did well in both Care of the Aging class and clinical. I did well in the Care of the Critically Ill class. I did well in my Professional Nurse class, but . . . the clinical did not go well. For the third time, I had the clinical semester I had twice two semesters earlier. The woman has a way of being intimidating and every time she was in the room when I was doing something, I would become a bundle of nerves and could not seem to do anything. As a result, she felt I could not do even basic skills and felt that I need more clinical time so I was failed. This meant taking the class again. This brings me to my eighth semester. I had to switch to the Night and Weekend Program to take Professional Nurse this semester. The class starts in about 4 weeks. Since I am having to retake this one class, I decided to find out what I need to do towards by BSN. I am taking the 3 credit Introduction to Computers class and an American History class. I really hope that I can relax and do well in this clinical this time. I have to work with an instructor for two days in the lab and for two days of clinical before the six days of clinical. So, in October 2009, I made the decision to go to school. Nursing School is not easy in that there is lots of pressure, scare tactics and other things going on. You find yourself needing to study day and night when not in class. I will have more to say on this subject when I am actually graduated.