The Truth About Nursing School...

Note: Before reading my post, please know that I really do enjoy nursing school and really enjoy learning how to become a nurse. I just need to enlighten people of the truth of what school is like...

As anyone who's been reading my blog has quickly figured out over the last few weeks, I've been insanely busy. And it's not been because I haven't had anything to write about. It's because I have been SO busy!

We finished Maternal Child nursing last week and started Medical-Surgical nursing Monday. We're six days into the semester and I'm already overwhelmed and feel like I'm drowning. Our first test is Monday and it only covers two subjects. So what do I do? Write a blog post instead of study! After all, if I just ignore the mountains of work I have to do, it'll just go away, right?

Don't worry - I'll study after I finish writing this!

But I just wanted to write this blog post for anyone planning on going into nursing school or who is curious why their friend in nursing school never has social time...

Here's a little secret: Nursing school thinks they own you. While you're in school, your nursing schedule comes above your family schedule, work schedule, or any other schedule you could imagine.

This is the truth!

If there's a change in your nursing schedule, they'll give you about a week's notice and expect you to be there, no matter what you had scheduled that day. And if you're not there, you're counted absent. In our semesters, we can only be counted absent from class twice and absent from clinicals once so we try not to miss anything! With rescheduling snow days, it has made everyone's lives interesting...

To give you an example, I volunteer for the local EMS agency 5 times per month. I'm supposed to send in my work dates a few weeks before the month starts. Since March was already crazy for me, I was only able to find 4 dates that worked for me. I got all scheduled and everything was rolling smoothly. But then school got rescheduled and I had to cancel two of those EMS dates and pick up a different date to work. And then I got scheduled for something else that new EMS day... All in all, I've had to change my EMS schedule 3 times and was only able to work three times this month!

Also, we had our spring break taken away so anyone who had plans for spring break suddenly had to cancel them. And we were only given a one week warning about that.

If you tell your instructors you're working on a day they just turned into a school day, they tell you, "sorry, but you're in nursing school. You need to be here or be canceled absent." No ifs, ands, or buts.

So if you're looking to start nursing school, kiss your life and schedule good bye! All your spare time will be spent studying and any plans you make will most likely be canceled due to school being rescheduled.

Ok, I'm done ranting for today and am off to study chest tubes and anxiety and all sorts of good stuff... :-D