How Nursing School Works

So, you think you want to go to nursing school, but not sure how it all works? Don't worry; I'll explain.

Depending on your degree choice (either Associate's degree in nursing or Bachelor's), typically, most nursing programs are two years in length. My nursing program is 5 semesters long. I am currently in my 4th semester of nursing school.

Here's how it works: typically, you'll spend your first semester (or first 2 semesters) completing courses like Foundations in Nursing Skills, Pharmacology, Pathophysiology, and Foundations in Patient Care. Basically all of your basic nursing courses. Then you'll progress to harder courses like Med Surg, Mental Health, Community Health, OB/GYN, Geriatrics, Pediatrics, and Med Surg 2.

To correspond with your courses, you'll also take clinicals. Clinicals are designed to give you a little experience and confidence working with real patients (versus those dummies in labs) and to help you with your didactic courses. Most clinicals are either pass or fail; no grading.

Your didactic courses are mostly always graded. Most nursing programs require either 75, 76, or 78 in order to pass the course. For my program, 75 is the passing grade. Seems easy enough, right? Wrong! Maintaining a passing grade in nursing school is no easy task. The bulk of your grade will come from your exam grades. And nursing exams are nothing like your average undergraduate course exams. Nursing exams can be tricky:

Unlike your regular undergraduate college exams, nursing school exams are all about application and priority. Memorization is not enough in nursing school; you must learn to apply the material to real world scenarios. Whereas most exams might ask you, "What does the liver do?" and then you must select one of the answers listed, nursing exams might ask "A 33 yr old male comes in complaining of chest pain that is radiating to the left arm. The nurse knows to implement which intervention first?" But here's the catch: this example question seems hard enough, right? Well in nursing school, all of the answer choices are correct. Yup! They are all the right answers! It's your job to select the "MOST CORRECT" answer. That's what makes nursing exams so difficult.

So what's the key to success in nursing school? Studying! Lots and lots of studying! :)

If you're just starting nursing school: don't fear! You'll be fine! Stay focus and Study hard!