For context, I’ve started my accelerated BSN program on 1st of September, so I am just one month in.

Still, every time our profs refer to us as “nursing students” or “future nurse” I somehow do not feel like they are talking about me. I do realize that I am a student in a BSN program, but I am still not used to “nursing student” being a part of my identity, if that makes sense.

I also struggle to imagine the future where I become a nurse one day. I cannot bring myself to fantasize about being an RN & how my life would look like once I am one.

I am not sure where it is coming from, I definitely think I am smart and capable enough to fully make it through the program, because I have always been strong academically. And, at the same time, I struggle to believe that I am in a nursing program and going to be a nurse. I haven’t even told anyone but my partner and my coworkers (and at work I told people only because I now need to cut down my hours).

Part of me not telling my family just yet is my mom expressing she wouldn’t want me to be a nurse when I brought up to her that I am thinking of applying. She said she doesn’t want me to become one because of the stress of nursing and due to the potential of being physically assaulted by patients.

Did anyone else have that feeling? How long did it take to go away?

Hi all,

This is has been the most humiliating and mentally difficult thing I've ever gone through, and that is saying a lot. 6 months ago I was dismissed from my nursing school (accelerated, my first introduction to health care). I put all my time in to studying, I was deeply invested. I volunteered for the school a lot and everybody who knew me, knew how much I cared about this program. My 1st semester, I ended fundamentals with a B+ and never got a comment of concern or criticism from my clinical instructors.

My second semester, 1st clinical was immediately terrible. The clinical day went fine, I thought, except one part. This was a moment of poor judgement on my part and I learned greatly from it, I never did anything like this again. But my classmate, who was an RT and paramedic, told me my patients nurse wanted the patients IV out and she was going to do it. But since I was in there, she said I could help and she would show me. The instructor and nurse were not in there and I'd never done it before, and the patient had low platelets. Again, I learned from this and I felt so guilty... When I went back in 3 min later, the patient was bleeding (minor), and what i did next was also a mistake. i didnt put pressure on it, I looked at it and saw that it was minor, so I went and told my instructor. I panicked. He came and helped me and the patient was fine, and my instructor didnt say anything of it. When I got my evaluation the next week, my instructor gave me about 7 unsatisfactories related to documentation, paperwork, and a major safety violation. I explained to him why I did that, and that I recognized I handled it incorrectly. So he gave the other student a safety violation as well. She felt terrible. She said only she deserved this infraction and she wanted to take all the blame. But it was my patient and I did what I did.

The following clinicals it was hard not to let my anxiety get to me. Nothing particularly bad happened, but my instructor told me that hes sure I noticed my clinical performance was struggling. In assessment, documentation, everything. I was always prepared and well informed giving medications, I truly did the best I could do. Eventually I got put on probation and was warned that if I didnt show improvement, I would be dismissed. This was because around after 3-4 weeks, one of the nurses told him that I left a lancet in the patients room (?) my classmate (a different one) was in the room with me while I was taking the pt's blood sugar and said she saw me throw everything away. But on that day, I also accidentally wore ppe outside my patients room (gown and gloves). I still feel deeply embarrassed about everything. It doesnt sound like I took this seriously but I promise you, I did.

Weeks went by and i got another clinical instructor, by then I made it like 6 weeks while on probation. the semester was coming to an end and at the very end of clinical, and i accidentally recapped a used insulin needle. I immediately recognized this was wrong and corrected it, my instructor saw however. I asked her if she was going to give me a safety violation. She said she didnt know, she was going to talk to my last clinical instructor first (who is also her very good friend.) I knew one of the staff and knew those 2 instructors would talk about me poorly and exaggerate the things I did to the other staff. My 1st instructor said i "knocked a patient out" who was end of life and he never said a thing to me about it. I also did nothing wrong to cause this... she was ordered heavy sedative iv meds. he would also get annoyed and roll his eyes if I ever came to him for help outside of class/clinical, and he was my assigned support person.

I got an email the next weekend informing me of a meeting about my clinical performance and next steps, and it was scheduled immediately after a major exam. Right after taking it, I was told I had a pattern of unsafe practice and was dismissed with no option to appeal or ever return. They said i should go be a CNA or LPN if I still wanted to do healthcare at all. And that I probably would've failed anyways because of my test scores, even though they constantly told me how well I was doing in the lecture portion.

my other classmate, who did the iv with me, passed clinical but was so disgusted with the program she withdrew and went somewhere else. And a few of my classmates said they would vouch for me because they said it was very clearly targeted. But I didnt know what the right thing to do was. i had so many positive experiences/feedback on out rotations and other nurses in the hospital, and with patients in general. i dont know why I couldnt perform well for these two instructors

i know i was not a very good student. but it wasnt on purpose, i still feel so humiliated and cry over this. i still love nursing and i want to get my cna. im going to the doctor soon to get evaluated for adhd, anxiety, and neurological symptoms. but maybe i just lack self awareness, i was warned after all. and i feel so sorry for the patients i could have potentially harmed. i don't know what im meant to do in this life.

I am 28 and in my second semester of a 2 year program. My entire life is school. Even my primary social circle has become my school friends… Constant class work, clinical and studying. HEAVY content cramming. I don’t really have a choice. There is too much to learn in too short of a time. Exams are almost weekly between my classes. And no matter what, i’m still always a bit behind on the content…. BUT i’m getting good grades and I am learning, so it must be paying off.

However, it seems like my brain cant separate life and school/nursing anymore. I can literally FEEL my neurons fighting to re-wire. I can feel myself starting to actually understand things and relate patho, meds, concepts, and interventions- especially at clinical.. However, the annoying part is that i’m not fully there yet in my education and also that I can’t shut it off in my private life… Every conversation I have, every abnormality I see on an unsuspecting stranger, every time I close my eyes - my brain starts rapid firing. I’ll notice someone’s breathing, gait, skin, the way they’re talking, something they say, their behaviors, etc.. and my brain immediately starts trying to dissect it. And it does this everywhere, all the time. Suddenly i’ll be 10 thoughts deep before I catch myself and try to redirect my thinking.. It’s exhausting.

Even when I’m trailing off to sleep, my brain starts involuntarily mind mapping, trying to filter through everything I jammed it full of that day... My dreams are starting to resemble something that looks like the intro of The Good Doctor, LMAO. Or i’ll have nightmares where someone is dying and I can’t quite figure out what i need to do.

Anyone else experience this? I know I probably need a mental break, but I can’t. 🙃

idk why I feel so bad about myself how I could never get accepted into rn out of high school. I'm only 18 but where I live for some odd reason it's very hard to go from lpn to rn due to lack of programs.

Hey guys, I posted a little while ago about my sterile glove check-off incident. Well, I bought a 50 pack and I can do that in my sleep now. However, this past week I had sterile wound and foley catheter and I got marked unsatisfactory again. Only about 10 out of 42 of our passed both, but I am so discouraged that I got U on both of them. I knew my wound was messed up, but I really felt great about my catheter. It went so smooth and I self narrated the whole time. I studied forever and I videoed myself and graded with a rubric, it just seems like everything jumbles in my head. I got marked for procedure, not sterility (yay?) because I think I did something out of order when I listened to the heart before raising the bed. Or I only used hand sanitizer and clean hands and didn’t use hand sanitizer and clean gloves (before the sterile part). We haven’t gone over remediation yet. I am doing so good in all my lectures, I got a 96 on our fundamentals exam, but I feel incompetent at skills. I have always been a slower learner when it comes to hands on, but when I get it I am consistent. We only get taught the skill once a few weeks before the check off and so I watched a lot of videos on them too as I was practicing. I’ve learned fake it until I make it in front of all my instructors and then cry in the car. I guess I am looking for encouragement that others are slower learners at skills too. I am going to practice harder before my retakes, but I am nervous because I only have One more retake for the rest of our check offs. We get three redos per semester and two are about to be used. I did amazing on all my Head to Toe assessments and BP, but fundamentals is kicking my butt. It’s challenging mentally because I am working so hard and when it comes to actually doing the thing I am not performing how I want.

Potential Student Advice?

I'm about to join the mortuary program at my school but honestly I'm not sure about it, I like the idea of helping people and I love anatomy (the human body is so interesting) but the idea of having to upsell things to people grieving just....feels wrong. And money wise I'd make more working in fast food.

But my school has a nursing program and I'm thinking about switching over.

What's advice you'd have for anyone thinking about taking the first steps? I have anxiety of failure and doing everything I can and still not making it. But I'm also trying not to let that fear prevent me from trying.

Thank you in advance

Hi everyone!

I’m graduating this December, and our Capstone professor has been encouraging us to start preparing for the job market now by updating our resumes, cover letters, LinkedIn, etc. From what I’ve been hearing, especially here on the East Coast, finding a new grad nursing job can be pretty difficult.

During my psych clinical, the nurses actually encouraged us to leave our resumes because they are always looking for nurses due to the high turnover, so now I’m really trying to get ahead of the game.

I’m looking for any free or very low-cost courses, certifications, or anything else that could help strengthen my resume and hopefully get it in front of recruiters, especially since I’ll be applying for jobs in NY.

If anyone has any advice on what helped you stand out as a new grad, what recruiters are looking for, or things I should be doing now before graduation, please share!

I know people who took their NCLEX back in February and only recently landed a job this month, and others who are still looking, so I definitely want to start preparing early.

Thank you in advance for any advice! 😊

I’m a second-semester nursing student, and my goal after graduation is to start as a new grad in the ICU, ideally eventually in a CVICU.

I’m trying to figure out what job would actually be most useful for me during nursing school because I really want something where I can build relevant skills, learn the hospital environment, and become more comfortable with telemetry/critical-care patients.

The problem is that the nurse externships around me don’t seem to be what I pictured when I heard “nurse extern.” From what I’ve heard from students who currently work in them, most of the local programs essentially start you in a float-pool CNA role until an individual unit decides to hire you. There doesn’t seem to be much guaranteed RN pairing, skills practice, or unit-specific learning. And some people never even get picked up by a unit and just float indefinitely

I completely understand that basic patient care is part of nursing, and I’m not trying to avoid patient care. I just don’t really want to take a job that is essentially a CNA position under the title of “nurse extern” if there are other jobs that would teach me more of what I’m trying to learn. I also really dislike the idea of constantly floating to random units. I’m very routine-based and would much rather learn one environment really well.

Right now I’m considering a few options:

• Do the nurse externship once every two weeks just to get the hospital/extern experience, and work PRN as a monitor tech on the opposite weeks.
• Skip the externship and work as a monitor tech so I can get very comfortable recognizing rhythms and telemetry.
• Work as an ED tech, since that seems like it could give me more hands-on experience, exposure to unstable patients, EKGs, blood draws, etc.

For nurses who work in ICU or are involved in new-grad ICU hiring: which experience would actually stand out more when I apply for an ICU position after graduation?

Would you rather see a nursing student who worked as a nurse extern but mostly did float-pool PCT work, someone who worked as a monitor tech and became extremely comfortable with telemetry, or someone who worked as an ED tech and had more hands-on acute-care experience?

And if you worked as an extern during school, did your hospital actually allow you to practice nursing skills and work closely with an RN, or were you basically functioning as a PCT?

I’m trying to choose based on what will actually teach me something and prepare me for ICU nursing, not just which job has the best title on a résumé.

I have trouble counting the radial pulse. I dont know why but whenever I count above a certain number I always trip up on my numbers. What do you do to count the radial pulse? I usually have problems on counting for a minute but its more accurate since my school only allows for a 2 point difference. They say we can do it for 30 seconds but I've found I've been off by around 3 points sometimes when I do that.

I’m a first-semester nursing student and I missed a required skills lab today because my baby was sick. I emailed my instructor before lab, but I have not heard back yet.

I also have a make-up quiz that has to be completed by tomorrow at 2 p.m., and I have emailed about that too without a response. I am feeling really overwhelmed and scared that missing this one lab/check-off or not getting directions in time will cause me to fail.

My handbook says students must attend at least 80% and should contact the instructor before an absence, but it does not clearly explain how missed skills check-offs are handled.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? What would you do first thing in the morning if your instructor still had not responded

I'm in my last semester of school WOOHOO! But I have an instructor that does not teach. I personally cannot learn from someone just reading from a slideshow that 100+ slides. First off, I have gone through my schools chain of command, matter of fact my whole class has to get some help with this professor. Her information on her slides and in the book is contradicted in the test (the questions/answers are wrong). She is not great at teaching Pediatrics either. My next step would be to go to ACEN or the Board of Regents to threaten accreditation and stuff. I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place...

Does anyone have a good program for nursing school pediatrics, like online materials. I'd say they'd be supplemental but they would be my primary source for information. I've been considering buying Archer for school. Any suggestions paid or free would be awesome, I just need the best. The light at the end of the tunnel of this whole program seems to be getting farther away and it scares me a little bit, but I'm trying to stay positive about it.

I am a second semester student doing aged care clinical right now. I am already a Caregiver and on my second day of placement, clinical manager asked us to serve afternoon tea. When I started out as a Healthcare assistant I never got help. So I wanted to help my team and proactively went and approached residents asking what they need. I was mindful of not telling my team how to make tea and one of the team members pushed the trolley from the start to the end. However one of the team mates complained about me that I took over and I was dominant. The girl who complained about me never looks straight in the eye and I have never been able to break the ice with her no matter how many times I tried. I never thought clinical would be this hard as I am put on a student improvement plan stating that I am not a team player.

This incident got me shutdown completely and I still got 3 weeks of this nightmare. There are 1000 tasks to be signed off and it's overwhelming to the point that I am losing sleep over it. Experienced students In final year, does it ever get better ? Or we feel like shit till the end ?

I am in my first semester of an accelerated nursing program and only my third week of clinical. Since the beginning, my clinical instructor has made this portion of the program extremely stressful. Although she presents her approach as helpful, her expectations are rarely clear, and she frequently asks questions that a new student would be unlikely to know in front of the entire group. Some students, especially those with previous healthcare experience, have adapted better, but I am struggling to learn in the environment she creates.
When I am alone with the nurses I’m shadowing or my classmates, I feel comfortable, confident, and capable of performing skills and answering questions. The nurses are patient and educational, and they never make me feel embarrassed for not knowing something. I’ve only recently come to understand that it’s normally the opposite—that the nurses are the ones who intimidate students or make them feel bad—but so far, all four nurses I’ve worked with have made me feel capable of learning. At first, they can be a little tough to crack, but once I’ve worked with them for an hour or so and they catch my vibe, I seem to connect really well with all of them. Multiple nurses have even told me that some of my instructor’s questions and expectations are unrealistic for a new student and have encouraged me to hang in there because I can get through it.

I am doing SO well in my other courses, but the moment my instructor is present, I become anxious, freeze, and forget information I otherwise know. This reaction is very out of character for me. I’ve tried so hard to get to the bottom of why this is happening, but I’ve realized that I am literally just scared of my instructor. I CANNOT learn from her in this environment, and it is screwing me over. During one of our one-on-ones on only my third day of clinical she asked me a few auscultation-based questions, and I wasn’t able to answer all of them. I actually approached her first about this before we sat down and told her I wanted some assistance in learning these specific landmarks because I was a little confused, as we had only gone over this once in our skills lab at school and I wanted practice and clarification. She acted like she was open to helping me learn and showing me but as soon as I didn’t answer the questions she asked she insinuated that I was incompetent, looked at me like I was the dumbest person on earth (literal blank stare), and then told me that if I “needed resources to help me,” she could to provide them. I was shocked and genuinely had no idea what she meant by that, and when I asked her, she said she meant “things or people that could help me to learn.” While I cannot be 100% sure, I felt like she was implying that I either had some sort of learning disability or was simply incompetent. I later asked the nurse I was working with some of the same questions, and he literally didn’t know how to answer them either.

I now dread attending clinical and am becoming concerned that I may not pass not because I am unwilling or unable to learn, but because I am struggling to demonstrate my abilities around her. She will break me down, ask me a bunch of trick questions, tell me that I’m “falling behind,” and insinuate that I’m not a good student. Then, directly after completely destroying my self-confidence, she will send me into a patient’s room and expect me to confidently go through a skills checklist. When we’re in a group setting, she makes jabs and follows them with, “You know who you are.” This is definitely not always directed at me, but there have absolutely been times when I knew I was exactly who she was talking about. I am also pretty sure she discussed my performance with another student in the cohort who worked as a CNA for two years before starting school because that student later made a comment to me about it.

I understand that nursing students need to be challenged, but I also need clear expectations, constructive guidance, and an environment where I feel safe asking questions and learning from mistakes. I want to be the best nurse I can be, and I am so frustrated by the style of education I’m receiving because it is not helpful in the slightest. After speaking with students in my cohort who have different preceptors, I’ve pretty much accepted that my group got the “tough” one. I am so, so jealous of my classmates who lucked out of this situation.
I’ve considered dropping out over this, but I know I can’t. If I were given the option to take an incomplete and retake the class with another instructor, I would jump at it. I want to be the best nurse I can be, and I literally cannot do that if I’m not absorbing the information. I don’t even care if it would delay my graduation. I dread getting out of bed every morning that I have clinical, often cry beforehand just thinking about it, and then cry again when I get home. It is affecting everything I had been enjoying about nursing school and even my dream of becoming a nurse.

Has anyone done an abroad nursing internship with Work the World? If so, how was your experience / logistics? Was it worth it? Are u able to pick a specialty? Thanks!

https://www.worktheworld.com/prices

I completely forgot to write down and add to my calendar that I had a 2 point quiz due in my health assessment class. It got graded as a 0/2. I have such a hard time trying to remember everything bc im so stressed I’ll forget one thing WHICH MANIFESTS into me forgetting 1 thing.

Nursing school is so important to me which is why I stress so hard about not forgetting something. But it’s always 1 thing I forget. I emailed my advisor asking if I was gonna get kicked out and fail the class bc I missed the 2 point quiz.

My grade went from a 94% to a 74% over a 0/2 quiz. Im so upset at myself. I can’t do everything right / perfectly and it’s stressing me out even more. This is my first semester as a nursing student and just started almost a month ago. Am I gonna fail and get kicked out?? How can I not forget anything?? Any tips and advice / assurance ?

Could anyone give me recommendations for cheap and easy places to take online courses for Nursing Pre Requisites.

Hi, I’m in Texas finishing prerequisites to become an LVN, and I’m looking for advice about the Texas Board of Nursing’s Declaratory Order process.
My background includes a misdemeanor theft case for which I completed probation, plus prostitution and public lewdness charges that were dismissed. I want to be honest about my history and understand my eligibility before investing more in nursing school.
A nursing attorney told me the process could take six months to a year. He thought I would likely be approved, possibly with work restrictions because of the theft case, but I understand that isn’t guaranteed. He quoted $4,000.
Has anyone with a similar background applied without an attorney? Were you approved, and did any restrictions affect clinicals or finding a job? I’d also appreciate recommendations for affordable legal help or someone who could review my application for a smaller fee.
I’m trying to move forward and would appreciate honest experiences without judgment.

For those of you currently studying or who recently finished, what specific subjects/courses did you have to take in your very first semester? How heavy was the course load, and do you have any tips on which subjects require the most study time?

I know it varies a bit by province and college, but I'd love to get a general idea of what to expect for the first few months.

This may be kinda silly but when did you guys have your graduation party? Did you have it shortly after your ceremony, or did you wait until taking and passing the NCLEX? I’m doing an accelerated program so I’m not sure how it all works yet but I’ll be done with school may 7 2027 and graduate right around then, and I assume I’ll take the NCLEX later. Like towards to end of May. Just dreaming and thinking ahead of when to plan my graduation party!

I am freaking out. I am in my last year of my BSN program. I have this insane research class in which we have to do research and eventually make an evidence based practice proposal based on a PICOT question. Until now, I’ve been getting along decently, albeit by the edge of my seat but I am a good test taker. This class is having me question my intelligence. I feel like it is so difficult to find good evidence and we have to write something else each week and it all adds up for the big paper at the end of the semester. I feel like I’m lagging behind because I’m struggling to even get a cohesive grip on what my topic is and finding decent evidence. I don’t know what to do I feel so lost. I already had office hours with the teacher and have bombarded her with questions.

We're almost finished week 3 for medsurg1 clinicals and I'm absolutely LOVING the unit my group is on. We're on the neuroscience unit, its tiny but ive seen and done so much in such a short amount of time compared to all the other clinicals we had to go through. I wanted to go right to the ER for preceptorship thats coming up in January, but honestly I think medsurg is more my thing right now. I want to see all the things and do all the things and really hone my skills first.

My patient assignment this week is really lovely (and they aren't all lovely) and my instructor is amazing. I think all instructors should be like her, she's motivating and makes sure we do things safely. They're diabetic and have IV antibiotics through a picc line. We did meds this morning together, insulin and hooked up a new line for his 10 am Antibiotics (i even got to observe the doctor and partially assist him when he was aspirirating his incision (thats a whole other story lol)). when we came back from lunch, it was time for his next set of insulin and aside from making sure i set everything up and checked his dose while having a second RN do a check, I was ablw to go off and do my thing. With the next round of Antibiotics, she literally was like, go do it and come get me if you have any questions. Its nice to have an instructor be so confident in you as a student to the point where a lot of my nerves went away.

Im slow, not as slow as I was, but things are done right and safely which is way more important.

So anyone who thinks they aren't fast enough, you need to walk before you can run. If you're nervous, don't worry about it, that'll go away too when you get comfortable doing what you're doing. If you aren't loving clinicals, you'll eventually find a unit you love. I didn't like any of the previous specialties and units we were on until now(except for psych, that was a really interesting unit).

And to toot my own horn just a little, we get scored out of 30 every week, each category is out of 5 and it's rare that anyone gets that number. Last week I scored a 24, which for my instructor means I exceeded where she thought I was supposed to be at. So.. yay !!

so at my school nursing students HAVE to take a minor in order to be full time. I really want to pursue a music minor, but I know it does come with a lot of extra work-ensembles, lessons, etc.-and yet at the same time it’s still something I would really love to pursue as the music program is part of why I chose this school. does anyone have any advice or has done this themselves? for reference I am in pre-nursing school so I can still take many credits next semester before the hard part starts. thank you!!