r/StudentNurse

I recently applied to a nursing program, but unfortunately, I was denied due to two failed attempts at psychology 11 years ago at my community college. At that time, I wasn’t fully prepared for college and wasn’t in the right environment for it. Now, I’m almost 30 and have decided to give nursing my all. However, those two failed attempts are casting a significant shadow over me and effectively closing all my options for nursing school. I had considered appealing those grades, but I’m at a loss for other possibilities. Has anyone else experienced a similar situation and would be willing to share their advice? I would greatly appreciate any guidance you can provide. Thank you!

Hi everyone. I’m a nursing student on my second clinical rotation, and today I made my first medication error.
I was assisting a nurse with medication administration. I scanned the patient’s wristband and medication and popped the tablet into a medication cup as instructed. The nurse picked it up and administered it, but right as the patient was swallowing, she realized the dose was incorrect. It required the pill—carbidopa/levodopa- to be split. Instead of 0.5mg, 1mg was administered. Unfortunately, it was too late. We reported the error, and the patient appeared to be doing fine when I checked on him later.

Honestly, I wasn’t independently verifying the dosage because I’d gotten into the habit of following the nurse’s direct specific instructions throughout the morning. I recognize that I should have checked the order and verified the dose myself rather than relying entirely on her process. The nurse was very reassuring and said it was ok, but I felt terrible and responsible for the error. When showing me the correct dose later, an alert popped up after scanning that prompted you to cut the pill. I don’t know how I missed it- if I originally overlooked it. or if I didn’t click into the right page in order to see the alert after scanning. I’m brand new so I don’t have alert fatigue.

My instructor was nearby and asked what happened. When he asked if I administered the medication, I said no because I wasn’t the one who physically gave it to the patient. He asked me again later, and now I’m worried he thought I was being dishonest or avoiding responsibility. I wasn’t trying to lie, but I was embarrassed and didn’t fully explain my role. I also didn’t want to embarrass the nurse. She said it was her first time making a med error, and she’d been working in healthcare for 20 years.

Later, the charge nurse also brought up the error, so now I feel extra embarrassed and I’m wondering who else knows about it, and whether my school will take action. I just wanted to hide and shrink into a little dust mite.

I’ve been unknowingly exhausted this rotation, getting only about 3 hours of sleep per night the last few weeks due to stress, time zone change, homework etc., and this happened on my last day of my 4 day 12 hour shift rotation. I don’t have any healthcare background so this is all new to me. I’m extremely sad and disappointed in myself and realize I need to strengthen my pharmacology knowledge and be more intentional about verifying medications, even when working under supervision. The experience did make me much more attentive during subsequent medication passes.

For nurses and students who’ve experienced this, how are medication errors typically handled in clinicals? Should I expect consequences, and what should I do next? More importantly, I welcome any feedback regarding this. Please be honest. I’m not looking for reassurance that I did nothing wrong. I want to learn from this and figure out how to move forward.

I need to vent because I’m honestly at my breaking point with nursing school, and I’m curious whether anyone else has experienced this.

I’m currently in an accelerated BSN program, and I cannot believe how disorganized one of my courses has been. We’re expected to navigate assignments across FIVE different areas and THREE different websites. Some assignments require you to complete them on one platform, screenshot your score, and upload that screenshot to Canvas. Others don’t. There’s no consistent submission process, and it’s incredibly easy to miss something.

I finally cried today because I’m just so mentally exhausted.
What’s particularly frustrating is that this isn’t just happening to me. Numerous students in our cohort have experienced similar problems. The professor has acknowledged organizational issues and said changes will be made for future classes.
But what about the students currently dealing with the consequences?

I’m not asking for nursing school to be easier. I WANT to be challenged academically.
What I don’t want is to spend more energy figuring out WHERE and HOW to submit assignments than actually learning the material.

I have long-term goals of pursuing graduate education, so my GPA matters to me. I know grades don’t define how good a nurse someone will be, but they absolutely can affect competitiveness for advanced programs, especially when the entire course is out of less than 1000 points.
And before anyone says, “It’s only a few points,” I understand that mathematically. But when your program doesn’t round grades, those points can matter near a cutoff.

I’ve genuinely considered transferring programs because of how defeated and exhausted I feel.

EDIT: This is all for a single course, doesn’t include my 3 other classes or clinicals

Has anyone else experienced this level of disorganization in nursing’s school? How did you handle it without letting the frustration consume you?

TLDR: My ABSN program has assignments scattered across five different locations and three websites, with inconsistent submission requirements and confusing deadlines. The professor acknowledges the disorganization but plans to fix it for future cohorts, not ours. I’m exhausted, frustrated, and questioning the value of the education I’m paying for. I don’t want easier coursework. I want to spend my time learning how to be a nurse instead of navigating administrative chaos.

This is the second time I’ve gotten points knocked off of a quiz or practice test for selecting a “select all that apply” response of using gloves as a precautionary/best practice.

The first scenario involved handling blood-tinged vomit, and ATI said gloves were not necessary in this scenario.

The second was in preventing a CAUTI infection. The question was posed as selecting all that applied in preventing a CAUTI infection when handling the patient’s catheter. The only option for gloves was “sterile gloves” and ATI said it was unnecessary again.

I get what point they’re trying to prove but it seems like a really shitty and misleading way of doing it when CAUTIs are the most preventable HAI and now student nurses are just going to remember “I selected gloves and it was wrong.” Also, no idea what they were trying to prove in the first example — I will never handle any sort of vomit without gloves, blood-tinged or not.

We started clinicals some time ago, and we have a group of around 6 students. This is not our first term so we know each other somehow, but one of them seems to think that we’re close enough for them to “joke” around with me. They constantly “joke” around even during past lectures, whenever I get a better grade than them on a test (which is pretty much every time), it’s “omg i hate youuu how did you even do that” or “we literally studied the same thing, how did you get a better score than me”, always with a joking smile on their face. I have learned to just lie about my grades or not tell them. During clinicals, they don’t volunteer for anything. At a recent clinical, I volunteered once, and didn’t volunteer the rest of the day to let the other students have a turn. An opportunity comes for them to volunteer, I told them to go for it since they haven’t gone yet. The preceptor hands me a tool and I hand it to this person. They immediately say “well you’re already doing it so go”. I insist they go and again, “no they gave you the tool so it doesn’t even matter”. Not about to argue again with them in front of the patient and preceptor, so I help do the task. They start to get petty all day, always having side comments. A patient will need a bath or changing or something they don’t want to do, they tell me “you go do it since you wanna be the volunteer so bad”. Laughing and giggling about it. I tell them at the end of the day after a few of these comments, “it’s not like you’ve volunteered, I think it’s your turn to go and help”. I’m just so over this and it’s not like I can avoid them either. We’re assigned to these groups until the end of the term and it doesn’t help that it’s a smaller group. We’re also a smaller cohort so I have to see them often too until we graduate. What can I tell them to keep the peace or should I just tough it out?

also edit: About the volunteer thing in front of the patient, our professor pulled us aside before entering the room to ask who should volunteer and me and the rest of the group didn’t raise our hands since we had all interacted with patients that day except for this person. That’s when I told them to go for it and the professor also pointed them out and said “okay it’s your turn to go”. Our professor was pretty clear when we first started that if we didn’t volunteer or try to interact with patients all day, he would call us out to do it. We all stood around the patient and the professor hands me the tool and I hand it off to this person because the professor knew already that it was not my task and that’s when the other student got upset. I’m sorry, I should have included it in the og post!! :,)

Im working administrative assistant to a rural hospital in north California. We had a table full of 12 new grads with their BSN trying to interview for the same night position. They all said they applied on the website for the past 2 years and put in 50 or more applications. They were so desperate for work they marched into our hospital to drop off a resume to the unit manager.

Be prepared to move somewhere else for your experience. Oregon Washington is completely impacted and slammed with applicants in your same situation.

Its been this way the past 4 years atleast. Going to get worst too.

I am in my 2nd year of nursing school and currently work at my hospital as an Extern. The internal hiring process will begin in ~2 months and I am still torn between where I want to apply/work as a grad. Here are my top 2 options along with pros and cons of each.

Medical

Pros:

-I like everyone on the unit and feel comfortable being here (this is where I've done most of my clinicals and worked as an extern)

-Getting the chance to see a lot of different things/patients

-I have a much higher chance of getting day shift (every extern I know that graduated and become a med-surg nurse has gotten day shift if that's what they asked for)

Cons:

-Managing up to 6 patients at once is challenging and I won't be able to really dig deep into their treatment/dx patho as much as I would in the ICU

-Higher chance of burnout

ICU

Pros:

-Fewer pt ratio means I can dig deep into the "why" behind each patient

-Dealing with fewer, more critical patients sounds mentally stimulating and exciting

-I also like everyone on this unit (though it is very small and clicky)

-Critical care skills will be useful if I choose to advance my career

Cons:

-Night shift

-Entering into a specialty unit with no bedside RN experience

-The hospital I work for is small and doesn't always get the "sickest of the sick"...Oftentimes the patients are stepdown or med-overflow

Obviously there is a big chance I won't get offered BOTH of these positions once I actually apply and interview...but I would certainly hope to have my pick. Any advice or guidance would be much appreciated.

I am heavily debating between two programs right now, an Accelerated BSN or an Associates degree in Nursing and am wondering what others think given the following reasons:

The biggest issue I have choosing between the two is that both schools are expensive and will pretty much cost me the same. I don't live near any community colleges as I live in a very rural part of my state. The only options are private schools and a state school, and the state school is just as expensive as the private school unfortunately.

I keep hearing that ABSN programs are extremely harder than a 2 year associate program. Is this true? This particular ABSN program is 18 months long over 4 terms. The associate degree program I applied to forces you to get your LPN the first year, then in the second year you get your Associates in Nursing. Will I have a harder time in nursing school if I go the ABSN route or will it be about the same stress levels?

My last concern is that the two programs have clinical placements at different hospitals. One of the scholarships I’m considering is specifically for students who commit to working at rural hospitals, and the ADN program’s clinical sites appear to qualify, while the ABSN program’s do not. So my question is whether hospitals tend to favor hiring nursing graduates who completed their clinical rotations at their facilities? Would completing clinicals at a particular hospital provide an advantage when applying for a position there after graduation?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I’m in my early 30s and seriously considering going into nursing, but I keep getting caught in this feeling that I’m starting too late.

I already have a bachelor’s degree in psychology and experience working in the medical field, so I know I’m not actually starting from zero. But when I see people going into nursing at 20 or 21, it’s hard not to compare myself and wonder if I’m behind.

I’m also plus size and deal with pretty significant social anxiety, which adds another layer of insecurity. I worry about keeping up physically during clinicals, fitting in with classmates, speaking up, and interacting confidently with patients and instructors.

I’d really love to hear from people who started nursing in their 30s or later, especially anyone who is plus size, socially anxious, or felt really insecure going into school. Did you feel behind at first? Did any of these things end up being as big of an obstacle as you expected?
What helped you stop comparing yourself and feel like you belonged?

[supprimé]

I'm usually fine about just ignoring her. But this is our last semester of our 3 year program. I've dealt with her being like this toward only me for 2.5 years. I am a good student and a rule follower. I enjoy helping my cohort members and being known as a reliable friend/peer. She (and a couple others) don't like that. I try to send assignment reminders so people don't forget, and I always get a like or a message back thanking me. But this girl goes out of her way to say and do shitty things to me. It has been witnessed by peers, professors, and clinical instructors before. At this point, with us graduating this December, I'm closer and closer to confronting her. I want her to know that people in our cohort see what she does and that I hope she doesn't make anyone feel like this again in her career. How should I handle this without just continuing to ignore?

Edit to say it's completely fine if she doesn't like me. Not everyone will like you. What isn't fine is her being so comfortable being nasty toward me in front of our peers, professors, and clinical instructors. If she did this in an actual working nurse setting, she'd be fired for creating a hostile work environment.

I am a stay at home mom looking to start my education again. I moved across the US and now I'm going back to college after being out for years. Anybody have any advice on what I should do? I want to do nursing, I was planning to get my LPN first, then the RN route if I was enjoying it. However, my local school offers LPN as a 12 month full time program that I would be afraid of my time commitment to said program. I have a 7 year old, 4 year old, and 3 year old, and my last child has ST and OT during the week. My partner works full time and cannot drive so all appointments, or school needs fall to me along with my partner needing me to drive them to work everyday. I was wanting to go part-time, should I just do a RN degree part time instead?

I have a misdemeanor shoplifting charge from 13 yrs ago and I'm applying to nursing school in NJ that came up on background check will they resend offer for this to get into RN program . I worked so hard to get my degree now I think they will deny my application

I’m in my second semester of nursing school. I am taking medsurg 1, mental health, and pharm. my program has split up the pharm into 3 semesters 1 credit each. So I am aware the load has decreased per semester. My problem is that pharm 1( one I’m in now) is all online. The teachers lecture videos are terrible, lecture notes are subpar. Not really knowing where to study the material besides reading the entire textbook chapters. I feel like I have put the class a little bit on the back burner, since it’s online and I’m just trying to hit the deadlines for discussions and whatnot. Any tips out there?

hi everyone! i’m going to be starting my nursing journey here soon and beginning all me prerequisites and gen ed classes. i am slightly nervous to actually go into nursing because i am slightly squeamish. i can handle needles and blood and stuff like that, but im talking more of the super gorey or messy stuff. i am wanting to be a behavioral health nurse, so i know some messed up stuff is inevitable, i was just hoping for tips on how i can get over my fear, what to expect, or if i should just go into a different field all together. i also do want to point out that i am not terribly squeamish, but am definitely somewhat sensitive.