What To Expect During Nursing School

"There is nothing easy about going through nursing school," was a common response I received from nurses I've met in the past. For such a high pressure job, I've assumed it would not be an easy task, since the lives of each person are in our hands. As I'm only a pre nursing major this year, I truly do not know what to expect as a prospective nursing student. With this, I decided to look into what I can expect, and relay that information to those of you who are reading this.

The first thing you can expect is classroom course work. As a nurse, you must have a broad range of knowledge. You can expect to take classes such as chemistry, psychology, anatomy, nutrition and microbiology. As a freshman, I'm currently enrolled in a general chemistry, college algebra, anatomy and biology, all of which are prerequisites required for admission into the nursing program at Michigan State University. It's important that through these courses, we gain critical thinking skills, communication skills and backgrounds in social sciences, that way we have background for future job requirements.

Another thing we will participate in are labs, where we are free to practice skills we learn via our courses. A simulation lab is used for students to apply theoretical knowledge in a simulated medical facility. This basically allows us to practice safely on simulations, rather than on real people. The best way to learn is by experiencing different scenarios hands on, which is why this is a huge part of the nursing school curriculum.

(Here is a picture of a simulation lab. You can see that they use dummies, rather than people.)

After labs, we will be able to come into contact and work with real, living people through clinicals. For Michigan State, this will occur in the junior and senior years. By completing clinicals, we are gaining the necessary medical experience we must have to make decisions and dealing with real life patients. All clinicals are completed under the supervision of a qualified registered nurse. A certain number of hours must be completed to graduate from nursing school. Specifically at Michigan State, we are required to complete 736 hours of clinical hours before graduation. According to OCadiz (2015), "During clinical rotations, nursing students visit various departments such as obstetrics, adult health, pediatrics, surgery, geriatric and mental health clinics to learn hands-on skills."

After reading through this list of what to expect in nursing school, I'm excited to take on these challenges I'll face. I also gained knowledge on why it takes a special person to become a nurse: it is truly a tough but rewarding job. The following quote is one I found to be most influential towards my attitude to nursing school.  Next time you are in a doctors office, think about all of the things that nurses had to go through in order to take care of you efficiently. There is certainly nothing easy about this job! "If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. It's that hard that makes it great." Till next time!
-Brooke B. 

RESOURCE:
OCardiaz, M. (2015). What to expect during nursing school.  
Retrieved from: http://classroom.synonym.com/expect-during-nursing-school-5296.html.