Losing Classmates in Nursing School

Losing classmates in nursing school is a harsh reality. In this blog post I’m going to explain how I dealt with this and what I’ve done thus far that has helped me pass all my classes.

So I started my nursing program at the beginning of this year, January of 2016. This is a one year accelerated program so at the conclusion of this program I will be receiving an associate degree in nursing and be eligible to sit for the NCLEX, the licensure exam required to be able to practice as registered nurse. This program requires that all applicants have a previous bachelor’s degree in any field. I’ll make a separate blog post about why I chose to apply to an ADN program over a BSN program. Back to the story, so my cohort began with about 55 to 60 people from all walks of life. African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Caucasians, Africans, doctors, lawyers, the works. In the beginning I was very intimidated because I had zero medical experience prior to the program and many of my classmates were medical assistants, pharmacy technicians, previous doctors, or worked in an allied health profession. Meanwhile, my work experience was in the financial sector (random right?). In addition to that, a lot of my classmates where either married, in long-term relationships, or had children and I’m single with no children. We had orientation for the program some time in the fall and during orientation they scared the living 💩 out of me. Basically if I failed a course, I wouldn’t be able to move forward to the next series of classes in the program and I would have to wait 6 months to retake the course with the next admitted accelerated class or I would have to switch to the generic option of the program which takes about an extra year to complete. If I failed the same class twice or I fail 3 or more classes, I am automatically kicked out of the program. I was TERRIFIED. I didn’t know how difficult the course work would be and unlike many of my classmates I didn’t exactly have a plan B. I have no husband to support me, I quit a job that I didn’t love and I had no desire to go back to work in the financial sector, I didn’t have 6 months to waste if I failed because Sallie Mae still needs her coins plus I have my own bills, I barely had any money saved up, and my parents/family weren’t in a position to help me. Basically if I failed out I was screwed. I would lie awake at night in sheer fear of the future and what would happen. And honestly, I think it’s this fear that got me through the program.

One thing I noticed about most of my classmates that didn’t make it, is that they didn’t seem to realize the seriousness of the consequences of failing. A lot of them still went out on the weekend, didn’t really have a study schedule, and were using old study habits. Meanwhile, I was in the library everyday for 4 to 6 hours pouring over material. My world was the inside of the classroom and the inside of the library. Even while I was performing well on exams I was never comfortable.The first half of my first semester of courses consisted of Fundamentals of Nursing and Health Assessment along with clinicals and a skills course for Fundamentals. When we got our final exam grades our class size was cut in half from about 60 to 30 students. It was drastic. And even though we were only in those classes for 2 months you really do bond with people when you’re under the same amount of stress. I remember walking into my first med-surg class after Fundamentals concluded and I felt the loss. It was like someone had died. And unfortunately I lost a member of my study group. It sucks to go from studying at someone’s house together consistently to nothing because they didn’t make it. I didn’t have much time to grieve because school carries on regardless. I dealt with it by encouraging those classmates not to give up on nursing and by keeping in contact with them with I can.

So below I’ll list some suggestions to make sure this doesn’t happen to you on your path to becoming a nurse.

1. Get a solid study group

In the beginning I didn’t believe in the benefits of study groups. I thought it was too distracting and believe me it can be very distracting but it’s also extremely beneficial because you can compare and compile information with others that you may have missed or interpreted incorrectly. Also it’s been proved that you retain more information through teaching then through learning. Trying to explain a concept to someone will really test your knowledge and if you can make someone else understand a topic then you’ve mastered the concept. Group studying is the perfect situation to facilitate this. But it’s best to keep your group to minimum of 3 to 4 people. Also, please don’t show up to the study session and you haven’t actually studied 😑. You study in groups to go through material to make sure everyone understands it and focus on topics that are more difficult. It’s a waste of time to try to learn everything around other people and you’re more likely to get distracted.

In addition to studying together, motivate each other to succeed. I’ve been fortunate enough to form a real friendship with my study group so much so that we have traveled to the west coast to vacation together and we have another trip planned for August. Everyone needs encouragement through nursing school.

2. Make a study calendar

There is so much to read and review in nursing school it’s sickening. Instead of forcing yourself to study for 12 hours straight, break it up. Study for 3 or 4 hours a day, take breaks. If you feel sleepy or that you aren’t retaining the information just stop. Eat something, take a nap, distract yourself for 15 or 20 minutes and then try again. The worst thing to study for 3 hours and leave having retained nothing.

3. Don’t get comfortable

Just because you’re performing well doesn’t mean you have got it in the bag. There was many a time when some of my class mates has a 90 or above walking into the HESI and after failing the HESI they went from a 90 to a 70 and failed the course. Never get comfortable as a student. Even if you have reviewed the material 10 times continue to go to the library and study. Answer more questions, watch more videos, get ahead in the material, whatever it takes to pass and move forward while still retaining information. I probably won’t be comfortable until I’m finally pinned and even then I still have to worry about the NCLEX.

I knew going into the program that is was going to be difficult and I knew that I would have to sacrifice a lot to make it through. So yeah I gripe and moan about the long nights, all the dinners/trips I turned down to study, but I knew what I signed up for when I applied for this program. I know that this is an investment for my future and I’m willing to give up the luxuries I had before to better myself; I’m okay with being uncomfortable.

4. Ask for help

If you don’t understand a concept, ask for help! Seriously ask the teacher, ask a competent classmate, and consult the internet. YouTube is such a great resource. There are countless videos that help explain difficult topics. Not to mention the thousands of nursing resources out there. The help is out there, you just have to know where to find it.

 

So these are all the tips I have, I hope I was able to help some one. If anyone else has any tips feel free to comment below, maybe I’ll include them in another post. Until then, see ya!