You’ve heard the rumors…nursing school is no joke.
But honestly, it doesn’t have to be THAT hard.
In this video, I’m de-bunking the most common nursing school lies you’ve heard.
HERE’S A BREAKDOWN OF WHAT WE’LL TALK ABOUT:
LIE #1: You need to know EVERYTHING (0:41)
LIE #2: There are more students who fail than there are students who pass (2:13)
LIE #3: Everyone gets it except me (6:26)
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
In this video, I’m going to de-bunk the most common nursing school lies you’ve heard and have probably already fallen for! Seriously, don’t believe these myths, they will take you DOWN in nursing school. And I’ll tell you what they are in this video. Now hit that subscribe button and click the notification bell and let’s do this.
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So, I am pregnant right now with baby #2, and I don’t know if it’s the hormones or what, but I’m just feeling feisty today. Which is perfect timing because I think this video is going to ruffle some feathers. Especially the last lie that I’m going to talk about, so stay tuned.
So here’s nursing school lie number 1:
You need to know EVERYTHING.
I usually get a lot of push back from students when I tell them this: Don’t read everything in the book!
Seriously. It’s a huge waste of time.
You are NOT expected to know everything about everything in nursing school. No one knows everything, not even your instructors.
So here’s what I always recommend to nursing students: focus on reading the sections of the book that your professors talk about in class.
I know it’s temping to read every word on every page because you’re worried you’re going to miss something. But friend, if you spend all your time reading just for the sake of reading, you’re not going to have enough time to study what actually MATTERS.
And you won’t be prepared for your exam because you won’t know what you’re supposed to know.
So please, please, please, FOCUS your study time on the things that actually matter.
If you want to know how I focused my study time and got straight A’s in nursing school, be sure to check THIS video out after you watch this one.
And I’ve also listed out my best study strategies in a free study checklist for you. The link is in the description for you to snag it. Trust me, you don’t want to miss out on this one. It’s got all my best stuff, from general study tips, to how to study med-surg, even my step-by-step process for acing your final exams. So make sure to get it after you watch this video.
Now the next nursing school lie might make you VERY upset with me. And that’s okay, because I PROMISE that life is better when you stop falling for this one.
Here’s the lie: There are more students who fail, than students who pass.
Okay, friend. Let’s have a real honest moment here. Overall, this is just flat out untrue. I’ve heard so many students say “Oh my gosh, my nursing program is SOO hard! Most students FAIL out!” And I know that’s probably comforting to say.
That way, if you fail an exam, you won’t feel as bad because you’ve told yourself that MOST students fail anyway. And you’ll feel less alone.
But here’s the truth, the majority of nursing students pass nursing school. And not only that, but MANY schools have a retention rate as high as 80 and 90 percent.
I took a look at the nursing school retention rates for schools in California, and I was actually a little surprised at how many nursing schools had a retention rate of 90 percent and above in 2018. That’s fantastic!
I also took a look at the National Center for Education Statistics and found that in 2016, the average retention rate of college students in general was 81 percent at 4 year schools and 62 percent at 2 year schools.
I’ll put the links to both of those articles in the description for you to check out if you want. But I found that super surprising. So really, depending on the retention and attrition rate for your school, it’s probably going to be pretty close, and maybe even BETTER, than the average retention and attrition rates for colleges in general in the US.
So I really encourage you to Google your nursing school and find out the retention and attrition rates for your nursing program. Attrition means how many students leave the program, and retention means how many students stay. So those are the 2 numbers you’ll want to be looking at.
I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how many students make it through your program. But look at the actual numbers. Don’t just listen to the rumors and tales of woe from previous students.
It’s also really important to look at the reasons WHY students may drop out of nursing school. Sure, some students do fail, but at least from my experience going through school, we had many students who left for other reasons: like wanting to take care of a sick family member, or maybe they were hospitalized themselves and needed to recover.
Some students also decided that they didn’t want to be a nurse, and went and pursued a different career. We also had many students (myself included) who got pregnant during school, and many of them left the program to stay home with their newborn for the first few months.
Life happens. Nursing school is a long road, and there’s a lot of life that happens in the middle of it. So I really hope you’ll consider changing the story you’re telling yourself that MOST students failing out of nursing school. You’re just going to freak yourself out and cause yourself a lot of unnecessary stress.
Now before we get to the next nursing school lie, I want to give a shout out to Eleanor for our YouTube comment of the week, which said: “All these lovely people posting nursing lessons on YouTube are making nursing school so much easier! Thank you!”
I’m so glad you love our videos and are using YouTube to help you study. There are some AMAZING nurses here on YouTube, like Nurse Sarah at RegisteredNurseRN, Ashley Adkins, Nurse Liz, and Cathy Parkes at LevelUpRN. I’ll put links to their channels in the description for you to check out.
It’s so nice to hear from other nurses who have been in your shoes. We’re all here to support each other, so I’m glad you’re here!
And keep your comments coming! I love hearing your thoughts on all of our videos, and I just might feature your comment in the next one.
So leave a comment below and let me know what you think!
Now, let’s get back to those nursing school lies, shall we?
The next HUGE nursing school lie is: that everyone else gets it except for me.
Oh man did I fall for this one hard core in nursing school. When I started nursing school, I had VERY little medical experience, I had no idea what nurses even did, and I wasn’t even convinced I wanted to be there.
God had just told me to go. So I did.
So, needless to say, I had no idea what I was doing or what was happening.
So I went through nursing school believing that everyone else was smarter and more prepared than me, and would make much better nurses than me.
I believed this up until I started NursingSOS. And suddenly, I started receiving emails from nursing students telling me the exact same thing: that they are the only one in their class who doesn’t get it.
And now, after helping tens of thousands of nursing students and responding to thousands of emails, I can tell you will 100% confidence, that everyone else in your program feels the exact same way.
You are NOT alone in this.
Everyone else is trying to figure out what’s going on, just like you are.
Nursing school lectures are confusing. Nursing school exams are confusing. Clinical is confusing. Everyone is trying to navigate it and figure it all out, just like you.
So don’t tell yourself that you’re the only one. That thought doesn’t serve you, and it’s not true anyway.
In the next video I’m going to show you what to do if your professor doesn’t actually teach during your classes. So if you feel like you’re leaving class knowing LESS than when you went in, the next video is for you!
And don’t forget to download your free nursing school study checklist where I walk you through exactly how to study in nursing school. You’re going to wish you had it sooner!
And make sure to like, comment, subscribe and share this video to show your support of our channel and tell the world that you want to become an AMAZING nurse.
Now click on one of these videos here so you can keep rocking nursing school, and go become the nurse that God created only YOU to be. And I’ll catch you in the next video.
