What is nursing like?

What is nursing school like?

• I'm a nursing major and I have one more prerequisite to complete (Microbiology) before I can officially apply to nursing school. The closer it gets, the more curious I become ...show more

• Answer:

  1. The TEAS test is not required by all nursing programs. If your program requires it, it is taken prior to applying to the nursing program but it's wise to wait to take it until you've finished most of your science prerequisite courses so you have the knowledge foundation to do well on it, since the test is mostly about science, English, and some math. I think there are some books that are specific TEAS study guides, but I'm not entirely positive because I never had to take the test. Google it. 2. It's probably about 75% observation and 25% actually doing the work of a nurse. It's all about the learning. Generally you are required to go to the clinic site the night before and your instructor gives you a patient assignment, and you need to look in their chart and gather information about their health condition, their medications, etc. You are usually expected to do some written work including writing up the medication information (like dosages, indications, side effects, the assessments that you need to do to make sure the patient is safe and the med is working, etc.) so you come to clinicals the next day prepared. In the morning of clinicals, you find the nurse assigned to your patient (you usually only get 1-2 patients in the beginning) and make a plan with her on what you need to do. You take vitals on your patients, assess their condition, chart your findings, write nursing notes, etc. You'll be inserting catheters, giving medications via IV or injection, wound care/dressing changes, etc. In the beginning it's all very simple, basic patient care stuff and you are given more responsibility as time goes on. At the end of the shift you report off to the nurse and have a conference with your instructor and fellow students to talk about your day. 3. Usually the first semester is in a nursing home or long-term care setting, just getting the basics like helping patients with activities of daily living (feeding, transferring from bed to wheelchair, toileting, etc.). The next few semesters will bring you to the hospital, you'll get rotations usually in a medical/surgical unit, some time in a psych unit, and some time in a maternal-newborn unit. You will likely be offered days of observation of different things, like you might get to spend a day in same-day surgery, or watch a labor & delivery or a c-section birth. 4. You will have education directed towards pregnancy and a birth, but the real training really does come on the job. Nursing school gives you a basic education on how to assess and care for all kinds of patients, but just about any nursing job is a unique specialty which will require on-the-job training and a lengthy orientation period as a new graduate before you are allowed to work independently without a preceptor by your side. I worked for a brief period on a cardiac unit as a new grad. My orientation was about 2 months long and consisted of both classroom learning (part of the hospital's orientation that was paid for by them, nothing I had to do on my own) and the work on the floor with a preceptor. 6 months later I switched jobs to get my dream job in labor & delivery, and that orientation process was much much longer, about 4 months total. But basically almost any nursing job you get, esp. as a new grad, they will provide you with a ton of education which is tailored to whatever specialty you're in.