Wednesday, May 02, 2012

All registered for summer/fall now.

I'm all set for classes in the summer and fall. It's going to be intense, but having nearly made it through this semester helps.

Someone stopped me in the hall at school today and asked how I was doing in the class. I said I'd been effectively an A until the last test, and I think I'm going to have to be happy with a B. She snorted and said she's made 67, 66 and 68 on the tests.

She went on to tell me not to go nursing school there-- said the first semester would be easy but the others would be hard, the program is disorganized and poorly led by staff. :( She said to go to the program through the community college instead.


I deem I'm not making an A because I should have studied more. The fact that I won't make an A falls squarely upon my shoulders. I'm nervous about what she said, though. I'm going to ask people I know who work in the industry if they've heard anything to this effect.

Then again, if she's doing so much worse than me in the class, how much regard should I have for what she said. What she spoke of was tempting, though, because at the community college, I'd finish a full 6 months sooner, and it would cost about half the price.

I don't have to decide now or even very soon, but this bears investigation.

6 comments:

Le Conteur said...

Maybe she is just jealous?

Le Conteur

Anonymous said...

It sounds to me that the individual you spoke to is not willing to do the hard work. I think that you are in a good place and will find that out when you talk to other nurses. The courses may be harder than the community college, but you will do just fine.

Mrs. Tole

Anonymous said...

Nursing School is hard. The grading is harder. Because you don't want the person with a D average making life and death decisions. Yes, most programs are designed to weed out students who will not make good nurses. Find a student ahead of you in the program who is doing well. Discuss class selection and faculty with them. Talk to and RN you know who went through the program, ask their advice. Find a teacher to be a mentor. All of those things will help you along the path. We need more good nurses! I used to tell young people not to go into nursing because the hours suck and the work is so difficult, but then I stopped because yes, it is hard and the hours do suck, but what we do is irreplaceable. I have faith in you!
An old RN

Old NFO said...

Yep, definitely worth digging a bit deeper... Knowledge is power...

Christina RN LMT said...

Phlegmmy, don't forget: Community College is an Associate's Degree, whereas University is a Bachelor's. BIG difference.

And I would do more research before believing one person's sour grapes.

misbeHaven said...

When I was in college, there was one class (Farm Management) of which everyone I knew who had taken it said, "If you get a C, take it and run. It's really hard and [the professor] only gives 1 or 2 A's per semester." I was terrified of it, because even the smart folks said so.

Then I took the class. As it turned out, the problem so many students had was that the tests did not require you to parrot back the basic concepts, but rather to think about those concepts and apply them to given scenarios to solve problems. With no farming whatsoever in my background, I finished with an A and one of the highest grades in the class because I was willing to to put in the work.

All of which is to say that the plural of anecdote is not data, and I agree with those above, who advised looking into it further. Also, getting a mentor is a great idea (IMHO).