“I Hate Nursing School”! Have you been feeling this way lately? If you are a nursing students or almost one, sometime during your nursing school career you will feel like you hate nursing school. I felt like this many times, and so did others. To let you know, just because you are hating nursing school right now doesn’t mean you won’t make it through the program or you will be a bad nurse. We all have our “I hate nursing school” moments. Nursing school is just hard and stressful sometimes.
I like to compare nursing school to a roller coaster ride that is continuous. Some days and weeks you will feel great, because you’re passing all your classes, clinicals are going great, and you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but then to your dismay the next week comes crashing down on you because you’re stressed to the max with all the projects and care plans due, you failed an exam, and flubbed up in clinicals in front of your peers, which causes you to ask yourself the question “am I smart enough for nursing school?”.
Sound familiar? Probably, right? This is some of the stuff I experienced during nursing school, which is normal.
In this article, I am going to talk about some reasons why you are probably hating nursing school right now, and give you some tips on how to get through it.
I’ve made a video if you rather watch that and it is posted below. Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more videos.
Reasons why you are Hating Nursing School
- Struggling! Nursing school has its own fair share of stresses and struggles, and when we are faced with them we start to think “man, I really hate this stuff”. Nursing school requires you to juggle so much at one time.
For instances, just in one week you could have the following: 2 exams, 15 page paper due, care plan due, 2 clinical rotations, quiz, and volunteer work to complete for a research project. Now add those tasks to your personal life and you have chaos! When the week is over you will feel like “why did I go to nursing school”, but then the next week you will have a better week and say to yourself “wow, I love this stuff” (hence my roller coaster example at the beginning).
- Personal Stress! If you are going through some family or friend issues, this can add a lot of stress to your nursing school life. Divorce, death, drama, parenting, or having to hold down a job can definitely cause added stress.
- Burnout! At times, when you are going through nursing school you just want it to be over because you have (what it feels like) been in school your whole life. And to think about it you really have….starting at the age of 5 to 18 years we go to school constantly, and after a while, you become so tired of being in a class room, hearing lectures, studying and taking tests, that all you want to do is get a job and work. You just want to be a nurse!
- Lack of sleep and exhaustion! If you have children, you can relate with my next statement. Children and nursing school are alike in the sense that they both make you sleep deprived. Nursing school requires that you get up early and go to bed late. You have to get up early for classes and clinicals, and end up staying up late studying or catching-up on chores. Life with children is very similar. Sleep deprivation can cause you to have low mental clarify and amplify feelings of hating nursing school.
- Poor Diet! As the saying goes, you are what you eat! During nursing school, I ate so much fast food and pizza that I lost count (mainly because it was convenient and easy), but I noticed that when I ate unhealthy my mental health suffered as well. Your diet can play a key role in mental health. The body thrives on healthy, nutritious foods.
Tips to get you through it
- Enjoy your breaks! Any time you have a break (winter, spring, or summer break) seriously use it as a time to relax. I know that you may be tempted to spend the whole break studying for NCLEX or something, but you have to take several days where you do what you want to do. This will go a long way.
- Catch-up on sleep! This is something you can do on your breaks and the weekends. If you have kids, have someone watch them for a few hours just so you can sleep.
- Vent! Come to the forum on this website or comment below and just vent on how much you hate nursing school. You will be amazed how much better you feel. Myself and others will definitely be able to relate with you.
- Eat better! Try to avoid high caloric foods and pick healthier options. It is okay to have these foods sometimes, but not every day.
- Talk with other students! I found this to be a great stress reliever for me because it was nice to know my classmates were going through the same thing as me. It made me feel normal.
- Remember it won’t last long! Nursing school will be over before you know it, promise! Try to keep telling yourself that one day this will be just a distant memory and that you will probably look back at it and laugh.
Do you have any tips that you would like to share? Comment or vent below!
Sarah says
I definitely am feeling like I HATE nursing school right now. I just started my senior year, and well, I would quit if I could, but I already paid for the semester and my books. I feel sometimes like the hardness of it takes away the joy of it. We do 12 hour clinical days at my school and it’s just so exhausting. I have fibromyalgia as well, and it just makes life in general so much more difficult….and adding nursing school is just some times too much. Guess all I can do now is try to get through it.
S.L. Page says
Hi Sarah,
I just wanted to give some encouraging words and say I totally agree that the hardness of nursing school does take away the joy of caring for patients. Many times I felt like how you are feeling, and I couldn’t imagine having fibromyalgia while going through nursing school (that really shows how strong you are). But it does get easier when you become a nurse because all you have to do is work. In nursing school, you have to work (hence clinicals), go to class, do projects, and study hard (which is very stressful). All I can say is that being a nurse is easier than being a nursing student. Plus, you can find a job that doesn’t require long 12 hour shifts and something that compliments who you are. Hang in here 🙂
-Sarah
Sarah says
Thanks for the encouraging words. I appreciate all your posts. 🙂
S.L. Page says
Thank you, Sarah! That means a lot to me! I appreciate and love getting comments on my posts 🙂 It is nice to know someone is finding them useful.
-Sarah