Nursing School

Nursing school has been quite an experience to this point. With all the classes required to get one to this point, that is, even to get into nursing school, that alone cannot prepare you for the experience. Everyone who gets there has to be reasonably intelligent or they wouldn't be there...it's not an easy program of study to get into. However, once you do get there, you become a complete know-nothing all over again. Those who've been accustomed to making A's in their courses are shocked to find that making an A in a nursing course is the exception, not the rule. At this place and time, I think most of us will be happy if we manage to "C" out of the program. This much I've learned.....nursing school consumes a person....every area of your life. There's barely time to breathe most days, and I've jokingly, but half-seriously related to my classmates, that just surviving nursing school without becoming a patient in the process is a feat in and of itself. I've come to the conclusion that attempting to have any kind of personal life is an exercise in futility until this is done. The fatigue and mental stress involved make it impossible to give much attention to emotional/social needs....or at least give the attention required to form and maintain relationships...there simply isn't enough time or energy to deal with all that comes with that. But....that's the choice I made....anything we endeavor to do in this life that is worthwhile requires some sort of sacrifice....for a nursing student, these are the things which are sacrificed. To be a competent nurse, one must give care to people as holistic beings....body, soul, and spirit, yet the irony in that is...the process involved in becoming that competent nurse, requires the student to forget for a time that he/she is also a holistic being. We're not much more than fodder for the instructors to consume, and the fact that nurses eat their young is becoming increasingly clear. Pray for the nursing students over this country and around the world, including this one.