By Molly O’Neill–A lot of college students go through periods where they are stressed and overwhelmed, but for nursing students it seems like that is a part of their everyday lives.
Students majoring in nursing can expect their lives to be very busy. Some characteristics of a nursing student are long hours, busy schedules, and a lot of late night studying. When asking Sara Desy, a third year nursing student, what that hardest thing about being a nursing major is, she responded, “Everything about it is hard.”
A typical week for Desy consists of going to classes from eight in the morning and finishing around noon everyday, with clinical hours twice a week. On Monday’s she is at the hospital from two until ten-thirty, and Thursdays from six in the morning until two-thirty.
“I have no time for a social life,” Desy said. “If I am not at class then I am doing my clinical hours, if I am not doing clinical hours then I am at class or spending my free time studying and working on homework assignments.”
Nursing majors need to maintain a 2.75 GPA and get above a 78 percent for it to be considered a passing grade. Some may think that that is a little harsh, and is one of the main complaints from nursing students.
Mary Kovarna has been a nursing educator at Morningside College for twenty years now. She has been a nurse since 1980 and first started out at St. Lukes.
Asked why the grading scale was made like that, Kovarna said, “For students that hover below that 78 percentile range are not learning what they need to know. People do not want a nurse that only knows three fourths of what they should know.” Overall she does not think it is harsh, it is what is expected from the students and it is what will make them a better nurse in the future.
Being in the nursing department is not only stressful on the students. It is also stressful on the professors. Kovarna admitted that the job gets stressful for herself at times.
Some of the things that cause the professors stress are the demands on being a better school than others, and being judged on the board passing rates. The professors need to make sure their passing rates on their boards stay where they are supposed to be otherwise it can affect their job and the school.
Nursing school takes a lot of time an commitment, and a lot of students feel like giving up. Nurses today are a big help to nursing students. They can encourage them to keep working hard because it will pay off.
Megan Meyer is a nurse at St. Lukes Wagner ENT. She has only been a nurse for two years, but has loved being one so far.
Asked what were some of the struggles Meyer’s faced during school, her answers were similar to Desy’s. She said she never had a social life, and when it came to doing her clinical hours she felt like it was work without being paid.
Even though Meyer’s went through most of the common struggles nursing majors faced, she made through it. Meyer’s stated, “In the end it is all worth it. All of the clinical hours made me a well rounded nurse, and made me the nurse that I am today.”
Meyer’s also said that she gained a lot of good life long friends that she met because of the nursing program. It is easy to meet new friends because you are always with the same group of people, and you are with people that are going through all of the hard times as you are.
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