Clarification to all 🕊️: I promise I do not think ALL NURSES ARE EVIL or something 😭 most nurses are doing their best, and most of them are doing a fantastic job, even with the challenges and bullshit. I love nurses and nursing—I wouldn’t be going into it otherwise.

So, going forward with this post: if you wouldn’t leave food dripping down the face of the nonverbal, limited/weak stroke patient who cannot lift their arms, then I am not talking about you! If you wouldn’t leave your patient with poop smeared all over their hands and arms as a punishment for “digging for gold” (old+confused, dementia with a level 2 pressure sore with fungal infection left to sit in poop until it burned so they “went digging”) then I am not talking about you! If you take care of your patients and are just trying to survive—great news!! You are not who I am referring to!!
I am just venting because some of this shit is just wrong and it hurts my heart to see so much unnecessary suffering. I do everything I am allowed to do to help support the nurses and help the patients when I am there. But as a student, I sometimes feel so helpless and guilty.

***

I’m currently in med/surg and I’m just so tired of some of these nurses refusing to do any basic nursing care. Yes, there are PCT’s, but you KNOW they are currently at a 1:18 ratio and YOUR patient is currently sitting right there in front of you with food dried on their face, their covers nasty and tangled, hands visibly dirty—it’s just so frustrating. I’m sick of the “but they have to chart 🥺🥺” bs. Chart WHAT?? They haven’t even touched a patient, let alone provided nursing care worth charting, besides passing meds 4 hours previously. I’m not saying nurses don’t have a hard job—my mom is a nurse of 30+ years and I know it is sometimes an impossible and brutal job.

What I don’t get is looking at this little old lady who can’t even lift her arms and just leaving her with food on her face and her arms tangled in the blankets in her who knows how old dirty hospital gown just for you to go sit down to chart. What I cannot understand is how you are willing to sit back and eat your lunch while you ignore the cancer riddled patient with diagnosed chronic pain syndrome who is begging for pain medication (which she HAS ORDERED PRN WITH NO ADMINISTRATIONS) because “if she’s okay enough to be talking and asking for meds, then she can tolerate it.” The woman is going to DIE—who gives a fuck? Why does she have to tolerate it and suffer?? she gonna do? Get addicted???

Nurses are responsible for meeting their patients’ needs. That includes treating them like a human being. Wipe their face, speak kindly and respectfully to them, wash their hands and face with soap and water. It only takes a few minutes to treat them with a fraction of the care that you would want to be treated with yourself, should you be the one who is hurt and confused and helpless. You may have to stay a little late to do that charting, but as a result this person gets to be clean, comfortable, and feel like maybe they do matter, even just a little bit.

Do not go into nursing if you do not want to take care of people—it’s that simple.

Edit: just to clarify—I am NOT blaming nurses for everything. I do NOT think nurses should be staying late and doing unpaid work!! I am pro nurses. I am just saying that the bare basic needs can’t be treated like they are optional. The PCT should do it. If not, then it falls to the nurse. If the nurse cannot, then they must delegate and ensure it happens. But it MUST be done, one way or another.
What I am frustrated about is the fact that basic care and human decency is being treated like it is OPTIONAL, or even a luxury. Like staying 20 minutes late to finish paperwork is far greater injustice than being left to sit on a pressure sore caked in your own piss and shit for who knows how long.

Literally all that I am saying is that patients deserve to be clean and treated with dignity and respect. If you are arguing and feel angry with what I am saying, then take some time to reflect on that. Administration sucks and it’s not fair, but at the end of the day I’d rather have to ask my boss for forgiveness than God.

I just got my notice today that I didn’t get into my nursing program that I wanted :( im feeling so disappointed and embarrassed and like im losing time. I’m 22 about to be 23 and i really wanted to get into this program because it’ll be another 2 years I just want to be done with school already. Now im set back even more and it sucks so bad i feel so behind and im worried if i reapply for the next cohort i still might not get in and ill just keep wasting time. I stopped working too to focus on my classes but i still didnt get in it’s so sad what do i do now

Edit: omg everyone is so nice thank you guys so much for all the advice and motivation! I feel a lot better im not going to give up!

I’ll be starting nursing school soon, and I’m wondering if having a LinkedIn profile is necessary for building a career in healthcare. I’m interested in networking and connecting with potential employers, but I’m not particularly comfortable with sharing publicly where I go to school or work.
At the same time, I don’t want to miss out on opportunities to connect with people in the industry or potentially get my foot in the door with good employers. I know you can adjust your privacy settings on LinkedIn, but I’m still not super comfortable with putting that kind of information out there. I just don’t want to miss out on potential opportunities because I chose not to make one.

I've been in college since Fall 2024 working toward nursing school. Unfortunately, my TEAS score was lower than expected, and even though I applied for Spring 2027, I was told I couldn't move forward because of my score. Now I have to wait until January to apply again for Fall 2027.

The problem is that I've basically finished all my prerequisites. I really only need Biology II, but I have to remain a full-time student (12+ credit hours) to keep my scholarship. Financial aid is telling me they won't cover random classes because they aren't part of my course of study. I even asked about taking a psychology course about drugs and medical terminology, but neither would be covered, which is frustrating because I feel like both could be useful in nursing.

I've also tried reaching out to multiple academic advisors through email to figure out what classes I can take and what my options are, but I haven't received a response from any of them. I live over an hour away from campus, so it's not exactly convenient to drive there just to ask questions that could easily be answered through email. It's frustrating because I'm trying to plan ahead and make responsible decisions, but I feel like I'm getting nowhere.

I'm also worried that because I've already been in college for over two years, I might run out of financial aid before I even finish nursing school. I feel like I'm spending more money just trying to remain eligible for my scholarship while waiting to get accepted.

What makes it even harder is that everyone in my classes keeps talking about how they got accepted into the spring nursing program. I'm genuinely happy for them, but it's hard constantly hearing about everyone moving forward when I was hoping to be starting alongside them. It honestly makes me feel like I'm falling behind, even though I've been working toward the same goal.

I also don't have many nursing schools to choose from. There are only about three schools within an hour of my house, and those are already the closest options. One requires a CNA certification, which I can't realistically get right now while attending college, especially since the program costs around $1,500. Another school doesn't accept the TEAS and requires the Kaplan entrance exam instead, meaning I'd have to pay for and prepare for two different nursing entrance exams just to have more than one option.

I really wanted to start nursing school this spring, and knowing I have to wait until next fall is honestly upsetting. I've considered LPN programs, but the spring application deadlines have already passed, and I don't necessarily want to go the LPN route if I have a chance of getting into an RN program.

My biggest fear is not getting accepted for Fall 2027 either. At that point, I genuinely don't know what I'd do. I love nursing and want to become an RN, but I don't want to keep spending time and money taking classes that aren't getting me any closer to my goal. Part of me feels like giving up if I don't get accepted next fall because I can't keep putting my life on hold indefinitely.

Has anyone else been in this situation? What did you do while waiting to get into nursing school? Did you take extra classes, transfer schools, pursue an LPN program, or take a semester off? I'm especially interested in hearing from anyone who dealt with financial aid issues, limited nursing school options, unresponsive academic advisors, or having to take multiple entrance exams. I just feel really lost right now and could use some advice.

Hi everyone! I'm a first-semester student in an accelerated nursing program, and I'm really struggling with pathophysiology. I feel like I'm having a hard time understanding and retaining the information. I've tried YouTube, NotebookLM, Claude, and ChatGPT, but nothing seems to be helping much. Does anyone have any study tips or methods that actually worked for them? I'd really appreciate any advice!

I recently started an ADN program and unfortunately failed my final exam by 1.25 points, despite having an 87% average in the class. Due to the program’s grading policy, failing the final means failing the entire course, regardless of your overall grade.
I reached out to my professor and program director, but there’s no option for remediation, a retake, or an appeal. My only option is to reapply next fall, with no guarantee of being accepted again.
I’m 30, a single mom of three, and becoming a nurse has been my dream since childhood. I already have a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, but unfortunately, those credits don’t transfer to other schools. Starting over somewhere else would mean taking additional prerequisites and delaying everything even further.
I understand nursing school is supposed to be difficult, but losing an entire year over 1.25 points is incredibly discouraging. I worked so hard to get here, and now I just feel completely at a loss.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? Did you wait to reapply or start fresh somewhere else? I’m not ready to give up on nursing, but I genuinely don’t know what to do next.

I wasn’t quite sure what flair to put this under but I’m hoping some people might relate. I’m in my first semester of an ABSN and so far I’m doing really well I think. My only problem is that during any validations or skill checks off immediately after I finish and my professor tells me how I did I can’t seem to stop myself from getting overwhelmed and crying or something. I’ve always been my own worst critic but no one else in my cohort has this problem and I don’t want my professors to think that I’m too emotional or anxious to actually succeed in the nursing world after school. Obviously I know this isn’t a “quick fix” kind of problem but I really want to be better.

I had to do a head to toe assessment on Monday at clinical, and during the assessment, my resident grabbed my waist and pulled me to him and told me to “give him some sugar.” I pulled back and said no, that it wasn’t appropriate to act that way. I continued my assessment and when I looked down at his hand, he was trying to touch me inappropriately. I stepped back, almost didn’t finish the assessment because I was uncomfortable but I took a deep breath and told him to stop. and told the nurse and she said “Yeah, he’s just like that.” So I finished up the assessment. Which I’ve been in healthcare for years, I know how residents can be, I know they say and do things that’s aren’t appropriate, but really? That’s all? Because clinical can be stressful and tiring, I’m already there for 12 hours, not being able to just do what I’m there to do is even more stressful. I know it’s a “get used to it” kind of thing, it’s just annoying. How do you guys deal with your inappropriate residents/patients?

[edit] This is a geriatric patient, NOT a resident physician. Resident is just the term for people live in LTC facility.

Has anyone heard of a community-based nursing program? Where clinicals are community-based and not in a hospital? I heard they exist but it's hard to find because all that comes up is community college or community health or something else.

My program just assigned us practicum placements that are well over 100 miles each way for my classmates and I, over a 2.5 hour drive. Not to mention, hardly any of us got the area we wanted. The administration missed the deadline to get our placements at local hospitals, and now we’re suffering from their mistake. Personally, I will have to wake up at 3 am and probably won’t be getting home until 10 pm, leaving only 5 hours to shower, eat dinner, prepare breakfast/lunch/bookbags for my kids for school, and go to sleep, only to wake up again at 3 am and go through it all again. Some of my classmates have already discussed their worries, and my school sent out a passive aggressive email this morning telling us to basically suck it up. Has anyone dealt with something like this with their program?

I applied to the nuring program in may and got accepted, i start the actual program in january. i still have to finish up some pre reqs hut i have been struggling tremendously with microbiology and was wondering how other schools/programs/ ect had their microbiology classes set up.

for my microbiology class, the main materials we are provided for each chapter are the lecture “outline” and the textbook. we dont have any softchalk like some of my other classes do or lecture videos, powerpoints, ect available to us.

the said “outline” that we are provided is more like a vauge fill in the blank. for my other class outlines, we are provided a full outline of all the information that we need to know for the chapter. the teacher recomments filling out the outline before class but i had tried this previously and asked her to check my outline and she told me that i always put more information than ill even need to know.

recently i stopped filling out the outline before class so i can just write down what we do need to know as she talked about it in lecture and goes through the powerpoint. the power point doesnt follow the outline very well and is rephrased in certain sections so i find it hard to follow. in addition, sometimes out ourline will ask a question like “1) what is a phagocyte”and the. the powerpoint will show the same unanswered blank questions.

also, my class section had a very low in-class participation rate. today she kinda went off after answering a question and no one answered. she goes “you guys need to be resourceful and fill the outline before class. i feel like i should stop talking and just go through the power point for you guys.”

i previously visited office hours because i really wanted to understand why we are given the outline where we have to fill it in ourselves instead of how the other biology classes are set up. she essnetially replied that “this isnt your other bio classes” in a “get over it” and bothered tone.

i honestly just want to “think like the professor” and understand why the curriculum is set up like this. i feel like a class as challenging as mucrobiology would be so much easier to navigate id students were provided an upfront outline of the chapters to be able to follow along with and annotate/ add additional information to.

do any if yall have simailer microbiology curriculums? im considering visiting the department head for answers. i just want to know and understand why it is set up this way it is, im not looking to change the entire curriculum.

Hey everyone!

I have just been accepted into my university's Nursing program and will begin this Spring. I was given 14 days to complete my background check with Complio and now I have 5 days left to submit. I have been trying to get past slides 4 and 5, which ask you to choose a race and sex and to verify what you chose. Every time I select a race and sex and move on to slide 5, everything resets and it's as if I'd never chosen a race or sex at all. I've called Complio/ADB and my university's nursing lines multiple times since Oct 7 (I've even sent them multiple emails), and at this point I don't know what to do. I would go in-person tomorrow, but they're not open on Fridays, and they actually haven't even posted their hours anywhere so go figure. Transportation is a bit complicated for me also, to make matters worse.

Has anyone else had this problem? What do you recommend I do? Any help or advice would be much appreciated!