How Hard Is Nursing School? Tips for Success

Nursing can be a rewarding career, but earning your nursing degree requires hard work due to demanding coursework, long hours with clinical placements, and high-pressure exams. You'll need strong time management and the ability to handle a heavy workload.

However, the rewards are significant if you're passionate about nursing and willing to work hard. The job market is booming, and you'll gain the skills to make a real difference in people's lives. Discover the requirements for nursing school, the coursework, labs, and exams you'll experience, and helpful tips for succeeding in school and earning your degree.

Read more: How to Get Into Nursing School: Your Guide to a Degree

Nursing school curriculum

One of the factors contributing to how hard nursing school is compared to other degrees is the intensity of the curriculum and the amount of work you have to put in. During nursing school, you can expect a full schedule that requires you to prioritize studying, memorization, and focusing on the large volume of information you'll be learning.

Coursework 

Your nursing school coursework is designed to help you learn the terminology, concepts, and skills you'll need once you put nursing into practice.

You will be required to study a lot to learn everything you need to be prepared to provide safe patient care and cope with the profession's stresses. Some of the challenging courses you’ll likely take include: 

• Pathophysiology, in which you'll learn about how diseases and injuries affect the different systems of the body

• Medical-surgical, in which you'll learn about some of the most common health issues in adults

• Pharmacology, in which you'll learn about medications, including their names, uses, and side effects

• Evidence-based practice, in which you'll learn about interdisciplinary research, science, new health care research, and best practices

Critical thinking skills 

As you progress through your nursing school program, you'll continue building your critical thinking skills. You’ll likely be pushed outside your comfort zone and may be faced with scenarios with multiple correct answers but only one that's the "most right." Real-life patient care isn't always straightforward either. You'll need to be able to flex sharp critical thinking skills and, eventually, trust your instincts. 

Labs

While you're in nursing labs, you'll be in a controlled setting. Labs will put you in realistic patient care simulations, tasking you with drawing blood, giving injections, performing catheterization, and doing full-body assessments on the lab's mannequins, designed to behave and look like real-life patients. The goal is to prepare you for hands-on nursing and allow you to practice what you’ve been learning.

Clinical rotations 

Many nursing school students consider clinicals the most stressful part of their schooling. While in clinical rotations, you'll be working with live patients, applying the skills you've built in the classroom and your labs.

This hands-on part of your schooling will have you working under the supervision of a nursing instructor to gain hands-on learning experience. You'll shadow a nurse and help with small tasks. As you progress, you may be able to work more independently.

Nursing exit exams and NCLEX

As you prepare to graduate from your nursing program, you may be expected to take an exit exam, like the HESI Exit Exam or the ATI Comprehensive Predictor, to determine your readiness to take and hopefully pass your nursing licensure exam or the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) to begin your nursing career.

Both exit exams will cover much of what you will face on the NCLEX and verify with your school that you're ready to pursue licensure. The NCLEX typically covers client needs, integrated processes, and clinical judgment.

Client needs

Being attuned to client needs is crucial in nursing, and there are four main categories in this section of the NCLEX.

1. Safe and Effective Care Environment

2. Health Promotion and Maintenance

3. Psychosocial Integrity

4. Physiological Integrity

Integrated processes

In this section, you'll be tested on your caring, problem-solving, communication, behavior change, judgment and more.

Clinical judgment

Last but not least, the NCLEX will test your clinical judgment by seeing how you use your knowledge to "observe and assess presenting situations, identify a prioritized client concern and generate the best possible evidence-based solutions in order to deliver safe client care" [2].

The earlier you start preparing for the NCLEX, the better. You’ll want ample time to become comfortable with the testing style and the types of questions you’ll face. Ideally, give yourself at least five to six months to review the large volume of information covered by the exam.

Tips for success in nursing school

Nursing school is an exciting and demanding journey. These strategic tips can help you succeed:

1. Take advantage of university resources.

Your professors and peers will be invaluable assets throughout your time in nursing school. Getting to know your instructors can help you gain insight into their experiences. They may also mentor you, give you advice for taking exams, suggest clubs that might be good for you to join, write letters of recommendation for you in the future, and be a resource for internships.

Consider joining or starting a study group, which will connect you with other students and help deepen your understanding of different perspectives and issues or subjects you may struggle with. Your institution may also have resources like academic success centers, which often offer tutoring, workshops, and other resources. 

2. Build your study skills. 

Good studying habits are essential to your success in the classroom, lab, and clinicals. Create a regular studying schedule so you can stay on track and avoid getting overwhelmed.

Becoming familiar with your learning style can also help. Consider how you've studied in the past and how you're studying now. Think about the tests you've done well on and how you studied for them.

3. Lean on your support system.  

Your peers are also a valuable source of support. They'll understand what you're going through and are working to achieve the same goal. Beyond your peers, ask for help from your professors, family, and trusted friends when you need it.

Not only can your support system offer solutions to challenges you're facing and encouragement to help keep you moving forward, but it can also help support your mental and emotional health.

4. Avoid burnout by finding balance.

Managing your time, taking breaks, and engaging in self-care are all essential to avoid burnout in nursing school. Your coursework and exam prep can feel like a full-time job. Taking breaks can help keep you refreshed.

Taking care of yourself by eating meals regularly, limiting caffeine, staying active, and getting plenty of sleep helps to keep your health on track and cope more effectively with stress.

5. Have a plan for examination prep. 

Like your study plan, your plan for exam prep should avoid cramming. Set up a regular study schedule and rely on your professors and study groups to help answer questions you may have. Find creative ways to remember critical information. Make flashcards to help with memorization.

Nursing school admission requirements

As a nurse, you’ll have the well-being of your patients in your hands. Given the level of trust and responsibility associated with this role, getting into nursing school can be competitive. When you apply, you can expect the school to evaluate you in various ways to determine if you have the abilities and ethics to meet the high standards associated with this profession. 

Most nursing schools require the following:

GPA

Your grade point average (GPA) is one of the first things many schools evaluate. Each school and program sets its GPA requirement, but the average minimum GPAs, according to data from Nurse.org [1], are as follows: 

• Associate degrees: 2.75 

• Bachelor's degrees: 3.0

Prerequisite courses

Prerequisites are important because they give you a good foundation for your courses in nursing school. Although they vary from school to school, most nursing school prerequisites include science and general education courses such as:

• Anatomy and physiology

• Biology

• Chemistry

• College-level English

• Math/statistics

• Psychology

TEAS scores 

The Test of Essential Academic Skills (TEAS) is a standardized test, much like the SAT, but specific to nursing school candidates. Many nursing schools use it to try to predict your success in nursing school. It's a multiple-choice exam with 170 questions that you'll need to complete within three hours and 29 minutes. The exam tests your English and language usage, science, reading, and mathematics skills.

Application and essay 

Like many other colleges and universities, nursing schools require you to complete an application and include several additional documents, including a personal essay. This is an opportunity to set yourself apart from other candidates and demonstrate why the admissions team should select you.

Writing about experiences that have shaped you, your goals, and your ultimate "why" for attending can help get you started. Use the essay to highlight the qualities that make you unique and your commitment to nursing. Other details to consider adding to your essay include:

• Reasons you chose that program or school

• Examples that illustrate why you're interested in going into nursing

• Previous medically related experiences, including volunteering

• Personal accomplishments

Learn more: 10 Common Nursing Interview Questions to Help You Practice and Prepare

Learn on Coursera. 

In preparation for nursing school, consider an online health care course through Coursera. The University of Michigan’s Anatomy Specialization takes advantage of a multimedia library of accurate anatomical models and materials to help you better understand the human body.