5 Common Nursing School Mistakes

Over the years I have seen nursing students struggle, and I have seen nursing students thrive. And what has become clear is that students who struggle tend to make the same five mistakes over and over again. So, if you want to avoid struggling unnecessarily in nursing school, avoid these five common mistakes of new nursing students.

Mistake #1: Thinking nursing school will be similar to other college classes

I cannot tell you how many times I have talked with students who think nursing school will be similar to other classes they have taken such as microbiology and physiology. Yes, they admit they know it will be more challenging, but they don’t understand just how challenging it will be. What this leads to is a lack of preparation, relying on old study habits, and the very real risk of falling behind.

It’s not so much that nursing school content is more difficult to understand than prerequisite classes. But the sheer volume of material and intense schedule mean that students must be able to grasp concepts quickly and study very efficiently in order to stay on top of everything. If you rely on old study habits, try to cram before exams, or think you can show up to a lab or clinical unprepared and just “wing it” you are definitely going to struggle unnecessarily in nursing school. 

The other big difference between nursing school and other classes are the exams. Because nursing school exams are written in the same format as the NCLEX, students are often very surprised by their complexity. Nursing school exam questions put you in a clinical scenario where you must make the best decisions for your patients. Instead of asking you the “what” like you’ve come to expect in classes like microbiology and chemistry, nursing school exams force you to understand the “why.” Only by understanding why we do the things we do will you be able to make appropriate clinical decisions. 

Secondly, since nursing school exams are so different from standard exams, it’s crucial you start practicing NCLEX style questions from the very beginning. Get a good NCLEX prep book such as this one, and use practice questions as a way to study for exams. You can also get tips on how to approach NCLEX-style questions and nursing school exams in Module 7 of Crucial Concepts Bootcamp, my nursing school prep course.

Mistake #2: Not having a strong background in physiology

If A&P was more than a year ago, or you purposefully took the “easy” class, or if you struggled with this material, then nursing school is going to be very, very challenging for you. And that’s because almost everything you learn in nursing school is based on anatomy & physiology. Having a strong background in physiology helps you understand the “why”…why a patient has specific signs and symptoms, why we look at certain lab results, why we intervene in the way we do, why medications are utilized, why we watch for particular complications, etc… If you don’t have a solid grasp of physiology and don’t know the “why”, then you’ll have a very difficult time connecting concepts and understanding even the most basic disease conditions.

Action Item #2: Brush up on physiology before nursing school starts and again between semesters. To make this easy for you, I’ve created a list of the concepts I recommend you review in my free New Nursing Student Checklist.

And if you’d like a little extra help, I provide an overview of the most common physiological concepts I use as a nurse inside my program, Crucial Concepts Bootcamp. 

Mistake #3: Waiting until the first day of class to look at the syllabus and course schedule

For your prerequisites, you probably didn’t even receive a syllabus until the first day of class and maybe never even actually read any of them. Please do not do this in nursing school. The syllabus contains vital information about the course, textbooks, grading, exams, attendance, late assignments, and more. In some cases, the syllabus contains the schedule of assignments though in some cases this may be separate. Regardless, you want to make sure you review the course schedule as well because I guarantee you will have things due very early in the first week (if not on the first day!) If you miss an assignment or fail to meet a course deadline of some kind, telling your instructor you didn’t know about it is not going to fly. Everything should be in your syllabus and course schedule.

Mistake #4: Trying to do all the reading

One of the first things you’ll notice in nursing school is that there is a lot of assigned reading. Students who try to read every word waste an enormous amount of time, fall behind on assignments and test prep, and become increasingly frustrated as more and more reading assignments pile up. 

Here’s the hard truth about reading in nursing school…there’s simply not enough time to do all of it plus everything else you must do to meet the course requirements. What’s more, reading is a passive activity for most students, so it’s not always the most effective way to learn.

Mistake #5: Being unorganized

Even though this is listed as mistake #5, it’s actually the single most impactful mistake that nursing students make. Because nursing school is so intense, being organized is absolutely essential. Students who don’t have good organizational habits and time management skills struggle unnecessarily which is reflected in their stress levels and their performance.

If you’re into podcasts, you can listen to this in episode 358 of the Straight A Nursing podcast on your favorite podcast app.

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Last Updated on August 22, 2024 by Maureen Osuna, MSN, RN