How many days a week does a nurse work on average?

I always read that a nurse's job is rewarding and challenging however hard. In what way do they ever mean it??

This is something you have to really want to do. The nursing program at the university I went to was more like boot camp. They bragged about their 99% first time pass rate for the NCLEX. That, I quickly learned, was because they failed about half of the students out of the program. The rest got sick of being verbally beat up and quit. I finished with a fraction of the people I started with!

At the time, I was floored at they way we were treated, horrible! Get this, I actually got into hot water for asking too many questions. What? I got a 'fail' in my very first clinical. I was in tears! I worked so hard on the back up courses and did fine. I had never had a problem with any professor being upset about a student asking questions. You do get another chance on the second of two clinical rotations per semester to improve and pass. Every program probably does differ, but that was mine!

You see what I mean about why people often quit tough RN programs? If you aren't completely determined, that fail, on my first clinical, could have blown me out of the program if I didn't figure out how to wise up.
I didn't understand their ways, at the time. None of us did. The problem with asking too many questions is because of the fact that you will work for a facility and you have to answer your own questions correctly, the first time.

You have to be able to remain calm, not cry, and never make excuses or try to defend yourself. You thank your professor for constructive criticism, while looking them in the eye, showing no emotion, and tell them you will work on the problem they have to say about you, no matter how unfair you think it is. You walk out the door, with your head high.

This is the reasoning they will fail you out, if you behave any differently. You are going to have to call doctors, with a problem. They will act like jerks. You need orders for your patient and can't let them get to you. You will be chewed by distraught family members and you can't react. You are going to deal with very scary circumstances and you can't show fear, walk away, or any type of emotional behavior. You are there to support your patient and do what needs to be done quickly, with a cool head. It isn't fair to your patient to do anything else.

This will be you, on both ends, in time. You are the nurse. You don't have time to ask someone else to solve your problems for you, in an ugly emergency situation. You can't make the wrong decision without harming your patient. You are trained in nursing school what to do for emergency procedure. Any nurse is correct calling for another nurse to aid her immediately. All nurses have to delegate and expect it to be done immediately and correctly. Your nursing assistants aren't stupid, so use them.

You are the nurse and have to make fast judgment calls that have no room to be incorrect. That's why I got in trouble, in school, for asking too many questions. That is also why you cannot emotionally react. You have to be strong, for your patient. That is why I was treated so harshly in nursing school.

Nursing isn't a job. It's more than that. If you think that you are going to find some sort of intrinsic reward, every shift, you are mistaken. A good shift is when you are staffed and nothing bad happened. The usual shift, something happens bad, someone is running too high of a temp and you better do something about it or could be worse. A bad shift cooks your brain, making you feel like you have been beaten with a ball bad when you clock out.

Your job never leaves you. You always will have thoughts of your patients. There are some days, to far and few, when you actually clock out, feeling good about helping someone and know you made a difference. That's what nursing really is and decide carefully about this type of career choice.

You aren't going to have a problem if you need to polish up on some of the required classes, like chem. Many college students are what they used to call 'non-traditional', meaning not kids right out of high school, but working adults with families. Like we really remember high school algebra! Most universities have classes, which cost the same, but don't count towards a degree that will quickly put you worthy of any college class.

You sound like nursing is really something you want to do. Be ready to fight for it. That's my advice. It isn't easy, but worth it, to the right people.