Why Nursing School Is Basically Bootcamp with More Coffee and Less Sleep

Okay, so I knew nursing school was gonna be hard. Like, obviously. But I don’t think I fully wrapped my head around how intense it would be until I found myself googling things like “can you survive on three hours of sleep” or “how to function after twelve hours of clinicals.” (Spoiler alert: coffee helps, but barely.)

I’m a third-year nursing student right now, which is wild to even say out loud because it feels like I was just learning how to take a manual blood pressure like five minutes ago. Time in nursing school is weird it both flies and drags. One minute you’re breezing through patho flashcards at 2am, and the next you’re panicking because your patient has six comorbidities and a chart that reads like a Shakespearean tragedy.

But let’s back up.

When I tell people I’m studying nursing, I usually get one of three reactions:

“Wow, that’s amazing, we really need more nurses!”

“Isn’t that super hard?”

“Oh cool, my cousin’s a nurse too!”

All of which are fair. But what they don’t say is: “Hey, are you okay? Are you getting enough sleep? Do you need help remembering what sunlight feels like?” Because that would be way more accurate.

Don’t get me wrong I love nursing. I really do. It’s one of the most rewarding and weirdly fascinating things I’ve ever done. But it’s also, without a doubt, the most draining thing I’ve put myself through voluntarily.

Let’s talk about the chaos.

The thing about nursing school is that it’s not just one thing. It’s not like, “Oh I have a big paper this week.” It’s more like: I have a 10-page care plan due Monday, a 6am clinical Tuesday, a lab practical Wednesday, a group project that no one in my group seems to care about, and somewhere in between all that, I need to remember how to eat food and maybe call my mom back. Oh, and also study for the pharmacology exam that’s lurking in the background like a final boss in a video game.

Honestly, one of the biggest things I’ve learned is that asking for help doesn’t mean you’re failing it means you’re human. There was this one week last semester where I was buried under assignments, and I finally caved and got help with nursing assignment from someone who’d been through it already. Best decision ever. Sometimes, you need someone who’s already been in the trenches and can say, “Yo, here’s how you survive this mess.” It’s not cheating. It’s survival.

Clinical = chaos IRL

Let me just say this: No amount of studying prepares you for your first real patient who looks you in the eye and expects you to know what the hell you’re doing. That’s when the panic hits different. You’re standing there with your clinical instructor watching, trying to remember if you’re supposed to flush the IV before or after the med, and your patient is cracking jokes while you sweat through your scrubs.

Would I do it all again? Yeah… probably.

Ask me on a bad day, and I’ll tell you I want to drop out and open a coffee shop. But deep down, I know this is where I’m meant to be. It’s messy, it’s chaotic, it’s kind of disgusting sometimes (don’t even ask about wound care lab), but it’s also real. And I think that’s what keeps me going. Nursing isn’t just a job. It’s a whole way of showing up in the world.

So yeah, if you’re thinking about nursing school—just know it’s gonna wreck you a little. But it’ll also build you into someone tougher, smarter, and way more caffeinated than you ever thought possible.