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Today’s youngsters are encouraged to enter the medical field by parents, teachers, and even the media. Why is that? Well, health professionals have very secure jobs, they get great salaries, their services are always in demand in all places, and they’re well-respected in society. The path to becoming a medical professional is a difficult one, however. Many individuals will have to take some courses under the nursing and health sciences designations, but which ones are tougher?
Differences Between Health Sciences and Nursing
A concentration in health sciences involves the study of subjects and taking of courses that will prepare an undergraduate student for a career in various health-related fields including: medicine, dentistry, optometry, physical therapy, occupational therapy, public health, health care management and more. Health sciences is a general term used to describe all of the areas of study investigated by a pre-health student before entering a graduate or professional school.
Nursing courses, on the other hand, are strictly geared towards giving pre-nursing students the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in the workplace. While nursing students may take many of the same courses as health science students and vice versa, nursing courses are designed specifically for those preparing to enter the nursing occupation. These courses are generally more hands-on and geared towards patient care and safety.
Which courses are more difficult?
Both nursing and health science courses can cover the same general topics, so it’s hard to say which ones are more difficult. Since the health sciences give students a more general overview of the health profession whereas nursing is more focused on the nursing occupation, some may say that nursing courses are tougher because they are more specialized and delve more deeply into specific issues. Then again, many core health sciences classes are also notoriously difficult to pass. A big thing to consider is the school offering the course and its curriculum. If a certain school has a very reputable nursing program but has a much more low-key health sciences program, it’s a safe bet that the nursing courses will be more challenging since that’s what the school is known for. Still, difficulty is both relative and an individual matter.
Difficulty is a subjective matter
The difficulty of both health science courses and nursing courses depends on the perception of the students taking the courses. It all comes down to one’s personal strengths and abilities. For example, classes like healthcare terminology, which require more memory than others, can be extremely easy for those with great memorization skills and extremely difficult for those who don’t have them. Since nursing courses typically require more direct patient interaction, students who are introverted might find them more difficult than health sciences courses that only involve lectures. Both nursing and health sciences concentrations are inherently difficult because health care is not black and white like simple addition or subtraction, but perceived difficulty is mainly based on personal experience.
The real answer to the question of which courses out of the two are tougher is the same one you would expect from asking countless other questions: it depends. Because, in the end, one thing is certain–health sciences and nursing are both areas of study that require lots of studying. Both college concentrations require the taking of various natural science courses that are known to be on the difficult side. The relative difficulty of the courses depends on who you are or who you ask.
