Do you really need individual tutoring in order to be successful in nursing school? Or can a more affordable group tutoring option help you?
Today, you’ll find out whether group tutoring is worth it to help you through nursing school, or if you should shell out the BIG bucks to get private tutoring, instead.
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Links from Episode 50:
VIP Tutoring Membership (www.YourNursingTutor.com/vip): Get the affordable tutoring support you need to finally transform all your hard work into grades that you can be proud of.
Tutor On-Call Program (www.YourNursingTutor.com/tutor-on-call): All the benefits of the VIP Tutoring Membership, PLUS 24/7 access to ask a Professional Nursing Tutor all your questions via voice/text messaging. Limited Spots available, but you can join the waitlist to be notified as soon as there are openings.
Free Facebook Group: Nursing Students in Nursing School, (Free Help and Support)
Transcript for Episode 50
Do you really need individual tutoring in order to be successful in nursing school? Or can a more affordable group tutoring option help you?
Today, you’ll find out whether group tutoring is worth it to help you through nursing school, or if you should shell out the BIG bucks to get private tutoring, instead.
I’m Nicole Whitworth, a Registered Nurse and the founder of YourNursingTutor.com. I have more than 12 plus years experience helping nursing and pre-nursing students get through school confidently and calmly by training you how to be successful in nursing school, think like a nurse, and get better grades as a result. I do this through my VIP Tutoring Membership, which provides affordable access to quality tutoring for nursing school.
And in this episode, I’m going to help you make a decision about whether group tutoring would be right for YOUR situation.
Sometimes when you don’t fully know how something works, you’re understandably hesitant to try it out simply because you can’t imagine how it could help or whether it would even work for you.
In fact, it’s a big reason why my husband doesn’t want to go to the doctor sometimes…he’ll complain about whatever’s bothering him, but when I tell him to go to the doctor to get it checked out, he answers with, “Oh, what are they going to tell me? I don’t want to pay the money if I’m not even sure that the doctor will be able to help.”
And you’re probably chuckling, because I’m sure you know someone who’s like this in your life too, or maybe you ARE the person in your life that’s like this, maybe?
Obviously, if you know in advance what the doctor is going to say, then you wouldn’t need to go to the doctor in the first place! But the doctor has spent years learning and practicing, and has experiences that you don’t have. So it’s not surprising that you don’t know what the doctor’s going to say. And it’s also not surprising that you’d be hesitant to spend your hard earned money without knowing for sure whether the doctor can even help you!
And yet we’d all agree that going to the doctor is still generally a good thing when you have a concerning health problem.
So what’s all this talk of doctors have to do with group tutoring?
A lot, actually! Because one of the most common concerns I hear from students when they come to me for tutoring help is related to not understanding how group tutoring could help them. They think that they need one-on-one tutoring sessions so that I can explain everything and review all the topics for their next test, and basically teach them in a way that their nursing instructor is not doing.
Could I do that for you? Yes, of course I could! But the truth is that it would be exorbitantly expensive for you, wouldn’t help you as much as you think it would, and it limits my ability to help other nursing students, as well. Let’s unpack all that a little bit.
First off, individual tutoring with a really good tutor is expensive. Before I had the VIP Tutoring Membership available, I only did individual tutoring, and I charged $75 per hour. Even though that sounds like a lot, it’s actually a reasonable rate for a really good nursing tutor, although I know you CAN find them cheaper. Sometimes, though, ya get what you pay for, so be careful.
But to give you even more context, my most common tutoring package was 2-hour sessions meeting once per week. So if you do that math real quick, that adds up to $150 per tutoring session, with 4-5 sessions scheduled per month. So you’d end up paying $600-$750 per month! And there aren’t a lot of nursing students who can pay that much money for very long.
The second thing I noticed is that even though one-on-one tutoring students would feel like they were having these amazing “light bulb moments” while we were meeting together, they still found it extremely difficult to apply those some thought process skills to the next topic we were covering the following week. Basically, it began to feel like a situation where I was feeding them a fish…but I wanted to be teaching them to fish, instead. You know the old saying, “Give a man a fish, and you’ll feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish, and you’ll feed him for a lifetime”?
It was harder to teach many of these students “how to fish” in a 1:1 setting, because they often came to it with the expectation that I was going to be doing all the hard work FOR them by teaching them the material. But the reality is that if you want to think like a nurse, you really have to learn to “go fishing” for yourself! You DO have to adjust your way of thinking, because the goals in nursing school are totally different than how you learned in other classes that you took growing up or even in college before you started nursing school.
And on top of all that, since I had to charge for tutoring by the hour, students weren’t able to ask me questions during the week, in between tutoring sessions. So if they got stuck on a question, or they weren’t sure what the most important information to focus on was, they were sort of lost until our next meeting, when I was available to “feed them their next fish”.
And honestly, I’ve also discovered over time that the type of student who absolutely insists that they need someone to individually walk them through the material, without being willing to learn a new method to self-teach themselves (WITH my support of course, because I never throw students into the deep end to figure everything out on their own), but the type of student who insists that they need this tends to be the same kind of person who only wants to be spoon fed the information, without doing any of the the hard work on their own OR investing their own time into learning it.
And frankly, I don’t WANT to work with that kind of nursing student! And I don’t want that kind of person to be my nurse someday, either. I want to see successful nurses who care enough to put in the extra effort that it takes up front to master the nursing information. Again, I am totally willing and able to help a student who approaches their studies like that! I love working with students like that. And the ironic thing is that for students like that, I’m even more willing to give extra time and effort on my part to explain things when they DO get stuck.
Which leads me to the third reason why group tutoring is usually the better option for you than individual tutoring…it’s because group tutoring allows me to help even more students, all at the same time. And that reason benefits both you AND all those other students, because it allows you to participate in a community of dedicated nursing students who all take nursing school seriously, who all want to “learn to fish” for yourselves, and who all are committed to becoming the best nurse you can be.
So you’re able to surround yourself with other students who are asking questions, getting answers, and encouraging one another. This decreases anxiety, because you’re not alone. It helps eliminate imposter syndrome, because you know that other people are needing the same kind of help that you do. And it gives you a defense against the occasional “dinosaur” nurse out there who still likes to eat their young, by giving you hundreds of other students who are going to offer their positive encouragement to counter it.
So all that to say, let me describe a recent Group Tutoring Session I had with my VIP Tutoring Members, so you know exactly what you can expect if you decide to try it out for yourself.
The morning of the tutoring session, I sent out a reminder email with the Zoom link and time. About an hour before we were scheduled to start, I sent another email reminder…also with the Zoom link, because I know it’s more convenient then searching through your email!
For this particular Group tutoring session, there were about 9 students who ended up attending live. There was one student who had told me that they wanted to attend but were busy at that time…not to worry though, because there’s always a replay available to watch after the fact. Plus, that student could have submitted a question for me to answer if they had wanted to, but she decided to post it in the private Facebook group for me to answer there, instead.
It was a good mix of students who ended up attending live: 1 was pre-nursing and preparing to take the TEAS entrance exam, 4 were in their first semester, 3 were further along in nursing school, and 1 had failed a semester and was preparing to retake.
I started off the session by checking in with each student to see what their questions were, and how things were going. Not everybody had questions, which is totally fine because I always encourage you to attend anyway, whether you have a question or not. This is because you can learn SO MUCH from listening to what other students ask, and hearing my answers. Not to mention networking with the other students!
After I collected everyone’s questions, I tackled the first question: how can you use the Silver Bullet Study System to study the Health Assessment chapter in your Fundamentals of nursing class? There are training videos that teach the Silver Bullet Study System included in the VIP Tutoring Membership, so I started by quickly reminding everyone that if they haven’t already watched those trainings, they definitely should!
Then I pulled out my Fundamentals textbook, turned to the Health Assessment chapter, and explained how to break down the chapter so that you can study and understand it much more quickly and easily using the Silver Bullet Study System. Students asked clarification questions and follow-up questions, even if they weren’t currently taking Health Assessment for themselves. It was a GREAT discussion!
The next question was about Pediatric Safe range dosage calculations…one of the hardest and most intimidating types of dosage calculations you’ll see in nursing school. Specifically, this member wanted to know what the best method for solving them was. I was able to briefly explain my easy to understand method for using Dimensional Analysis, and point her to the 1-hour training video that explains everything about how to do it. I even reminded her that after she watches that training video and tries the method for herself, if she still feels confused then she can always ask more questions at our next live tutoring session OR post a picture of the calculation she’s having trouble with in our private Facebook Group to get more help.
That brought up a question from a newer member about exactly what resources she has access to in the VIP Tutoring Membership. So I shared my computer screen, and showed them all the online trainings they had available, how to find and use the VIP Members-only Facebook group, how to check the live tutoring schedule, and how to find the recordings for any sessions they’ve missed.
At that point, our pre-nursing student who was in attendance had a question about the difference between the TEAS and HESI A2 Entrance Exams. I explained what I knew about the differences, but I’ve only ever personally taken HESI A2. Luckily, one of our other members who had already started nursing school chimed in to share her personal experience taking TEAS, which really helped to “calm the nerves” of the student who originally asked the question, since that was the entrance exam that she needed to take.
Finally, just before we ran out of time, another brand new member asked which of the on-demand resources were best to use first. I shared that it always depends on your personal situation, because these resources are only intended to be used “as needed”. But that the 3 I recommend starting with most often are the Silver Bullet Study System, Conquer Test Anxiety, or Conquer Dosage Calculations.
After that, we called it a night! But everybody left feeling uplifted, encouraged, and knowing that they were not alone in nursing school.
And also knowing that they can post a question in the private VIP Facebook Group anytime they need to before the next live group tutoring session.
So even though every session’s a little bit different, that gives you a pretty good idea of what a typical live group tutoring session can be like! As you noticed, it didn’t really matter what stage of nursing school everybody was in. The students further on were able to turn back and mentor the newer students. And everybody can benefit from a discussion about how to “think like a nurse” on a specific nursing topic, even if it’s not the topic on your next test, because thinking like a nurse is a transferable skill that you’ll need to use over and over for the rest of your nursing career.
So after hearing what group tutoring is like and how it can help you, if you decide that it’s for you then I’d love to have you join us in the VIP Tutoring Membership whenever you’re ready! You can even jump in today, and attend our very next Live Group Tutoring Session.
Or maybe you’re thinking, “Hey Nicole, I really don’t want to be spoon fed the nursing information, I’m willing to do the work to become an amazing nurse…but I WOULD like just a little bit of extra hand holding, if you don’t mind.” Well, I actually do have an affordable option for you too, because as I said, I LOVE working with students who are willing to do the work for themselves, too.
So if you’re committed to being a self-learner, but you’d still like a little extra hand holding as you do it, then I’d recommend the Tutor On-Call Program. With the Tutor On-Call Program, you get full access to the VIP Tutoring Membership PLUS you get 24/7 access to send me voice messages, text messages, or any other kind of nursing school related messages that you want to. You can send them whenever you need to, and receive a priority response from me as soon as I’m available…and still for less than a third of the cost that I used to charge for private, one-on-one tutoring. It’s perfect to help you take your study strategy to the next level, and get personally “coached” by a professional nursing tutor.
And one last thing…if you like the Navigating Nursing School podcast, could you please leave a 5-Star rating for us on iTunes? It’s one small way that you can say “thank you” for all the free resources I create for nursing students everywhere, and I also genuinely appreciate you taking the time to do it
Until next time, good luck on your nursing journey!
Nicole Whitworth is the founder of Your Nursing Tutor. She has a BSN and an MA in Clinical Psychology, and has been a professional nursing tutor for over 12+ years. Nicole specializes in getting nursing students through school confidently and calmly so that everything finally “clicks”. She is also the creator of the Silver Bullet Study System, an easy-to-follow study method that automatically trains your brain to become a nurse at the same time that you study for your normal nursing classes.