I am an RN with 24 years experience. #1 The hardest part of my job is having to continually shortchange my time for patient care because of ever increasing demands for new paperwork. #2 The easiest part of my job is working with overall great colleagues. #3 The most important thing I learned in nursing school was the advice we got as we neared graduation, ie that no nurse can never know everything because things change so much over time. Know when you don't know something and don't do things you do not know how to do. Know where your resources are. That's it; advice that can be used in any area of practice. #4 The same advice I was given and gave as an example in #3. #5 I took a job as a CNA at an SNF in 1976 and liked working with patients but did not want to work as a CNA forever. My experience with direct patient care has helped me enormously over the years, though, and I have great respect for the talents and insights of the techs I work with now. Sheila M Blanchet RN staff nurse adult medical oncology in small community hospital in Connecticut.