A new school year means new nursing students—some of whom are fresh out of college, and some of whom are making the transition from another career. Both groups bring unique perspectives, and in both groups you’ll meet students who’ll need to develop new outlooks and skills if they are going to survive the intellectual and emotional challenges of nursing school curriculum. Having read a great piece in “The Nerdy Nurse,” we asked our Nursing School Consultants for their advice for students who are starting nursing school.
The tips are great to share with students, but they are also great reminders about what may cause students to struggle. We’d love to hear from you! Please send in your tips so we can include them in future issues.
Tips for Class Survival:
- Nursing school will feel overwhelming! Make a “to do” list, and prioritize it. The momentum you feel as you cross things off of your list will help you feel as though you are on top of assignments. Don’t get so discouraged that you do nothing; instead, sit down, and cross one thing off of your list. Before you know it your “to do” list will be empty!
- Don’t skip classes! This can be tempting, but is very dangerous. In nursing school a tremendous amount of essential information is disseminated in a very condensed amount of time, so each class lecture is huge!
- Take a look at the class lecture outline before class. Even if you just skim it, you’ll remember the material better.
- Take notes on just the main topics. You can fill in the details from your textbooks and labs, etc. If you take notes on too many details you will feel overwhelmed by the amount of information that the instructor is covering. Think about the main topic, make sense of it, and understand why it’s important.
- Summarize what was covered in class by telling your classmates, your parents, or your dog. When you have to explain the topic to someone (or something) else you will find that not only will you understand it better, but also you will remember it when the exam comes around.
- Studying in Starbucks seems to be more appealing than studying in the library, but there is strong research that shows studying in an environment that replicates testing leads to greater recall. It may be worth it to switch up your studying venue!
- Sleep the night before a big test!!!!
- Getting a B in a class can be just fine if as a result you learn something that will make you a better nurse.
Tips for Clinicals Survival:
- Put a picture of your grandma on your mirror to remember that every patient is loved by someone.
- ALWAYS ask the client what bothers THEM the most. We sometimes look only at our priorities not the client’s. A client came in with an asthma attack, and students were very attentive to her breathing, but she was not getting any better. The instructor advised the students to pull the mask down and ask the patient what was worrying her the most about being in the ER. ALL the students thought she would say that she was afraid she was going to die because she could not breathe, but her answer was she had no one to look after her dog at home. One of the students lived close to her and told her she would check on the dog as soon as she got off work and would walk and care for the dog until the patient was released. The nebulizer began to work right after the interaction!
- Try to see the big picture: what have you learned in a case that can be applied to all clients?
