[melnfra]

feeling overwhelmed

[Soup Turtle]

I'm a first year student too, and everyone in our program feels that way. You aren't alone.

[WDWpixieRN]

I spent my first semester feeling totally overwhelmed...I was SO relieved when it was over!! Second semester flew by and didn't feel too horrible (well, if you don't count that fluids & electrolytes material, lol)....now after a summer off we're all struggling in our 3rd semester. This isn't a cakewalk and from hanging around here for quite awhile, I knew that.

Just hang in there and take it day-by-day, one step at a time...you will be amazed at how quickly the time goes by!!!

Good luck!!

[ilivet0surfxx]

I agree, you're definitely not alone! It IS overwhelming. I'm almost eight weeks into my first semester. It didn't make it any better that my school was combining with another school and during the transition period they forgot to tell us that aside from studying dosaging math that we also needed to read about 10 chapters before the first day...lol...

Hang in there, it will get better. I'm slowly figuring out how to manage my time and that is what will help you out the most!

[Nurses-Rule1987]

Hello
You are definately noy alone
Im a first year student and monday is my third exam. so yes Im still overwhelmed
but what I love the most are clinicals and Labs.
but you are not alone!
We all gonna make it!!
We are all nurses of the future!
We dare to care!!
We gonna be changing lives pretty soon!!
God Bless!!

[Rage]

Senior here a few words of advice

Organize: time, materials, friends
Everything you learn now will be utilized in future classes, so if you just "remembered" it then you'll have a more difficult time in the future because they will assume that you "learned" it and won't recover old material. I'm currently in Critical care and the professor "skips" sections of the book saying, this is stuff you SHOULD already know. And it is all testable, so Pharm, Patho, Med/Surg, OB, Peds, Psych, Fundamentals, Assessment, etc..........are all fair game in Critical care.......so take the time to learn it now.

Which bring up the next point, if you have questions then ASK..........
now is the time for that, remember the number one priority is patient safety........now, later and always.
I could give you different strategies for dealing with the different classes but at this stage it's best not to give you too much to think about, you already have enough..........and it does get better, much better.

[Jilaweez]

I think we are all feeling a little overwhelmed....but I just think of all those brilliant people who have gone before us and made it through. Hopefully we will too!

[JarOfPennies]

I feel your pain. Having survived three exams in one week, I was relieved to only have one test this week (on Monday). I spent 5 1/2 hours studying for it today only to receive an email from the instructor who told us that the test would be on chapters that are completely DIFFERENT from what our syllabus says!!

[sum07]

welcome to the club

I've only been in school for 4 weeks, but my program has been really good about letting us express our anxiety and issues. Let's just say that our communication lab is basically group therapy! Hopefully your program has some outlet like that.

Deep breathing.
We all feel the same way.
We will get through it!