What are your BEST tips on being successful in an ADN program????

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · Nov 17, 2014

Nursing School is a hard program. Just how hard it will be on you will greatly depend upon your ability to effectively manage your time. I had to work full-time and raise a family while going to nursing school full-time. I still had time for some social life, but it was pretty limited. Time management was crucial and I was able to (usually) get adequate sleep to boot! What made a big difference for me was that I already had a very solid and broad understanding of the body, normal physiology, and pathophys going into nursing school. I didn't have to build an entirely new knowledge base. That definitely helped a LOT and allowed me to study those concepts that I didn't know.

I was fortunate in that my program gave us a calendar with all our assignments, quiz and exam dates, lab/skills days, and the like every semester. There were very few surprises. Since it was a word file, I always kept a copy on my computer so that I could modify it as soon as changes were announced in class. I also kept a more general calendar up to date through Google. This allowed me to better visualize my weekly schedule so I wouldn't overextend myself. Everything I did or had to go to ended up in Google Calendar. That was right down to after-exam get-together events.

I was also fortunate in that my job allowed me to be able to study while at work, as long as it didn't impact my job performance. That was a huge help too as it minimized the study time I'd need when I got home every night.

I cannot stress enough the importance of getting enough rest. If you don't allow for time to get sufficient rest most nights (sometimes you'll get very little sleep) you stand a very good chance of burning out before you finish school and the process of burning out can be very insidious but your friends and family will see it in you long before you recognize it. It can make your school experience a living hell (at best) and result in you getting kicked out of school permanently because of unsafe behavior. Even if you don't burn out, not getting enough rest will result in sleep deprivation and that can cause performance problems as well. During one semester, I got sleep deprived and I nearly failed out and since I hadn't really learned the clinical stuff as solidly as I could have (I was that tired) caused problems the next semester, resulting in failing out. I was lucky in that I was able to realize what had happened and had a plan to deal with the problems, but that also meant that I had to repeat coursework, and I was rolled back a year and ended up in what I call the "3 year plan of a 2 year program" because of sleep deprivation. Moving forward from there, I did quite well and smashed the NCLEX with just 75 questions in just under an hour of actual testing time.

The point of that, which should be abundantly clear, is organize your time in all facets of your life. Stay organized and ahead of assignment tasks whenever possible. Be in class every day and do your best in clinicals. Always be respectful when you're at a clinical site because you're the guest in their house and it's not easy to have students around. Exams will be a PITA because they will quickly no longer be exams that you can just regurgitate stuff you just read, you will have to use that information as background to help you come up with the best answer for the situation at hand.

Nursing School promises to be one of the most difficult, challenging, fun, and amazing rides of your life. How it turns out for you largely depends upon, well, you.