Friendly suggestion for all RN to BSN and beyond students

I and several of my coworkers are in RN to BSN or RN to MSN programs at this time. Nearly all of us have the experience of writing MANY MANY papers, creating many presentations, teaching projects, etc.

As a public service announcement, I thought I would post here the ONE piece of advice I wish someone would have shared with me prior to my entry into the program:

Pick a subject, and try to write most of your papers, presentations, teaching projects, etc on that one subject, whenever possible. I'm not saying RECYCLE your papers; I'm saying RECYCLE your research. By the end of your program, you'll have a huge body of research and knowledge over this one subject, and some of the papers and projects you do by that point will be of publishable potential. You'll have an extremely thorough knowledge of that area.

I didn't do this for my first couple of classes, and by chance started doing it for my last two semesters. It has made such a difference in the amount of time I spend gathering journal articles, informative/advocacy websites, and teaching materials. Of course, I still need to do some research for each assignment; but I have this body of foundational research that already exists which I don't need to waste time building. For my last project, rather that search through CINAHL again, I was able to use my base research I had already compiled, and went into the community and did multiple interviews and conducted my own survey of these individuals. My project rocked, if I do say so myself. There is no way I would have had the time or the knowledge base to do that sort of research if I would have had to start from scratch.

So there's my advice to all you who are considering or in the early phases of your RN to BSN/MSN programs. Pick a subject, compile an extensive foundation of research on it, and make your life much easier during your last few semesters.