Any Advice To Help Get Through Nursing School?

GrnHonu99, RN · Jun 1, 2005

Good Luck and congrats:)

the best advice I have for you is:

DONT GET BEHIND....if you get behind even for one day it just starts a whole snowball effect...better to get on top and stay there!!

conceptualize and relate your new knowledge to practical job skills...use critical thinking...

get a nice sturdy bookbag...

i like recording my lectures on a digital recorder....then i can listen agin and again..lol...

dont be afraid to ask questions...the teachers loooove when you ask questions:)

NurseyBaby'05, BSN, RN · Jun 1, 2005

1. Go to class!

2. Try to get everything else organized so you can focus on school.

3. If there's something you don't understand, get it clarified (repeatedly, if necessary) until you do. Guaranteed you will see it again.

4. When the s*** hits the fan (and it will), remind yourself that nursing school is not forever.

5. Get some good friends that either have been there already or are going through it with you. Friends and family can be great for support, but they haven't been there and don't always understand what you went through at the end of the day.*

* This saved my as . . .er . . . . neck on many occasions. My first pt. death. My preemie baby that liked to desat and not breathe when she ate and I had to bag her. When I was so burned out in my next to last semester that I nearly walked away and never looked back and they talked me into staying. When some concepts just would not sink in and with their slightly skewed perspective shed some light on them and I was able to learn. The fact that they understood why I found a lot macabre aka ghastly things so funny I almost peed my pants. (and laughed right alongside me.)

Yeah, I think number 5 is the most important.

Good Luck to You! :balloons:

NurseyBaby'05, BSN, RN · Jun 1, 2005

i like recording my lectures on a digital recorder....then i can listen agin and again..lol...

One thing a lot of my classmates found helpful was transcribing the lectures that they recorded. It was ingrained better when they typed it. It was also helpful to see what the professor was saying in black and white. They could write down any questions they had and may have forgotten during class and email them to the instructor or ask them at the next class.

kristen38 · Jun 3, 2005

If you have a part time job work as little hours as possible (hopefully money is not an issue, because that adds stress as well).

Like what was said above, keep up with the work. Getting behind makes me stressed and makes me not work effectively. In my first year I fell behind in readings and had to catch up on 14 chapters, and it took a lot of time.

Go to class. There is a girl in my program who is never in class. Somehow she has passed everything so far, just barely, her marks are in the 60's.

Be ready to stay in on nights that you would normally go out on. I always went out Saturday nights, but since school started I rarley go out on weekends (but I always make sure to see my friends at least every two weeks, to help keep me sane).

Hope this helps

Kristen

student_girl · Jun 3, 2005

Get a good planner, it's very handy....to write the tons of reading and work to do! :rolleyes: And get a good friend who is as passionate about nursing school than you. That way, you can talk and practise vocabulary and theories seen in class. Oh, try to learn some stress-managing technique, too.:chuckle Good luck!