Balancing school and life?

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Hello everyone! So, one of the things I hear (and read) all the time is that nursing students are always busy, busy, busy, and have absolutely no spare time whatsoever. And so, my question is, how do you find a balance between school and your personal life. When your life is so consumed with school and studying how do you know when to stop and say "this is enough for today," and go do something other than school work. Or, can you never really be done with studying? I hope what i'm saying is making sense lol. I have a hard time determining when to stop and am scared that I will get burnt out really quickly.

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1. Setting times or certain days when to study and finish projects or assignments really helps.

2. Buying a planner so you plan ahead of when things are due.

3. Many people I know stay after class, go to the library and study. That way you go home and enjoy yourself knowing that you already studied.

Just find things that work for you honestly. You can honestly do it just don't stress yourself. I'm a mom with a two year old, a job and attending school to receive my BSN, trust me if I can do it, so can you !

Enjoy

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

I've had four nursing school experiences in my life (LVN '05, ASN '10, BSN '15, current MSN student). None of them consumed my life in an all-encompassing manner.

The reality is that some people waste time because they do not know how to study in an efficient manner. Others like to exaggerate their importance, claiming that nursing is one of the hardest majors when it really isn't that difficult.

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Make a schedule or a calendar. Organization is the key to success in nursing school. Review little by little and not in big chunks. You can't expect to cram everything in one day for an exam. Find out what type of learner are you: visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. If your instructor allows, record their lecture and listen on your way home. Study smarter, not harder.

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Specializes in mental health / psychiatic nursing.

Organization. I have my week broken down into class time, homework/study time, exercise time, hobby time, and personal time. School is fairly consuming for me (~40-50hours/week) - however even as an ABSN student I do still have time to do things not school (like post on AllNurses ;)) and balance those things with the effort it requires to maintain high grades in my coursework.

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You can't listen to other people on this one, really. You know how you were in previous school environments, so you really need to learn and take note from that. Personally I was an excellent student in high school, average in college (non-nursing degree) and then was an excellent nursing student in my ADN program.

Listening to others in my program you would have thought we were going to completely different schools. I think a lot of people over studied to the point of being comical. They would rush off to the library and spend hours going over the material that was just lectured about, and sometimes the reading was only around 25 pages. You shouldn't need hours to do that!

Be honest with yourself and your studying. I have found a lot of people who "studied" for four hours straight maybe studied for about 1 hour and the rest was goofing off. Just be smarter with your studying, do the reading and make some notecards and call it a day. Take a few days off, it won't ruin your grades and probably will improve them since you wouldn't be constantly cramming.

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I had a lot of difficulty with time management when I was in school, but once you learn how to time manage, it will not only be beneficial for when you're in school, but also when you get out.

Like all of the things the others mentioned, I would vouch for 1) getting a planner or a small, pocketsized notebook (which is what I did). My old school's syllabus also would regularly hand out 2) a calendar for what will be taught--if they don't have this ready, make one of your own or ask your professors.

3) Reading material in advance also helps. It isn't always possible, but if you get a break from school, say a holiday, read a little. It helps retain info for when you prof talks about the subject, so then you study later on about it less.

4) High-light notes during lecture--especially the things your prof covers. Now I know this can be very difficult as you'll most certainly be colouring your WHOLE book, but listening and high-lighting at the same time, again, helps with info retention. So when you get home, you'll see what was emphasized and really covered.

5) Use a review book--like Saunders, which gives you the #1 (or top 20 lol) thing you need to know about certain diseases, cases, nursing actions. I found that when you're in class, your profs can really steer off topic and that can confuse you. Using a review book helps redirect you to less of what you have to know.

6) Actually get time off for yourself. Burn out is the fastest thing that can happen to you. I made sure I had exercise about 3-4 times a week (not always possible, especially near tests) but destressing will help A LOT. If you don't exercise, try something else of your hobbies; baking, hanging out with friends. Point is, you still need time off.

Best of luck, future nurse!

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I'm sorry but that is just ridiculous. I have a husband, three kids, parents, friends, etc and of course I still have time for them. Not as much time as before, but time nonetheless.

If you study efficiently then it is not much of a problem. I remember some of my classmates saying it took them hours and hours to do their care plans, well that was because they got a study room and would talk and BS for most of it.

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