How to become and stay organized in nursing school?

[sameyeam]

Hello to all the nurses and students!

I was recently accepted in a nursing program (dream job!), and I will begin in January.

My question is to all of the students/nurses out there (at least the ones who remember being students!), and it's about organization.

I consider myself fairly organized, although I wish I was better at it. My intentions to be organized are always better than the outcome. I was an excellent student during my undergrad, and attributed that to my studying habits rather than my organizational skills. I'm striving to become more organized in my life -- in my home, at work, and now at school.

I read many forums about the key to success in nursing school is staying organized. Does anyone have any tips on how to do this? First and foremost how to GET organized followed by how to STAY organized. Even things as simple as how many binders to purchase, shelving, excel, labeling, etc? I know I will less stressed each night coming home not only to an organized desk, but with organized notes, etc.

All advice is welcome, and the more specific, the better!

Thank you!

[mjbarnes]

Hi! I am in my second year of nursing school right now and I do agree it is very, very important to develop good study habits as well as organizational skills! Everyone is different, but I will share what has worked for me:

Highlighters. I highlight my books. It helps me key in on what I need to focus on.

Note cards & a note card holder. These can be readily available to help you study at inconvienent times (during drs visits, waiting on lunch, etc.)

A notebook, for extra paper.

A pencil/pen holder, to store all your pens.

A jump drive so you can access your work from any computer.

A book bag. With all those books, you'll need it!

A calendar/day planner to help you stay on track. Very important in the first year when this is all VERY overwelming.

Also, do NOT procrastinate. Procrastinating will put you so far behind in nursing school. Read ahead, stay focused, and relax a little. Take a break and do something fun at regular intervals. This will minimize stress(as much as it can be) and help you stay focused. Good luck!

[MsAlba]

I took a nursing success skills course last semester and it really helped me with better study habits and being more organized. I can't explain everything here but I will tell you a few.

For a single suject, converge class notes and notes that you take on your own so you don't have a lot of repeat information. rewriting it to converge it will help you remember it and it organizes your notes neatly. Also, only write your notes on one side of the paper so that later on when you're studying you don't need to continuously flip the paper over to find information. Writing it only on the front will keep the information all right in front of you.

This is a little off topic but I wanted to add this in becuase it was helpful to me. When studying on your own, read the major titles and subtitles to get an idea of what you should be learning about in the section. look at diagrams and read the information under them. Read the sections and then re read them, highlighting the pertinent information. These are the things you would copy down and add to notes from class. It is time consuming but after I did it, I found it to be very helpful!

[RNpearls1908]

How to survive clinical by Diann Martin PhD was an amazing book. It gives you personal stories and opinions from nursing students n faculty on how to be successful in lecture n clinical including a section on organization. It's an easy read since its filled with direct quotes broken down. Once again a must get before starting or even while in school!!!!

[perioddrama]

A dayplanner was my secret weapon. Those dayplanners helped me during school with all the different deadlines for homework, projects, and tests/quizzes. It also helped me when I needed to make goals and make sure I was on top of them: start part one of the essay by this day and part two should be done by this date.

Good luck!