How do I find time for personal relationships?

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I am starting my first semester as a nursing student next week. I am nervous at the thought of not seeing my family (who I already moved an hour away from when I got engaged) as well as my husband. My husband is already an RN, so he knows the chaotic schedules and long study hours, etc., however, my family does not know how crazy things will be for me! Current nursing students, how do you deal with maintaining personal relationships with family, significant others and friends while going through this journey? Reading what people say and talking to others in the program, I feel like I will never see my family or husband and they are the ones who keep me sane! Any comments are greatly appreciated! ?

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I'm curious about this myself. My fiancé and I are currently long distance. He's living in Georgia while I'm starting nursing school in Ontario in a week. I think the limited times well be seeing eachother (my breaks and his) every two months or so might be helpful. It's easier to Skype than go out I guess.

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Skype is awesome. My hubby just left last month to Ky/Tn (I live in Nv). it's gonna be hard, but we'll make it work because we have to! I'm sad to say though, that most of my non NS friends have disappeared from my life :-( I don't get invited to get togethers anymore, or for moms night out anymore. We're still FB friends, but it's not the same, KWIM? It's sad, but I have my NS buddies as well, and they know how it is!

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I remember the week before nursing school I got curriculum guide with reading assignments, etc. I sat down and thought I would get a head start. I started reading and reading and reading and then I started crying and crying and crying. I thought there is no way I will have a life if this is how much work there is to do before I even start clinical or lecture.

Oh man, I laugh at myself now. There are some weeks in school that are intense. Hours of studying because your being quizzed the next day on that morning's lecture. Skills test, theory test, and assignments due. BUT, I learned that you can't read every chapter and article. I go to class, listen, take notes, make outlines, study a few hours a week (or more if needed) and I get A's. I know everyone is different in the amount of time needed, but I am telling you that you will find there are some (if not more) days that you will be able to go to dinner with friends/family etc.

I work 20 hours a week and it has made it a little bit harder, but 99% of the time I can work my schedule in an evening to make a family gathering or watch my DVR show. Well, every night except the night before clinical. Those nights (unless you get a lucky assignment) you are gone to the world ;)

By the way I don't have children... that makes a difference too. I give major props to the moms out there that have to go to baseball practice, ballet recitals, etc the night before a test!

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Specializes in NICU.

My new husband and I have a date night once a week: Fridays. After he gets home from work, I get dressed up (actually put on makeup and do my hair) and stop studying for the rest of the night. We do dinner and maybe a movie or go catch a few drinks with friends. It's our night. Depending on my workload that week, I usually pick an hour each week to call or see my parents and let them know about how crazy but good everything is. This seems to work well for everyone. Breaks from school are usually the time I would take advantage and hang out with everyone as much as possible. They'll start to understand soon enough.

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Specializes in ER.

My husband is an RN as well, so he "gets it." It's hard to find time together, especially since we also have 3 small kids, but it is doable. A lot of our conversations now revolve around nursing which is nice because I have a live-in study partner! We also try to do a date night every other week. He saves up his PTO for when I have breaks, so we can take family trips together whenever I have a break from school.

The rest of my family has just had to accept that I don't have much time anymore. I saw them a lot over the summer, but now that I'm back in school I will probably only see them for birthdays and holidays. I don't see many of my old friends anymore. New friends from nursing school have sort of taken over, but I never had a really strong group of friends anyway. Try to remember that nursing school won't last forever. :yeah:

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Having people in your life who understand makes it so much easier. I have one very close friend who is also in college, but not nursing, and she's very understanding about my schedule, and the fact that I have to say "no" to hanging out some nights. She even told me she arranged her schedule a little so that some of her free time would match up with mine!

So, it's great that your husband is an RN and he already gets it. So maybe it could be helpful to just sit down with your other family members and let them know that nursing school is something that's really important to you, and that it's gonna (temporarily!) take up a ton of your time and energy, and that you probably won't be able to see them as often as before.

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