Is it just me?

[mountainchickenfrog]

I am only in my first semester of nursing school, with nursing as a second degree and having serious doubts about why anyone would put themselves through this. At first I was lost and felt totally incompetent but just eleven weeks in I am getting great grades and comfortable with clinical. The only problem is I have lost sight of my motivation. If anyone has any words of encouragement or sayings that helped them get through, I would be soooo grateful!

[MissBrittanyRN]

Hi there. Can you explain what you mean by losing sight of your motivation? Most students' motivation is, of course, finishing and becoming licensed. Is it something that you are no longer interested in? Or are you getting bored with what your learning?

In my first semester I think that I temporary lost my motivation because I was not interested in what we were learning that semester. I wanted to be a labor and delivery nurse, and although I was learning, I already knew a great deal of what we were learning from my CNA experience. Most of our theory and clinical was geared toward long term and acute care (primarily geriatrics.) I loved the patients, but was bored, and just ready to learn maternal-newborn material. What got me through was just telling myself that I was getting ahead of myself and that I needed to focus on what I was learning at the time as it was the building blocks for all of nursing, and although I was not learning specific specialty material geared toward labor and delivery, as an L&D nurse I still needed to understand the person as a whole, not just her uterus :-) That is probably what helped me refocus.

So, this may not even be close to what you are experiencing, but that's my story! Whats yours?

[goodstudentnowRN]

You have to be strong...the stress of nursing school will surely cause you not to be motivated. I have felt that way many times but I kept on going and now I am in Preceptorship. Just try to keep your eyes on the prize and you will be fine.

[Somethingcreative]

I feel for you. I know exactly what you are going through. Stay strong and don't loose sight of your goal. Don't give up now that you've gotten so far.

Anytime I felt down and out I thought about the reasons why I am going through this and that was because of my family and my dream of becoming a nurse. Good luck you can do it! :)

[diane227, LPN, RN]

It will get better. As you get to clinical, start taking care of patients and interacting with people at the bedside it will motivate you more. Just hang in there.