PurplePens

I wasn’t a nurse long before the pandemic started, but even in the beginning of Covid, I still loved nursing. I enjoyed work, co workers, and patients. These last couple months staffing went out the window for my shift (nights). Our experienced nurses quit. At one point I had 9 patients, 3 total cares, and surrounded by new grads as charge nurse and clerk on a full med surge floor. I have went PRN since because of it. The night was horrific, and from what I’ve heard from full time employees it’s worse. I have not scheduled myself for October yet, but I’ve already told my manager that I can’t come to work until next week. It will make my second week off. I'm beyond frazzled from work, and I feel guilty taking this break. My question is how do you come back from burn out? I truly do enjoy my job. They say every hospital is like ours right now, and that makes me feel guilty for feeling this way. But our ratios have been 7:1 and two to five total cares per nurse if we are lucky to have an aid. More often than not, I am also charge nurse and clerk. I feel pushed to my limit right now and need a break.

If you're studying for a class, I always found it easier to read or skim through the core content before answering questions. That way if I got stumped or missed it, I knew exactly where in the book to look for the correct answer and rationale. It sounds like you may be studying for boards tho, and since I haven't taken mine I'm not sure I can give great advice. However, in the past two semesters at my school previous students said they found UWorld to have been extremely helpful, and we had 100% pass rate out of sixty students last semester — according to the professors.

Reading these comments brought tears to my eyes. Thank you so much for your wonderful, encouraging and motivating responses. I didn't know I needed to hear some of the words that were said, and I'm grateful for the time you guys took to write them. My first practicum clinical went well. I spent a majority of it learning how my preceptor navigates through the ED, so that I could emulate it to eventually find my own way. I don't want to be a scared student nurse forever because that will make a terrified new grade nurse, so thank you guys again for tipping my chin up when I really needed it. :)

I feel like I've come a loooong ways away from when I first started using this site. I'm now in my fourth and final semester of nursing school, and I feel almost sick with how busy the semester is. I started marking dates in my planner, thinking that would help ease my anxiety, but I think it's making it worse. There's nothing like being prepared, but I just wonder how I'm to do it all? Between practicum, assignments, studying, and exams when am I supposed to wind down or sleep? In the last two years of nursing school, I don't think my anxiety has every reached a peak like this one. Tbh, I think it's my practicum that's freaking me out the most. I am in the ED, and I just don't feel comfortable there at all, which is good because I think I'll learn a lot and be forced to hone certain skills, but I'm still a nervous wreck. My home and heart was in the ICU, Telemetry, and Med Surg floors, and this feels like a totally different ball game. The upside is that my preceptor is a sweetie; I had her as semester during my clinical ED rotation. I guess I'm just nervous about looking stupid. ? Please give me any advice that you can. Classes start mid next week, and I feel so lost when I should be excited. Thank you for reading.

For sure keep going! 86 is not out of your reach. Studying effectively is the key. Break it down into pieces you can understand and put back together, and give yourself plenty of time before the test to learn the information. Don't just memorize. Learn it so you can teach it to your wall or favorite stuffed animal - or your pet even. :) I'm also studying hard to raise my Patho grade, so you are not alone. Keep your chin up and GRIND. It's nearly November. We're almost done

Communication is key in group work. I don't think you were wrong exactly, but if you had designated topics everyone decided beforehand that they would do, I think you should have said something before you started doing work. Just because you did not get mad doesn't mean other people will react the same. I know it sucks, but sometimes you have to grit your teeth and bare it until the project is over.

I'm only in my first semester of nursing school, but I never read the chapters before class. My professors also want us to read before we come, and I do skim sometimes, but what I've found to be more effective is underlining the points they make in class in the book. Since my professors teach straight from the text&ppt it's easier to pick out what they want me to know. If I'm not clear on the subject I'll continue to read through the section of the chapter until I am. Reading the text before class is just not always helpful, especially if I know nothing about it; I don't want to get confused and remember the information wrong. Hope that helps!

Thank you, when I read this I actually did take it easy the night before the exam and scored an 88%. As hard as it was to relax, it made all the difference. (: There are only three tests in this class though, so one test might have sunk me if I did badly enough.

I have a big test coming up this Monday, and I'm not feeling too great about it. I'm proud of my grades and check-offs thus far, but this upcoming exam might shake the confidence I've managed to build. I'm crossing my fingers that I make a redeemable grade, but my hopes are not high. In the meantime, I'm trying to stay calm and study as effectively as possible. So, when you hit a bump in the road, what do you do that cheers you up? After this test I might need to borrow some of your techniques. I wish I were kidding.

This is true. That case study was my first real step into application based questions, but I will definitely ask my professors for assistance if I continue to struggle. :') Thank you so much.

I thought I was bummed about making a 70% on our first quiz, but I just finished a case study to find I made a 55% It's only worth two points but still. Two points can matter down the road. I read the reasoning as to why these answers were wrong and plan to go back over the chapter, but I want to know if this will get easier with practice? By practice I mean studying smarter and using every resource I can to prepare for homework/tests. I'd rather not keep failing in order to learn my lesson as it's a blessing at all that I made it into the program. Any advice or stories even would be very much appreciated. :')