1st Semester Nursing Student Anxious!

Hannahbanana, BSN, MSN · Feb 21, 2021

Read the cover on the mayonnaise jar: Keep cool, do not freeze. ?

Seriously.

Your faculty may seem scary, but they are very invested in seeing that you and your classmates become competent nurses.

Therefore, it is in their best interests to help you. Get to know them. Attend office hours prepared to ask specific questions about things you're a little fuzzy on. If they offer pre-exam review sessions, move heaven and earth to attend them, and also any post-exam reviews. They will notice, and your confidence will go up as you get things you thought were hard.

Even if not hard, just "fuzzy," go now. Nursing school, unlike any other major, doesn't lend itself to study-take test-sell book-go to next semester. You will be held accountable for everything you learn now all the way through, and at higher and higher levels of understanding and application. That's the point. Never let something slip past thinking you'll figure it out later, because more things will be building on it, and you can get behind before you know it.

The fact that you're asking now and not in your third semester when you're really in the soup is an excellent sign. Go forth and do good work!

peach2218, CNA · Feb 22, 2021

First semester I would go through my notes and highlight the important parts. Then, I would record myself reading those notes out loud and I'd add in little tidbits that I thought would help me remember.

When classes were still on campus (before COVID), I would listen to those recordings on the drive in to take my exam. It helped, for some reason.

Now, I read through my notes but I also watch a lotttt of Youtube videos. RegisterednurseRN and Simple Nursing have saved my butt this semester. I've passed the two hardest exams of the semester with an 84 & 88. I take a lot of quizzes online that cover the material I'm learning (as long as the information is the same as what we're being taught. Some schools have different lab values that they want you to go with). Keep cool. Don't wait until the last minute to study, try and do a little bit every day. And this seems obvious, but do not cheat. No matter how tempting. Last semester, our exams were online but they weren't proctored. Half of my cohort was cheating. Taking exams with each other, googling every single question, etc. A good portion of them are failing now because all of our exams are proctored, and it's because they lost their studying skills and didn't keep up with the material.