Stress & Nursing School

happystudent, RN · Jan 24, 2004

hi Bamastudent

Um, yeah.. Nursing school is very stessfull. Right now, I am at the tail end and what I have noticed is during the beginning of each semester I felt very anxious. Towards the end my confidence in my skills and work increased dramatically.

Right now I am at a point where I am eager to finish and graduate. There is so much more that I want to learn and do that it gets frustrating at times.

As for your self esteem, its hard to say. For the most part I feel pretty good about myself. I have learned to let the stressful things that I cant control roll off my back.........And deal with the other stuff as it comes..........

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jan 25, 2004

For me my confidence was shaken daily for about the first year, then I switched to an entire different area of nursing in another state and it took about another year. :)

Even today there are challenges that call me to question and berate myself. Just last week I had a secretary run off the floor crying saying I was demeaning her during a time I was stressed. I nearly cried myself beating myself up over what a horrible charge nurse I was, and who was I fooling by thinking I could be a "team leader" (even though I've been doing charge for about 10 years), that I should quit and find a nice job somewhere else where no one knew what a horrible nurse I was.

When dealing with patients that are challenging like the one who refused his telemetry unit, I beat myself up "I shouldn't have said that...." or "why didn't I think of this and that...". Or when a patient goes bad, "what did I do wrong, what didn't I see, it's my fault this patient crashed..".

But you've made it this far, you will do just fine. A healthy dose of humility balanced with a healthy dose of confidence is needed every day.

It's quite normal though the first year or so of nursing to feel insecure, to question yourself, etc. I think those nurses are the best one's. The one's who come out with the attitude "I'm the big shot RN who runs the show and I know it all" are the ones I watch very carefully.

Good luck to you!!!

elkpark · Jan 25, 2004

nursing school is extremely demanding and stressful. Try to take good care of yourself (plenty of sleep, good nutrition, maintain your sense of humor, maintain some outside recreational interests that have nothing to do with nursing!) The adjustment from nursing school to being a practicing nurse is also famously horrible, but you can survive. I found it helpful to keep thinking about all the people who were already nurses (at least some of whom, I was pretty sure, were not as bright as me :chuckle ) -- they had all been through the same experience, and they had all made it, SO ...

giftedRN · Jan 25, 2004

Nursing school is really really stressful but you have to keep your eyes on the prize! I have to take care of my two children and most times they complain that I do not take them to places but I have to do my school work! I always tell them that I cannot afford to be behind in my school work, hence, they have to be patient. I am doing fine so far and hope to continue to do my best until I am finished with Nursing school.

:D

Love!

Ann

AuroraRN · Jan 25, 2004

I have been a student for quite some time. I first obtained and ADN degree at a local community college, then a BSN from a university, and now I am still going to school for graduate studies. So, therefore, I have been highly stressed for the last 4 years of my life. At this point, I feel that the support of my friends attending school with me is the one and only thing keeping me there!! There are some things you can do to help. I'm not sure what kind of job you have now, but you could try to only work three days a week or on weekends if it is a nursing type job. Believe it or not, exercise is another great stress reliever, you just have to fit the time in to do it(I know, easier said than done!). Also, it looks like the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight--December!!! It will be worth all of the hard work in the end. As for after school, you will go through a period of time where you are unsure of yourself, but this will pass. Anyways, at least after school there will be no more book studying at home!!! That means a social life again!! Yeah!!

sjoe · Jan 25, 2004

"Could you tell me when your self esteem and confidence returns?"

Your self esteem and confidence are likely to return when you are able to, willing to, and actually DO perform up to challenging professional standards that you have set for yourself.

If you wait for others to somehow "grant" you these characteristics, then the answer is that NO dependable self-esteem and/or self-confidence will be in store for you.

NICU_RNwantsFL · Jan 25, 2004

Hi Bama,

Been out of nursing school 2-1/2 years, and, sorry to say, confidence and esteem are still pretty shaky. It's true what they say about nurses "eating their young";while many nurses are very gracious to newcomers, many have forgotten what it was like to be "green" - they seem to forget that they did not miraculously appear on the unit the first day knowing everything. Hence, you feel like an idiot, always asking questions. But I would much rather appear to be an idiot than to jeopardize my patients, so I continue to ask questions. There are a lot of cliques, too - sort of like re-visiting junior high. I just work on improving my skills (and therefore, confidence and esteem) one shift at a time, and try to stay out of the politics.

RN-BamaStudent · Jan 25, 2004

sjoe

I'm not waiting for someone to "grant" me these things, I was just asking other's about their experiences, and trying to see how it may relate to me in the future. After reading your post, I went to other threads you have posted on, and see that you aren't very friendly to anyone, so you must be the one with the self esteem problem if you have to put down people just to make yourself feel better. And the ones that back you are just afraid that the bully will pick on them next.

RN-BamaStudent · Jan 25, 2004

Thank you to everyone here that has taken the time to answer my question without feeling like they had to put me down while doing so! After all, we are all here for the same reason, and we should be here for eachother. I appreciate everyone who has been honest enough to share their feelings with me, and I know that the very ones that aren't so confident now, will be the very ones that continue to work on being the best nurse that they can be. Sometimes the ones that feel totally confident forget where they came from, and become stationary without room to grow. I will have to overcome the stress that I feel now as a student, but know in the long run, that this will make me a stronger and better nurse for having done so.

mattsmom81 · Jan 26, 2004

Originally posted by RN-BamaStudent
sjoe
I'm not waiting for someone to "grant" me these things, I was just asking other's about their experiences, and trying to see how it may relate to me in the future. After reading your post, I went to other threads you have posted on, and see that you aren't very friendly to anyone, so you must be the one with the self esteem problem if you have to put down people just to make yourself feel better. And the ones that back you are just afraid that the bully will pick on them next.

Not unfriendly just tough love, IMHO.

You WILL gain confidence by succeeding in school...listening to your instructors, understanding the high expectations and meeting them. Trust your instructors...they are there to guide you.

And yes....then you get thrown into the real world and a whole other set of problems....but you will learn how to balance them!

Best wishes...we were all there once and we made it...you can too!

TiffyRN, BSN, PhD · Jan 26, 2004

My own opinion, my own experience. . .

Nursing school was horrible, vastly unsupportive, sent almost all the student to the brink of their sanity. 37 of 50 students graduated (I think I heard we had 400 applicants). It was a series of hoops we had to jump through to be legal to take the NCLEX (36 of 37 passed on 1st try). Somehow I managed to get through school having practiced almost no skills. We had a list of skills we were supposed to finish, mine was barely touched. And I know nursing is more than skills, I think I did learn the basics of assessment, I'll give them that. Real learning started with hospital orientation and it took about a year before I didn't feel lost, about 2 years before I felt confident I kinda knew what I was doing.

My advice. . . It IS up to you! I could have gotten more out of nursing school, I was waiting to be instructed. I should have been out on the floor looking for skills I could convince my instructor to do with me. I was not aggressive enough in nursing school. When you get your first nursing job seek out a good preceptor, it may not be the one assigned to you, not all learning styles mesh. You will likely be able to rely on a good preceptor after your official orientation is over. My old preceptors were always so happy to answer my questions and explain things months after my orientation was over.