Suggestions and tips for someone who's about to begin nursing school

Nursing Students General Students

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Hey, everyone!

As you have seen from the title, I am about to begin nursing school september 8th. I have no idea what to expect and I know nothing I do will ever really prepare me for the journey I am about to embark on, but I would appreciate all of the tips and suggestions I can get, big or small. I am going to attempt to work while in the program, one to two days a week. I would love to not work, but right now I have expenses that need to be covered while I am attending school. I could use any words of advice, whether it be studying habits, how to prepare for clinicals, etc. I am in desperate need of your guys' help!

Thank you all for your time!!

Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

When it comes to studying habits, what works best for people is going to be individualized. I highly recommend using surveys to find your personal learning style(s). My current favorite happens to be the VARK questionnaire.

Good luck to you. I will be a 2nd year ns starting Monday. The one big thing that helped me is not to focus on everything that has to be accomplished or graded on. I did that my first semester and almost had a nervous breakdown. I just could not see how all of this was going to be accomplished by myself in 16 weeks. So I got a monthly calendar, which I still do, which fits in my binder and I only look at what's due and going on for that week. Trust me when I say your instructor will definitely remind you when a test is coming, they always do. Keep you faith on high and cry if you need to cry but then tell satan to step back because we got things to do. :up:

Specializes in Prior military RN/current ICU RN..

Are you saying Satan is involved in nursing school? Nursing school is difficult because you need to learn a lot of material to provide good care to your patient. I don't see what "satan" has to do with hard work?

Hello! Second year nursing student here. One thing that a lot of people in my program still haven't gotten used to is how "unstructured" nursing school is. Yes, there's a schedule. Yes, there are due dates. But things can and do change at the drop of a dime. It's frustrating but it's just the nature of the beast. We don't get our schedule until right before the beginning of a semester and for some, they have a really hard time with it and demand to know further in advance. It doesn't happen, they have to deal with it, and complain about it the entire time.

If you can go into your program with the mindset that you're just gonna ride the waves, you'll be miles ahead of the game.

I'm just about the start my last term of nursing school, and looking back on the experience, I would say the best advice is to make all the stuff you need to do to remain a fully functional person non-optional. It can become the norm to eat takeout 5 nights a week, not exercise, and not take time to do whatever it is that makes you feel less crazy. You just have to tell yourself that it isn't an option. It's like the whole concept of putting money into your saving account each month right away... factor in time for cooking, working out, reading, or whatever at the beginning of each week, like you would for homework or work.

Good luck! The advice above to ride the waves is also super good!

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