Tips on surviving through nursing school

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Specializes in Electrophysiology, Medical-Surgical ICU.

I am a new nursing student, and school starts in about a week and a half. I'm super excited about becoming anurse because it's something I wanted to do for a very very long time...I'm just wondering if any one has and tip on making it through nursing school. I've heard it can be rough so any suggestions would most definantly be appreciated!!!!! :-)

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Specializes in Telemetry.

I really liked the book "How to Survive and Maybe Even Love Nursing School" :)

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My advice is just judge it based on YOUR own opinion. A lot of people make things sound way worse than they really are. Don't go into school thinking it's going to be the most impossible or difficult thing. Anxiety is a killer lol. Just because everyone says a certain class will be impossible, you might think it's easy...just do it for you and you'll be fine. Take it as it comes one day at a time.

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If you enjoy it, you'll do great! You really need to enjoy what you're learning, otherwise it's going to be a lot more stressful on you.

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Hi! I just finished my first semester. Here's what helped me:

1) Organize your time. Make a study schedule (at least 2 hrs per day) and a "life" schedule. Stick to the schedule (this is the important part).

2) Read before class. This way you will know what you don't understand ahead of time and can ask intelligent questions during class.

3) DO NOT try to be perfect. You will put way too much pressure on yourself and will probably drop out the first week. (Happened to two of my classmates.)

4) Make sure you follow all of the rules and meet all of the deadlines. This is your responsibility, not the instructors'. We had one girl fail because she didn't schedule a test re-take by the deadline, and she was surprised that the teacher didn't schedule it for her.

5) Make study time a priority. I had to tell my entire family not to contact me unless I contacted them first because they kept breaking in to my study time and my grades dropped.

6) You determine your own level of success. Make sure you put forth the amount of effort you need to get the grade you want. I wanted an A, but I wanted my marriage to succeed more, so I settled for a B. If you have kids or other responsibilities, you may have to settle for a C. There's nothing wrong with that! As many posters here like to say, C = RN. Just know ahead of time that effort = success.

7) When it comes to clinical time, try to get at least six hours of sleep beforehand or you will be DANGEROUS to your patient.

8) When it comes to test time, RELAX. If you stress yourself out, you won't do as well. We had several people get so wound up before tests that they made themselves fail. Some finally learned to relax by the end of the semester and were able to pull their grades up enough to pass.

Find out what works for you, whether it is meditation, guided imagery, prayer, whatever. Chocolate and caffeine worked for me, last minute review worked for others.

8) Enjoy yourself! I really enjoy learning about nursing. I enjoy my classmates, my instructors, and especially clinicals. Having a good time makes learning a lot easier.

That's it! Good luck!

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Specializes in My goal is to be an Oncology Nurse.....

As my Father in Law would say ( and he is a Nurse) " Jen, you can only fish for one species at a time." If you think about it you can't go for all of them (fish). You have to select which "breed" and focus your attention on that. Nursing school is going to be the same way. I can only fish (take one day) at a time. I am going to enjoy the ride and I will get frustrated and want to rip the hair out of my head, but I am seeing the bigger picture and I am going to do just what my FIL said, "fish for one species at a time." :)

Good Luck All

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I'm not in school yet, but will most likely be in January. My coworker went back for his RN and always said, "the days are long, but the weeks fly by". Just something to think about when you may have a hard day doing it all!

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Specializes in GI.

Don't slack off on the readings. It's going to be a lot, but make an effort to at least skim through the chapters. Get the study guides for your text books and actually work on them. Practice your NCLEX questions and rationalize all the possible answers. And finally give yourself a "free" day where you do not do anything related to nursing school. Do a hobby, exercise, relax.

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I really liked the book "How to Survive and Maybe Even Love Nursing School" :)

Really? We are supposed to read that for our orientation. I read a couple of chapters and put it aside. I found it to be kind of discouraging.

But, I'll pick it back up and read on. Perhaps it gets better!

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My advice is just judge it based on YOUR own opinion. A lot of people make things sound way worse than they really are. Don't go into school thinking it's going to be the most impossible or difficult thing. Anxiety is a killer lol. Just because everyone says a certain class will be impossible, you might think it's easy...just do it for you and you'll be fine. Take it as it comes one day at a time.

I agree with this A LOT. i got stuck listening to a lot of the panicky and paranoid people and it made me feel so much worse about starting nursing school. im a natually anxious person so i didnt need those people in my ear lol i try not to pay attention to what they say because seriously, you have to go through school with your own opinions about it and just try to relax and have fun. yes, its hard. yes, its stressful. but yes, it will be one of the best times in your life that you will look back on and realize how happy you are that you went through it. i have a book called "how to survive clinical". its by kaplan and its good! similar to the book someone else posted about how to love nursing school :)

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I agree with this A LOT. i got stuck listening to a lot of the panicky and paranoid people and it made me feel so much worse about starting nursing school. im a natually anxious person so i didnt need those people in my ear lol i try not to pay attention to what they say because seriously, you have to go through school with your own opinions about it and just try to relax and have fun. yes, its hard. yes, its stressful. but yes, it will be one of the best times in your life that you will look back on and realize how happy you are that you went through it. i have a book called "how to survive clinical". its by kaplan and its good! similar to the book someone else posted about how to love nursing school :)

I agree also. I have a friend who just graduated from nursing school and all she has is horror stories. Now, she is having trouble passing the NCLEX so her stories have gone from bad to worse. I have stopped talking to her about school because she is causing me anxiety. Instead, if I have questions, I talk to a friend of mine who has been a nurse for a few years and also went to the same nursing school. She is much more encouraging!

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Like I said in another thread, remember to take time out for yourself and that there is a life outside of nursing school :)

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