The average salary of a registered nurse can go over $100k annually. Alongside being financially rewarding, the nursing profession is also known for being emotionally gratifying, with research showing 93 percent of all nurses are happy with their career choices. These factors explain why nurse practitioners ranked 2nd globally on the U.S. News and World Report’s best job list.
While nursing may be a rewarding career choice, becoming a nurse is a challenging task that requires the complete commitment of your intellectual and physical faculties. Managing studying, clinics, and one’s personal life can be overwhelming. With the right mindset and strategy, you can transform your nursing school life from arduous to manageable and enjoyable. These five tips will aid you in this process.
- Plan Your Time Wisely
As a nursing student, your schedule will usually be packed full of different kinds of responsibilities, from classes to labs, clinics, and assignments. In such a context, effective time management is essential to meet deadlines while maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
Strategies to wisely plan your time include creating a schedule, whether that is through a planner or a digital calendar, that sets out your responsibilities for the day, week, or month and reminds you of any upcoming deadlines. Another effective strategy is to break down tasks into more manageable activities that spread the workload over time rather than trying to start and finish a project in one go.
Whatever degree you are enrolled in, whether it is an N.P. or a CNL program, it is vital that you plan your time to truly succeed during your years in nursing school and maintain a healthy lifestyle while doing it.
- Find A Study Group
A study group is a crucial way of enhancing your learning experience while improving the likelihood of staying on track and achieving success. Collaborating with others helps give you different perspectives on the material and helps clarify any misunderstandings you may have about the subject. Joining study groups can be really helpful, especially when exams are approaching. Many nursing schools require students to take the HESI exam after they finish their studies. Working together to understand reading materials and practice using online resources such as educational Youtube videos on channels like RegisteredNurseRN and Simple Nursing and free online HESI study guides from Career Employer, NursHub, and other websites can make learning easier and more enjoyable. Knowing that others are counting on your input in discussions also acts as an accountability factor, motivating you to stay on track with your assignments and work. Knowing you are not alone in your struggles and having a support structure to help you during times of confusion helps with stress and anxiety.
Finding a study group requires the student to be proactive and search for others interested in a collaborative study. It could involve asking people in your classes or clinics if they want to form a study group. It could be looking at nursing student groups on social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn and finding potential group members there. There are even online resources dedicated primarily to students collaborating through their platforms for their studies.
- Stay Organized
Balancing coursework, clinical rotations, assignments, and other medical responsibilities require students to develop organizational skills. Staying organized helps decrease time delay between tasks, helps manage stress, leads to better performance, and inculcates a sense of professionalism essential for success in this field.
Staying organized also includes taking notes during classes and while you are studying. Engaging in note-taking has been shown to result in better retention of the material. It also gives a point of reference that makes revision easier. Instead of reading a dense textbook, you can refer to a summation of the material in your notes.
Another good habit is using binders and files, with a separate one for each class, clinical rotation, and project. It makes it easier to access any study material you need instead of sifting through a disorganized mesh of all kinds of nursing work.
- Take Care Of Yourself
For a profession so dedicated to the comfort and well-being of another person, nursing students are often quick to forget the importance of maintaining their own health. The tiring schedule of a nursing school and the anxiety and stress that comes from trying to meet deadlines can take a substantial toll on your physical and mental health. While good health is crucial in any profession, it is even more relevant in nursing. Nursing requires a high level of physical fitness, and a nurse’s mental health is key in allowing them to deliver optimal care and comfort to the patient. A stressed and anxious nurse will be less likely to create a warm and welcoming environment for their patients versus one who is relaxed and fit.
Nursing students should follow a balanced diet and not exclusively eat junk and nutritionless food because it is easier to access and quicker to make. Further, nursing students should not cut down on their sleep to keep up with their work. While this may allow you to finish a particular project or a deadline on time, it will inevitably reduce your efficiency. It is better to ask for an extension than adopt behaviors that can adversely affect your future.
Taking breaks is another essential step in taking care of yourself. Constantly working will only drain you out and make you less productive. Taking breaks enables our minds to rest and focus on absorbing the information we have just learned, which leads to better retention. Finally, it is critical to seek out support structures during nursing school, whether that is your family, friends, counselors, or other healthcare providers at the institute.
- Have A Positive Attitude
Having a positive attitude helps not only during your time in nursing school but is an essential component of patient care that will serve you well during your years as a nurse. It prepares you against setbacks and failures, leads to better studying and academic performance, and can help create a positive and supportive environment for your patients.
A positive attitude includes being open to constructive criticism, becoming more self-aware, and identifying negative self-talk or limiting beliefs that hold you back. To succeed as a nurse, you must inspire a high level of confidence in patients, and this is only possible if you have a positive attitude toward your work.
Conclusion
The pandemic highlighted the importance of the nursing profession and the need in this country for more registered nurses. Due to this reason, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that an average of 203,000 new nurses will be needed every year until 2031 to deal with this demand. It makes nursing a career choice with many professional opportunities that pay well and offers their employees an emotionally and mentally gratifying line of work.