As a nursing student, you are or will struggle with the studies, clinical practices, and general lack of time for anything else. This article provides you with tips to ease your nursing school life.
After the struggle of choosing a university and the grueling process of application, let alone the composition of a personal statement for a nursing application, you are finally here. You have been accepted into nursing school. This by itself is an accomplishment. For the next several years, you shall be put through a system of training and preparation for the job market. Routines will change, the content will accumulate, the hours will be long, and do not forget your mental stability shall be key in all this.
You might ask yourself, how on earth are you supposed to excel in not only your academics but be actively present socially and productively? Well, this article provides you with some tips that will give insight into how you can finish your nursing education and lead a pretty normal life with little stress. Our team of researchers at getnursingessay.com also offers you an opportunity to help reduce your school workload by writing your nursing essays for you
Challenges You Face During Nursing Studies
It goes without saying that nursing is a pretty demanding course. However, the challenges related to a given course should not be off-putting to aspiring students. Not only are the lecturers tough and long but nurses are ultimately tested during their clinical practice, popularly referred to as the ‘clinical.’
This process is not only challenging but also harbors a very complex set of difficulties. As an aspiring nurse, these challenges should not discourage you and push you to your track. In the end, the prize awaits, a rewarding career, and finally a chance to provide care to those in need.
To bring this more into perspective, the list below outlines the challenges that a student nurse is bound to encounter. This list tries to generalize all the various nursing programs and the similar challenges that they might face.
-
Exhausting Lectures
In almost every other lecture in college, the length of the lecturers is basically fair. You will, however, find that the type of content and concepts that a nursing lecture is supposed to grasp is way more complex in comparison to other courses. The knowledge in these lecture halls is based on areas such as biology, chemistry, physiology, and anatomy.
The challenge heightens when you realize the amount of content you need to comprehend through every lecture. A look at that brick-like thickness of the coursebooks, an undetermined mind can decide to turn back very easily.
-
Random Clinical Practices
Clinicals are usually an application session of the skills learned in school. In class, you will learn the theory part of the content with some physical illustrations. During clinical practice, you are taken in the actual field and you are supposed to handle the real-time cases. In short, you are applying the knowledge you learned in class.
The unpredictability of when the next clinical practice will be, or who your next patient will be, makes it even more challenging. As a student nurse, you are not given a large volume of information to understand and be constantly ready to apply it in an actual hospice experience. This randomness increases the difficulty of the whole process.
-
Intensive Homework and Projects
At this level, you might probably be rethinking your choices. But the fact that you qualified for this course indicates a very high level of academic sharpness. The homework and the project are not only time consuming but laborious too.
You will be given countless case studies, a thesis or a report, and could even be a bunch of nursing care plans. All these activities will test how much you manage your time and persevere through constant research and reading.
-
Frightful Tests and Exams
I can bet this is not a surprise. You definitely expected exams to be there, right? As a college student, you shall expect tests and exams after a given portion of the curriculum is covered. In nursing, be prepared for challenging tests that push your knowledge and understanding to the very limit. Very few clinical instructors will give basic tests. You need to understand that you are being trained so that someday you can be entrusted with a person’s life. Passing in these tests is therefore very crucial.
-
Limited Time for non-Academic Activities
With everything that is stated, you might already be wondering when you will get time for any other non-academic activity. You are right to worry about this. Before you become a registered nurse it is better to prepare for stressful college life. Much of your time will be occupied by research, homework, classes, clinical practices and so much more. There is a huge possibility that you might lack the time to get involved in other activities such as clubs, sports, volunteering, or a pastime job.
Skills Students Acquire During Their Nursing Studies
As a nursing student, you are going to get trained on one primary skill, and that is providing care to the needy. Care has to be inherent but to amplify that and make it more useful, you are supposed to go through a series of theoretical knowledge, practical testing, learning principles, and getting imparted with morals. These skills help you understand how to handle tense moments, make appropriate decisions, and offer knowledgeable insight in regard to medicare.
As a nurse, your lifestyle will change. This is not just a career for the bright but a calling for the able and right-minded. Those who find their place here lead a very rewarding life. As a result of this unordinary demand, the ‘qualifications’ of a nurse are acquired by those who can not only pass academically in nursing school but also overcome the countless challenges.
Below are the skills that you will not just acquire by reading your notes but by taking up the experience of nursing school in higher regard. After overcoming the challenges involved in the process of studying a nursing course, you are bound to acquire the following traits necessary for the nursing practice:
-
Confidence
Your academic prowess is important but you need to believe in yourself to make sound decisions in the real field. During the course training, the clinical instructor will give you a real situation during clinical practice and expect you to take care of it. With time, this confidence develops.
-
Critical thinking and decision making
Throughout the training, you will be exposed to high-stress situations that will call for quick attention and fast decision making. With time the school molds you to quickly observe, think critically and make the right call.
-
Leadership
You will constantly have patients and families looking for you to provide medical insight. This is a skill you shall develop to become successful in your practice. Your situational awareness shall be sharpened through a series of emergencies, conflicts, and projects that shall be presented before you.
-
Relation-based care
Effective sustainable care does not just involve the treatment of the physical body but caring for the person. Letting the patient feel comfortable through actual human connections. ‘Bedside manners’ with time shall become a huge part of your life.
-
Advocacy
When you spend time caring for your patients, you become the person who presents tests and debriefs your team on their progress. Through learning their preferred kind of care, you learn how to advocate for your patient’s wellbeing. Advocacy goes a long way beyond the hospital walls. This is a skill application in times of policymaking in healthcare.
-
Open-mindedness
In school, you learn a lot of theoretical knowledge. In practice, your understanding is tested and your application is called to action. A good nurse is one that is ready to listen to their seniors, peers, and patients and from the information received, make decisions openly.
-
Clinical thinking skills
Clinical thinking skills are basically the steps of diagnosis, conceptualizing the case, and rolling out a treatment plan. As a nurse, your responsibility is to have a strong foundation of knowledge and skills that you can easily apply in matters that face you daily. The grueling process of nursing course will test this on you every single day. With time, you get acquainted with it and acquire the skills.
Advice on How to Handle Challenges You Face During Nursing Studies
You now know what to expect in nursing school in terms of challenges and skills. But even a determined heart can coil away from a challenge. Do not worry, however, as the next section of this article is basically supposed to solve this. Below are the best tips that you can follow to help you get through the gruesome lectures, clinical practices, challenging tests and exams, homework and projects, and the stressing schedule of nursing school.
1. Organize Your Studies
Organizing your studies entails knowing what you are going to study, when you are going to study and how you are going to study it. Luckily, every nursing college will provide an exam timetable and a study guide. You are advised to use the study timetable to know what you will cover. Secondly, focus on whatever the lecturer covers in class. Finally, organize yourself in study groups in order to help each other and complement each other in areas where some of you have issues.
This technique will help you get through the gruesome lectures more easily. Also, your tests and exam preparation will be better than if you decide to study otherwise. This technique additionally helps students cover more homework and projects and with much ease.
2. Think In terms of Action Not Facts
As a nurse, you are definitely skilled and knowledgeable in matters of medicine. Your patients come to you for care and treatment. They do this because they want to feel better. It will be unnecessary to spend a lot of time letting your patients know the technicality of all your decisions rather than focussing on the main thing, helping them feel better. The trick here is, as you study the theory part of your course, always approach the sections with one question, “how will I help my patients with this information?”
Answering this question helps you as a nurse understand the reasons why situations occur with a patient’s condition. The answer also helps you understand the psychological changes with the patient. Your actions of care should begin here. This method will come in handy when you are doing your clinical practices. Here you are tested on whether or not you can apply your knowledge.
3. Understand Your Learning Style
Your learning style can either be visual, aural, verbal, or kinesthetic. Knowing where you study the best will open your eyes on what avenues to take when choosing your sources of learning, when preparing for a test or when completing an assignment.
This is very important since there is a lot of content to cover. In addition, your memory is a very crucial tool in the practice of nursing. Understanding your style of learning will enable you to be able to grasp the most in class.
4. Take Breaks
This is the part where education no longer comes to mind. Spending all your time in books will only saturate you and overwhelm you. This kind of pressure could even push you to a mental disorder.
Changing the scenery helps you participate in social matters and network with your fellow students. By so doing you will manage to balance your life in all areas and also give your brain some rest before resuming your studies.