If you want to be a nurse, you’ll need to study and gain qualifications. This means attending nursing school, completing assignments, doing practical assessments, and ensuring you have a good work (or study) life balance. No matter how excited you might be to become a nurse, learning to be one will always be hard, and you must be completely dedicated.
So that you don’t feel as though you’re under too much stress and pressure, there are some important things to know about nursing school and about how you can manage the workload and potential stress that it can bring about. If you think that this would be useful, read on to find out what you can do. Although you’ll still need to put in the hard work yourself, if you can do it while being less stressed, you’ll learn a lot more and enjoy the process at the same time.
Develop A Routine
When you’re studying to become a nurse, there is a lot to consider. You’ll be very busy. This is why it can feel as though you’re under a lot of stress – it won’t matter how invested you are in what you are doing; you’ll have a long checklist of things to do and deadlines by which to do them.
If you can develop a routine, you’ll find everything is a lot easier. To begin with, once you know what your studies entail, you should create a daily schedule to ensure you never miss any classes and that you always know what you’re meant to be doing and when. This just doesn’t apply to your learning either; include everything within your routine, from the time you need to leave the house to the time you should be going to bed. It might not be easy to follow at first, but over time you will find that it becomes a much simpler task and that it allows you to get much more organized. Nothing will be forgotten, deadlines will be met, and you’ll feel a lot more confident about what you are doing overall.
This will help you in the present with your nursing studies, but it will also help you in the future in your nursing career. Time management is a hugely important part of nursing, and if you can start developing this skill early on, you’ll find it helps you when you graduate too.
Go Online
One of the things that can be stressful about nursing school is the logistics of attending classes. Even if you are attending full-time, getting to the campus, finding the right room, and then getting home again will really take up a lot of time; this is time you could be using to study or do practical assessments. If you are studying part-time, attending a physical school is even more difficult, as you are likely to be working or taking care of a family (or both) at the same time, and you need to work out a schedule and do everything you need to do outside of the home. This can be very stressful.
The best way to combat this and to allow more time for study and downtime (which is so important) is to study online. Sign up for an online nursing course, and you’ll have a lot more time to do what needs to be done. This is because you won’t have any commuting to do, but also because online lessons can be taken at a pace that suits you; you can develop your own schedule around your own needs, not one that links directly to a timetable and may not be very practical.
Whether you are studying to become an RN, you’re returning to nursing,you’re coming to nursing later in life and taking an accelerated BSN online, or you’re enhancing your nursing qualifications, all of this can be done through an internet course. This will relieve a lot of stress and give you the qualifications you need.
Focus On Self-Care
When you are a nursing student, just like when you’re a nurse, you’ll be focused on taking care of other people. On top of that, you’ll be focused on your studies. This all leaves little time to be focused on yourself, but it’s crucial that you think of yourself and ensure you practice self-care. Without doing this, you are sure to become stressed, and this means you won’t be able to learn as much as you need to as your productivity and concentration levels will be lower.
What do we mean by self-care? It really means making sure you make time in your schedule for doing things that make you happy and help you to relax and unwind. If you are constantly working, you might think you are getting ahead, but in reality, you are just making yourself more and more tired and less and less productive. By taking some time out to do something other than your nursing studies, you can ‘reset’ your brain and gain more energy, and when you go back to your studies, you’ll be much more able to learn. Some ways to enjoy some self-care include:
- Reading
- Watching TV
- Going for a walk
- Listening to music
- Having a bath
- Exercising
- Spending time with family and friends
Find A Study Group
Something that can often mean that nursing students get more stressed and overwhelmed is trying to do everything by themselves. When you think about the nature of nursing, you’ll see that this is not something that you’ll be expected to do once you graduate because nursing is a team effort (even if you do sometimes need to work by yourself in physical terms). With that in mind, joining a study group could be a good option.
When you are part of a study group, you will be motivated to keep learning, plus you’ll be able to ask any questions you might have about areas of your studies that you’re having difficulties with. You might find that others have the same issues, which will make you realize you’re not alone, and you’ll probably find the answers you’re looking for as well. Being part of a study group makes any kind of learning much easier, and when you’re studying to be a nurse, it helps you get into the habit of working well in a team.