Graduating nursing school and becoming a registered nurse requires a great amount of commitment and responsibility. Nursing students have to learn and master a variety of fundamental principles on anatomy and physiology, health assessment, pharmacology, nutrition, and holistic patient care from birth to the end of life.
The challenging academic demands of nursing school can make it difficult to find a balance between school and personal life. Developing good study habits and strategies can help you become more efficient in managing your schedule. Keep reading for 5 easy habits that can help you towards finishing nursing school and getting that RN, BSN on your name!
#1 Find Study Strategies that Work for You
Utilize visual aids
Develop a concept map or diagram on each topic encountered to aid in understanding the relationships between the mechanisms relative to the concept or nursing problem.
Learn with examples: make nursing care plans
In every study session, practice making nursing care plans based on priority nursing problems and deficits presented in the required readings or task sheets. This way, you are able to enhance your skills in writing a comprehensive nursing care plan following the five steps of the nursing process (assessment, diagnosis, problem, intervention, and evaluation) while understanding the connections between the nursing interventions given to alleviate the presenting problems of the patient.
Refer to nursing templates
Collect and constantly review your nursing templates as these concisely summarize nursing or medical principles and will eventually help you recall and retain vital information about the topic.
#2 Strictly Follow a Study Schedule
Having to deal with heavy amounts of readings and assignments everyday may be quite overwhelming, especially when balancing it with personal responsibilities at home (or even work)!
Hence, efficiency is your best friend! Following a study schedule is an effective way to maximize your time throughout the day while juggling nursing school and personal responsibilities. For example, set a fixed time for dinner (e.g. 7:30–8:00 pm) and a specific study session afterwards for doing assignments (e.g. 8:00–10:00 pm). That way you have a plan you can stick to and can take care of your health while practicing good study habits.
Start your semester by making a daily schedule and incorporating it with your school calendar of activities. This way, you are able to identify your most preferred study time and specific days when you need to exert more effort into studying, such as during exam weeks or before clinicals!
Proven techniques such as time blocking can make planning out your time easier, as well!
Familiarize yourself with a new concept everyday (even during weekends)
Studying too many nursing concepts in one sitting may lead to more confusion than learning. Break it up! Allotting a study period every day allows you space to exercise your critical thinking and enables you to grasp key nursing concepts one step at a time.
By simply spending at least one hour reading your textbooks every day, you are one step ahead in understanding the topic and preparing yourself once you go into clinicals.
Practice good study habits by identifying your preferred learning styles
Different methods of learning have been practiced by students throughout the years and may involve visual, kinesthetic, or auditory styles, or a combination of all methods. Nursing school, particularly in your first year as a nursing student, additionally involves a variety of return demonstrations and practical examinations to gauge your understanding of a topic.
Finding learning styles that work best for you enables you to maximize your time and capacity in learning nursing concepts. If you learn in a way that feels easy to you, you will be more efficient and master nursing concepts quicker!
Work on assignments as early as possible
Coursework assignments given throughout nursing school usually are time-intensive: They often involve a lot of writing and skill tests in addition to reading your textbooks and studying the specific principles being discussed.
Unfortunately, procrastination is extremely common among students. Delaying work on an important task is ineffective and can increase the pressure on you when the deadline comes closer.
One way to relieve yourself of the pressure and stress of the upcoming deadline is to practice doing assignments at the earliest possible date after they are given by your professor. This helps you work on your assignments thoroughly and allows time for coming up with additional ideas or changes.
#3 Always Ask Questions
The healthcare environment is dynamic and new evidence-based data are discovered all the time. May it be in the classroom or during clinicals, it is always important to ask questions when you do not understand a concept or when you get confused with a step involved in a nursing procedure.
It’s been said many times: There are no stupid questions. Even if, sometimes, some instructors don’t seem to agree: not knowing is not an option either!
There may be times when the topic will get overwhelming or the professor assigned to you may look intimidating, but you should never hesitate to ask. My professor once told me that there is no such thing as a foolish question because you can learn and clarify information simply by asking. Your nursing professors and preceptors are tasked to make you learn key principles and guide you throughout your nursing journey.
Always remember that you are responsible for another person’s life under your care. Knowing and following even the most basic principle is important to ensure well-being. Having the confidence to ask questions additionally allows you to practice a skill that you will need once you get that license and work in an actual clinical setting of your chosen nursing field.
#4 Make Time For Rest
Get quality sleep
The demands of nursing school (and your future responsibilities as a registered nurse) require holistic endurance involving both mind and body, and sleep acts as a fuel for regulating such factors. Studies throughout the years have proven that a perfectly timed nap aids in improving cognitive function, alertness, and attentiveness. For instance, taking a 20-minute nap sharpens concentration and elevates moods, while 90-minute naps promote creativity, enhance memory, and increase capacity for learning and recall.
Being awake all throughout the night and during the wee hours of the morning may negatively affect academic performance. It can even lead to you being predisposed to different health issues. Additionally, your sleepless nights of reading journals and answering case studies will eventually turn into night shifts once you graduate and become a registered nurse, hence, you should make time for rest every once in a while.
Make friends and establish life-long friendships
The journey to get that nursing license is long and requires time, dedication, and energy. While in nursing school, you are bound to encounter and interact with different individuals having various personalities and experiences. Having companions that you will share your ups and downs with makes the journey worthwhile. Go on group discussions and study sessions together, cry after hard tests together, and take long trips after exams to reward yourselves together.
The friends you make and bond with in nursing school are not just there through sleepless nights before examinations and nerve-wracking clinicals, they will eventually be your future colleagues.
Additionally, the nursing profession revolves around collaborative care. Gaining confidence to speak your mind and learning to collaborate and coordinate throughout nursing school may be one way for you to enhance your skills.
Spend time with loved ones
Finding a balance between nursing school and personal life may be difficult at first, yet with proper time management and prioritization, you will gradually learn to adjust and make time for both worlds.
There is undeniably a high possibility that you may not be able to attend every occasion or celebrate every milestone with your loved ones and friends, but you will eventually learn to make time and weigh what matters more for you once that dilemma comes.
One of the biggest factors that will help you throughout nursing school is your support system. Making time for your loved ones helps relieve stress and tracks you back on the reasons behind why you put so much effort every day to get that nursing license.
#5 Learn to Always Double Check
Whether it be ensuring if you have locked your car, house, or submitted your course assignments, double-checking is an essential skill to practice as an aspiring nurse.
It is one way for you to not only forget things, but also exercise your abilities to re-check medications, attending physician’s orders, or procedures done in the clinical setting. Medication errors happen easily and are a potential cause of patient harm. Your future work as a registered nurse entails being responsible in preparing and administering the right medications to your assigned patients. As early as nursing school, you should learn to practice the habit of double-checking to help you improve accuracy and reduce errors in administering medications or performing nursing procedures during your clinicals and while working as a registered nurse in the future.
