Tips for Surviving Nursing School

Nursing school is hard. It’s hard to get into, hard to get through, and hard to finish. If you’re trying to get into nursing school or trying to survive it, I feel you 😂 I’m in my second semester of nursing school, and these are some of the things I’ve learned so far:

🫶🏻 TIME MANAGEMENT 🫶🏻

- You are going to study more in nursing school than you ever have in your life. If you thought you studied hard during your prerequisite classes, you haven’t seen anything yet. Outside of class, I spend a minimum of 3 hours a day studying, but usually more than that. Blocking out time in your day/week for studying is essential, and planning out your week/month in advance can be really helpful with that! I use a planner and two calendars - my phone (which syncs with my laptop, god bless Apple) and a dry erase wall calendar.

🫶🏻 STUDY SPACE 🫶🏻

- You’re going to spend a lot of time at your desk, make sure that it’s a place you feel comfortable at and makes you happy! I found motivational art for my wall, put my favorite scented candles there, and bought a warm dimmable Alexa bulb for my lamp to put less strain on my eyes! My best purchase was the viral cross-legged chair (wait for Prime day, the deals are amazing), it keeps me so comfortable while I’m studying or finishing clinical write-ups. Whatever little touches you want to add to your study space to make it more appealing to you, do it ☺️

🫶🏻 FIND YOUR PEOPLE 🫶🏻

- You cannot get through nursing school alone. Your classmates are going to be your lifeline because as much as your family and friends love you, they cannot possibly understand what you’re dealing with in school. Finding your niche in your program and growing your circle of friends will make school bearable, and some of these people will turn into friends you lean on throughout the program and into new grad residency ❤️

🩺 DOCUMENT SUCCESS 🩺

- It’s so easy to get caught up in what you’ve done wrong and get sucked down the “I can’t do this, I’m never going to be a nurse” rabbit hole. I’ve done it quite a few times. A nice little way to remind yourself that you deserve to be here is to look back on your work! When I did a particularly hard check-off in skills lab, I’d take a picture of it (peep the NG tube 😏) to boost myself later. Try journaling after your clinical day, and write down any new skills you got to use or a patient interaction that really made you feel like a nurse.

✌🏻 BREATHE ✌🏻

- We’re all stressed beyond belief trying to get through this program in one piece, but remember to take moments to yourself to relax and breathe, and take care of yourself. Truly, you cannot care for your patients if you don’t care for yourself first. Go outside and have some lizard in the sun time, eat your favorite snack, read a little bit of that book you’ve been wanting to cross off your TBR, cuddle with your dog for a while - whatever you need to do to de-stress, do it. Your mental health matters babe, you deserve a minute to yourself. The studying can wait for a little bit 👌🏻

You’re going to be a great nurse, you got this baby 👏🏻

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