There’s no doubt about it; nursing is a hard career path to choose and studying to become a nurse is a daunting challenge. However, with the help of these practical tips, you’ll be able to manage your time, organize yourself as a student nurse, and ultimately study for that nursing degree.
Why is it Important to Manage Your Time?
Time management is a critical part of any nursing degree. Yes, it’s about balancing responsibilities and the need to get things done, but it’s also about getting your personal life in order.
Being able to manage your time and organize yourself as a student nurse helps you make the most out of every minute of study and develops further skills that will last you a lifetime – including learning how to prioritize what needs to be done and managing your emotions while working hard.
This is especially important if you are doing an accelerated learning program. While these programs are great for people who want to get their degree as soon as possible, add to your workload and require strong time management skills.
If you manage your time well, doing an accelerated nursing program is an excellent way to gain skills that can help you succeed in a wide range of roles throughout your nursing career.
There are many ways that you can learn to manage your time and the pressures of a nursing degree, to learn more about online accelerated BSN programs, click here.
Strategies for Managing and Organizing Projects as a Student Nurse
If you feel like your studies are slipping, and your life as a nurse seems perilously close to the edge, don’t fret; take into consideration the following ways in which you can increase the quality of time used to study for this course:
Learn to Say “No” to Unnecessary Tasks
You know that feeling when you’ve been struggling to finish something, and then someone comes along and asks you to help them with something of the blue?
If this happens to you many times in a short period, your day will be consumed with small tasks that have nothing to do with what you should be working on.
Ideally speaking, most students will only ask for help a handful of times throughout their nursing program, but you must learn to say no when you have too much on and stick to your own study plans.
Create a System that Works for You
You can develop a schedule that’s different for everyone. There is no “right” way to manage your time and organize yourself as a student nurse.
Use what works for you, whether it’s using an online planner or writing down assignments on paper. You might even find that there are certain organizers that you prefer over others.
Never feel bad for choosing a different organizational system than your friends or other nurse students. You must choose what works for YOU and how YOU learn rather than trying to keep up with everyone else.
Use Reminders to Stay on Track
Using a reminder app can help you stay on track. Many types of reminder apps are available online, so you can choose the one that works best for you.
However, as a general rule, use an app with useful features such as adding tasks and reminders to your calendar and sharing your goals with others. You could ask around and see how other people do it – there is no reason why someone else’s solutions should work better than your own!
Work on Your Weaknesses
If you are a procrastinator, try to get tasks done ahead of schedule. If you’re a great planner and need a lot of structure, create a system that works for you and use your strengths to keep you organized.
No matter how much planning or organization works for you, it will take time to learn it. Make sure to practice these skills every day or at least once a week throughout your nursing degree in order to make them second nature.
Don’t Procrastinate
It’s a very common thing to do, but you have to avoid it at all costs. If you don’t, you’ll end up with a lot of stress and pressure on your shoulders with little time to recover from it.
Of course, procrastination is a useful tool when used properly; many of the world’s greatest achievements have happened due to procrastination. However, you must learn to identify when you are about to procrastinate and take steps to avoid it.
It can be summed up by saying that when it comes to working, you must do your best work to do better later. If you start projects in such a way that you end up doing less than your best, you’ll find yourself in a situation where the job will be more difficult to finish later on because of your mistakes.
As students, we must do our best work from the very beginning, so we only end up with a few unfinished projects.
Do What You Love
If you love nursing, you will learn to enjoy the process and be able to focus on it with complete focus. If you don’t love your subject, the process itself will become very boring and tedious, which is a lot worse than having a sick patient or a long shift at work.
If you choose a subject that you don’t like but stick with it because of all the hard work, your motivation to finish will be weak, and this will cause your studies to fall apart.
If your motivation is strong and you are looking forward to finishing your degree as soon as possible, this can encourage you to learn faster than normal.
There are many different career paths in nursing, from midwifery to anesthesiology, and mental health to family medicine. Pick a specialty that really appeals to you, and you will stay more motivated.
Study in Groups
There is a reason why we do things in groups rather than alone. If you are interested in finding your love for a subject, there is no better way to learn than by teaching it to someone else.
When you create materials to teach someone else about what you have learned, you automatically become more interested in learning about that subject since it will be useful for your future patients.
Having an interest in what you are doing and learning how to manage time efficiently is vital to the nursing profession. Luckily, these two characteristics can be practiced throughout your education and used throughout your career as a nurse.
Surround Yourself with Good People
If you surround yourself with people who are hard workers and who have great attitudes, you will be inspired to work hard yourself. If people around you are always stressed, it can give you an excuse to procrastinate.
Get away from these types of people. If your instructor fails a test or your coworkers are overwhelmed by their workload, try to find inspiration in others working in the same field as yours.
This will provide a perspective on the job that may help you better understand what it actually takes to succeed in that environment and hopefully allow you to learn faster and better than if you stay with people who are disorganized and encourage you to procrastinate.
Use Your Free Time Wisely
You probably won’t get everything done if you don’t study during your free time. However, if you use your free time wisely to do a few assignments ahead of schedule, it will save you a lot of time later.
There are many ways to spend your free time wisely and get some extra studying done. For example, if you have an hour to spare after class, go home and get a head start on the readings for the next class. It might be a bit easier to do this when you’re already at home instead of being at school when ideas are more likely to pop up.
However, you should also take some free time to wind down and have a break – breaks are important when studying and it’s no use pushing yourself constantly as you will simply burn out.
Use Technology to Your Advantage
Having many different online tools that can help you with your studies is extremely useful. You can use these tools as a way to prepare for class or get an idea of what will be discussed in class and how it is relevant to the real world.
You can use it as an opportunity to do a little bit of extra work or check off those small items that aren’t worth going into detail. It’s a great tool for getting a head start and staying on top of things.
How To Set Goals as a Student Nurse That Motivate You to Achieve Them
Goals are an important part of life, and you should set specific goals for every aspect of your life. Setting goals gives you something to work for and can also make you appreciate any accomplishments you have made along the way.
It is a good habit to set yourself a small, attainable goal each week so you can get into the habit of reaching milestones and celebrating your achievements. This will help improve your overall self-esteem and fulfillment in life.
Goals are even more important when it comes to studying for nursing school exams or studying for clinical.
Getting Ready for Clinical Rotations – Should You Volunteer?
A clinical rotation, in general, is a short period where you can perform tasks and get experience in the healthcare field.
Many nurses will choose to volunteer for their clinical rotation work. Volunteering for a clinical placement is a great way to add some extra credit on top of your schoolwork and give you that experience in the field without having to pay full tuition or lose too many hours at work.
It also lets you see if the field is really what you want to do with your life later. Volunteering generally requires extra work, but it will be well worth it in the end.
Volunteering for clinical work is a great way to gauge your dedication and dedication to the field. It gives you much experience and can help your future career path. When you volunteer, it is important that you take good notes, ask a lot of questions, and have fun!
If there are people around who can help answer questions and give you information on your clinical work placement, ask those people! Be sure to make note of any important details so that you don’t forget them or get confused later in life.
Building Better Habits into Your Future Working Life
The best habits for nurses to have are being organized and staying on top of your work. These habits will take some time to develop, but they will make you much more efficient in the future.
The best way to get accustomed to this type of work is to develop those habits early in the nursing program. Start off with the simplest of tasks, such as making sure that you have everything that you need right before class or finishing reading material before your next lecture.
Organization is a very important habit to develop because it can help to keep you from running around trying to get everything done. Being organized will make you do less work yourself, but it will also help you manage your timeline better and give you a better idea of how much time you have.
This habit will also help prepare you for what clinical rotations will be like in the future. When being managed properly, you’ll be able to stay on top of your work so that nothing slips through the cracks and instead gets done as soon as possible.
Conclusion
Following these rules will take some time to develop. Start off with small tasks and make sure that you are on top of your work before moving on to harder tasks. It may take some time to develop these habits, but it will be well worth it in the long run.
With experience, you’ll better understand what works best for you and what doesn’t. By learning from other nurses’ experiences, you can learn to make better choices before making mistakes that could affect your career later on.
