End to the First Semster of Nursing School...

 

My first semester of nursing school is coming to an end, just a few more weeks and a few more exams.  As my last days approach I can see how much I have group as a person and a future nurse. When the semester first stared I was very nervous, unsure of what this semester would hold for me. I have meet and become really good friends with some amazing people in the program and I am so happy that we all get to take this journey together. Within the clinical sites I feel I have grown in the fact that I am no longer afraid to take charge and get done what I need to for the day. I also feel I have adopted new studying habits that have been very helpful in getting me through my first semester of nursing school. One struggle for me this semester has been time management in regards to delegating my time between school and my social life. Although I have made the adjustment to focus the majority of my time on school work and the nursing program, it still has been a struggle for me to put some of my social life on hold or to have to miss events with family and friends. All in all this semester has been pretty amazing, I have learned a lot, made amazing friend, and enjoyed the of growing as a person and future nurse.

First semester struggles...

    

   As I enter my 6th week of my first semester of nursing school I have already had a few struggles. MY first struggle is balancing my time between schoolwork and family and friends. I am very close with my family and friends and have always been the one to drop anything to go be with them or help them and I find myself struggling with my time spent on everything. I know its all apart of the process and leaning how to time manage and I know I am getting better at it but I still feel that it is a struggle I deal with.
   Another struggle I am having is with money. I very much dislike how our money is distributed to us students through the school. Like many other nursing student, I am putting myself through nursing school, I don't have money that I get from my parents or a trust fund, I depend on myself to pay my bills and anything and everything I need for school. And I feel very proud to say that I put myself through nursing school but I wish that school would do the account processing a couple months before school starts instead of when school is starting because here I sit with no income for months because I have to wait for a check from the school. I know they work as fast as they can but if they would just start the process a lot soon then I could get my money sooner and not have to figure out if I going to have enough money to fill up my gas tank to get to class or clinicals. (Fingers crossed that money comes soon)
   I also have struggles that are not school related. Yesterday I found out that my ATM # was stolen and my bank account was drained! Yes, my bank account is now in the negatives and I cant get the money put back into my account for another day and that's wishful thinking as I was told it could take up to 90 day to refund the money. This has added more stress as now I have absolutely no money to get to school or anything, but I am confident it will be resolved soon.
   BUT... with all that said all these struggles make me a stronger and better person, student, and future nurse. Every experience is a lesson learned. Being in the nursing program for me has so far been an amazing experience and a learning experience and I couldn't imagine being anywhere else at this point in my life.

Conquering Time Management

             

               

          Time management is a very important skill to conquer.  Good time management will not only help us to succeed in our nursing profession but also in personal lives. No person can be everywhere at once and get everything done at one time, we have to manage our time wisely to accomplish what needs to get done and to not be overly stressed or deprived. BUT…I believe that having good time management isn’t something you are just born with, it’s a skill that is practiced over and over until it is conquered. I feel that the first step in conquering great time management starts in nursing school, we have to learn how to manage so many things: homework, studying, family, friends, work, relaxation, and personal time. In just our third week as nursing students we are learning how to apply time management to our homework load. We need to assess what homework is all due and when, then delegate out how and when we are going to get this all done and on time. We all have families and most of us love spending time with them but we become so focused in our school work that we forget to make time to see or talk to them. It’s important to manage family in to our schedules because they are the ones that will always be there for us. FRIENDS…As nursing students I’m sure we will all struggle with time management with our social life. Friends have been a big part of our lives, always going out and having a good time: lunch dates, weekend getaways, nights out, movies, and hanging out. We have to lean that we can’t do everything, we can’t make it to every lunch date or weekend getaway or night out when there is homework to do or an exam to study for. It’s going to be a struggle at first which I am sure we are all learning right now, but there’s a reward at the end. Learning to time manage our social lives is important, do not exclude yourself from everything, but learn how to work it in to your busy schedule. We don’t want to fry out brain completely so I feel that personal time is something that needs to be managed. Homework, studying, family and friend are all important, but learning how to time manage time for ourselves is what is going to keep our heads on straight, keep us looking at the finish line. Now this isn’t going to be easy, we can’t snap our fingers and magically have excellent time management, we are going to manage wrong every once and a while: realize we haven’t spoken to mom in a week or went out when we should have studied or forgot to time manage personal time. Time management is learned and with practice will be a conquered skill. Conquering great time management in nursing school will make us all excellent time managed NURSES.