A Day in the Life of a Nursing Student

Opportunities to learn from others – don’t miss out…

aimeenursing — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 23:12:08 +0000

One week ago I got the opportunity to interview Dr. Sue Budjac the President of MSTC. I was unsure of what to think because she is the Presidentof MSTC. However, after walking into her room she had a calm and friendly aura that made me feel the same. As I was asking her questions I could tell that the answers were really coming from the heart and were sincere. Some of the topics that were talked about were regarding how the president became as successful as she is today. She had her struggles as a single mother. She had failures. She was once in school. She did have to juggle being a full-time student, a single mother, and a job; just as we do. Some of the other questions that I asked her were:

Why didn’t you give up?

She said, “It was to better her life, but the number one goal was to better her son’s life”.

How many failures did you have?

She said, “I had many failures but, it wasn’t so much of the failure that mattered it was that every-time I had a failure I learned from it”.

How did you deal with the competition and know that you would be a good president of MSTC?

She said, “It wasn’t really the competition that mattered it was more in me and believing that I was capable of handling the president position”. “If you know that you are cable of that position than do it rather than second guessing yourself.”

What I learned from this experience is that just because people are successful it doesn’t mean that they didn’t have their own struggles. The key is to be yourself because you can’t figure out who you want to become if you don’t know yourself. Another key is to believe in yourself that you can do it and show people what you are capable of doing (which for me is giving a 110%), and give it your all and when the tough times comes you may struggle but you don’t give up. As for your peers wither it’s in school/work/friends utilize them as a tool and learn from it because it’s always better to gain knowledge and learn from others rather than not gaining anything at all. Choose and pick your battles as life comes along because you only live once. Have a great week and see you next time.

Remember to talk with people and learn from their experiences like I did talking with Dr. Budjac – thanks for meeting with me Dr. Budjac.

Aimee Nursing Student

It Really Works

aimeenursing — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 17:21:01 +0000

It Really Works I am a person that it takes experience in order for me to learn or you could say I don’t believe it until I have walked in my own shoes through it. I did have a failure. I did fail a class. I did have to repeat a class. However, I changed my ways and now I’m sitting in the place I want to be – success. I have just taken my mid-term test and achieved a successful passing grade. I have been through the strategies of success and it does work. I no longer use flash cards or memorization. I use critical thinking instead. Critical thinking is a hard task to figure out, but the more you practice it as with anything the better you get at it. Critical thinking is applying everything you’ve learned towards a patient challenges and what signs and symptoms you would look for and how you would assess the situation from a nurse’s point of view. It may take a lot of thinking and concentration, but it allows concepts and procedures to stay better organized . So, it’s important to spend a lot of time thinking while you study and not just make note cards. Another key towards being successful in the nursing program is to manage your time and allow for breaks to rest your brain. By doing this it allows you’re brain to have a break and let the information sink in your head. I have found it very helpful to always go back every 24 hours, every 72 hours, and any free time to look back at the information to get it refreshed. I have found this strategy less overwhelming and has resulted in better test scores. I know that changes are always difficult to manage but when the changes result in success it’s worth it. Have a great spring break and give yourself a reward and do something for yourself on spring break week – you deserve it. See you next time. Aimee nursing student

There is light at the end of the road

aimeenursing — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 02:12:56 +0000

What I have learned this week was that there are certain things in life that you can control and some things that you can’t. I can say as a student you give up a lot of things when you’re trying to better your life by attending school. I have given up everything so that I can have a better future for myself, my children, and my husband. I know how that feels and sometimes I stop and ask myself why do I do this to myself and put more stress on my family because of school. I know that sometimes you feel like you’re at a dead end and financially and want to give up. I’ve learned this week that it gets better than that because all you need to do is ask someone for help about your financial situation and there is help out there. I just recently joined the WIA program that helps pay for your tuition, books, and necessities for the nursing program. This is a great program to be in and I think a lot of students don’t hear about it. All it takes is that you speak with someone that is in charge of the program and take a few assessments, write a resume, meet once a month, enroll in the job center, and have a monthly schedule signed by your instructors. I know that it sounds like a lot of work but who says that hard work doesn’t pay off. They pay for your tuition and more so how much better can it get than that. Please, if you are struggling ask you’re counselor or apply for scholarships because they are meant to help the support students success. Don’t feel applying for scholarships or community programs since these programs are developed to help people in need. Hope your week goes well and feel free to comment on my blogs.

Aimee nursing student

Don’t Give up on What You’ve Worked Hard on to get this Far

aimeenursing — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 05:10:08 +0000

I’ve already taken two tests in the Nursing Fundamentals class and have been successful with an 85% and 93% score because I listened to and utilized basic learning strategies. I sometimes begin to feel careless since I’ve been doing so well but I’ve learned to not ever let that fool you. I always catch myself slipping and being lazy, but because I have that hourly schedule built in my head I know I have to follow it in order to succeed. How I see it is that I always have to be on top of my game on everything because it just takes one careless mistake to ruin your routine and pretty soon it’s your life. Don’t ever underestimate your qualities and once you’ve gained them take advantage of them because that will benefit you in the long run and your success. Don’t ever let anyone stop you from your dream because you are AWESOME!!!!!!!!! See you next time and feel free to comment on my blogs.

Aimee – Nursing Student

Trying New Things Aren’t Always So Bad

aimeenursing — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 03:27:52 +0000

Trying New Things Aren’t Always So Bad
This week as a nursing student I went to my first tutoring class. It was offered to me since I failed the Nursing Fundamentals class last semester. I was at first skeptical to go to it but actually it was better than I thought because although I thought I knew the information it’s always good to hear from another person’s point of view to help clarify the information. What I took from this session is that I can never go wrong attending a learning session to improve my knowledge as a future nurse. I thought of it this way, “don’t take anything for granted because in the long run you’re only cheating yourself and losing out on a good opportunity”. It’s always good to make mistakes but the key point is to learn from your mistakes and not repeat them. If the same mistake is repeated then it’s because you were careless and the blame can only be on yourself. In life you always tend to blame other people around you for your own mistakes, but in reality the only one that it’s hurting is yourself. Make a goal and go for it, it might take everything out of you, but it’s all worth it in the end. I made a lot of these types of mistakes when I was in the first semester nursing classes because I was so overwhelmed with the work load. As long as you recognize that the situation is there; fix it before it’s too late you can move forward. See you next time and feel free to comment on my blog.
Aimee Future Nurse

The feeling of Success

aimeenursing — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 21:34:32 +0000

This is the fourth week of classes and there was already a test for the nursing fundamentals class. I was so nervous to take the test because of my past failure and all I thought about was the test the whole day. I finally took the test and used some simple and basic test taking strategies from the session “Success Strategies for Test Taking” with Brian Sadler – Counselor. By following some simple steps they can really help you accomplish your goal. I have changed many of my bad habits in the past into good ones. I’ve seen changes in how confident I am now as a student that’s working towards learning and becoming a better nurse. I’ve been staying at school more and dedicating my time to the daily and hourly schedule that I developed for myself related to homework, study time, and family time. I’ve noticed that I’m less overwhelmed and a more pleasant person to be around since I feel accomplished and smarter. I’ve also validated to myself that I can do this if I give my dedication and 110% into what I want; I can easily reach for my goal. I took this test on this unit last semester and failed the test, but this time I passed it and increased my score by 13 percent. Which, made me realize that I should never give up. So, even if you fall once or even ten times you just get back up and do it again until you succeed. Feel free to comment on my blogs see you next time.

Aimee

Taking the difficult path is a way to succeed…

aimeenursing — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 05:43:41 +0000

This is my third week into this semester and I’ve already learned several new things that I didn’t know the first time I took the nursing fundamentals class. I‘ve learned that just because I was in class and looking at the teacher and listening to their lecture it wasn’t going to guarantee I pass the course. I always had this issue last semester about changing the way I was comfortable studying information. I honesty hate change and trying new things, but I finally realized that change is not always a bad thing. In the nursing program the courses are so complex that it drains the nursing student’s mentally if the student doesn’t manage their time.

Some words of advice are:

-Never take short cuts.

-Accept that there’s too much reading and homework.

-It’s not about being smart but taking the time to read and critically think about the information as if you were the nurse being asked that question from the patient.

-Always keep in mind who, what, when, and how and if you can’t answer those questions with yourself that only means the answer is still unclear.

-The number one key to the nursing program related to being successful is prioritizing your time, not only is it useful as a student nurse but also as a nurse in the field.

Have a good week and feel free to comment on my blogs.

Aimee

Facing My Fears

aimeenursing — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 21:45:33 +0000

This week as a student nurse I faced my fear. To make a long story short I had the choice to sit in one of Brian’s sessions “Strategies for Test Taking” with the second semester students. What makes this hard is that I would’ve been in the second semester if I hadn’t failed the first semester nursing fundamentals class. I was at first skeptical so I had told Brian that this was out of my comfort zone and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to face my fear “Failure”. I had the choice to leave but instead I pulled it together and remained uncomfortable and thought that if I would have put 110% into first semester I wouldn’t be in this spot today. The moral of this story is that don’t wait and wish that you were there because that’s not going to accomplish anything wishing is only a thought but if you do it and put in all your hard work and effort at the end you will succeed in your accomplishments. I have also learned from this experience is that putting myself in an uncomfortable situation; will help motivate me to worker harder for what I want because of failure. If you have any feelings and thoughts feel free to comment on my blogs, see you next time.

Starting Fresh – Finding Motivation

aimeenursing — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:38:51 +0000

Welcome to the spring semester nursing students. As you already know I’m Aimee and I’ve took my first semester classes last semester and instead of moving on to second semester I failed the nursing fundamentals class. I’m not proud of it but sometimes making mistakes allows you to open your mind up to the mistakes that were made. It’s the first week of school and my thoughts are that I have no motivation to continue school because of my failure. I thought long and deep or you could say “critical thinking” of how I could change my thoughst to get motivated. Some ideas that I thought of were:

1) Go to a search engine and type in the words “motivational quotes of success”.

Here are some examples of the quotes that I found that touched me:

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin

via Ann McCartan

“Learning from success is important but learning from failure is vital to succeeding”

via Jason Platnick

“True nobility is not about being better than anyone else its about being better than you used to be.” – Dr. Wayne Dyer via Jason Platnick

2) The second thing that inspired me to get motivation is printing the quotes out and taping them up in areas that I would see them the most, such as my planner, folder, and binde

3) Finally, the last thing that I did was put pictures of my loved ones by the quotes to always remind me why I’m going to school and why I am thriving to succeed and better our lives.

I hope this will inspire students when they read this and give them some direction when they’re not feeling motivated. Thank-you for your time and please check in on my future blogs.

Aimee

What I Learned: Semester by Semester

amandanursing — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:41:19 +0000

In 4th semester you finish all classes, papers, and tests before you begin your preceptorship. That is where us 4th semester students are now. I can’t tell you how good it feels to finally be at this point. With all the tests and lectures behind me, this is what I’ve learned…

First Semester:

Studying long hours was worth it!
There is power in positive self talk.
I should have recorded lectures and made more notecards for Pharmacology.
I should have went to skills lab more.
I learned mostly by completing assignments and listening to lectures.

Second Semester:

Summer was a much needed break before this crazy semester.
My lecture recordings are like educational gold.
I made medication cards more complicated than I needed to.
I should have taken more notes before class.
I learned mostly by listening to lectures and of course, reading my textbooks.

Third Semester:

Textbook websites are worth checking out!
I can’t remember everything.
Keep your eye on the finish line.
I should have started papers a lot sooner!
I learned mostly by reviewing PowerPoints and taking notes.

Fourth Semester:

The SIMS man isn’t so scary, and he never died for me.
Every floor is different because the people are different.
Doing all your clinical assignments before school starts is a great idea!
Doing all my papers a head of time was a great stress reliever.
Taking management over the summer was one of the best choices I’ve made.
I learned mostly by listening to lectures and making concept maps.
The IPod was really helpful in clinicals.

Each semester I studied differently. Sometimes listening worked the best, other times taking notes or making concept maps worked better, still other times I looked stuff up on Youtube, Google, or the text book websites. Each semester my self-confidence fluctuated, so I took different approaches to deal with it. The best advice I have for that is exercise. It is a great stress reliever and confidence-booster. It is a long, hard journey so keep you head up and your eyes focused on the finish line. You will cross it before you know it!

~Amanda