If work and family and friends are time consuming during non-school hours, be sure to find time during the school day to study. Time management during nursing school is accomplished by being prepared and ready to learn in each lecture and for clinical hours. Since quitting work isn't always an option and ditching friends and family is not a good idea, time management and prioritizing are the best methods to use to balance these responsibilities. Balance, Time Management, and Prioritiesīalancing work, family, and friends during nursing school can be especially difficult. Especially if the demands of work, family, and friends are high which adds to the stress. When the mentally challenging didactic portion of nursing school combines with the demands of clinical hours, the nursing student can find him or herself a bit overwhelmed, not to mention exhausted. For fun, wear a pedometer and see just how many steps are accomplished. The amount of walking, especially in big hospitals with long hallways, is often more exercise than the average human achieves in a day. This, alone, can cause physical exertion, not to mention back injuries. Nursing students learn how to turn and move patients in bed, transfer them out of bed, and lift and move in ways one never thought possible. Honing this skill is what makes a nursing student into a competent Registered Nurse. The compassionate side and the technical side come together and we learn how to care for the person as a whole, otherwise known as holistic health. Learning about a disease process from the safety of a classroom and actually meeting a person and caring for this person who has the disease makes it "real". Didactic coursework discusses topics in an abstract way, but clinical hours intertwine classroom materials with real life. Plus, because they are employed by the school any student complaints are usually addressed promptly.Ĭlinical hours may be both intellectually draining and stimulating at the same time. The student can learn an enormous amount from the clinical instructor. This person is usually a great resource, enjoys teach nursing students, and will help protect the students from any negativity from the staff. While staff nurses may only be assigned a nursing student for a short time the school provides a clinical instructor who supervises the students. Many facilities try to assign nursing students to those staff nurses who enjoy teaching, but sometimes the student has to tolerate a staff nurse who is having a bad day. Sadly, others do not like the hassle of having to teach and choose to use students as free labor instead. Some staff nurses love nursing students, are kind to them, and embrace the opportunity to share knowledge. The nursing student is required to maintain a pleasant, accommodating, and helpful attitude with even the worst bedside tasks and tolerate staff nurses who may be rude, demanding, and unwelcoming. They require a lot of energy in attitude, intellect, and physical exertion. Often clinical hours are accrued at nursing homes, rehabilitation facilities, and hospitals. These are state required hours accrued during the nursing program and must be fulfilled in order to sit for the licensing exam upon graduation called the NCLEX-RN. Unlike prerequisite classes taken prior to nursing school this program requires clinical hours. The nursing student learns early on that the golden rule of nursing is to "do no harm." Didactic and clinical hours help teach this vital cornerstone of nursing. The main goal of nursing school is to teach a new nurse graduate how to keep patients safe. Reading and, more importantly, comprehending textbooks and handouts is the key to passing exams and understanding how to keep patients safe. Being present and prepared for classes is a vital part of the nursing student's life. "Didactic" is a big fancy word meaning textbook coursework and classroom lectures.
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