Nursing Student Survival Guide

Completing your degree takes blood (to practice doing BSLs); sweat (as you run fromone class to another); and tears (from the emotional highs and lows of clinical place-ments). As third year students, the followingtips helped us not only be successful in ourstudies, but to also enjoy our time at university.

LECTURES AND TUTORIALSAttend your lectures and tutorials (or partici-pate in online sessions). Lecture recordingsshould only be used as a backup. You pick upinvaluable tips and stories from the tutors. Do your tutorial preparation. Even if it’s notmarked. It helps more than you realise. Atexam time you will have a good understand-ing of the course content and a set of studynotes ready to go. Ask for help and advice from your tutors andlecturers. They want you to succeed almostas much as you do.

CLINICAL PLACEMENTS• Know your scope of practice and work

within it to the full extent. Ask as manyquestions as you can, then try everything.If you are unsure of anything, ask yourfacilitator or the nurse educators. Themore enthusiastic you are to learn, themore your RN will want to help you.

• Find other students to car pool with. Itsaves you money, makes long drives easierand it’s great to have an informal debriefon the way home.

• On the wards talk to your patients.Find out who they are, not just what theyhave. You should know your patients asBob and Betsy, not beds one and two.

• Good, comfortable shoes are essential.

SCIENCE • Explaining science concepts to your

family or friends can be a great way totest if you fully understand it. If you can’texplain it to someone else, then you mightnot know it as well as you think.

• Make a glossary of terms as you go.This is a great reference.

• Stick things you’re having a hard timeremembering up (eg. the cranial nerves or normal ranges for a FBC) on the back of your shower screen or the back of thetoilet door. Then you can revise them everyday – or more!

ASSIGNMENTS• Get a wall planner. Stick it up where you

can glance at it every day and see what’sahead.

• Make a list of your assignments in theorder they are due. This helps you priori-tise what you should be working on andavoid working on something that’s due insix weeks while forgetting the one that’sdue next week.

• Make use of all your university’sresources. Go to any writing essays andreferencing workshops offered. Get toknow the librarians. They can show youhow to search for journals, figure out thebest search terms to use and track downjournal articles that you cannot find.

• Pick up your marked assignments andread the feedback. You can’t improve ifyou don’t know where you went wrong.

• Start your assignments early. Even if it’sjust finding your journal articles. Do a biteach week. Leaving them to the nightbefore just causes extra stress and sleepdeprivation!

• Ask your family or friends to read yourassignments. They can pick up spellingand grammar mistakes for you.

• Form a small study group with somefriends. You can encourage each other andcheck that you’re on the right track.

HOME LIFE• Ask for help from family and friends.

Let them know what the best way to helpis, such as cooking dinner or doing theshopping.

• The weeks before your clinical place-ments, cook and freeze some extra meals.

EXAMS• If you stress in exams, go to a workshop

on campus on how to prepare for examsand minimise anxiety.

• Figure out your study style. Do you workbest in a study group? Easily distracted?Then study alone. Procrastinator extraordi-naire? Go to the library. A visual learner?Get some butchers’ paper and do conceptmaps.

• Put your phone on silent and log out of Facebook when studying to minimisedistractions.

SOCIAL• Fill your bucket – that is, look after

yourself. If you don’t look after yourself,how can you care for others? Nursing and midwifery can be physically challeng-ing careers, so eat well, exercise, andwhenever you can, book in some relaxing‘me time’.

• Surround yourself with positive people.Give your energy to those who are happyto return the favour.

• Everything in moderation. Have a break,go out for a coffee or spend time with yourfamily and friends.

• A good support network is a must.So get to know your classmates. Having a group of people to call on can be a life-saver. Give back to the people who havehelped and supported you: it can beincredibly satisfying.

GENERAL• Check your student mail and blackboard

(or similar eg. Moodle) a minimum oftwice a week. Read the discussion boardsand post any questions you have.

• Be organised. Have a diary with your classtimetable and assignment due dates. Startthe week before semester begins.

• Prioritise your time and stay focused.There are always a million reasons not todo something. Make a quick to-do list eachweek. Stay focused and reward yourself for achieving your goals throughout thesemester.

• New to computers? Or haven’t used themfor a while? Ask what IT support servicesyour university offers.

Work your butt off. At university, you get out what you put in. Everyone has outsidecommitments but during those times youhave dedicated to studying, make the mostof it. Don’t be afraid to make decisions. Trustyourself. Don’t doubt your ability to achievesuccess. Whether you are a part-time or full-time student, it is an achievement and issomething to be proud of.

BY LAURIE BICKHOFF, TRACEY STRONG-WILBEAND JOEL WOODWARD THIRD YEAR BACHELOR OFNURSING STUDENTS, UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE

STUDENT SURVIVALGUIDEwritten by students for students

22 AUSTRALIAN NURSING JOURNAL MAY 12 VOLUME 19 NUMBER 10

Copyright of Australian Nursing Journal is the property of Australian Nursing Federation and its content may

not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written

permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.