Advice for Nursing Students: Your First Year

Congratulations on starting your nursing program! Trust me, I know that nursing school is no easy endeavor. It took a village and a cold, hard look into lots of aspects of my personality to figure out what would and wouldn’t work during this time. So I’m dropping some of the best advice I have for nursing students in their first year of nursing school in this post.

*Not in your first year yet but getting ready to start nursing school? Check out my post on How to Prepare for Nursing School.

Ask questions

All the time. To everyone. About everything. While you might feel stupid or annoying asking certain questions, now is the time to learn. You definitely (definitely) don’t want to be that overconfident person who ends up hurting or killing a patient because you didn’t know what you were doing and were too cocky, shy, or embarrassed to ask someone. I STILL ask questions years after becoming a nurse, especially when it’s my first time doing a skill in a while. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it, and no one will judge you for it (and if they do, they suck and you should ignore them).

This is especially important throughout your clinical experiences. You should ALWAYS be double or triple checking everything you are doing. If you don’t know why you are giving a certain medication, the route you are giving it by, or why you are giving it, you shouldn’t give it. Always follow your medication administration rights. These will be drilled into you throughout school, and it’s for a reason. Commit them to memory and go through them in your head every single time you do anything. Eventually, it will become second nature and you won’t have to think about it so hard.

Do your best to treat everyday at clinical like an interview

This is especially important if you are hoping to stay in the same city you are doing clinicals in. Think of everyone as a potential connection to getting your dream job. Even if you don’t want to work in the area you are orienting in, these connections can still serve as references, resources, and – if you’re lucky – nursing friends! This is a huge reason why I ended up in my dream specialty straight out of nursing school. Go out of your way to help (within your scope at that point of course,) and be pleasant and professional with everyone you meet. Some people will be unpleasant to you, won’t want a student, and will make it hard. Read the room and figure out how to be of assistance to the best of your abilities.

Stay away from any drama

All nursing programs are small enough that you are bound to not like everyone (even when they’re not that small). You might be wondering why this is even an issue, but people in nursing school can (and do) get competitive. Do not get sucked into this dynamic. You are in school to learn how to be a nurse, to be better than you were yesterday, and to pass the NCLEX. You are your only competition. You are not here to get into catty adult arguments, you are here to learn. Pass your tests, move on with your life, and …

Find your people (and guard them with your life)

Your people will get you through everything – the good, the bad, and the ugly. Your people can be one person or a group of people. Your people can be your friends in the program, your friends outside of the program, or your family. Regardless, you DO need support from others, so be open to the idea of making some new friends instead of seeing everyone in nursing school as your competition. There is a special place in heaven for your fellow nursing students. They are the only ones who know exactly what you’re going through at any given moment (oftentimes even more than your family). I met some of my absolute best friends in nursing school and it has been amazing to go through so many different phases of life together. Please keep in mind that your people can include a therapist. Therapy helped me immensely during nursing school.

Figure out your study style

It takes some time to figure out how you study best, and this is something that evolves and changes throughout nursing school. Different classes pushed me to study in different ways, but my basic study style was always the same: Rewrite important sections of my notes in an organized, color-coded manner, memorize the notes by reviewing them several times, and explain them to myself or a friend multiple times. Repetition was my go-to study style, and I dubbed myself the mneumonic queen. The weirder the mneumonic, the better I was at remembering it.

My method won’t work for everyone, and there are so many different learning styles. It’s a good idea to try a variety of different things until you find what works best for you. Try flashcards, listening to audio recordings of lectures, rewriting your notes, talking it out, studying in a group, studying by yourself, or any other variety of things you think might be helpful. Get creative! Learning what works for you might take some time, and that’s okay!

Don’t learn everything

I know this sounds super weird, but one of my biggest pieces of advice is to try to gauge what the professor thinks is important to know. This will differ for every professor. When the information starts to feel too overwhelming, break it down by what you NEED to know to get through the test and to get through school. Before you hit me with the “But Jenny, if it’s part of the nursing program, isn’t it important to know?” My answer to this is: Yes and no. Ever heard the phrase “Work smarter, not harder”? This will benefit you greatly in nursing school. Yes, you do have to work hard. However, just like any other education you’ve received, you will also be given lots of extraneous information.

Learning how to be a nurse doesn’t stop when you graduate nursing school. It is a continuous process. I can very confidently say that I learned more throughout my first year as a nurse than I did in all of nursing school. Trust me, you will revisit all of this material as you study for the NCLEX and after you become a nurse. One of my top tips for nursing students in their first year is this: Rest easy knowing that you won’t know everything immediately and you won’t have to know everything.

Don’t worry about the NCLEX (yet)

There will be plenty of time to do that when you’re actually studying for it. Before I even started nursing school, people always felt the need to tell me how hard the NCLEX was. Everyone kept telling me that if you didn’t pass the NCLEX, none of it mattered. While that is true, it doesn’t benefit you to start stressing about something that isn’t coming up for many more months (or years, depending on the length of your program).

Honestly, just like other standardized tests, the NCLEX mostly tests your ability to take the NCLEX. You will have plenty of time to learn this as you start getting ready to take the test. You will also have time to prepare for it after you graduate from your nursing program. If you’re spending so much time stressing about taking the NCLEX, you probably won’t pass the program and be eligible to take it in the first place. Get through what’s in front of you first, worry about the NCLEX later!

Organize your life

I know I’ve already said this, but if you’re not already an organized person or you’re not a planner, you are now. Trust me, start now. Whatever you need to do to remember when assignments are due, where you need to be for clinical, and at what time – do it now. The last thing you want to do is forget to show up somewhere or go through the sheer terror of being confused when everyone else is handing in an assignment.

It’s helpful to split things up by clinical vs academic classes, because you will likely have assignments due for both. I made separate folders on my computer for every class or had a different color in my planner for every class or clinical. While this can be a lot for some people (it is and I totally get that,) it was very helpful for me. Trust me when I say there is too much going on for you to think “Oh, I’ll remember that.” You probably won’t. Write it down.

Get comfortable being uncomfortable

I remember going through testing in the simulation lab and and leaving in tears on multiple occasions from the sheer anxiety. Having someone watch my every move and tell me if I passed or failed was my idea of an actual nightmare. The worst part? I basically had to do them every damn semester.

As someone who is not good at being new and feeling like I don’t know what I’m doing, I continued to face experiences throughout nursing school that made me wildly uncomfortable. At some point, I got so used to the discomfort by telling myself:

• This discomfort is temporary. It’s not forever.
• I’ve gotten through all of the tests and clinical experiences that have scared me sh**less so far.
• I am capable.
• I am here for a reason.

It’s important to realize that you are a STUDENT. You are learning and growing and should therefore be kind to yourself. I’ve never met anyone who thought that nursing school was the best few years of their life or who breezed through it without feeling stupid, stressed, or like they couldn’t do it at some point in time. It’s okay to feel this way. Everyone around you probably feels that way too.

Take it one day, one week, or one month at a time

It can be very overwhelming to look at your massive calendar of tests, assignments, clinicals, and classes. One thing that helped me a lot was to only look at one month at a time. Nursing school is a marathon, not a sprint. You don’t have to learn everything or do everything all at once. Attempting to do so is not sustainable and will make you burn out before you know it.

Have fun

Yea, I know. This sounds absolutely ridiculous. But hear me out. You NEED to take a minute away from being a nursing student every once in a while. For me, working out daily throughout nursing school was a game-changer. Having that uninterrupted, not-thinking-about-anything-else time was crucial to being able to reset and recharge. Some weeks, it was probably the only thing that kept me sane. It was also the best shape I’ve ever been in in my life, which was a very nice perk.

It also meant going out for drinks on weekends with friends, lounging by the pool, and going on weekend trips. Yes, these things are all possible. Your life doesn’t have to end when you are in nursing school. Like I said before, some of the best friends I’ve ever made came into my life during nursing school. Take time to enjoy these friendships because many truly do last for life. Don’t forget that you can still be an excellent student and feel joy throughout your nursing program!

Don’t forget to REST

One of the girls in my nursing program got kicked out because she fell asleep in the bathroom at clinical and went missing for hours. While this is just one example of a very unfortunate situation, you NEED to sleep to retain information. Nursing school is not the time to be pulling all-nighters. If you are getting organized and prioritizing important assignments, you shouldn’t have to sleep deprive yourself. Pro tip for my sweet first year nursing student: GET YOUR REST. Sleep. Your brain won’t retain as much information if you don’t, which means all of your studying means nothing.

I hope that some of this advice for nursing students in their first year was helpful. Don’t forget to move on to my post about Your First New Grad Nurse Job: Top Tips for Success. You got this!