- Image by National Library of Scotland via Flickr
1. Don’t become too emotionally dependent on your classmates as friends. They will inevitably throw you under the bus if it benefits them. It’s not that they are bad people. It’s just that they are trying to survive too.
2. Don’t boast or discuss your good grades on exams—you will make enemies, and make your classmates much more inclined to throw you under the bus. (See #1) And if, later, you get a really bad grade, and someone keeps bragging about how well they did…you might understand the urge to throw them under a moving vehicle.
3. Always ask WHY! Why, why, why?! Curiosity is one of the best things that nurses can be. One day, you might have a patient that could benefit from your insatiable curiosity.
4. Don’t get sucked into melodramas created by drama-queen classmates. Nursing instructors DO notice.
5. Study, study, study. I think this one is pretty much self-explanatory.
6. Show up for all clinicals. If you don’t show up, you don’t learn. And many nursing schools have a zero tolerance policy. Meaning you can miss ONE clinical due to emergency, but it has to be made up, and you cannot miss another one.
7. Seek help early if you are struggling. It’s always easier to fix a car that simply has low air in the tire than it is to fix the tire after all of the air has run out, and you have been driving on the rim for a month.
8. Don’t be surprised if there is one teacher from Hades. I could go more in depth on this one, but it’s pretty much another self-explanatory one. There is usually at least ONE teacher that could give the Devil a run for his money.
9. Learn to have self-confidence without being a cocky jerk. You need to be confident in what you are doing, but don’t be cocky. Because you could be wrong.
10. Sleep. Get as much of it as you can. You will function faster and better if you do. BUT…don’t sacrifice study time for extra sleep.
Nurse Single Mom 