HOW TO PASS NURSING SCHOOL (WITHOUT LOSING YOUR MIND)

So passing nursing school can be hard, and passing nursing school without totally losing your mind is even harder. So let's talk about it in this video. I'm going to give you my top tips to help you pass nursing school without totally going crazy. Some of these tips are probably not things that you've heard about before, so I hope that you find them helpful. They were definitely helpful for me, which is why I wanted to share them with you today. And of course, before we get started, make sure you subscribe to this channel so you don't miss out on any other nursing school tips and tricks and resources that I've got for you. I share a ton of amazing tips on this channel, so I hope they're helpful for you. So make sure to subscribe so you do not miss out. Alright, so the first tip I've got for you is to focus on studying the right things. Now, if you've been around here for a while, you know that I really talk about this all the time because I think it's probably one of the biggest mistakes that I see nursing students make is that you're not focusing on the right things. You're focusing on completely the wrong things. I mean, I did this all the time through nursing school too, so I totally get it. But I figured out, actually as I was studying to take the nclex, I figured out that there are really only four main things that you need to know about in nursing school. It's actually crazy. Like I wish that I had known this sooner and that I didn't realize it when I was taking my nclex because that sounds like it's too late. But I'm telling you this now. Thankfully, I figured it out. There's only four main things that you need to focus on in nursing school. So look back on your past exams and see if this is true for you. So these four main things that you need to focus on are the pathophysiology of the disorder that you're studying about the signs and symptoms that are caused by that pathophysiology, the, the nursing assessment and the nursing interventions that you'll need to do. Those are the four main things that you're going to be tested on on your nursing school exams and on the nclex. You guys, I am telling you these are the things you need to focus on. And I actually have a free cheat sheet for you that walks you through step by step, how to do this, what to focus on, what to study, and what to focus your time on. So it is a nursing School study checklist. You know, I'm going to put the link down in the description for you to check it out. It's fantastic checklist for you to use as you study to help you focus on the right things. Because really friend, this is really where I see a lot of nursing students get tripped up. Is this right here is you're spending so much time focusing on the wrong things, it's just a complete waste of time. Then by the time you get to your exam, it's like nothing that you studied is on there. So I'm telling you, focus on these four key areas and you are more likely to be successful on your exam. Because this is what they're going to test you on. Pathophysiology, signs and symptoms, nursing assessment and nursing interventions. Now I've talked about this a lot before. I will pop up a card somewhere up here linking to some of the previous videos that I've talked about this more in depth. But that is a huge, huge tip that I have for you is to really make sure that you're focusing on the right things. So yes, I will pop up a card somewhere around here for you to check out those videos and then also put that link to the cheat sheet down below in the description for you to check it out because you will definitely want to snag that. Now tip number two is to get help. Oh my goodness. How often do we just go through life and especially in nursing school and just think that we can do it all by ourselves? I mean, I think nursing school in and of itself really has this kind of competition feel. It's like you're kind of pinned against your nursing, other nursing students and your competing for a grade, which I've talked about before. I do not believe in that. I do not think that that's true. So. But it does feel that way. So we just tend to have this tendency where we just are trying to do everything by ourselves and be completely independent. And you guys, that is so not the right way to do life. We need to be interdependent on each other. So lean on your family, lean on your friends, get help, ask questions. So here are the places that I really feel like are good places to ask for help. So with making meals and doing chores around the house, ask your family, your husband, your kids, if they're old enough, you know, have them put away some dishes or put away some laundry. You know, have your husband do the laundry, ask for help just around the house, especially with dinner, to ask your spouse to make dinner periodically or you could even outsource dinner. You could get, like, a subscription box service. Those are super, super popular. They're everywhere. So. So if that is something that you can do within your budget, definitely think about doing that. In our house now we actually have a. I can't even say it right because Daniel says it so differently. Daniel says vacuum, robot, vacuum. So we call it vacuum, robot, vacuum. We have a vacuum robot that we run pretty much every day. You guys, this is so embarrassing. In nursing school, we have a German shepherd, and she's awesome. I love her. Do not love the shedding that happens all around all the time. We literally have wafts of dog hair everywhere. So when I was in nursing school, I was talking to one of my friends, and she mentioned that she's like, oh, my gosh, Christina, we have so much. Like, you literally walk around the house, you've got, like, these tufts of dog hair in the corners of the rooms. And it was like, no way. Like, I do too. I thought that I was the only one that didn't vacuum their house. This is before the vacuum robot venue. So. Oh, my gosh, friend, if that is, you seriously, seriously consider getting a vacuum robot, Vacuum, robot, vacuum. Because it is going to change your life. I am telling you, no joke. Best thing ever. Now, my next tip is kind of counterintuitive. It sounds counterproductive, and that is to take time off. So hear me out. This is really, really, really a big deal, and I will tell you why. So here's my experience. When I was in my prereq studying for nursing school, like amp microbiology, all those kind of undergrad things before nursing school, I did not take time off. Right now, today in a nursing school, we took Saturdays off. So every Saturday would just be me and my husband. At that time, we didn't have. So me and my husband, we would just take that whole day off just to relax. Because nursing school is tough enough. So in my prereqs, I did not do this. And so every day, seven days a week, I was constantly, go, go, go, go, go. And I really got burnt out so much faster and so much more frequently. I noticed then when I got to nursing school, we took every single Saturday off. And I talk about this a lot, exactly how I did that. So I took every single Saturday off. And. And it really. I mean, it sounds so counterproductive, but it's not. Friend, I am telling you, when you take a break, you come back more refreshed and more ready to then learn what you need to learn faster. And that's the key really. Like, you cannot learn things for nursing school as fast as you would be able to if you don't have sleep, if you're not in the right mindset, if you're feeling completely burnt out, completely overwhelmed and completely stressed, you're. You are not going to be able to retain and learn the information as well as you would be if you just took one day off, a few hours off, even just got enough sleep each night to then be able to learn the material faster. So it really is gonna save you time in the long run. Like, nursing school is a long game, right? We're in nursing school for, I know some accelerated programs would be like a year and a half, but a lot of us are in there four years. So it's a long, long time. You have to know yourself and know when you need to take a break and know when you need to take some time off and know recognize when you need to be getting more sleep. So that is another tip that I have for you. That was just my experience going from my prereqs to then nursing school. I did take every single Saturday off in nursing school, every single one of them. And also most Sundays too. I was able to do that. I talk about this all the time on this channel, how I was able to do that. So I'll put links to those videos, videos in the description if you want to check those out too. Those are super, super helpful, those study tips to help you actually plan your time better, focus on what to study and so you can take that time off. So that was a total game changer for me. I felt like when I came off of those weekends, off of those Saturdays, then I was really, really able to learn everything faster and be more efficient and more productive during the week as I studied for nursing school. Now the next tip is kind of a mindset shift and this is one that I have been working on a lot lately and it is that busyness does not equal productivity. So just because you are feeling busy does not mean that you are being productive. Now this came from a amazing podcast that I have been just binging on listening to and I highly, highly recommend it. It's called Brooke Castillo. This is podcast, so the Life Coach School podcast and her name's Brooke Castillo and she is amazing and she talks about this all the time. That productivity means that you are producing something. It doesn't mean that you're just busy. Like you can feel busy just doing things that do not matter. Right? You know what I'm saying? So like for Me, I do this sometimes where I just want to feel like I'm doing something so I stay kind of busy. Like I'm on my phone, I'm checking email, I'm, you know, responding to things on Instagram and like, you know, doing, doing this, that and the other. But it's not really productive. I'm not producing things. So I've really been doing this a lot more. Especially lately, we've been pumping out courses in the membership community or nursing SOS membership community like crazy. So I have been highly, highly productive, making sure that we're getting those videos out and the study guides done and everything for our nursing SOS members. It needs to happen. So, so I am, when I sit down to do that stuff, I am like highly productive. And I know that I am productive because I'm actually producing something. So when you sit down to write a care plan, write a paper to study, make sure that you have a result at the end of that, that you're not just busy, busy, busy doing random things that do not matter. Make sure that you're focusing on producing a result for yourself, because then that's when you're going to get that forward momentum and that motivation to keep going, because then you feel like you're actually moving forward. You're actually getting things done and moving forward with nursing school and everything that you have to do. So make sure that when you sit down to write a paper or write a care plan, that you are actually producing that and you're not just, you know, getting distracted, hanging out on your phone or like responding to email and doing all these things, you know, like, I don't know, cleaning the kitchen when that's not what you're supposed to be doing. You know, cooking some cookies, like I always do when I want to avoid doing papers for nursing school, I bake. So don't do that. Stay productive, actually produce something. So spend a couple of hours and make sure you know that you actually have a result at the end of that and that you feel good about that result. So that's going to help you then move the needle forward and really propel you and keep you motivated to keep going. Because it really is energizing when you're actually prepared producing something, you're getting things done. Now the next tip I've got for you is to ask questions. Yes. So I hear this a lot from our nursing SOS members. A lot of students, when you join the membership community, hear this all the time. Students saying, christina, I'm so glad that I joined because I can finally ask questions like that should not be the case. I'm glad that you want to ask questions in our nursing SOS membership community. I'm totally here for that. But I hope that this is not the only place that you can ask questions. I hope that when you're in class, when you're meeting, when you're with your instructors, when you are on the clinical floor with your co nurse, the nurse you're working with, your preceptor, I hope that you can ask questions in those situations as well, not just as a nursing SOS member inside our. We have a private Facebook group, so of course you get access to me with that, but. And you can ask questions for me all the time. But I hope that you are also asking questions at school, in lecture class, and in clinical, at the hospital with your preceptor, with your co nurse, because I want to make sure that you are asking questions and getting the answers you need. If you have a question on an exam, ask the question. I know it's so, so scary to raise your hand in class and, and because you feel like, well, at least I did in nursing school. Kind of feel like I'm not the brightest of the bunch if I had a question in class, if I thought it was like a dumb question. But really you need to make sure that you're getting your questions answered. So that really just goes back to the mindset stuff that knowing that you are there for a reason, that you need to learn this and that, who knows, that question that you had might show up on your exam. So, so make sure, just kind of develop that confidence over time. Make sure that you can raise your hand and ask questions. When you're on the clinical floor with your co nurse, make sure you're asking questions so you know what's going on and not feeling totally lost at clinical. So just make sure that you are actually taking advantage of that, the people around you, the community around you and asking questions. I've told this story before in one of our bootcamp trainings, this super embarrassing story of what happened to me in nursing school. Like, I totally get that you don't want to raise your hand and ask questions in nursing school, because this is what happened to me. So our, I don't know if this is true for you, but in my nursing school, we, our instructors really like to put us on a spot. So our instructor put up a photo of a trauma patient on the PowerPoint on the board, and we had to go like rapid fire around the class and say, what we would do do to help this patient. So every single person you know had to say what they would do to help them. And the thing was, is that you couldn't repeat anything. So if someone already said what you were thinking in your mind, you had to quickly come up with something else. Oh, my gosh, you guys. So they're going down the line of the class, and everyone seemed to be doing so good. I'm like, the instructors coming to me, I was, like, so nervous. Like, I'm sweating. My heart is racing. I'm like, I just wanted to run away. So she gets to me, and I just. You guys, I just completely froze. Like deer in the headlights. I just stared at her. I just totally froze. Ridiculous. Super embarrassing. And then to make it worse, she actually. I would say it frozen for the. It felt like forever, but I don't know, it was probably like two seconds. But she looked at me and she was like, christina, you just killed your patient next and then moved on to the next person. I was so embarrassed. I was mortified, you guys. So no wonder we don't want to ask questions in class, right? Like, that's super embarrassing to have that feeling. Like, it's so scary. So I totally get it. Just please, please, please try your best to get up the confidence and ask those questions in class, because you never know what's going to show up on your exam. And, you know, if you are scared, don't worry, you're not alone. And you can always join the nursing SOS Membership community. And I'm here for you, so you can ask questions to me. No big deal. I'm totally here for you. And one of the last ones that I want to talk about is setting boundaries. What? This is something we don't talk about enough. And I think that this word kind of gets thrown around in maybe not such a good way. So here's what I want to break down for you. Boundaries are a 100% good thing. And I actually remember this example. I don't know exactly where I heard it, but I think it's a great example. If you have, like, kids, right, and you let them play in your front yard without a fence, you are going to keep them closer to your house than you would if you had a fence. So let's say you have a fence in your yard and your kids are, like, safe within that fence, then you're gonna let them go right up to the fence, right? But if you don't have a fence there, then you're gonna keep them closer to the house. Like, they can't go as far. The same thing with boundaries. This is what I mean. So, like, that boundary is the fence. When you set that boundary with yourself and with other people, then you have the freedom to then go further with your emotions, with your life. You know, you have more freedom with yourself, that you're more confident, and you can actually go out to that boundary because you know where that boundary is rather than not really knowing where that boundary is. And then you kind of stay, Stay enclosed, stay. Stay small, stay safe, closer, you know, more inside yourself, closer to your house. So that's the example that I really, really love. I forget where I heard it. It's probably in the book Boundaries or Boundaries with Kids. Fantastic books, actually. Let me go get those. Okay, so these are the books that I talking about Boundaries and Boundaries with Kids. So if you are just human, a person, boundaries, the one you want. And if you have little kiddos, Boundaries with Kids. Ooh, can you see that? It's kind of yellow. It's kind of bright. I don't know. See that? How do I do that? I don't know. I don't know. I hope you can see that. So those are the two books that I really recommend. That's probably where I saw that example in the first place, now that I'm thinking about it. But it's so, so good to make sure that you're setting boundaries with people in your life. How often has this happened to you? Where in nursing school, you can't do stuff because you have to study, right? So your family, your friends, they come up to you, they tell you, hey, Christina, girlfriend, where were you on Friday night? Like, why didn't you come out with us? You're like, I'm sorry, I have to study, like, always. So don't let your family and your friends make you feel bad for chasing your dreams and doing what you got to do to make your life better. This is where boundaries really comes into play. Don't let that impact you. And I'm not going to say don't let them impact you, because other people can't control your feelings. Only you can control your feelings. You can set that boundary and, you know, have that established where you're not going to let that affect you. So it's okay. It's okay. I give you permission to stay in and study and not go out and hang out with your friends or family. Like, I totally give you permission to do that. If you are chasing your dream of being an amazing nurse. Like, I know you are going to be then I totally give you permission to work your dang hardest to make that happen. And sometimes with that you you will need to miss out on other things that are happening. So this is really where boundaries come in. Do not make other people feel make you feel bad. Do not let that make you feel bad about yourself and about your dream and about what you are doing. So that is where boundaries really come into play. I really want to make sure that you are not making yourself small just because you're scared of what other people will think of you. That's not okay. You are a dream chaser, my friend. You are going to be an amazing nurse. Do not let anybody hold you back from that. If you feel like this is God's calling on your heart, go and do it, my friend. So those are my tips for you. I hope that you found them helpful. I would love, love, love if you could write in the comments what other tips you have. I don't know everything. So I would love to hear from you what things you have learned throughout nursing school, your nursing school journey, what you've heard from other students, what has been worked best, what hasn't worked. Let us know in the comments. Talk to each other. I want to make sure that we are helping each other in this community and that we are sharing all of our knowledge and wisdom. That's why we are here. So leave a comment. Let me know and all of our other community members know what your experience has been like in nursing school and what your best tips are and what has maybe not gone so well. And what has gone well. So so I would love to hear from you. Let us know in the comments. And of course make sure you subscribe to this channel and hit the like button and share this video with a friend. If you have a nursing school BFF who you think this video could help, I would love, love, love to help out your friends and I hope you have a great rest of your week. We'll chat soon friend. Thank you so much. Take care. Bye.