How to work while in nursing school

Can you work during nursing school? I have a lot of opinions on this and some of them might make you a little bit bad. That's okay. We're gonna ruffle a few feathers today. It'll be fine. Let's talk about it. So I get a lot of questions from nursing students about working in nursing school. Can you do both? So, like I said, I have a lot to say about this. Really, what it comes down to is you can do whatever you want. I know when you get into nursing school, your instructors are going to tell you that you should stop working. You definitely can't work. You need to fully focus on studying 24 7. Because this nursing school has to take up your entire life and all these things, my friend. I just don't believe that that is true. Here's why I say that when you go to nursing school, yes, your priorities kind of shift. You need to prioritize studying, you need to prioritize, you know, getting your care planes done and clinical and skills lab and lecture class and all those things. But if you are diligent and you manage your time well, you can do both. I truly believe that you can do it. If you want to make that happen, if that is what you need to do, then by all means, make it happen. You are capable of doing this. You are capable of working and going to nursing school if that is what you want to do. Now, with that said, there are some really important things that you will want to do when, while you're working in nursing school to make sure that you're really optimizing your time and doing it well. Because what you don't want to have happen, right, is when you're working 30 hours a week and going to nursing school and then your nursing school studies like you're, you don't have enough study time and your grades start to slip. You definitely don't want that to happen. So let's talk about some ways that you can prevent that from happening so that you can work while in nursing school. The first one is really managing your time well. You have to make sure that you are literally planning everything out, my friend. Like, you cannot drop it. Balls, right? If you're working and you're going to nursing school, that's like two full time things, right? You really have to manage your time well. So if you're working in the evenings, if you're working in the mornings, if you're working on weekends and you're going to school during the week, you really have to make sure that you're planning out your life so that nothing gets forgotten, right? You need to plan out when your clinical days are, when your skills lab is, when your lecture classes are, when, when you're going to study, when you're going to sleep, when you're going to eat, when you're going to shower. Plan it all out. And you know that I am a huge proponent of an hour by hour schedule. We talk about this all the time inside our nursing SOS membership community. I know it sounds like a lot, but this is the way to do it. You have to plan out your time hour by hour so that you know what you are doing and when you are doing it. You are going to be so, so surprised at actually how much free time you have when you do that hour by hour schedule. When you plan out your nursing school stuff, you are going to have a lot of gaps and that is time that you can put in your working hours. So when you do your hour by hour schedule, you probably will want to prioritize your nursing school studying first, simply because this stage in life, if this is the top priority for you going to nursing school, then that should really be the first thing that you do. Put in your hour by hour schedule. And then after you do that, then you can put in what times, what days and everything you're going to work. Like, if you're going to work on the weekends, if you're going to work evenings and on and on. You know, you do want to prioritize nursing school first if this is your top priority, which I'm assuming it is because you're in nursing school, right? So time management is going to be huge for you have to make sure that you are planning your time really, really well and doing what you say you're going to do when you say you're going to do it. And then this is huge, my friend. This is really where your brain's going to freak out when it sees that schedule. You know exactly what you need to do and when you're going to do it. And then when you see that on your schedule, your brain's going to say, no, no, no, no, no, I'm tired, I'm stressed. I' There's a lot to do. I can't get this done right now. Trust me, your brain is going to have all that brain drama. It's going to freak out and tell you all the reasons why you cannot get things done. Now, friend, you need to override this. All right? That is just your brain having its little moment and that is totally fine. Move right along, tell Your brain to shush, quiet down, because you have stuff to get done, okay? So when you do that schedule, when you tell yourself, when you tell your brain what. What you're going to do and when you're going to do it, you have to follow through on that. Because if you want to work while in nursing school, you have to make sure that you are being efficient and productive with your time. Like, you cannot waste time, my friend. If you are trying to work while going to nursing school, there is no time to waste. So you have to get done the things that you say you're going to get done when you say you're going to get them done. So mark my words, when you look at your schedule, when it's time to study, when it's time to go to work, when it's time to go to clinical, when it's time to write that care plan, your brain is going to tell you all the reasons why it's too much. There's too much to do. You're so stressed you can't get it done. You have to override that. So just plan for that, okay? Plan for the brain drama. Realize it when it happens. Like, notice it, okay? When it happens. And then just tell your brain to simmer down and we're gonna. We're gonna get this done. Brain, like, let's come along. Let's do it. So really, staying hyper productive is the name of the game. If you want to go to nursing school and work at the same time, you have to make sure, like I said, time is being used efficiently and productively. And that really means that you will have to decrease overwhelm. Now, my friend, this might ruffle some feathers because it seems so real, but overwhelm is not a real thing. It's something that your brain creates for you. It is just a feeling like you have full control over whether you feel overwhelmed or not. Like I said, you schedule your time. And if you get everything done when you say you're going to get it done, working in nursing school can actually be pretty easy, right? Because all you have to do is go to lecture class, go to clinical, you know, get your studying done when you say you're gonna get your studying done, get your care plans done when you say you're gonna get your care plans done, right? Go to work when you say you're gonna go to work. It's really just a math problem. But that's not the real problem, right? The real problem comes when our brains tell us, I'm overwhelmed. There's too much to do. That's really where our schedules fall apart. And we have a very hard time managing both things, right? Working and going to nursing school. That is overwhelmed, and that is a choice, my friend. Okay, I know that that's a little controversial because I know overwhelm seems like such a real thing, but really, it is just a feeling. Now, if overwhelm is just a feeling, we can change that feeling, right? Like we talk about inside our nursing associates membership community on our coaching calls, thoughts create our feelings. So if you are consistently thinking to yourself, I can't do it. It's too hard. There's too much to do. I'm not gonna pass. All of those things. All of those thoughts create the feeling of overwhelm for you. So in order to switch that, we have to switch our thoughts if we want to create a new feeling that's more productive, more efficient so that you can do both, right? That's the whole point. We wanna be able to work and to go to nursing school at the same time. You can't do that if you're feeling overwhelmed and frazzled and stressed. It's just not going to work. So in order to create that new feeling that's more confident, more productive, more efficient, you have to change the story that you were telling yourself. You have to tell yourself, I can do both. Like, that's one of my favorite thoughts, right? I can do both. I can do both really well. I can go to nursing school and work at the same time. I really like thinking that to myself, like, I can do both, and I can do both really well. So you have to change the story that you are telling yourself. Because when you are trying to get things done from a place of overwhelm and stress and anxiety, you are just not going to be as productive and as efficient as you would be if you were thinking in a more productive and positive way about yourself, right? So tell yourself, I can do both, and I can do both really well. So you can totally work while in nursing school, but you have to stay productive and you have to really understand how to study in nursing school. So in this video, I am going to walk you through exactly how to study in nursing school so that you can save time and be able to work. So click on that video and go become the nurse that God created only you to be. And I'll see you over there. Take care. Bye.