In this instructional YouTube video, the presenter shares three core habits that distinguish successful nursing students. First, she advises against reading every word of the textbook, arguing that exhaustive reading consumes valuable study time and does not develop critical‑thinking skills; instead, students should focus on active learning and use the linked study checklist. Second, she emphasizes meticulous time‑planning, recommending that students write down exactly what they will do and when, using a printable nursing‑school planner that covers monthly, weekly, and hourly schedules, to balance study, clinical labs, family, sleep, and meals. Third, she stresses the necessity of resilience: students must be able to overcome failure, rejection, and negative feedback from professors or clinical instructors, viewing setbacks as opportunities for growth rather than reasons to quit. Throughout, she engages the audience with calls to subscribe, like, and comment, offers a shout‑out to a viewer, and teases a follow‑up story about an embarrassing clinical incident.
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In this video, I'm giving you the top habits of successful nursing students. I've been teaching nursing students for a while now, and a few patterns keep repeating. I've noticed that when students succeed, they typically are doing these things. So if you want to rock nursing school, make sure that you're following these tips. Hit that subscribe button and click the notification bell and let's dive in. The first habit of successful nursing students is that they do not read everything in the book. Seriously, friend, if you are doing this, please stop right now. I actually just got a message from a student who was feeling completely overwhelmed and stressed. She told me that it takes her a week to get through one chapter in the book. Okay, friend, listen. If it's taking you a week or even two or three days to get through one chapter in your textbook, that is just not going to cut it. In nursing school. You've got multiple, possibly even dozens of chapters that you were assigned to each week that you're supposed to read. But here's the reality. It would take you the majority of your study time to just get through the reading, and then you won't have any time left to actually study and learn it. It's basically reading for the sake of reading that is not a productive way to spend your time. If you're like most nursing students, I know, me included, you don't develop your critical thinking skills by reading reading the textbook. You develop your critical thinking skills by applying what you're learning and following the tips that we have for you in these videos. So please, please, please, if you're reading every word in your textbook right now, do yourself a huge favor and stop right now. It is a waste of time. Now if you want to know what to focus your study time on instead, be sure to check out this video or this video. And you also don't want to miss this nursing school study checklist that we have for you that walks you through how to study a nursing school step by step. It will be life for you as you study, so do not miss it. We'll put all the links to those in the description below so you can easily find them. Now, if you're struggling with study time and not sure what to focus on, you do not want to miss out on that study checklist. Now, the second habit of successful nursing students is they plan their time. I cannot stress this enough. Planning your time in nursing school is going to be the difference between passing or failing out of nursing school. When students come to me and tell me that they're struggling, I know that it is usually because of one key issue. They're not planning their time well. And this includes everything. Study time, family time, time to practice in the skills lab, time to sleep and eat. All of it. If you're struggling in nursing school right now, I have one question for you. When was the last time you wrote down exactly what you were going to do and when you were going to do it? Thought so. Like never, right? Here's the issue. If you don't know what you're doing every day, how do you know if you spent your time wisely and in the most productive and doing the most important things? You don't. You need to be planning your time so you know what you'll be doing and at what time you're going to be doing it. If you're a nursing SOS member, be sure to log into your dashboard and click on the bonus section. I have a printable nursing school planner there for you that has a monthly, weekly and hourly spread for you to use. It makes it so easy to track your time and stay efficient. Because, friend, nursing school is all about efficiency. The term moves way too fast and if you get behind, you might get left behind. So you cannot afford to procrastinate and you cannot afford to waste time wondering what you should be doing and wandering around your house cleaning and baking. So please plan your time. Plan what you're going to do and when you're going to do it. That way you always have a game plan and know what you need to be doing and when. Now, the next habit is the most important thing I could ever teach you. And every other tip that I've ever shared with you is useless if you don't follow this one habit. But before we get into it, I want to give a shout out to neosha for our YouTube comment of the Week, which says, I just love you. I haven't been accepted in nursing school yet. I'll know next month. Ooh. But I feel that I will be so ahead of everyone. Yay. I am so excited for you to start nursing school. And heck yes, you are going to be super prepared for when you start. I am so, so grateful that you're here and that our videos have helped you and keep your comments coming. Not only do I love reading them all, but they also tell YouTube that our channel is cool and more nursing students should know about it. So thank you so much for your support, your comments, and for sharing our videos with your friends. You are the best. All right, so the next habit is the important thing I could ever teach you. It will not only make the difference between being successful in nursing school or not, but it will make the difference between being successful in life or not. So the third habit of successful nursing students is they are able to overcome failure and rejection. Boom. Friend, I am telling you right now, if you do not get this right, nursing school and life will crush you. You must be able to overcome failure and rejection. There are going to be plenty of times in nursing school when you don't feel good enough, smart enough, or fast enough. And on top of that, your professors might even tell you as much. I have heard the most horrific stories of nursing students about things their professors or other nurses say to them, and it happens. It's not right, but it happens. So it's up to you to be able to pick yourself back up when you feel like a total failure and that your professor hates you and just keep going. Now, here's something I see a lot from students. Nursing students will tell me that they didn't do well on their exam, so they're super unmotivated to study for the next one. Or their clinical instructor doesn't like them, so they shut down and aren't going to keep trying that hard anymore. Listen, friends, and if nursing school were easy, everyone would be doing it right. It doesn't just challenge you physically and intellectually, but it's also very challenging emotionally. It's going to force you out of your comfort zone every day and grow into a better version of yourself. I don't want you to become jaded, hateful, or resentful. No, we don't do that here. The goal is to take your pile of failures and stand on top of them as you walk across that graduation stage and get your pin. I want to graduate nursing school as a more confident version of yourself than you are right now. So when you experience a failure or a setback or get bullied at the hospital or a classmate tells you that they don't like you, or whatever happens, you need to remember who you are and why you're here. You're here to become the best nurse anyone has ever seen. So you must be able to overcome the failure and rejection. I know you have it in you, friend. You are so much stronger than you realize, so keep moving forward. Now, in the next video, I'm going to tell you one of my embarrassing stories from nursing school. That time I almost got written up at clinical. You don't want to miss it, so make sure you hit the bell so you get notified when that video goes up and make sure to hit that like button. Leave a comment below and share this video with a friend. And click on one of these videos right over here so you can keep rocking. Nursing school and as always, friend, go become the nurse that God created only you to be and I'll catch you in the next video. Take care. Bye bye.
