What to Expect IN NURSING SCHOOL

What can you expect when you start nursing school? Is it hard? Will you pass? What's it really like? I'm giving you all of those answers today in this video. I'll also be giving you my top tips to help you pass the three types of exams you'll take in nursing school. So stick around and maybe even hit that save button so you can watch this video again later because these tips are life changing. Welcome to the Nursing School Show. My name is Christina Rafano and I am here to help you pass nursing school without losing your mind. So make sure to download this free nursing school checklist that walks you through how to study in nursing school step by step. We'll put the link in the description for you to get it. And I'm about to give you even more tips here in this video. So let's do this. So come on, let's be real. Is nursing school really that hard? I get this question a lot and I have one thing to say about Depends. But not only that, it depends on you. There are so many mistakes that you can make in nursing school that will make it way harder than it needs to be. We'll get to those in a second and I'll tell you how to avoid those mistakes. But really, it all comes down to you. Are you willing to put in the work? Are you really willing to wake up every morning, put your scrubs on and own it? If you're willing to do the work and make it happen, tell me in the comments. I love surrounding myself with people who are dream chasers. So if that's you, tell me in the comments and let's be friends. So nursing school is going to be challenging and challenge you in ways that you've never thought of before. There were so many times when I Woke up at 3 or 4am Totally exhausted and wrote a paper that was due in a few weeks. Or times when I came home from a super long clinical day and finished up my homework and my care plans. Now you need to have that first fire and the dedication to do whatever it takes. So is it difficult? Yes. Will it push you outside your comfort zone? Yes. Will you come out the other side better than you were before? Absolutely. So do not stop friend. You can do this. Now with that, let's talk about what you can expect in nursing school. You'll have three types of classes. Nursing lecture class where you'll learn from your instructors. Nursing clinicals, where you'll go to a clinical site and work with real life patients. Or you might do online clinical simulations if your School is online and then skills lab where you practice your skills either at home or at your school with your classes will be online. I've got some really great study tips for you right here in this video. Now, all of those classes will complement each other. What you're learning in your nursing lecture class, you'll be applying in your skills lab and clinical. So it was really nice to know that it's not separate, it's not separated out. And what you study for one class is basically studying for the others. Now, of course, you'll need to put in dedicated time to practice your skills, but you'll also be learning about skills and nursing interventions in your lecture class, which will apply to those skills in the skills lab. So that's a nice way to save time. What you're learning for one class, make sure to remember and apply for other classes. Now, there's three things that might happen in nursing school that may cause you stress and anxiety to creep in. At least it did for me. So let's talk about it so you can be prepared and not as anxious as I was. The first one is your nursing school lecture exams. Nursing school exams are different than other exams you've taken. They're worded all weird and they really make you think. So when you sit down to take the exam, your brain might freak out a little bit. That's fine. Here's what to do. And write this down for later so you don't forget it because it's really important. When you get to a question you don't know, do not tell yourself that you're a failure and you can't do it. All you need to do is keep moving forward on that exam and keep doing your best. Just because you don't know an answer on your exam doesn't make you a failure and it doesn't mean you're going to fail that exam. There were so many times when clicked up that little gray submit button thinking I had totally bombed, but I actually did pretty well on the exam. So nursing school exam questions are tricky friends. Some of them will get you and that's totally fine. Just keep moving forward. It doesn't mean you're a failure and it doesn't mean that you won't pass nursing school. Just keep going. Now, I have a really great nursing school cheat sheet for you to help you critically think and do better at answering nursing school exam questions. Now, I'll put the link to that in the description below. Now, the second thing that may make you freak out in nursing school is skills checkoffs. This is when you go in and perform your clinical skills in front of your instructor. Now this was always ridiculously terrifying for me and it's kind of the worst because you have your instructor literally standing over you with a clipboard marking off everything you do wrong as you do it. It can be pretty intimidating. But there's really two things this that can make it less scary. The first is that you need to practice your skills and know them inside and out. The more you practice, the better you will get and the more it will just be muscle memory. So when you get to that place, when it's just automatic and muscle memory, that's what you want to reach before you do your skills check off. Now the second thing that will make skills checkoffs less scary is knowing that your instructors really are on your side. I know it may not seem that way sometimes, but friend, really they are there to help you succeed. And when you realize that, it will help you to be a lot more cool and collected during that skills checkoff. And a huge tip that will help you when it comes time to do your skills checkoffs is to have an instructor watch you while you practice. And it doesn't need to be the instructor that's going to check you off, just any instructor that's around. Ask them to watch you as you do your stuff skills and then have you have them give you some pointers then afterwards. Now this will help you get used to having someone watch you as you do your skills. And then it will also give you some good feedback for how you can improve for your skills checkoff. Now the third thing you need to know about before you start nursing school are clinical evaluations. Now this will look different depending on what program you're in, but for the most part your clinical instructor will periodically be watching you at clinical to make sure that you're doing things right. And it's usually random and they are usually really stealthy about it. So just always assume that they're watching you because they probably are always. I can't tell you how many times I came out of a patient's room and my instructor was standing right outside the doorway. Really freaky. Actually they're very well trained, I will give them that. Now you'll most likely also have some activities or check offs before or after clinical. Now this might be called for your school pre conference or post conference. If it's after clinical, pre conference, before clinical, post conference, after clinical, your instructor might have you talk about your day walk through your care plans for your patients. They may have you give a shift report or they may run through some case scenario questions. Now ultimately there will probably be some activity your instructor has you do that helps them evaluate you at clinical so just make sure that you're always on your game and ask a ton of questions at Clinical. Nursing instructors want to see you taking initiative and this means asking all the questions, so don't hold back. Also, make sure you know your meds. Giving medications and giving them safely is a huge deal, so you absolutely must know why your patient is getting it, what the side effects are, what you need to assess for how you need to give it, and any important nursing considerations to keep in mind before you give it. And if you're a nursing SOS member, log into your dashboard and check out the pharmacology course that we have for you. We are currently releasing a whole medication database that walks you through what you need to know about each medication. So you don't need to learn it from a textbook or anything. You can just pull up a video of me explaining it to you, which is pretty, pretty great and will save you a ton of time in nursing school. Now make sure to like comment, subscribe and share this video with a friend. And click on this playlist right here to help you rock your nursing fundamentals and give you a kickstart for your nursing school journey. And go become the nurse that God created only you to be. I'll catch you in the next video. Take care friend. Bye bye.