I have a family member who is going to be starting Nursing School soon and I am so excited for her. I remember well that feeling of anticipation and dry-mouthed fear, looking at my brand-new textbooks and class outline, wondering how the heck I would learn all the material contained within… What would I tell myself if I had to do it again?

• Don’t sweat the unimportant details. Read for your learning objectives. If you find something interesting, go back later and look it up (and by later I mean after the test).
• This goes along with above: Learn what you have to learn for the test. Don’t fill your brain up with extra information. You are in survival mode. You can read about interesting things later, when you don’t have the stress of a test over your head.
• Subscribe to at least one nursing magazine. Even if most of it makes no sense to you now, you will have those journals to go back to if you need research or articles. Or, even more fun, you can go back to them next year and realize that you DO understand them now!
• Buy a good medical terminology dictionary.
• Remember that your classmates feel the same as you, even if they try to hide it. EVERYONE is scared to death the first day of clinicals. And if someone tells you they’re not scared, then they are lying.
• If you have to wear white pants, buy underwear the same color as your skin tone.
• If you take notes in class, be clear and concise. Index cards in a flip-book are a great way to organize yourself, and you can review your notes anywhere (in line at the store, waiting for a doctor appointment, etc)
• Schedule yourself wisely. I kept a daily, hourly calendar. I wrote in my work hours, class hours, and study time. And I made darn sure I wrote in my free time too. You have to remember that you are a person first, a student second.
• Consider a study group, but only if it’s your cup of tea. Some of the study groups I attended were good, thought-provoking discussion groups. Others were groups where the objectives would be divided up, each person would answer some, and hand out copies of the answers to the rest. (Definitely not the best learning experience.)  I ultimately discovered I work better on my own. Do what works for you.
• Finally, remember that it’s not as bad, big, or scary as it seems. You have probably heard more horror stories about nursing school than happy stories. The truth is that school is tough and demanding, but its also going to be one of the most rewarding experiences you will have. You will make friends for life, and you will be making professional connections as well. Nursing school is an adventure; enjoy it!

STRESS?

Yesterday I had the (dubious) pleasure of answering a health-questionnaire. The lady administering it was asking all the normal questions and then got to this one:
“Are you under any stress?”

I stopped and had to think. Am I?
It’s true that I work long hours (but only 3 times a week)
It’s true that I have a husband with cancer (but in remission)
It’s true that I have money worries ( don’t we all?  )
It’s true that I have a teenager and a 20 year old (but they are both good kids)

Nah, I thought. I am really happy with where I am in my life.
I work hard, but it’s my dream job, and its something I am good at. I love my family, I adore my kids and the money stuff is always going be there. Long gone are the days when $100 had to stretch for a week. I opened my mouth to say “No” and before I could, the (misguided but earnest) lady said “Oh of course you are! You’re a nurse and you work long hours! I don’t know how you can do that, and in the Emergency Room no less! Oh yes, you are under LOTS of stress!”
She not only circled the ‘yes’ answer, she underlined it several times.
I was flummoxed.
I <em>guess<em> its a stressful job. I know that I go to work sometimes more tired than when I came home the night before. I know that I deal with a lot of things in the course of my workday that would likely make others cringe or vomit.I’ve seen people at their best and at their worst. The truth is, though, that my job is the ED is the LEAST stressful of any nursing job I’ve had. Sure, there are lots of quick decisions to be made, and there is always the hovering potential of disaster. Yet this busy place is so much better than floor nursing.

The Docs, NP’s, PA’s are always right there. No more must I page an unknown doc, only to wait for a call back and getting it, be told (crankily, more often than not) that I paged the wrong person.No longer do I have to try to decipher strange orders and strange handwriting, and then page the doc. I can just ask since the provider is generally right there. Along those lines, no longer do I have to check, recheck, triple check and then just simply rewrite the orders that have been mis-transcribed. We don’t have MAR’s, we just have order sheets. Written by the provider and handed directly to the nurse.
In the ED, we have more autonomy than I ever had on the floor. If I paged a doc when I was a floor nurse because I felt a patient needed something, I would have to wait for the doctor to come, evaluate the patient, and write the order. Sometimes they would give me a verbal order, but more often than not, they’d want to see the patient as well. And if a patient requested to speak to her provider, it was the same rigamarole of paging and waiting.In the ED, I just walk up to the provider and tell him or her if I think the patient would benefit from something. More often then not, I am told “Ok, what do you think they need?”

Imagine that–being treated as a peer! One of the Attendings recently told me that he trusts the ED nurses implicitly and if one of us tells him a patient might need this, that, or the other, he listens and generally agrees.
So stress because I am a nurse?
Nah, not so much.

Stress from the gym I just joined however, (the reason for the health questionnaire), well, that’s a different story…

Once again, I am posting an email from a Nurses Station Blog reader. If anyone has thoughts or comments for the Professor, please do comment or email so that we can help her help her students.

Hello Nurses: 

I am a Professor of Chemistry at a liberal arts college.  This fall, I am teaching the nursing chemistry class for pre-nursing students.  When I have taught this class in the past, I have heard that it is a waste of time for nurses to take chemistry, and that nurses never use what they learn in this class. 

I thought I would go to the source — your blog — to see if real nurses think this is true — or is this part of nursing student folklore?  If you are a practicing nurse, I would be interested in hearing exactly what topics from your chemistry course(s) you actually use in your day-to-day work, if any.  Are there topics that we don’t cover in enough depth — things you wish you had learned more thoroughly? 

I will use your input as I design my class for this fall and, hopefully, my nurses will learn what they need to know rather than what we think they should know.  Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

All the Best,

Kimberley Waldron, Ph.D.
Associate Prefessor of Chemistry

Nurses Station received this email from an RN. I decided to add this “comment” as a post. Is anyone else out there experiencing this problem? Do you have any suggestions for this nurse that wants to re-enter the work force?

Conni Cesena Says:

“First, let me give you a little information.  I live in the Inland Empire, CA and am trying to re-enter the Registered Nursing field after being out for ten years.  I have just completed a Nursing Refresher course and have been looking for RN employment.  If you ask anyone they will tell you there is a nursing shortage.  I say there is a nursing shortage and a shortage of opportunities for nurses like me and New Grads.  No one wants to spend any time or money to train or in my case “refresh” nurses.  Instead, the recruiters are only interested in nurses who have had at least one year of recent experience.  So, I am writing out of frustration for this has become a massive disappointment.  I only hope that recruiters out there wise up soon and consider that there are many potentially great nurses out there just waiting and searching for an opportunity to join their organization.  Please give us a chance.”

Many people who’s normal workday involves a desk and computer probably are used to hearing things like “Hey, are we out of copier toner?” or “Did you get my memo on the budget report?”…
In this line of work though, things tend to be a little…well, different.
Case in point: A week ago, I had the occasion to say “Hey! Who took my bucket of vomit?” (Now how often do you get to say that in the corporate world?)
Recently, a doctor came out of an exam room and commented “Well now, THAT was an impressive pair of testicles!” (In other work places that could be considered harassment.)
Last night, I noticed our chart rack was empty. That is always a good thing because it means that all the patients are roomed and that triage has not got any more lined up for us. I commented “Wow, what a great rack.” The other nurse next to me, sighed and said “Yeah…” Then looked at each other and giggled.
Yep, only in the hospital!