How To Deal With Nursing School Burnout
Nursing school can be a trying experience of even the toughest students. Read below for tips on preventing burnout and how to make nursing school a more enjoyable experience.
Having been a high school and pre-nursing student who always dreamed about being a nurse, getting into nursing school was one of the best feelings in the world. You’ve finally reached a huge milestone on your way to becoming a nurse and you are on top of the world. But fast-forward to a few semesters into school, and now nursing school seems like more of a chore than a dream. You are sick of long clinicals, never-ending homework, and unrelatable professors. How can you get back on your feet after nursing school knocks you down? Follow these tips and you will be on your way to not only getting through nursing school, but enjoying the process while you’re in it.
#1- Think about how far you’ve already made it
It’s easy to lose sight about how far you’ve come when you are in the thick of nursing school. But one way of dealing with burnout is to think about the accomplishments you’ve had that led you to where you are today. If you are in nursing school, that means you were accepted to a nursing program, and that is a HUGE accomplishment! According to the National League of Nursing, roughly 29% of qualified applicants are turned away from nursing schools each year. That equates to over 88,000 people JUST LIKE YOU who met the criteria and were still denied admission to nursing school. The simple fact that you made it into nursing school means that you deserve to be here and should never forget the hard work and determination it took to get there.
#2- Take time to focus on yourself
Nursing school instructors ask a lot from you. They won’t necessarily care if you have 3 other tests this week when they assign you a 10 page nursing diagnosis assignment. While school will take a lot of your time, you can’t forget to take some time out of each day for yourself. Whether that means you take 30 minutes to read a fiction book that you love, or an hour to go exercise, pick something to do that doesn’t have anything to do with school and that you truly enjoy. Once you graduate, you will have even more time to dedicate to your hobbies and fun activities, so don’t let them go by the wayside while you are in school.
#3- Get enough sleep
This may the most important tip for preventing burnout in nursing school. If you are constantly pulling all-nighters to study and finish homework, your sleep will likely be the first thing to go from your life. But as we have all learned in nursing school and been preached to forever, sleep is absolutely necessary for our bodies to perform at their peak. So focus on getting at least 7 hours of sleep each night, regardless of what is going on in school, and you will likely feel less burnout overall.
#4- Think about what you would do if you don’t become a nurse
Many nursing are tempted at some point to drop out of school or change their major. Some are successful and my hat is off to them. I changed my original major after 3 years to nursing and it was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make. But what made it easier to decide was to look at the other options out there. Was there another career that I would be happier with? Could I see myself becoming a scientist? A businessman? An accountant? The answer for me was a resounding NO. As hard as that decision was to leave my original college major, it made it easier knowing that I wouldn’t be happy doing anything else. School is just a short period of time compared to a lifetime of a career that you will either derive joy from or despise (or somewhere in between).
#5- Don’t obsess about your grades
This was a common theme that I noticed in many of my classmates (and myself) and see online all the time in message boards and forums from current nursing students. As pre-nursing students, we were forced to be nearly perfect in our academics. The first time I applied to school, I was rejected due to 2 grades that were not A’s or A-’s. I had to take an extra semester to get an A in both of those classes, giving me the straight A’s necessary to get into my nursing program. After you get past the hurdle of getting into nursing school, it’s extremely hard to shake that feeling of needing to be perfect. But as a nurse of 5 years, I can tell you that most nurses that you will work with did not get the best grades in nursing school. I’ve often asked the best nurses that I work with how they did in school, and more often that not, they will tell that that nursing school was a STRUGGLE for them. You still want to do your best in every class and clinical, but don’t feel like you need to be perfect anymore. Focus on what’s important to reaching your goal of becoming a nurse (and not failing out of school!) and you will reach that finishline.
Do you have any tips for preventing burnout in nursing school? Comment them below!
