5 tips for surviving nursing school from a current nursing student

24 August 2017

So, nursing, eh? Be prepared to be run off your feet! But you already know this, and you also know the rewards of choosing such an incredibly worthwhile career!

5 tips for surviving nursing school
Maggie is in her final year of nursing

OzTREKK’s summer Admissions Coordinator, Maggie, is also a nursing student during the rest of the year. Here, Maggie offers some helpful tips for surviving nursing school!

1. Get a day planner, or use your phone as a planner. As a nursing student myself, this is the most helpful thing ever. In nursing school your schedule gets pretty crazy. This one is really great.

2. Be confident in yourself, and take charge. It is really hard to learn new skills in nursing if you don’t actually do them, so make sure you jump at any chance to do something you haven’t done before, whether it is in lab or in placement (even if it is something that you don’t want to do, or might think is gross…).

3. Get a good pair of shoes for placement. Don’t be afraid to splurge for them, because it will seriously save you, both short and long term. These ones are a pretty good choice. Plus, they are rubber, which makes it easy to remove anything that may get on your shoes (ew).

4. Don’t be afraid to ask questions! How can you learn if you don’t ask?

5. Keep an open mind, and a positive outlook. I went into nursing thinking I wanted to work in pediatrics, and that I would never want to work in geriatrics. But it turns out that I really love working with the geriatric population. If you limit yourself to one field, you might miss out on other opportunities. If you get a placement that you weren’t really hoping for, make the best of it, because you may end up actually loving it.

Studying nursing at an Australian university

Canadian and Australian nursing programs at the university level are similar. To become a registered nurse, you need to complete a Bachelor of Nursing degree, or, alternatively, you can undertake a general undergraduate degree and then progress into a two-year, graduate-entry Master of Nursing degree.

Each Australian nursing program varies in its offering, but they all include clinical placements and are accredited in their respective Australian states.

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