I always had an element of caring in my life which I realized during the time I used to look after my grandmother when she got seriously ill. She was later moved to a nursing home where I saw the level of care provided by nurses. Since then, I wanted to be in a job where I would be able to deliver excellent care to other people, who are desperately in need of that. Lots of people in my life, tried to talk up how nurses are undervalued and poorly paid but my interest in nursing never waned. Now as a final year student nurse, I am happy that I managed to survive the challenging yet most exciting two years of my nursing education.
Nursing can be a gratifying and satisfying career option for the compassionate but its not a profession for the faint-hearted. If you have finally decided to pursue a nursing degree, let me assure you that the next few years in your life as a student nurse, will be the most amazing adventure.
Firstly, being accepted in a nursing school is a big achievement in itself and depending on the degree program chosen, your next few years will be filled with lots of classes, exams, learning and clinical practice. The first semester is comparatively easy as compared to the second one where you will have your first official placement as as student nurse and the whole degree requires you to have eight placement practices throughout the three years. These variety of placement options vary from hospitals, units, residential homes, etc., according to the specific field you will specialize in.
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While it can be so much intimidating to work with patients at first, but this is the time where you will get to learn many things from getting to know roles of different staff, wound dressing, giving injections, to helping patients with their daily activities and personal hygiene. I have had placements in general and surgical wards where I learned a great deal about team work,communication, developing relationships with patients and their families. You can gain a lot of experience from these placements like from my last placement, one of the incident with a cancer patient who was having his first chemotherapy, taught me how important it is to assess your patients and teach them about the reaction they could have due to medication. Due to these experiences, I have definitely grown so much as a student nurse.
Each day of the placements and studying brings new challenges and achievements, sometime you will feel proud of yourself while some days, you will get easily discouraged. Working for longer hours including early morning shifts, late evenings and sometimes during weekends too is one of the biggest challenges in lives of student nurses. Also, when you are in an accelerated degree program, placements are long and essays, assignments are abundant. So, there is always very less time to socialize, spend time with families and friends and pursue a hobby.
Sometimes, being a nursing student is so intense that it is expected to have an emotional breakdown. You just have to remind yourself why you are doing this and how far you have come in order to stay focused. Eating healthy diet, getting proper sleep, exercising properly, maintaining positive attitude, manging time and maintaining work-life balance is what I mostly do to deal with the above situations.
Dealing with the challenges being a student nurse is tough, but its all worth rewarding once you become a nurse. Life as a student nurse is mix of ups and downs, but with a little patience and determination, its possible not only to face these tough situations, but also make a path to succeed in this field.
