The secret to nursing school

As a student nurse, you need to have a lot of things. You need to be smart, not a Mensa genius, but pretty knowledgeable. You have to be able to learn fast, think on your toes and act quickly in an emergency.  You have to be strong in body and mind, you have to be sincere in what you do.  As a student you’re competitive, but you’re caring and compassionate. It seems like there are a million qualities that you have or you gain when in nursing school. So what’s that ONE thing that is above them all?  What is it that gets you through everything? What’s that quality you need as a student nurse more than anything.

I think it’s Faith.  Faith in all aspects of your life. A faith in many things. For me, a faith in God helps. Faith that what I am doing is helping others, I have faith that I am doing what God wants me to do with my life. Nursing was a calling to me, and I feel like this is exactly what I am supposed to be doing with my life. But even if you aren’t a religious person, faith is something that you carry with you in everything you do. You need to have faith in what you do, that you’re doing it for the right reasons, otherwise, the struggle through nursing school isn’t worth it.

You have to have faith that your teachers are guiding you. That they have faith in you. When this is lost, you don’t trust them, and they don’t trust you, and the learning is not going to be efficient.  You won’t gain as much from the experience. Show them you have faith in them, and that they can trust you to do the work with your full attention and spirit.

You have to have faith in Western medicine. It’s what we’re practicing, and while there are aspects of nursing that go beyond medicine, you have to have faith that the institution you work for is doing good for your patients. You have to have faith that what you and the team are doing is what’s best for your patient.

But most importantly, you have to have faith in yourself. You have to believe that you are doing the right thing, down the right path in your life. Faith that you can tackle the loads of chapters and studying and projects and papers. And not just ‘knowing you can get it done,’ but knowing that you can do it to the best of your ability. Because even if you don’t get an A, you can have faith that you did your very best on it, which is how you should practice your nursing everyday, the very best way you can.