By Whether you’re attending a nursing school in Arizona or staying close to home, it’s essential to know that it’s not going to be easy. Nursing school is brutal, time-consuming, and hectic.
Anyone who has graduated from nursing school can tell you what they learned. However, most of them will tell you that your number one priority, and the best way to get through, is to stay healthy.
How do you do that when you’re running 90 to nothing and trying to keep up with classes, homework, clinicals, and more? We’ll give you a few tips for staying healthy while you’re attending nursing school in the blog below.
Join One of the Gyms in Arizona
You already know that exercising is the key to staying healthy, not only physically but mentally as well. The thing is you don’t want to just exercise by yourself all of the time. If you’re attending school in Arizona, why not join one of the many gyms in Arizona as well?
There are quite a few benefits to exercising regularly, including increased energy levels, improved focus, less anxiety and stress, and also better memory. These benefits are all going to help you get through the next two to four years, so make exercising one of your top priorities.
Forgo the Junk/Eat Healthy
Eating healthy isn’t just about losing weight. Eating healthy is something many nursing students let fall by the wayside when they get busy with classes and late-night study sessions. It’s a lot easier to fuel up on junk food than it is to take the time to eat a well-planned out healthy meal.
Even if you don’t have time to cook, a steady diet of fruits, veggies, and a salad thrown in will go a long way toward giving you the energy to study for that big exam you have coming.
Drink More Water
While it may be tempting to fuel up on coffee and other caffeinated beverages, you need more water in your diet as well. It’s also important to try and drink out of a high-quality water bottle instead of the plastic ones that were used in the past.
Research has shown that those handy plastic water bottles are steadily leaking chemicals into the water you drink, resulting in conditions that can make you very sick. So, drink your water every day, but make sure that you’re drinking it out of a BPA-free high-quality water bottle instead.
Know Your Limits
As previously stated, nursing school is stressful, so you need to learn your stress limits pretty quickly. While instructors will tell you that mild stress makes for an optimal learning environment, you need to know when your stress has gone from mild to severe and is threatening your health.
Learn your limits, and tune into the level of stress you can handle. Once you’ve reached that limit, pay attention, take a break, then hit the books afterward. Being super stressed isn’t conducive to learning, so take a breath, watch some Netflix, then go back to work once you’re feeling a little less anxious for the best results.
Sleep
Sleep is vital for the brain to function. If you’re not sleeping, then you’re not going to your classes ready, eager, and able to learn. Nursing classes cram a lot of information into a little amount of time, so you need to be sharp if you’re hoping to retain even a fraction of that information.
Sleep at least eight hours a night to be able to function the next morning.
Nursing school is hard, and your health is one of the things that is going to get you through to the other side. Take your time, exercise, eat well, and sleep the right amount of time, and you’ll be fine.
