Becoming a nursing student automatically increases stress levels because of the complexity of the information to be learned and applied and because of new constraints on time. There are several ways students can consciously decrease the stress associated with school. One way is to become very organized so that assignment deadlines or tests do not come as a sudden surprise. By following a consistent plan for studying and completing assignments, students can stay on top of requirements and thereby prevent added stress. Carry as few units as possible to lighten the study load.
Another way to decrease stress while in school is to set personal priorities. Take time to survey all outside obligations and determine what can be given up during nursing school. Perhaps it would be best to concentrate solely on school if you are single and, if married or a parent, on school and family. That might mean restricting your social life or giving up many social activities such as being a Scout leader, Sunday school teacher, room mother at school, chief carpool driver, soccer coach, or Little League organizer. When school is completed, these extra roles could be taken up again. Adopt the motto Keep It Simple for your life while in school. The fewer outside distractions and responsibilities you have, the better your chances for success. Do not let housemates or dormmates constantly distract you.
If you have family responsibilities, consider asking for assistance from family and friends during your school years. A lot of stress can be reduced if someone else will take over carpool duties for school-age children. Relatives and good friends may be willing to help with this task. A spouse may be able to help if work schedules permit. Relatives can act as representatives once in a while at a child’s school function that falls on the evening before an important test. All household members can help with housekeeping, cooking, and errands. Adolescents can grocery shop from a list, and children from the age of 9 years can prepare a simple dinner, even if it is hot dogs, scrambled eggs and biscuits, or TV dinners cooked in the microwave oven. Children can prepare their own school lunches and can fix yours too! Things don’t have to be perfect for these few years of school. Let go of ideals regarding meals and the state of living quarters or yard. The goal is to keep all occupants healthy and in touch with each other while you get through school. When a relative or dear friend asks what you would like for a special occasion gift, tell them you would like maid service to clean the house really well or a gardener to do some yard work. Be creative with gift requests; ask for what you really need to decrease your stress.
Try to decrease your workload and maximize your time by handling items only once. Most of us spend a lot of time picking up things we put down rather than putting them away when we have them in hand. Going straight to the closet with your coat when you come in instead of throwing it on a chair saves you time in hanging it up later. Discarding junk mail immediately and filing the rest of your bills and mail as they come in rather than creating an ever-growing stack saves time when you need to find something quickly. If all items requiring further attention are filed in some fashion, it helps you remember to take care of things on time rather than being so engrossed in your schoolwork that you forget about them. Many nursing students have had their power or telephone cut off because the bill simply was forgotten or buried in a pile of old mail.
Regular exercise, even if only a 10-minute brisk walk each day, will also aid in reducing stress. Although you may have been able to enjoy regular sessions at the health club or at an exercise class several times a week, you now may have to cut down on that time without giving up a set schedule for an exercise routine. Using an exercise bicycle that has a book rack on it at home, the YMCA, or a health club can help you accomplish two goals at once. You can exercise while beginning a reading assignment or while studying notes for an exam. Listening to lecture recordings while doing floor exercises is another option. At least a couple of times a week, however, the exercise routine should be done without the mental connection to school; time for the mind to unwind is necessary too.
Taking 10 minutes a day for yourself is very beneficial for stress reduction. Closing yourself in your room, lying down with eyes shut and just free floating for a few minutes can revive energies and stop the whirlwind of thoughts of family obligations or nonstop tasks that tend to increase stress. Reading a few pages of a magazine or a book, listening to favorite music, napping for a short time, or doing a relaxation technique between the time you reach home and begin the evening routine can refresh both the body and the mind.
Another technique to help keep stress levels at a minimum is to stop worrying about things that cannot be changed. A great deal of energy is spent by many people on worrying about a situation that has not yet taken place. There will be time enough to worry about an event once it has actually occurred. Check yourself and ask if you are a person who spends precious energy in this fashion. Wouldn’t you rather spend that energy elsewhere? All of your “preworry” most likely will not change the event. Worrying about whether your teenager will have an accident while driving will not prevent such an event or cause it to happen. Worrying about whether a completed assignment will be graded favorably will not affect the grade; what is done is done. Try to focus on this day and this time, and do not worry about problems ahead of time. Deal with problems as they occur; if you cross a bridge before you need to, you will be paying the toll twice.
Donald Tubesing in his book Kicking Your Stress Habits (1996) talks about using the technique of relabeling to alter stress from bad to good. (This book is still in print and available from Amazon.com.) The author explains that the effect of an experience on you is determined by how you label it. You have a choice as to how you view things. Labeling your clinical experience as exciting and challenging will make it far less stressful than labeling it as frightening and forbidding. If you label events as adverse during your daily crises, you end up with a batch of problems by the end of the day; if you label the same events as challenges, you end up with a bunch of opportunities. When something really seems stressful, ask yourself, “Will this matter in another 12 months? In 5 years?” This technique can quickly place things in a broader perspective.
A helpful method for decreasing test stress is to practice self-affirmation. After you have adequately studied and really know the material, start looking in the mirror each time you pass one and say to yourself— preferably out loud—“I know this material, and I will do well on the test.” After several times of watching and hearing yourself reaffirm your knowledge, you will gain inner confidence and are able to perform much better during the test period. This technique really works for students who are adventurous enough to use it. It may feel silly at first, but if it works, who cares?
The old standbys of enough sleep and adequate nutritional intake also help keep excessive stress at bay. Although nursing students learn about the body’s energy needs in anatomy and physiology classes, somehow they tend to forget that glucose is necessary for brain cells to work. Skipping breakfast or lunch or surviving on junk food puts the brain at a disadvantage. How can the student expect to grasp material when reading textbooks if the brain is operating in a glucose-deficient mode? Can a student perform in a top-notch manner in the clinical setting if the last meal was more than 8 hours ago? A car is not expected to run without gas; why should a body, and especially a brain, be expected to perform correctly when there is no fuel on board?
Once nursing classes start, students will probably not be able to obtain the same amount of sleep as they did before, but rest is essential to the body and brain for good performance. Think of it as recharging the battery. A run-down battery provides only substandard performance. For most students, it is better to spend 7 hours sleeping and 3 hours studying than to cut sleep to 6 hours and study 4 hours. The improvement in the rested mind’s efficiency will balance out the difference in the time spent studying. Knowing your natural body rhythms is necessary when it comes to determining the amount of sleep needed for personal learning efficiency.
Each student should determine if he or she is a “lark” or an “owl.” Larks, day people, do best getting up early and studying during daylight hours. Owls, night people, are more alert after dark and can remain up late at night studying, catching needed sleep during daylight hours. It is better to work with natural biorhythms than to try to conform to an arbitrary schedule. You will absorb material more quickly and retain it better if you use your most alert periods of each day for study. Of course, it is necessary to work around class and clinical schedules. Owls should attempt to register in afternoon or evening lectures and clinical sections; larks do better with morning lectures and day clinical sections.
Danger of Infection
Becoming a nursing student brings special situations that many find very stressful. Patients do not always get well; sometimes they die or lose body functions, which cause students considerable grief. Nurses care for patients with chronic or terminal diseases. Many diseases patients have can be contracted by the nurse. The disease most dreaded is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Working with AIDS patients and the potential for infection with HIV is very stressful for most health care workers. The following paragraphs present some information and suggestions for decreasing the fear of contracting harmful diseases and for dealing with dying patients.
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