In just under two years, I have mastered skills such as taking a manual blood pressure, performing a head-to-toe assessment, administering IM injections, and much more. But the things I will really take away from nursing school weren’t even learned in class. Here are just a few, in no particular order:
- How to sleep literally anytime, anyplace – broad daylight, the passenger seat, the bench in the hall at school. . .
- How to eat a 6″ sub in under 10 minutes
- How to sneak into the patient kitchen for saltines and water without being noticed
- That most people in nursing school aren’t worth your time
- That a select few people in nursing school will sometimes be all that keeps you sane and are more valuable than even the best Littmann stethoscope
- How to prioritize a variety of tasks such as clinical paperwork, studying for exams, completing research papers, showing affection to significant others, and sleeping
- Group projects were created to handicap the grades of good students
- SIM patients can and will vomit on you
- If you’re not early, you’re late
- People who are not nurses usually have no idea what nurses do, despite the fact they have probably had a nurse take care of them at least once in their lives
- There are opportunities for academic experiences that your program and/or school will not tell you about that you can find and take advantage of
- Patients appreciate that, as a student, you have time to attend to their less critical needs, like a warm blanket, having a pleasant conversation, or being able to take your time with total-feeds
- Attending four-hour lectures will give you the beginnings of disuse syndrome
- Coffee is a necessary ingredient for life as we know it
- Some patients have the most interesting tattoos in the most interesting of places
