Let’s talk change!
SO. you’re about halfway through the semester, do you feel like a different person yet?
Nursing school can really change a person. I can say with certainty that when I was in your shoes, I was not the same person I was day 1 – all bright and shiny walking into my first day of class. Not that I became a dark and twisty cynic, but this experience takes it out of you and it will mold you into something new. You change.
Embrace the change
By the time I was pinned and passing the NCLEX, I had evolved. I could process information more efficiently and I learned how to slowly step away from the edge of a mental breakdown. I went from a person who felt suffocated by an accumulation of late, lonely night of studying after endless days in classes and rotations; to someone who could learn to find purpose and positivity in times of stress.
I learned that just because something is “SO HARD” doesn’t make it impossible. I learned that I was capable of A’s and to stand out among my peers. I learned to trust myself and believe that I could become the exact nurse I pictured myself as.
I would not have transformed so gracefully, however, if I had allowed the change to steamroll over me. The thing about change is that we all know it’s is scary, but it can be good. What we don’t always think about is how to make it a positive change.
For me, it was harmonizing with external change (the new environment of nursing school, new schedules, new people, etc) by initiating an internal change. Our brains are plastic, and we can grow from stressful times, or we can harden and get stuck. When your circumstances change, we have to change ourselves to grow and thrive in our new environments.
The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance
Allan Watts
(side note: my best friend, and editor, Lor, is a writer and she’s all about self-enrichment and reflection, and she wrote this on the inside cover of the journal when she started her freshman year of college. And back then, before writing was her career, she would read her journal to me as a bedtime story – judge all you want, but we’re doing pretty well today. Anyway, that quote really sparked a new way of thinking about change for her, and I think it could give you some perspective too.)
I’m probably going to say the words “change” a lot during this post, but what I want you to know is that I’m talking about evolving and growing. Yes, there may be some aspects of you that you truly want to change completely which is okay, but a lot of what happens in nursing school is evolving.
You go from struggling through semester 1 where you feel like you know nothing, to feeling somewhat confident handing much harder material down the line in semester 3. You evolve into someone who can think on their feet and logically think through just about any NCLEX styled question thrown at you. You will evolve into this person that will be competent and ready to care for sick patients in the hospital that put their total trust into your hands. You will evolve into a nurse.
Intentional Evolution
“So when do I start evolving?” you may ask. It’s already started. From the moment you first stepped foot into this nursing world, you’ve started rising to the occasion and adjusting to this new life. You’ve adjusted your learning patterns, your study habits, and probably your eating and sleeping habits as well. Maybe some of those changes worked, or maybe you still find yourself struggling and questioning how you’re going to make it through this program (alive and mentally intact.)
There’s nothing quite as powerful as being proactive and intentionally chosing how you’ll live your life. When you make the decision to set new standards and raise expectations for yourself, more times than not, you will rise. You will become the person that you envision in your mind. But you have to be deliberate. Intentional evolution isn’t about just floating through life, it’s about planting a foot firmly on your path, pointing yourself in the direction of your goals, and starting to walk.
Don’t wish for it, work for it
Listen to yourself – how you think and speak, and look out for patterns like:
“I wish I could get myself up at 5am and study like you.”
“I wish my notes were as pretty and neat as yours are.”
“I wish I was as organized as you and stayed ahead and didn’t scramble before the tests.”
There is no reason you can’t be that person. You can decide now that you are going to be that person and start taking steps to be the person you wish you were.
If you’re looking for the time to change or the sign that you need to make some adjustments, let this be it! There’s no better time to work on becoming the person you envision than right now. Change doesn’t have to be this scary negative thing. It can actually be fun and stimulating if you choose to see it that way. It’ll take some failing, re-evaluating, and restarting, but you can achieve whatever it is you see, just don’t give up!
Now let’s get into this week and check-in after that first test.
Test 1 post-mortem
You’re a few weeks into the program, and you are bound to have had your first or second big exam by now. This may bring on some anxiety depending on how you did, but remember that it is still early and there is still so much time to evolve!
If you aced it, congrats! Your study habits are working for you! If you didn’t do as well as you hoped, that’s okay. Now you know you’ll have to make some changes. Start by preparing yourself to alter your routine and be open to new strategies and ideas:
Launchpad options for change:
- Maybe you have some friends that are crushing it and made that test their b. Get in there! Ask how they studied and whether they’d be willing to share their secrets.
- Try YouTubing “how to study fundamentals in nursing” or “nursing pathophysiology tips.” Apply one or two strategies to your schedule each week.
- If you haven’t been recording the lectures, why not give it a shot?
- Go back over the test – find out if more questions came from the book, the slides, or the notes.
- Maybe you didn’t do enough study questions. Promise yourself you’ll start doing 10-20 random fundamental NCLEX questions a day.
- Maybe you tried studying with a group, and it was a bust. Decide next test you don’t want to waste the time and fly solo.
Whatever you decide, just try something different! And for those of you that did do really well, keep that momentum going and maybe lend a hand to someone else! Keep using your same techniques, but even still go ahead and add something new to see if it helps even more.
I’m telling you, now is the time to test the waters and exhaust as many learning and studying techniques as possible because the material is manageable and you only have a few content-heavy classes. You want to go into the next semester feeling confident AF about how you learn and retain information the best. I promise you’re going to want this down to a science.
A little science behind change
So, in nursing school we learned this little thing called the Transtheoretical Stages of Change Model.
Basically, it explains how our minds work when we make or encounter changes.
First, you have the Precontemplation Phase. Which is basically where you were before school even started; not knowing what was going to happen and not even realizing that maybe you had to change anything in the first place. Think a happy, go-lucky, “look at me in my scrubs and stethoscope around my neck starting nursing school!” instagram post.
Then you have Contemplation Phase. This is where you’re like “Oh shit, nursing school is nothing like my undergrad life.” You still may not be super convinced you’re doing anything wrong, but you start to consider that you may need to change or you’ll be the kid headed back at home begging your old job to take you back.
Then comes Preparation Phase. This may be your current state – the moment you make the conscious decision you want to do something different and choosing to map out a way to make it happen.
Then there’s the Action Phase. This is when you go take that plan and make it happen. A lot of people have big dreams and the best of intentions, but they miss this very important phase. Because it’s only once you start acting, that you see progress and change, and ultimately, the results you intended.
Then, you’re cruising through the Maintenance Phase. You recognized the need for change, decided to make the change, actually went ahead and did it, and are so damn proud of yourself for how far you’ve come! So, now what do you do? You keep that ball rolling (hopefully right into your first RN job!) This is the part you take consistent action and continue your positive, healthy habits.
Things are going great until the “relapse phase.” Whomp whomp :/ Maybe you start aceing tests and get lazy thinking you don’t have to try so hard, so you revert back to your old ways. Maybe you have friends visit for the weekend and go out and ditch studying for a whole few days and lose your momentum. It’s okay! We are human and it’s going to happen! It’s actually so common and expected – it’s literally part of the cycle of change. Remember, it’s a cycle, so you can start the process over, but this time you’ll be 5 steps ahead since you’ve already mastered it once.
The theory is that you learn from each “relapse” and come out a stronger and more agile each time. Changing is hard. Taking action is hard. Maintaining change is hard. But it’s easier than looking back wishing you had done something while you still had the time. Again, do something your future self will go back in time and kiss yourself on the forehead for.
*Editor’s note – Duda literally kisses everyone on the forehead. It’s very weird but also very endearing. It’s like she suddenly becomes a 26 year-old grandmother.*
Smart-ass goal-setting
I’m sure by now, you learned about “SMART” goals. Yeah, I know I’m rolling my eyes too. You’ve probably already had test questions asking which one is the “smartest” goal of the bunch, but there really is something to it!
It’s no good to just say, “I want to do better” or “I’m going to get better grades.” Where’s the fire, where’s the focus?! You need to be clear and specific on what you want and go ahead and write that shit down, tell someone else, do something to hold yourself accountable!
Hold yourself accountable
Maybe you want to tell yourself right now that you’re going to have all your notes from this week typed up by Saturday afternoon. Maybe you make a goal of reading through all your PowerPoints at least once every or every other day. Maybe you want to make it a point to listen to at least one or two lectures or YouTube videos throughout the week before sitting down to study. Maybe you decide to do 20 questions on an NCLEX app before going to sleep or first thing after waking up.
Literally, I tried all of the above until I found what worked for me. It was about my 5th week into the program when I started to figure out that I was going to have to come up with a blueprint for my weeks. I’m a pretty stubborn person, so usually what I think is the right way and the best way, is the only way I want to do things. Until I realized that this mindset wasn’t going to serve me in this insanely fast program.
Every week I tried to focus on improving little aspects of my life to make me a more confident and disciplined person and actually accept that change is a good thing! Maybe call it “self-help” and all that woo-woo stuff, but I found that incorporating some of these things absolutely kept me more positive and calmer as things started to get more stressful and scary.
Below is an actual screenshot of a note in my phone from November 2nd, 2017 at 6:26am.
Welcome to my weird and overly ambitious mind. But let me tell you, I most definitely, absolutely did not get up at 5am probably 80% of the days in the program. BUT this plan did give me something to aim for, and once I started taking action, I noticed how much things started to change for me and how much better I did on tests and how much more confident I felt.
You could say that I made it to the “maintenance stage” quite a few times and may have “relapsed” back into my old, lazier ways at times too (I still blame the Eagles winning the Superbowl for that.) But, over time, I kept cycling through this until I successfully made new habits, but it all started with that conscious decision November 2nd.
They say it takes about 21 days to make or break a habit, so don’t be frustrated if things don’t stick right away. Be kind to yourself and know you are a work in progress too. Just keep at it and before you know it, you’ll have new habits and eventually a new lifestyle you’ll be so proud of! You’ll be living the life you crafted by design.
Little habits for big changes
Small habitual changes can snowball into big differences in your lifestyle. Here are a few changes I implemented in the beginning when big changes seemed too overwhelming.
Consume inspirational content
In my little note above from November 2017, I say I wanted to start my days with inspirational music. And as weird as this may sound, I still listen to inspiration and motivation speeches all the time! I don’t know if any of you were athletes in the past, but I used to be a gymnast. Before a big meet, I would load up with pump-up music or motivational words. Nothing like getting yourself hyped before tackling whatever it is you have you do.
Okay, maybe nursing school isn’t quite as thrilling as flying through the air doing crazy flips and competing in a huge arena, or as exhilarating as playing a championship game in front of your whole high school or college. So what that you don’t have your own personal fan section. In this program you just have to be your own freakin cheerleader!
So that’s what I did, and to get me all pumped up for the day or before studying, I’d throw on my Spotify playlist of motivational, get-your-ass-up-and-moving kinda stuff. I wanted to share one of my favorites with you guys that I still listen to and maybe you’ll hate it or maybe you’ll take something away and be excited to study and take on patho or foundations!
I knew that no one would be there to push me and make me put the hours in and that it was my responsibility to take action. Your success and your happiness through the program is on you, so get to it!
Find a new perspective
Sticking with the “change” theme, I want to help you change the way you see things and how that directly affects your real, every-day life. I really do believe that if you want to see negativity in something, you absolutely will.
There is so much to complain about or be down about in life, especially in nursing school. But at the same time, if you choose to see the good and the positive, there are so many opportunities and exciting things happening right in front of you every day you go to class and lab and clinical. Keep working on this mindset and you will absolutely see changes and maybe even find yourself enjoying school!
Good luck this week and remember that while you feel like you have to be your own cheerleader, that I am over here rooting for you as well! Keep working and stay positive my friend! Xoxo, Lindsey
In keeping with inspiring messages surrounding change, maybe a good start is finding a piece of art that reminds you why you’re on this path and helps you move toward your goals each day. Maybe you need a sticker to remind you that sometimes you have to change in order to bloom:)
