¶ Nursing Student Coach
Nursing school is a wild ride , but that doesn't mean you have to run and hide when the going gets tough . Don't leave your stress undiagnosed . You gotta call the nursing student coach . Real-life tips from a registered nurse , in school and out . She's seen the worst . Now , without further ado , yeah , here is your host . It's the nursing student coach .
Hi everybody and welcome to Nursing Student Coach . My name is Lauren Chapnick and I am your host . I want to start today by asking you a question what are you most struggling with right now ? What is your biggest struggle ? Now you cannot be in nursing school and not be struggling with something .
Even if your grades are top of the class , you are struggling with something . So what is the biggest struggle that you are facing right now ? Is it one specific class ? Is it nursing exams in general ? Is it a certain professor ? Is it self-care ? Is it struggling to communicate with patients in clinical ?
What is it for you that is giving you the biggest obstacle right now to reaching your fullest potential To be the best possible nurse that you can be ? What is that ? One thing , or is it more than one thing ? Often , it's not just one thing that we're struggling with . It's lots of different things . It's a general feeling of overwhelm , of chaos .
What do I even do if I need to decompress because I don't have time , because I'm in nursing school ? Well , I have a really exciting announcement today I am now offering one-on-one coaching sessions . These are online virtual sessions when we video chat and you schedule it at your own convenience , when it works for you and this is your customized time .
These are 30-minute sessions , one-on-one , where we flush out whatever is going on with you and we get you to reach your ultimate potential . So what is coaching all about ? Maybe you're listening to this and you're thinking Well , that sounds good , but I don't really understand . What would we even talk about ? That makes me kind of nervous , I don't know .
I'm going to give you an inside look as to what happens during a coaching session . I'm going to play some clips for you from some sessions with students that I'm working with right now . They've given me their permission and just to give you a little glimpse . Now , no two sessions are going to be the same . Yours might be completely different .
You might not have any of the same struggles that some of these students are facing , and that's okay . I just want to give you a taste of what it would be like so that you could see if it's potentially the right fit for you . And there's no obligation . What we have is a free 15-minute introductory session .
Everybody , whether you sign up for just one session or you sign up for a package , everybody will start with a free 15-minute introductory call when you can really see what you're going to see . What would this look like for me ?
Let's jump on a call , we'll chat , we'll talk about what's going well for you , what's not going well for you , and I will lay out a plan of what we would work on together during our time . So what I would like to do now is just play some clips from some introductory sessions .
These are three different students who have three different struggles , and I'm just going to give you a taste of what happened during their introductory sessions . So take a listen Now . How do you feel about the way that you're going about studying ?
Do you feel that you have good techniques down as far as time management , as far as getting organized for your classes , planning your time , or do you feel like that's something you could work on as well ?
I feel like again , like back to last semester going into studying I didn't really have the right mindset . Like now I feel more confident in my abilities and retaining the information . So this semester I've done really well in prioritizing .
Like today I'm going to do this and even if , let's say , for a farm , like a whole new subject , and you're listening to the lecture and you're like what the heck is this Like , I'm able to calm myself down and say you will get it by the end of the day . So I think that's what we're gonna do .
Yeah , I think so too . I mean , like my whole framework is 100% mindset because , and to be confident , like it is all about putting yourself in the right mental place and it sounds like you're on the right track .
But , like everybody , you probably have moments where you don't , where you do question yourself , and so I think , just like working on techniques as far as how to silence those inner monsters in your head that tell you like you're not smart enough to do this , or this is too hard , or whatever it is , I think it's an ongoing process , continuing to work on all
that stuff . When you go to take the test and farm what goes wrong , do you think that you haven't quite learned it well enough yet , or do the questions themselves throw you off , even if you know it ?
The questions throw me off , even if I know it . I think it's a mixture of both . I feel like I should always give farm extra time . The time I did the best was when I actually started two weeks prior .
Yeah , Well , that's exactly right . I think when that first , when that exam , when's your next exam ? Next Friday , next Friday , and when Friday ends , you're going to start this weekend to start studying for the next one , even if all you're going to do is , once the kids are in bed , lay in bed with headphones and start listening to the lectures .
But what you could do is start listening to other videos on psych meds . Yeah , just start there . When you start your day , do you have a plan for what you're going to do or do you win ? Honestly no I think that would help . I think that's something to strive for . We could work on that .
I would listen to as many videos as I could Anytime you have downtime or you can lend an ear to listening to something . You don't even have to be watching it Showering doing anything , driving .
I'm not going to sit there and go through each drug through , but I'm going to give you the tools and give you different study ideas as to how to do better on this next one , and I want you to try something different than what you've been doing , and what you've been doing is it's not getting you where you need to be .
It's not enough . It's not enough .
Something's got to be different . I personally think looking at slides and studying is the most boring thing you could ever do .
It has to be interactive and it has to be more fun and then I also have been writing so far what he's highlighted . So this is all on headaches and I've just been writing notes on so far what's highlighted .
But I think what you need to do is focus on the need to know . I think you might be looking at all the extraneous information and you need to focus on what do I have to know ? What is the most important thing to know about these drugs ?
How can you make your own notes a little bit more fun and make it more enjoyable because you're going to do better on something that you enjoy doing ? And if you have this mental block in your head saying I don't even like farm , you're not going to do well .
You have to change it somehow and say , okay , up until right now , in this moment , I haven't liked farm , but I have to like farm because I'm a nurse . My entire being is being able to educate my patients about drugs and administering drugs safely , because they're going to ask you well , why am I taking this ?
And if you could just remember , like the key points from your farm class , then you're going to be so much better off and you're not going to remember key points by staring at pages and pages of notes . I think handwriting notes is helpful when you're in class , but then you have to consolidate it down and get it . And that's where we're going to get you .
How do you feel about nursing exam questions Like ? Do you feel like you need any help ? Just drilling them and breaking them down and talking about , like , why this was right , why this , like , are you doing your ? Are you doing practice questions outside of class ?
Yeah , I do a lot of practice questions like anything that I can get my hands on , but the one thing that always tricks me up is like especially for psych there was one question about how a neighbor was hearing voices about killing his neighbor's son , and the question was actually like how would the nurse interact with the patient ?
Or like try to get more information out of him ? And like some of all the choices seemed logical . But there's always like picked the most correct answer the one where you're not .
you're not trying to make it about yourself or you want the person to say more than one word , but , like in the real world , I feel like anything could get the person to speak more .
But yeah , yeah , it's learning more than one word . It's learning the language of
¶ Exam Techniques and Mindset Shifts
nursing . Exam questions and psych questions are really hard and there's different techniques to answer psych questions .
We can go through some of that , too , when you block out your time for the week when you sit down to do your plan , or do you have a system that you use , like do you sit down on Sunday and write out everything you need to do for the week ? How does it work when you do your time ?
No . So I yeah , I need something more like a time block , which is not what I've been doing .
I've been sticking to the same way of just like having the whole month out and just putting like , okay , test this day you know , everything is like study up until that day you know time , like give that time and like either appointments , but it's not structured , it's not Okay , yeah .
Okay , we'll start our next session by . I will just give you a little like how to , on how to take that planner and how to use it to the best , like the best way that you can to be the most productive .
So we'll start with like a 10 minute planner tutorial , okay , because I think you could benefit from that , and then I'll give you like different challenges to do . And then let's like I think your biggest problem right now is mindset and execution with Farm .
Yeah , and it's also like I try to learn it all , like I go through the slides and I try to like retain all of it and I just no , no , here's here's what .
Here's what will work better . Do all of your highlighting and stuff , like you've been doing in one color during class , but know that some of that is going to fall away If some of it sticks , great . When you're in class , don't beat yourself up if you have no idea what he's talking about , because it's okay .
You don't need to know everything you need to know , so there's need to know nice to know and nuts to know .
Yeah .
That's what Mark Clemick , the NCLEX guy , says . Oh , yes , yeah , and I think you're focusing on the nuts , to know . We are focusing on the need to know and it's really easy to do in Farm because it's a thousand pages of slides .
I think that's where I get kind of stuck or tripped up , is where I feel like , okay , if there's a question , it's like , oh , this is , I do the opposite .
So if it says I'll know what it does , and then it will say , well , it's an agonist or an antagonist or it's like , he'll ask , like what the opposite of it is and I'll tell it , like what it does .
So , yeah .
So I need to know like okay , and if it's not doing this , it would be this instead .
Yeah , yeah . I think knowing what the question is asking , yeah , Is huge . That's everything , because you could know it and still get it wrong . Exactly .
Sometimes I just feel like it's all just one big thing and I just can't . It's hard , wow , it's really hard to break the deck . It's always and like even last semester , health assessment , and health assessment was my best , and then fundamentals was my second best , but farm was always my struggle .
Yeah , you're not alone in that . It's hard . You have a mental block of like this is hard . I don't get it . And so your mind , your subconscious , has accepted that you don't get it . And you do get it . You just need a good trick to remember those inhibitors and inducers and explain what an inducer is and what an inhibitor is .
What do they do and what are they . And then I want you to just kind of try to get yourself in a different mindset and it takes training . Like every time you hear yourself say out loud or think I don't even like farm , I want you to say or write out I love farm . Farm is amazing , I love it . We have to just make a shift .
We're going to make a complete shift and get you like . You don't have to love farm really , but you have to tell yourself that you love it . Yes , Are you implementing self care at all into your routine ? Yeah , I definitely love my dream .
Yeah , I've definitely made more of a priority to work out now . Like last semester I was like dead , like so tired all the time and I was too tired to work out , but this semester I've been really good with working out , like taking care of myself , because last semester I would come home exhausted and I didn't want to do anything .
So , yeah , you're confident and like I feel like my grades are even better too .
That's awesome . That's really , really good , because your mindset is everything If I think having that semester under your belt is really helpful . So what I'm hearing from you is you want to keep working on how to continue to implement self-care into your routine and Practice questions , drilling , practice questions and possibly some time management strategies .
Is there anything ? Is there anything else you would want to work on ?
I Would also say like just being confident in clinicals , because there's a big difference taking tests and actually being in the hospital or yeah , yeah , Okay yeah absolutely , we can talk about Clinicles .
So do you feel ? You feel like you just want more confidence in clinical ?
Yeah okay . Yeah .
With knowing the medication .
No interacting with the patients because oh , okay . Sometimes I just feel like I'm just standing there just .
Yeah , it's . It's something that you have to just practice and you'll get better at it . But we can absolutely talk about , like , how to get good and more comfortable with talking to patients . We can absolutely talk about that .
So we'll spend some time talking about Having a plan , what it means to have a plan and how you can make it work in your life , and we can spend some time talking about study strategies for maternity . And we can even go through some different questions . Do you feel like when you walk out of ?
You said you feel good walking out of the exam , but when you look back at the questions you got wrong .
Mm-hmm .
Are there any patterns that you're noticing ? Is it things that you just didn't know , or is it the question tripped you up ?
Um , a little bit of both , I think , because the PowerPoints there's so much information and I'm like I'll focus on this over this and then , like I forget about the other stuff in general , if you can Trust your first instinct , a little bit more , you're probably right .
Yeah , usually it's like , your first instinct is probably right , so go with that More . But I think you're not in it . You're not in the danger zone , but let's get you more in the comfort zone . It's .
It's like little shifts , it's like little tweaks that you need , and then your mind , you're getting in your own way with your own , just yeah , mindset barrier , that's it , and you can totally push through .
It's true . Yes , like you said , even with , like the CYP stuff , sometimes I'm like I just kind of push it to the side . Oh , I don't want to look at that . So I yeah .
Something in you and you're probably saying to yourself I'm not smart enough to get this , and you are . That's that . I think that's what it is . That's really what the truth of it is in the back of all of our minds .
When we say we don't like something , it scares you because you're like I'm not smart enough to you , so are you are so smart enough to do this . It is mind over matter completely , and once you get into the oh , I love this it's , it's gonna be great . So , guys , that's it for today .
I hope that this gave you a really good idea of what coaching is all about , what you can expect and if this is something that you think could be a good fit for you or maybe somebody you know . You can go to nursing student coach comm . Click on the coaching tab and all of the information , all the different packages , are right there .
The first thing you would do is book a free introductory 15 minute session and we can sit down and really see if coaching would be the right fit for you . It can find out what's working for you , what's going well for you , what's not and how I can best help you . So that is nursing student coach comm .
Click on coaching and from now until December 1st , if you use the promo code nsc that's nursing student coach , but NSC all caps that is a discount coupon code and you will get 10% off any single session or package . So definitely take advantage of that and until next time , guys . I thank you so much for watching .
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It does change up the algorithm the more interaction and positive ratings and reviews that we have and , as we know , it is my personal mission with the show to put more great nurses in the world . So nursing is a team sport , nursing school is a team sport , and I am just so happy to have you all on my team because we are all in this together .
So , guys , until next time . This is Nurse Lauren , and I hope you have an awesome day and I hope to speak to each and every one of you so soon . Bye , bye . Thanks for tuning in to the Nursing Student Coach podcast .