Over the past month, we have had a brief glimpse of the nursing program. We were introduced to it by a brief overview of the program, and we got to see several different stories behind why people chose nursing. We then hopped aboard Cianna’s day as a ROTC nursing student and saw what a nursing student involved in extracurriculars looks like, and then we hopped aboard Abigail’s clinical day. After completion of the nursing program, students graduate and move into nursing itself. So, what do those who have graduated have to say about nursing and nursing school?

Obviously, there is quite a lot that can be said of both nursing and nursing school, so I narrowed it down when I sent out my questionnaires for both experienced and newer nurses. Basically, I wanted to know (1) what their biggest obstacle in nursing school was, (2) how to overcome that obstacle, (3) what the biggest obstacle in nursing is, and (4) how to overcome it.

Responses varied from a few words to a few paragraphs and so did their content. From finances to time management to balancing relationships, work, and school, the nursing program has its obstacles.

For Noel Hamilton, an alumni of SAC, the biggest struggle in nursing school was time—time to study, time to work, time to take care of his children, and time for whatever else comes up with family, work, and school. His advice for this problem is to “try and get school done before starting a family,” but he also said he “would not change anything as my kids are a blessing.” However, while family can certainly be a distraction from school, family relationships can also be a student’s biggest support group.

From watching my sister go through nursing school and from my own experience in the program, I firmly believe that familial relationships are a must. It may be better if that familial relationship is when you are the grown child instead of the parent/wife/husband, but the close relationship is necessary. Everyone needs someone they can open-up and be perfectly honest with about how their day went. For example, last summer during my job as a nurse extern at the hospital, I found someone dead, and I needed that family support. I needed someone to help me realize that the guilt I felt for finding the patient dead was misplaced. I did all I could, and the patient had signed a DNR, so me not calling in a resuscitation team was a burden I did not need to bear. Without family to help me see that, I would still be feeling guilty about not calling a code blue when the patient had specifically requested (and signed on the dotted line) otherwise.

From talking with a variety of healthcare providers, I have come to the conclusion that nurses, both graduated and future, need someone they can talk to about their day. As healthcare providers, we bear others’ burdens, which means we need help from family so that we do not take the problems home. While we can and should help our patients with what is troubling them, it is not our place to take the burden on ourselves and let it trouble our home life. Some burdens are not ours to bear, and close friends will help caregivers realize that.

However, as nurse Brenda Hernandez (alumni of SAC) pointed out, “my initial struggle was creating a balance with family and how much school was going to require of my time.” Thus, balancing family and school (as Noel mentioned) can be hard. Her advice is to “have family and friends understand that school will suck the life and time out of you. You will even lose friends when they don’t understand. Nursing is and will be your priority, so make sure everyone knows.” Thus, it would seem that family and friends are a necessary support group, but they also need to understand that nurses (both students and licensed) have a life beyond family—whether that life means being curled up in a dark room with a laptop to study, staying late at school and skipping a family dinner, or spending fourteen hours at the hospital. Close friends are needed—but they are not our priority.

In the field of nursing, or any field really, support from management can go a long way. When asked about the biggest obstacle in nursing, Noel said, “I used to see the biggest obstacle as lawyers or insurance companies. Now I believe it’s not having support from your management. On this unit, we have great support from above and, as such, things go much better.” His advice for a lack of support from management is this: “You have to know your own limitations as well as strengths so you can tailor your practices to the patient’s needs, despite obstacles in your path.” In other words, know your own limitations and know who you can reach out to for help should you need it, even if that support does not come from management.

On the instructor side of nursing school, one of the problems I have heard teachers talk about is students not speaking up. Professor Salinas of the Nursing Department said, “If you do not understand something, ask questions. Let us know that we need to explain instead of letting us move on. If you stay silent, we think you understand, so say something. Ask questions. Do not stay silent and confused.” She went on to further say that professors like questions because it means students are listening and understand enough to ask a question. It also lets them know if they have not explained a subject thoroughly. So, her advice to students (not just of the nursing department) is this: Ask questions. Asking questions forces students to try to pinpoint what they do not understand. Once they pinpoint that, they can better work to understand what they do not know—which helps students understand complex subjects.

On the flip side of the coin, instructors can improve their career as instructors by giving clear-cut instructions and helping with an overwhelming amount of information given in a course. Some are better than others at this, so the instructor of a course can really matter. The sheer amount of knowledge a nursing student is expected to learn can be a problem. Books contain incredibly in-depth knowledge on subjects, but you do not need to know every subject as in-depth as the book does. In this case, the course instructor goes a long way.

If the instructor knows what details are important, and they pass that on, that decreases stress on students. However, if they just say you need to know everything in the book, that is not helpful—nor is an instructor who gives vague instructions concerning assignments. So, for teachers in general (not just in the nursing department), give clear-cut instructions and help students to understand what they need to focus on. That does not mean telling them exactly what will be on the test so they can focus on it but instead finding a good balance of “know the entire book” and “these are the important subjects you need to understand in each chapter.”

The struggle is real. All students, not just nursing students, struggle with juggling time, friends, homework, difficult concepts in school, tests, jobs, and extracurriculars. Like any major, nursing will be hard, and it will mean working with people. Once out of nursing school, it will mean a career of service that includes giving meds, working with cranky people, sometimes feeling like an intruder in a patient’s personal life, cleaning up bodily messes, and even getting to know and care for your patients only to have them die—especially if you work in oncology or hospice. If that brief description does not seem like something you can handle, then maybe nursing is not for you. Nursing is not for the faint of heart, but if you have the inner strength to deal with this, you can be such a blessing and make a memorable difference in someone’s life. You can make a difference in the world, one patient at a time.