Learning Plan 3: Time and Stress Management Reflection Paper

Jennifer Engel
MPTC
Survival Skills for Nursing Students
Carol Strysick
04-03-10

Learning Plan 3: Time and Stress Management Reflection Paper

Time and stress management are a normal issue that all humans experience in life
. The way the individuals handle the time and stress may be the challenge. Dur
ing the years of merging into the glorious years of high school, many freshmen n
eed to rearrange their time and stress to adapt to the higher level of education
. This concept is the same for nursing students. However; a nursing student no
t only has to adapt to higher level of educational material, but they are juggli
ng the roles of adults too. Nursing students must find ways to multitask, stay
motivated, and yet control their time and stress to successfully succeed in beco
ming a Registered Nurse (RN). (Dunham Ch. 2).
One of the time and stress magnates for nursing students is juggling the roles t
hat they encounter outside of school with the time needed for school. Family, f
riends, hobbies, activities and work all have taken a large portion of a nursing
student’s lives before they even set foot in the class room. The role and task
s that nursing students may have outside of school are now juggled with hours of
classroom, clinical, and homework on a weekly basis. When you combine life’s ti
me and stress with school’s time and stress, things can get difficult quickly (D
unham, p. 35). Many students who are not able to multitask may be at higher ris
k of dropping out or failing the nursing program. (Dunham, Ch. 3).
Another major time and stress issue many nursing students may face is applying t
he knowledge to patient care or preparing for an exam (PowerPoint). Many studen
ts may go from high school to nursing school, while others have not taken an exa
m in twenty plus years. Nursing school has a large diversity in age. The older
students who have not taken a test or taken notes may struggle with adapting to
the learning process. Overall, nursing school is never a straightforward task;
it takes time, motivation, dedication and skill to be able to complete the progr
am successfully for any student (Dunham, p. 62). To help with the studies, stud
y groups or having another classmate to discuss questions may help tremendously.
There are many ways to help the time and stress management to a minimum for nurs
ing students, but it must start with the student itself. The student needs to
recognize their own stress and then learn how to take control of the situation (
Dunham, p.34-35). When a student is struggling, they may be turning situations
into a negative or some students may be codependent. In the book I’m Dying to
Take Care of You: Nurse and Codependence, Snow and Willard (1990), (Dunham, p.40
), codependent is when nursing student’s behavior is not supportable of the valu
e, independence, level of maturity, and accountability/ spirituality of a nurse,
colleague, or patients. Coping mechanisms are to help students turn their nega
tive cognitive thoughts into a positive and help students handle their codepende
nce (Dunham, p. 42).
When a student finds themselves having negative thoughts about many situations,
they could consider visualization or affirmations to turn the negative thoughts
into positive thoughts. Visualization and affirmations are great coping mechani
sms for nursing student who always think the worse of any situation. According
to Kellie Dunham (p.42) visualization is vividly imagining specifics of how we w
ant thing to happen. For example, before a student starts an IV for a patient,
the student will positively go over the proper steps as if they are going to suc
cessfully place the IV. Affirmations are concise statements of belief that the
student repeats to replace the negative thoughts with positive thoughts (Dunham
, p.43). For example, the student will repeatedly tell them self that they will
pass the test, or they will successfully insert the IV.
Establishing boundaries is another great coping mechanism that helps students wi
th codependence. When students distinguish and choose between what they prefer
to do what is right compared to what they do not want to contribute to, they wil
l feel more confident and compassionate about what they do. When a student alwa
ys say “yes” to any task that is asked of them, they will feel like they are tak
en advantage of and may lose their confidents and compassion. Boundaries will a
llow students to have more control of their life and make their lives run less s
tressful (Dunham, p.42). Establishing boundaries may help students retain their
time to do what is needed to be done successfully. For example, when friends i
nvite the student, who has a final exam the next day, to go out, the student sho
uld be able to say “no” because the student knows the test is more important at
that time.
As nursing students, there are many personal issues that will dampen time and st
ress. If a student has children, the time with the children will need to be adj
usted to work with the school schedule. The students who have children can mana
ge the children’s time and study time together by using some fun and creative id
eas. If the children are in school themselves, have a few hours a night where e
veryone does homework. Students can also involve the children in quizzing the s
tudent on flashcard or notes. These ideas will help the whole family be togethe
r and also allow the student to study.
Procrastination is another time waster that many students carry out. Depending
on the extent of how much the student procrastinate may determine how much time
they are throwing away on successfully learning and completing the assignments.
Procrastination will only make school tougher because the student will not be r
etaining the proper materials by cramming the materials in at the last minute.
Cramming all the material at once statically shows a lower percent rate on the e
xam or assignment (Alexander, and Onwuegbuzie).
When I become a student in the nursing program, I will try to cope with my time
and stress management by making sure that I can arrange my schedule at home to h
ave enough time to attend all of my classes and have time to do all of the assig
nments. I love my job and I do not want to give it up, so instead of working fu
ll-time I will drop my FTE and work only on the weekends. I believe that workin
g on the weekends will be difficult but tolerable because I know I will be givin
g up a lot of my free time. Though I am taking the risk of not having my free t
ime, I believe that working in the Emergency Room will help me understand the nu
rsing material and it also gives me a chance to take the new knowledge and apply
it while I am working. If I were to only work the weekends, I hope it will gi
ve me enough time to focus on my schooling during the week.
I will also have to establish boundaries as a technique to help me with my time
and stress management. I will have to make boundaries with not picking up extra
days at work, and say “no” to friend and family when I know there is homework t
o be completed. I hope that my friends and family will support me and realize
what I am giving up to successfully complete my goal. If I feel like I am still
“over-my-head”, I will then have to readjust my life schedule to spend as much
time possible with my school schedule. Affirmative will be another technique I
will use when I feel like I am “over-my–head”. I will keep repeating to myself
“I can do it, it’s only temporarily, and in the end it will be all worth it beca
use I will be living the dream!”
Stress and time management are both large issues that many people face every day
. If the person is able to control their stress and time management, the better
they will achieve their goals successfully and safely. Nursing school is very
difficult and time consuming for students, but with the proper adjustments and d
etermination, the students will be more proud and uplifted when they receive the
ir diploma.

References
1. Alexander Elizabeth S., Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J. Academic Procrastination
 and the Role of Hope as a Coping Strategy. Volume 42, Issue 7, May 2007, Pages
1301-1310. April 1, 2010. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science
2. Dunham, Kelli S. How to Survive and Maybe Even Love Nursing School. Thir
d ed. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company, 2008.
3. Strysick, Carol. Time and Stress Management as a Nursing Studen