Starting any new schooling experience can be scary and I still remember the first day we had at Stenberg. I knew Nursing was a hard program before I started so I knew what I signed up for. The first few weeks were really overwhelming. Starting a new program, not knowing anyone in your class and having a midterm within the first 2 weeks was very intimidating. It wasn’t till about the second week in until I found some friends, and they have helped me very much in getting through this program so far.
I would say Anatomy and Physiology was the hardest class for me. I had previously taken it at a different school so I knew the content but every school teaches it a little differently. Doing 3 straight weeks of nothing but Bio really was time consuming but after that class was over we got a bit of a break. It took a while to get settled into school and till I didn’t feel overwhelmed all the time.
Staying organized was my number one trick to not feeling stressed. You get so many papers and have so many classes going at once it was very important to me to organize so I could take control of the schoolwork. Weekends could not come any faster during the week and Mondays were difficult. I live a little ways from Stenberg so getting use to driving to and from there everyday was an adjustment, especially when there’s lots of traffic!
Semester 1 was a basic introduction to Nursing. I really like the pace of this program. It is fast and to the point. Everything we learned in school we got to do in practicum. Its really easy to get into a routine of doing school and only school. I found it hard to not work because I was so used to working and doing schooling. This program takes everything in you and consumes you so mental breakdowns were a regular occurrence.
First semester flew by. We were only in school for 4 months, but those were some of the hardest 4 months of school in my life. Toward the end of the semester we spent a lot of time doing practicum prep. It was so exciting to think if we passed out lab skills test then we made it through the semester and we get to take a break off school for 3 weeks! Every time I felt like I couldn’t get through a test or a certain class I would just sit and think about the end result, being a nurse, and how worth it it’ll be when we are done and graduated. Time has been flying by and hopefully the next year will go fast for us all. Having a good support system while being in school has made me get this far. Having encouragement and positive talk really changes the way I preform in school. I accomplished everything I wanted to in semester 1 by getting straight As and hopefully I can achieve the same in semester 2!
Check out this video of our Practical Nursing Program.
