It's kind of a mix of secrets/tips/myth-busters, which I feel like will help you guys, particularly if you are just starting out now, because I know a lot of you are, so I'm just going to get right into the video.

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1. (0.47) You Can Have A Social Life

My first one is, I think it is a bit of a secret, in a way, because a lot of people before you go into nursing will tell you the complete opposite of this, but you can have a life.

I say this in all my videos because a lot of people see nursing as a degree or as a career or something that is just the end of your life, that you've got no time, can't do anything.

You can't do anything fun or social.

But you really can, especially as a student.

You still want to enjoy that kind of student life, being social, being with your friends, even your family.

So I think that is a little bit of a, I guess you could call it a secret, that you actually can have a life.

Before I started the course, people did say to me:

"Oh, you're going to study nursing. Oh, my gosh, you're going to have no time. You're going to be studying all the time. You're going to be working all the time".

Yeah, obviously, it's a very busy course.

Everyone knows it's a very busy course, you get what you sign up for.

But you still have time to do whatever you enjoy.

You still have time to work if you want to or if you have to.

It's not the end of the world, and I don't know why people have that perception of nursing that it's just the end of the world because, obviously, it is very time-consuming, but you can have a life.

I'm just going to give you that one for free.

You can.

I just hate the way that people paste these kinds of stereotypes on nursing students and how we're just all closed away, left out.

Obviously, there are going to be things that you're going to have to miss because our timetables are very unique to the average Uni student, but you can still do things that you want.

It's all about making time and I've, obviously, mentioned this in my other videos.

If you've already seen them, then you will know.

But, yeah, that's my first one.

2. (2.19) You Will Be Thrown In The Deep End

Number two, I feel like a lot of people know before they start their nursing course, because this is something that people will, obviously, tell you before as something that you will know if you've researched the course before applying, is that you do get thrown into the deep end.

The knowledge that you have to have as a nurse, it's constantly growing, it's constantly building.

It's a bit obvious that in three years is you can't learn all of that content, you're not going to be an expert at everything.

It is quite fast.

It goes really quickly.

I still can't believe I'm already in second year of children nursing.

There is a lot to learn in a short space of time.

Three years is a really short space of time to learn all about all the kind of fundamentals you need to qualify as a nurse.

So you will be thrown in the deep end, but I feel like a lot of people think that you'll be thrown in the deep end and just left to try and swim on your own.

That is not true.

You will be given so much support.

I don't know, for myself, I can speak for Kings that they do give you so much support.

You can always contact someone by email.

Or if you're in a lesson or a lecture, they're happy to talk to you after, or they're happy to take questions during the lecture.

They're happy to communicate with you if you're struggling.

They're not going to judge you if you're struggling, but there is so much support out there.

If you need external support, mental health support, there's so much for you that you're not just left on your own.

I think that's something that a lot of people have come to me and said they're scared about the workload and not knowing anything and not being able to cope, but there is support.

You're not on your own.

You can have other people that will help you.

You can have extra sessions.

You can have that time to practice and you can have that support and placement as well.

Everywhere you go, every part of the course, there is someone there to support you.

So I think it's really important to not forget that, to ease your worries before you start the course if that's something you're worried about.

3. (4.09) Repetition Is The Key For Revision

Number three.

This one is really important for the Uni side of the course, and it's about note-taking.

Please don't be that person that copies every single word from the PowerPoint, especially now, because we're not in physical lectures.

Don't get up the PowerPoint on your phone or get up the recorded lecture on your laptop and copy it word for word or listen to it and write every word you hear.

Don't do that.

That is the worst way to learn.

You're not going to learn anything.

You're just regurgitating information.

It doesn't work.

It just doesn't work.

All you need to do is, of course, read the whole thing, make sure you're not missing out on any information.

But the key to note-taking as a Uni student, not even just as a nursing student, as a Uni student in general, is to be very precise.

Only write down the key bits of information.

If the lecture points out on a slide that you don't need to record or remember everything and that only certain pieces of information are important, pay attention to that.

Make sure you're listening, but don't write down everything because, one, you're not going to remember everything, two, you don't need to remember everything and, three, you only need the important parts.

If you try and remember too much, it's not going to stay in your mind, and that's just the worst way to revise.

Note-taking everything is the worst way to revise.

Trust me.

So just take the key bits of information and just repeat them.

Repetition is the key for revision, honestly.

That is the biggest secret for revision and being an effective learner.

4. (5.43) Nursing Is Extremely Rewarding

Number four, this is related to placement more so, and this is a bit of a myth-buster as well.

A lot of people just think, "Oh my gosh, nursing, I couldn't do that. It's so depressing. It's so gory. It's this and that".

It's not.

It's not always negative.

You're going to, obviously, see you some really ill people.

You're going to see some stories that don't come out as positive as you may want them to.

You're going to see a lot of people very upset, but it's not always like that.

I think people think that everything in nursing is depressing.

Everything is sad, everything is just sad stories.

It's not always like that.

It's an extremely rewarding thing to do.

Some of the things that you do, you sort of feel so proud of yourself for even just making a patient smile, making them laugh, making them feel better, helping them calm down.

It's so rewarding, and some people put such a negative light on nursing.

Again, I'm going to tell you this for free.

It's not always sad.

You're not always going to leave your shift feeling emotionally drained.

Sometimes you're going to leave and think, "You know what? I had a great day".

You might even be laughing your way through your shift.

You just never know what's going to happen, and I think that's the kind of nice thing about nursing.

You never know what to expect.

But my fourth secret is that it's not all doom and gloom, so just remember that.

Don't expect the worst always.

Just go in with an open mind.

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5 (7.02) Your Perspectives In Life Will Change Dramatically

My fifth thing, I think this is probably the biggest it's kind of secret I have or that I could come up with because I do kind of struggle to think of ones I thought would be useful.

But your perspectives in life will change so much, literally, as soon as you start nursing, or as soon as you go on placement.

All right. I didn't expect this before I started the course, but your outlook on life will change so much.

I don't really know how to explain this because you can never really know until you experience it, and until you think, "Oh wow".

Because through nursing you meet a lot of people and a lot of patients and a lot of families, particularly with children's nursing.

They come from all walks of life.

You've got a lot of children maybe being watched under safeguarding.

They may have, I don't know, domestic issues at home, they might be really, really sick or have a lot of mental disabilities, physical disabilities.

It just really makes you look at life differently, and it really makes you feel a lot more grateful for what you have.

And it makes you just looked at other people differently and how you treat other people and what you say to other people because you never know what someone's been through.

So it makes you very sensitive to how you react in social situations as well and how you speak to other people.

Not that you were a bad person before and then, all of a sudden, nursing makes you an angel.

It just makes you see things differently.

I don't know if I'm explaining this right but, honestly, if you know, you know.

That's all I can say.

But that is something that I never knew before so I think that is definitely a big secret that I'm revealing to you.

Yeah, that's my five secrets.

I'm hoping that you guys are learning something new or finding out something new about the course.

I'm hoping you will learn to realise that these things were things that you didn't know before you started and then once you do start, I hope that you come to realise that they are actually true.

I also think it's really important to bust myths about nursing, all the negative myths about nursing, because they're just not right.

It puts a really bad light on the profession, and it's just not good.

But, yeah, that is it from me.

Those are my five student nursing secrets.

I hope the video was useful for you guys, I will see you in my next video.

Bye.

Let me know in the comments your thoughts on Student Nursing and what I've said about above - let's chat there!

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5 Student Nursing Secrets