Week 2 of Nursing School: Keep Calm and Carry On

When I started nursing school, I certainly expected long class hours and to go through the material very quickly, and prepared myself for an increased level of stress from my event coordinator job at a church. But I also make a conscious effort to focus on what I am learning in the present, and to not overthink future events, such as exams.
This does not mean that I slack off on my readings or studying. Rather, I try to focus on what I am learning each day, and not to worry about the exact composition of each exam. When I get a written assignment, I read the question and the paper's requirements, and proceed.

What bugs me about my program is the amount of class time in which people ask professors about what they need to study for each exam, what the exam questions are like, and how they should write a paper whose grade counts for 5% of the total class grade. As a detail-oriented person, I understand where these questions are coming from. I have always been very picky about my writing. What I don't get is why 30 minutes of class time is spent on these questions. Listening to people agonize over these things puts me on edge, and makes it harder to keep myself cool and collected.

When I go home, I look over my task list for the day, and sit down in the living room to do my work. Today, I punched out my 1-2 page assignment on patient learning while watching Parks & Recreation with my sister-in-law. It was incredible how much easier it felt to write that paper in a relaxed environment than when I was listening to people analyzing the rubric letter by letter. Likewise, I practice doing my blood pressure at home so that I'm not distracted by other people talking about how stressed they are about taking vitals.

Tomorrow is my lab midterm (doing vitals) and learning how to do an abdominal exam. Hopefully I can follow my stress-reduction mindset tomorrow morning and ignore other people's pre-midterm jitters.