Tips For How to Stay Motivated in Nursing School

Staying motivated in nursing school can be an ongoing struggle, particularly with those all-too-familiar exams and tedious homework assignments seem to just keep building up month after month. When you finally can celebrate your hard work, it’s only then that you start to really count the days, months, and years to come. But for many nursing students, staying motivated is an ongoing struggle that seems to crop up at just the wrong moment. For some people, this comes during exam season. For others, it might come when they feel like they are in danger of failing.

When it comes to staying motivated in nursing school, there are three great ideas that can help. One of the easiest ways to remember your goals is to write them down somewhere prominent such as your kitchen table. If you have not already done so, find a time in your schedule to write down your short, medium, and long-term goals for the year, as well as the key milestones along the way. This will give you something tangible to look to when your motivation starts to flag.

Another way to keep yourself on track is to break your big goals into small, more manageable milestones. When it comes to nursing, the big things are usually the most demanding, and this is where having a plan can really pay off. Setting goals that are too lofty can easily lead to frustration, which is one of the biggest causes of quitting. So instead of setting goals that seem to stretch out for years (like “I will become the nursing leader of my department by next summer”), set small goals that are within easy reach that will help you stay on track.

Another way to stay motivated is to create a positive affirmation journal. This is similar to how you would create a goal statement, but instead of saying “I want to be a Registered Nurse” you would write “I am a nursing student.” The biggest benefit of using positive affirmations is that they literally become “internalized.” Your subconscious mind understands what you are writing. Studies have shown that people who regularly repeat positive affirmations to themselves (regardless of whether they believe them or not) tend to live more life than those who don’t. This is because the positive affirmations become part of your mindset, so instead of thinking about how much you need to eat or how little sleep you need, you think about the positive results you’ll experience by taking an initiative in life.

Finally, one of the best ways to stay motivated in nursing school is to constantly remember why you’re going to school. If you’ve ever been in high school and felt that the reason you were there was to get a better job or to have a new experience – think about it for a second. You also might remember that the reason you came to school was because you wanted a good education. It doesn’t matter what your reasons are; what’s important is that you take stock of why you’re doing it. This is where most people fall down and lose their motivation.

The solution to this problem is to regularly create lists of your goals and the reasons behind why you want to achieve them. When you start regularly writing down your goals, you become more aware of the value of your goals and the work involved to reach them. Additionally, you’ll also begin noticing the power of positive affirmations. As you continue to read positive affirmations, they will become “internalized” in your subconscious, so that whenever you’re faced with a challenge in your life, you automatically think positively and have additional motivation to do whatever it is you have to do to achieve your goals.

It’s easy to let your motivation run out while in nursing school. Many students give up simply because they have nothing really going on at the time. It’s important that you not give up because you are simply tired, or even because you haven’t had much success in the area of your chosen career. In fact, staying motivated should be an ongoing effort and something that can be worked on over the course of your time in nursing.

Remember that in spite of your lack of success initially, you can still succeed if you find the right support system and keep working on your goals. Keep your goals and remain motivated by writing them down, reading them daily, and following your leads. If you make a mistake, correct it and move on. Stay focused on what you want to achieve in nursing and you will be one step closer to your goal of becoming a nurse.