LIFE LESSONS ON THE UNIT

The nurse I am today is because of how my mama raised me.

Happy Mothers’ Day!

justdreamingaloud asked: Hello! I don't know if you answer questions on this blog, but I am a high school student and I'm considering nursing as a career. I was wondering how much writing is involved in nursing school, because that is definitely a weakness of mine! From what other people have said, it seems like there are a lot of multiple choice exams, but I haven't heard much about essays or papers or anything. Also any advice you have for me while I'm in high school to prepare would be amazing! Thank you! :)

Hi! I don’t mind answering questions at all, so, thanks for asking one! What I’ve gathered from my journey through the BScN program and friends and family who have gone through the RPN/LPN program is that there are quite a few essays. For the BScN program, out of my core classes (i.e. the classes which aren’t electives) I had 1-2 essays with 8pg minimum each per semester. In the RPN/LPN program, I’ve heard my friends do the same amount of essays with 5pg minimums. Then, some electives have their own essays and whatnot which are usually less in length, maybe 5pg minimum with 6pg maximum, so, you could end up doing 3-5essays a semester, approx 2 of them being the longer ones (of course, that depends on your elective courses. For ex, I like English lit, and took at least one course each year, so, I tended to have even more essays per semester).

I hope I haven’t scared you off at this point!

My best advice for tackling those essays (regardless if it’s nursing school or any other program) is to not procrastinate. We were told at the beginning of each semester what essays we’d have, so already from the first week we could start formulating our topics and thesis and slowly gather our evidences. If you give yourself enough time to write and have a friend or two edit, it goes much smoother. Also, some colleges/universities have student services that help you with writing and editing, so be sure to take advantage of them! Another thing is whatever evidences/articles you gather, I suggest you save them throughout your school career. When you reach your final year, you’ll have a bunch of resources you can use even without needing to use an online database or library! (I still refer to them at times and I’ve already been working a year!)

For citation, I used http://owl.english.purdue.edu as one of my resources and it hasn’t failed me yet (*knock on wood*!). 

I wish you success and happiness in your post-secondary career, wherever it will take you!