Getting to Know Your New Social Life

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

Will I have a social life in nursing school?

If you’ve ever wondered about committing to the life of being a hermit trapped in your room, think again. Balancing between your schoolwork and your personal life can be a struggle throughout nursing school, but it’s not impossible. Having a supportive nursing school that creates a positive learning environment through faculty involvement and helps you establish relationships with other nursing students can ease your transition into nursing school and even lead to an improved social life.

"Nursing Tutoring" by University of Portland Learning Commons

Being Friendly with the Faculty

Nursing students shouldn’t see nursing school as a drain to their social life but as a source of new opportunities for social support. When a study asked nursing students to identify the people they relied on for support, most ranked their school’s faculty significantly low (Reeve, et al.). Since nursing students may spend most of their attention and energy towards nursing school, finding support from those within the school can accommodate for the deferred social interactions from friends and family due to schedule conflicts or other inconveniences. When students participate in activities led by faculty instructors, such as group study sessions or supplemental tutoring, students can work together while professors can assist students in need. Attending schools with a faculty that is approachable, willing, and shows genuine interest to promote students’ success can make it easier for students to seek help and increase their motivation to do well in school.

Mentees taking a survey after the peer mentorship, similar to this table in a study, can assist in improving the program. "Table 1: Summary of Responses Gathered from Mentees" by Joy Penman and Frances J. White

Finding Social Support at School

Besides the school faculty, other sources of support include experienced students already in the nursing program. If you’re a student from out of state or don’t know any other nursing students, it may be helpful to choose a school that offers a peer mentorship program. In this program, a first-semester student is typically assigned to a student in their last semester. This allows new students to gain insight from someone they can contact for questions or advice while the experienced students benefit by demonstrating their knowledge through teaching. Peer mentors in one study report that mentoring first-year students during a skills lab session also strengthened mentors’ interpersonal skills (Brannagan, et al.) Although peer mentorships may experience problems, such as not maintaining contact or mentor-mentee incompatibility, understanding the mentorship expectations beforehand and ensuring that a faculty member supervises the program could prevent these issues from occurring.

Image by rawpixel from Pixabay

Don’t Say Goodbye to Your Social Life

While you may have to sacrifice spending time with your friends or family, it doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your social life. In nursing school, you can even have a better social life by bonding with other students through shared experiences or developing professional relationships with your instructors who can guide you through your learning. Finding a school that encourages positive interactions between students and faculty can be the difference between a good nursing school experience and a bad one.

Sources:

Brannagan, Kim B., et al. "Impact of Peer Teaching on Nursing Students: Perceptions of Learning Environment, Self-Efficacy, and Knowledge." Nurse Education Today, vol. 33, no. 11, Nov. 2013, pp. 1440-1447, Elsevier ScienceDirect. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2012.11.018. Accessed 21 Oct. 2019.

Penman, Joy, and Frances J. White. "Table 1: Summary of Responses Gathered from Mentees." Table. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, vol. 3, no. 2, 2006, p. 128. Semantic Scholar, www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Peer-Mentoring-Program-%22Pop-Up%22-Model-for-Regional-Penman-White/f2853087bc94254822196aa0157ee9e271eb353c. Accessed 1 Nov. 2019.

Reeve, Kristen L., et al. "Perceived Stress and Social Support in Undergraduate Nursing Students' Educational Experiences." Nurse Education Today, vol. 33, no. 4, Apr. 2013, pp. 419-424, Elsevier ScienceDirect. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2012.11.009. Accessed 21 Oct. 2019.

University of Portland Learning Commons. "Nursing Tutoring." Digital image. University of Portland, www.up.edu/learningcommons/nursing/index.html. Accessed 1 Nov. 2019.