All For One, One For All

 Lesson #3: When you help others become successful, you will also succeed.


You will begin with 40 to 60 individuals. 

There will be men and women from all different states and some from other countries. Some will have lived in the same town their entire lives and others may be here in Kilgore for the sole purpose of attending nursing school.  The ages will vary greatly.  Some will be in their early 20s and others will be in their 50s.  For many of us, this will be our first career and for others, it may be their 2nd or 3rd.  There will be single people and people with families who have up to 8 children.  You'll witness pregnancies, marriages, divorces, births and deaths within your nursing circle.

There will be a wide range of personalities.  You'll have the question asker, the over achiever, the slacker, the coat-tail rider, the quiet one, the loud mouth, the class clown, the crier, the brown noser, the leader, the 4.0 student, and the one who is barely hanging on.

Yet among all these differences, you will have one thing in common: nursing school.

And because of nursing school you will have many other commonalities.

Only your nursing circle will comprehend the enormous amount of pressure you will feel before you take that HESI.  They will accept your moodiness from lack of sleep and exhaustion.  They know why you no longer have time for a social life or why you can't afford to go grab a few drinks on a Friday night.

Your nursing circle will understand  what it feels like the first time you lose your patient, or how excited you were to stand in on a surgery.  They will share your frustrations. They will know exactly what to say to cheer you up after a failed exam or how to make you laugh when all you want to do is quit.  You will spend a ridiculous amount of time with one another and during this time you will cry together, laugh together, fail together, succeed together, learn together but most importantly, you will one day be nurses together..

Support one another and take the time to help your fellow student nurses when you can.  If you see someone is struggling with the material because it's hard to learn 8 chapters in a week, invite them into your study group.  Lend a helping hand at clinicals, don't just look out for number one. Bring extra copies of your paperwork, use teamwork in patient care. Take advantage of each others strengths and aid with each others weaknesses. (Tom Steele is the reason I learned how to confidently use dimensional analysis and I sometimes feel like if it were not for him, I might still be in Pharmacology) Share your best study tips and be generous with words of encouragement.

You never know when you'll be the one who has a sick child at home all weekend and don't have time to complete the study guide, or maybe a family member ends up in the hospital and you don't have time to print out the required documents for the next day.  It could be you just need ONE day for yourself to keep your sanity from slipping, and you just can't bring yourself to wake up and get to school.  You may need someone to take notes or record a lecture. Your nursing circle will understand because despite our different backgrounds, beliefs and lives, we are all trying to survive nursing school.

Whatever it may be, big or small, remember that a little help goes a long way and when you help others succeed, you will also be successful.