You’ve probably heard people say, “kiss your social life goodbye for the next 2 years,” and thought, wow, that’s a bit dramatic.
But they’re not wrong.
Mind you, some people still manage to party full time in addition to school, and great for them. I wasn’t one of those people. I was also a second-degree student who had to work and was also very tired.
No matter if this is your first degree, second, or third, these are some things I think you should be doing the summer before you start nursing school. These are all simple suggestions, and you don’t have to do everything. Even if you only do one, I’ll still be happy.
Let’s dive in.
1. Work – use this last summer to earn some extra money. Not everyone can work full-time while going to school. Some schools may not even let you work more than 20 hours per week. Build up savings to serve as cushion throughout the semester. Set any goal you’d like that will hold you over until another school break where you can work without restrictions.
2. Study abroad – Travel and earn a few credit hours while you’re at it! I was lucky enough to do a study abroad trip for 3 weeks in India in between my Junior and Senior years in Nursing school. It was a beautiful experience; I added some GPA boosters to my transcript and it helped me grow as a nurse.
3. Finish your prerequisites – Some school will not let you start taking nursing course work until all your core classes are out of the way. Use this summer to ensure all classes are complete and nothing slipped through the cracks. Nobody wants to be the person who gets to graduation and is worried about Nursing school classes and fulfilling a foreign language credit as well.
4. Pick up a new skill – been thinking of learning Spanish? Download Duolingo. Want to get into running? Great! It doubles as a great way to decompress after a stressful exam. Always wanted to learn how to cook? Excellent, you’ll save tons of money meal prepping while in nursing school instead of constantly buying takeout. Use this idle time to do that thing you always wanted to do. In nursing school, the guilt that comes with using free time to do anything other than study is almost sickening.
5. Relax. Use this time to hang out with your friends and loved ones as much as you can. Go to the movies. Try new restaurants. Sleep in. Take advantage of all the little things because soon this will be a luxury.
What I did:
- I worked like crazy and saved money. I worked 2 jobs. One as a scribe and one as a CAN. Quite often I’d work 7-9 days straight with one day off.
- I hung out with family and friends
- I took several solo vacations
This was the only semester I had off since high school, so I took advantage of it. My only regret is that I didn’t travel more.
It’s cliché but true, nursing school is unlike anything you’ve ever done before. This is your last little bit of freedom. Don’t squander it.
My fast advice and final thoughts:
- Nursing school is mentally challenging. Use the summer before to make sure you are at peace and all your affairs are in order. There’s no way to fully prepare but there are some things you can do to ease the transition. It’s a long hard journey and you need to make sure you in the right headspace before you embark.
As always, thank you so much for reading, and I’ll talk to you guys soon!
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