A Week in the Life of a UK Nursing Student

Class President for the College of Nursing, Katie Voigts, welcomed incoming BSN students with a speech about the demanding but rewarding aspects of life as a UK nursing student:

Good morning, Class of May 2018! My name is Katie Voigts. I am a senior nursing student, getting ready to start my last semester of nursing school, but I am also the Class President for the graduating class of December 2015.

First, I would like to welcome you to the College of Nursing and congratulate you on your acceptance into this unique program. I call this program unique not only because is it the only undergraduate professional program on campus, but because the next six semesters are going to be unlike anything you have done before. For the next few minutes, I’m going to try to put into words and explain a week in the life of a nursing student.

A nursing student’s life can be very different from that of college students in other programs. The first difference is, that many times, there are three different parts to a single class. You may have signed up for one class, but that class goes beyond sitting in lecture two or three times a week. Along with lecture, you will have a skills lab, where you learn your nursing skills, such as patient assessment, starting IVs, and giving medications, and you also will have a clinical, where you get to spend time working in a hospital setting. And that doesn’t include time studying, practicing skills, or any extracurriculars or outside life. Needless to say, there is always something to be done, and many of us find ourselves running on a combination of nerves, adrenaline, and caffeine.

Life as a student nurse means that no two days are the same. Every day is different, fast-paced, and challenging in its own way, but most of us find that that is why we enjoy it so much. Don’t be surprised when you have several assignments, quizzes, and an exam all in one week.  And during clinical, you can never quite guess what is going to happen. I have been in clinical in the Emergency Room from 7PM to 7AM on a Friday night. There also was a time when I quizzed by a surgeon in the O.R., after another person had answered his question wrong. I have watched babies being born some days, and also provided end-of-life care to patients other days.

Most days, my alarm goes off at 5:30 AM, and I leave my house at 6:15 to make a 6:45 AM clinical, followed by several hours of lecture or lab. After class, you will find most of us in the line at Starbucks, and then in the 3rd floor lounge, studying what we had learned that day until late at night, only to go home and do it all again the next day. What makes this challenging and vigorous schedule bearable is doing all of it alongside your classmates. The people sitting next to you right now may be strangers to you now, but by the time you are in my shoes, your classmates will have become your best friends, your tutors, your support system, and your therapists. We all go through the same classes, the same exams, and all have the same goal of graduation, and that makes your classmates an invaluable part of this program.

And although we work hard, all of us have found that it is vital to find time for ourselves, away from anything nursing related. As for myself, I have worked throughout the program, been a part of a sorority, and part of UK’s choir. And I never miss a UK basketball game. We all work hard, but we all play hard. With good schedules and planning, there is time for both.

Good luck this fall during your first semester of nursing school, and get ready for an experience of a lifetime.