Nursing Schools: Guide to Reducing Stress Under Tight Deadlines

Nursing students know that deadlines can be very challenging, as most of the time you have to juggle clinical work and study. Other than that, educators often unrealistically evaluate their students’ capabilities, and this is a reason why students are under constant pressure. Many students are always stressed because of the overwhelming workload and tight deadlines.

Stress is a normal reaction to difficult circumstances. Stress can be very useful in dangerous situations because your brain and body focus on protecting your life. However, it won’t help you write your assignments faster.

Quite the opposite, it can damage your productivity, as well as your physical and emotional well-being. 34.4% of college students note that stress undermines their academic performance. Stress, anxiety, sleep deprivation, and depression are the most common factors that damage students’ performance.

Here are some tips that will help you fight stress and keep calm when you’re dealing with tight deadlines.

1. Estimate the time for all tasks

If you don’t estimate how much time you need to complete each and every task, you will most likely fail. To complete all of your assignments on time, you should plan your work accurately, and the best way to do it is to consider all the details of the writing process and all the components of your tasks.

An effective way to evaluate the timeline of each task is to break it down into smaller tasks. This way, you’ll be able to write a detailed plan for every assignment and allocate the necessary time for each step of the process. Planning your work a week or even a month in advance can be very useful, but the longer timeframe you consider, the more accurate your estimates should be.

2. Get more sleep

Quite often, nursing students sacrifice their sleep because of tight deadlines. Of course, you may manage to submit one of your essays on time by writing it at night, but the long-term drawbacks of such a solution outweigh any benefits. If you don’t have enough sleep, your brain won’t have enough time to recover from stress, and therefore your stress will only become worse. Besides, you will feel exhausted and unable to focus on your tasks at all.

You can avoid sleep deprivation by planning your work properly. We also recommend that you always prioritize sleeping. A night of good sleep will make you more productive and help you think logically.

3. Eliminate distractions

Modern students are constantly getting distracted by countless factors. For instance, you may suffer from loud roommates, and you may also waste too much time scrolling your social media feed. Social media is one of the most common sources of distraction, and it can also be addictive.

Moreover, social media can make us feel stressed, one of the reasons why it happens is that we experience the fear of missing out (FOMO). Don’t use social media while studying. You won’t lose anything from having a two or three-hour break but it will help you stay focused and productive. If avoiding social media feels difficult, you can use various software that will block unnecessary apps and websites when you work.

4. Choose the right snacks

All students use food to cope with stress from time to time. When deadlines are tight and you still have a lot to do, it’s hard not to eat junk food, consuming a lot of fat, sugar, and caffeine. Although you may feel like these things help you deal with stress, the truth is that they can only make it worse, and the reason is simple: such types of food and drinks are bad for your health.

Fast food won’t deliver the necessary nutrients to your brain, and you need to feed it right when experiencing stress. Some healthy food, like pistachios, blueberries, and dark chocolate, will improve your mood. Besides, your brain and body will certainly appreciate any healthy food rich in vitamins and proteins.

5. Negotiate your due date

As we’ve already mentioned above, students often lack time not only because they may be bad at time management but also because educators set unrealistic deadlines. Quite often, instructors forget about the fact that their students are constantly overloaded with assignments. Nursing students also need to prepare for tests, write essays, and some of them even have a part-time job because education isn’t cheap.

If you realize that your due date is unrealistic and unfair, talk to your instructor and explain your opinion. Although negotiating a more realistic deadline is not always an option, you still can try.

Sometimes, instructors can adjust deadlines, and the main thing is to explain your problem. If your instructor doesn’t agree to adjust the deadline, nursing paper writing services may come in handy. A seasoned writer will quickly draft a paper according to your requirements, while you can focus on clinical work. 

Wrapping Up

Unfortunately, students have to deal with a lot of stress on a daily basis, and one of the most common reasons why students get stressed out is tight deadlines. You won’t be able to remove stress from your life completely when in college or university, you can still do a lot to minimize it. Follow our tips and don’t forget that, if you want to be productive and successful, your physical and emotional well-being should be your main priority.

We’ll help you decide!