• Studying in groups or pairs covers more material in less time.studying image by Petro Feketa from Fotolia.com
  
  Becoming a nurse can be challenging because of numerous requirements: completing pre-nursing courses, getting into nursing school, clinical rotations and passing the nursing license exam. A few essential tips on becoming a nurse makes the journey a bit less painful.
  
  

Medical Experience

• Because getting into nursing school is quite competitive, nothing stands out and strengthens a nursing school application more than previous experience in the medical field. Many students coming into professional nursing programs already have some form of patient care or hospital experience, typically as certified nursing assistants, practical nurses, operating room technicians, patient care technicians and hospital or nursing home volunteers. Previous hands-on patient care is essential because it proves that the potential nursing student already has some basic field knowledge about medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, safety, universal precautions, pharmacology and emergency response procedures.
  
  Some nursing schools give advanced standing to those with significant experience, allowing them to skip introductory nursing fundamentals entirely.
  
  

Maintain Overall Health

• Nursing is highly stressful. Nurses assume a huge amount of responsibility for their patients and often must make quick, important decisions. It is essential that those in high-stress occupations such as nursing maintain good physical and mental health. Regular exercise, eating a balanced diet and taking a daily multivitamin will help ward off stress-related illnesses such as cardiovascular disease and psychosomatic conditions. Practicing meditation, deep-breathing exercises, yoga and martial arts are also additional ways to accomplish this goal. Attending regularly scheduled visits with a licensed physician is also extremely important and goes a long way in preventing illness or maintaining a medical condition.
  
  

Study With Others

• Because there is a lot of information to process, recall and put into practice, becoming a nurse requires good study skills. During pre-nursing years, many science courses are taken: chemistry, anatomy, physiology, microbiology, anthropology and psychology. Most of the courses include a lab and are taken together, increasing the work and study load. For example, pre-nursing often students take chemistry, anatomy and mathematics during the same semester alongside other academic courses such as English or U.S. history. To be successful in these courses and achieve a high grade point average, it is beneficial to schedule study time with a partner or group. According to the College Board, group study is particularly practical for studying complex subjects. Students can take turns testing, helping one another and will cover more material at shorter study intervals than when studying alone.
  
  

Commit to Lifelong Learning

• Completion of nursing school or getting a nursing license is not the end of learning for nurses. They are always required to learn, whether it be in a traditional classroom setting, online or on-the-job. Nurses make a commitment to lifelong learning as there are new treatments, drugs and technologies always being developed. Continuing education makes for a competent nurse as it helps refresh and reinforce learning, which can prevent mistakes and errors in care. Nurses can decide to attain additional training, licensing and certifications, or specialize by becoming an expert in a particular area of the nursing field.