4 Need to Know Life Hacks for Nursing Students

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Getting your ADN is going to be one of the more difficult challenges you’ve faced in your life so far. Why make it harder than it needs to be? There are a few student life hacks that I have discovered along my journey, so I wanted to share those with you.

Most of which I still use while I get through my BSN. Technology can be a HUGE asset for you in nursing school if you use it to your advantage.

Here are some of the student life hacks that I found that helped me survive nursing school, and even save tons of money while I was at it!

Rent Your Text Books or Buy Used

You don’t always need to buy your text books brand spanking new from your schools book store. That is where they will charge you a billion dollars for a book that you might not even open if we’re being honest here.

After I realized I was over paying for brand new text books, I discovered that there was a cheaper option out there: Online text book rental! This student life hack seriously saved my butt (and my bank account).

Some colleges will sell used versions of their text books, which might be a cheaper or easier option for you. But there are some websites you should be checking to compare prices before you buy.

Amazon Prime for students will save you some serious amounts of cash when you rent a book or even buy a used text book on there. Student Prime is $59 per year, which is a huge discount, compared to the regular prime rate of $119 per year.

Get E-Books Instead of Physical Text Books

This is something you can do with Amazon Prime as well. I’ve rented a few text books with Amazon so far, and have no desire to go back to physical text books.

When renting a digital text book from Amazon, the best way to interact with this book is through a smart device that can use the Kindle App. I have Apple devices, so I have the Kindle App on everything. Making accessing my digital text books a breeze on any one of my devices.

One of my favorite features of using digital text books is that you can search key words in the book. That’s right, you can enter a particular word into the search bar, and BAM you’ll have a list of page options with excerpts relavent to the key word you wanted to find.

This student life hack will save you HOURS of flipping pages in search of a certain section of your book. Seriously, I don’t know how I ever managed with physical books before this. Of all of the student life hacks I figured out, this has to be one of my favorite.

Another feature that I love about using digital text books with Kindle is the highlighting feature. The Kindle app give you four different colors to choose from for your highlights. That way, you can organize the different things that you highlight during your studies.

Not only can you search and highlight within a digital text book, but imagine all that space you’re saving on your desk. Not to mention all of that extra text book weight that you DON’T have to carry around any more. You’re going to be a nurse soon, you’re going to want to save your back. Trust me on this.

Listen to Your Study Material Rather than Reading it

If you’re anything like me, it’s rare that you’re able to get yourself to sit still long enough to read through an entire chapter of a text book. Without needing to go back and reread a certain paragraph 18 times over.

I’ve learned that being able to listen to a book rather than reading it has helped me get more knowledge into my head and at times even remember it more vividly. This student life hack may not be for everyone, but let me tell you. If you’re an auditory learner, this one will be a life saver. I speak from experience!

Now, there are a few ways that you can go about this. One being the chance that your particular text book has an audio version. In which case, you’re all set!You can listen to the weekly reading while on the go in your car, at the gym, or even while cooking dinner for your family.

If your text book doesn’t come with a read to go audio version, here’s where the other options come in.

You cooouuuulllddd read the necessary chapters out loud and record yourself reading (maybe only record the most important, need to know information). That way you can replay these crucial bits of information while going about your daily life.

Or, there’s this app called Speechify. It can be used as a Google extension or as an app you can download on your phone. On average, people who use this app to listen to text save up to 2 hours of their day.

2 Hours that would otherwise be spent reading. Speechify lets you spice things up with 30 different voices and languages to choose from. Just sayin.

My Favorite Life Hack:: Your Backpack Needs to Have Wheels

Please take my word on this one. Your back will thank me later.

I got my backpack with wheels at least one year into my time in nursing school and regret not thinking of it sooner. The backpack that I used Could easily fit 2 to 3 of my text books (before I switched to digital text books) as well as my laptop, charger, and pencil case.

I also made sure to get a backpack with a drink holder pocket on the side. It was perfect for holding my coffee cup or water bottle. You know, the nursing student essentials?Having a nice backpack with wheels will even come in handy after you’ve graduated nursing school, and I don’t mean for your bachelors degree. I’ve used my backpack with wheels several times for traveling as a perfect carry on bag.

Final Thoughts

Nursing school is already hard enough, lets not making it any harder okay? Buying, reading, and lugging around text books is a total pain in the butt. Save yourself a few hundred dollars (I mean that literally) and rent or buy used text books each semester. Digital text books a cheap and convenient option too.

Digital text books make studying 1000x easier. Especially when they can be read aloud to you while you go about your other daily life tasks. And of course, having the right equipment to help you get your materials to and from class is just as necessary.

What hacks helped you survive nursing school or any other college degrees that you’ve taken on? I’m certainly not done with my education yet, so I’d love to hear some of your student life hacks in the comments! 🙂