Four years of my nursing education is finally coming to a close as I enter my final semester of undergraduate learning. During the final phases of education, it is important for us as students to place a large focus on how we should be preparing for our full transition into the career field of nursing. This post is dedicated towards the planning phase of preparing for post-education preparation.

As I near the end of my nursing education, I am most excited for becoming qualified to perform nursing skills on my own in a real healthcare setting. I want to be able to feel confident in my capabilities to provide quality care for all patients that I meet in the future. I will celebrate progress towards my goals by using self-care rewards such as planning a spa day or taking a day trip on my own accord. This will motivate me to work at my hardest, while also allowing myself to relax every once in a while. I am most anxious about the fears of failing and not making it through nursing school. Nursing school is very difficult, and it can become very easy for one bad grade to get to your head when a small number of grades determine your chances of passing. I am going to work my best throughout this semester to prevent my fears from coming true and push forward with studying regularly.

I will develop personal goals to help me achieve a successful last semester. These goals include:

• staying ahead of homework by completing the assignment at least one day prior to its due date. For example, if an assignment is due on Friday, my goal is to complete the assignment on Wednesday so that I will not feel pressured and rushed from procrastination.
• I will study for at least one to two hours per day, to allow time for assignments, and time for self-care. To promote healthy self-care, I will dedicate one day per week to avoid studying altogether and keep that time for activities that make me feel good.

For this assignment, we completed four Nurse Logic ATI quizzes to help prepare us from the NCLEX exam. From these quizzes, I learned how to determine prioritization of urgency and emergency situations that need addressed first. This skill base will help with organizing patient care as a future nurse. Another lesson that we learned was how to use test taking skills to determine possible correct answers, regardless of if you know the actual answer or not. If you have a general idea of the topic asked in the question, you can use the process of elimination on medical information that you know is not related to the question provided to you. The last thing that I learned was how to use my knowledge of electrolyte levels to determine possible health concerns that may be apparent. That way, I can understand what changes I should be on the lookout for. For example, I should keep a close eye on a patient’s heart function quality when a patient has a potassium level of 5.5. These learning materials helped me make those connections between the level itself, and the effects that it can make on the body. Overall, this learning experience has provided me with important learning tools that will help me move further along in the semester.