To understand the challenges that nursing students face whilst studying, first one must consider the individuals mindset to become a nurse. To be a nurse you must have many transferable skills and key attributes such as empathy, consideration, ability to multi-task, analytical, befriending, respectful, good time keeping, non-judgemental and dignified. They provide care and improve health in any given circumstances and in society. It is evidential that not everyone can display or portray such qualities or is willing to do such selfless acts to look after others than themselves. Society also shows us that being a nurse has its advantages and disadvantages, due to the aging population and lack of funding given to the NHS, more pressure is being added to the health sector.

According to BBC NEWS dated 25th July 2017 an article was written about 86,000 NHS posts vacant. A statement was given by Janet Davies, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing said, ‘low pay and relentless pressure meant many nurses were leaving the profession’, ‘more people are leaving nursing than joining, deterred by low pay’. so we see the job a functioning nurse must face than one that’s contemplating to become one. Even with such deterrents the prospect of becoming a nurse outweighs the disadvantages. The introduction showed that firstly the individual must prepare his/her mind to become a nurse then weigh up their options of what field of nursing they want to go into. Then the individual must consider the mental and emotional challenges nursing students face whilst studying. There are many factors that all affect a student whether it be sociologically, financially, environmental or mental. Not all students will face the same challenges, so it depends on his/her situation. The first challenge is the individual’s mindset if the person has the drive and ambition to overcome the obstacles that studying brings. Some people find studying easy while others struggle to grasp the concept of how to concentrate and remain focus. The people that struggle must come up with techniques and strategies to focus on a criteria or topic. We also see that a positive mindset is what we all need to endure the pressure and challenges to comes with studying. A positive mindset encourages the individual to produce quality over quantity, creates self-belief and enforces that failure is not an option.

• According to Psychcentral. com “ways to improve your mindset”• Aim to think positively when you study and remind yourself of your skills and abilities.
• Avoid Catastrophic thinking.
• Avoid absolute thinking.
• Avoid comparing yourself with others.

Another challenge is family, family plays a major role in the individual’s success. A strong family unit are the nucleus and backbone of a person’s education especially if the parents are high achievers. In turn they will push their children to follow suit. On the other hand, if the family lacks the motivation more likely it’ll rub off on the children, a disorganised or dysfunctional household creates a toxic environment for the individual to concentrate. We all need the support and love from our loved ones to succeed, with the backing of family we see that students tend to achieve more. Pregnancy Pregnancy plays a significant role in the individuals future not to say it will end the prospect of becoming a nurse, but it will influence the individual’s emotional stability, more so for women than men. A recent study showed that women are temporary and permanently dropping out of college due to being pregnant(wordpress. com) The title states 5 things every pregnant student should know. The article is about women not knowing their rights and because of this they felt the support wasn’t there, being isolated and stressed.

On the other hand, men aren’t faced with the negative impacts of being a father well not all men. A man can continue to further his studies or pursue new ventures with little to no side effects of their partners pregnancy. FinancesSociety on a whole are faced with the hardship of surviving on a day to day basis, the cost of living is at a all time high and the wages aren’t meeting the cost. Due to this fact many people from poor demographics are more less to further their education. They would rather seek work in low pay jobs or do nothing at all. The ones who seek to study and go further are faced with the impending battles of stress and depression just to achieve. The lack of funding creates a new need for students to find different means to pay or look after themselves.

According to Timeshighereducation. com article written on May 5th, 2016 titles UK Students’ mental health affected by financial worriesStudents in the UK are worrying about their finances to such an extent that it is affecting their mental health according to research revealed today. More than a third of students say that financial worries have an impact on their mental health with more female students (38 percent) dealing with the acute financial worries than male students (33 percent). We see that finances goes hand in hand with mental health because of the uncertainty of earning enough to complete their studies. It has resulted in students leaving all together or forced to seek employment in different job roles. It has deferred many of not considering or pursuing their ambitions because of the cost of living are too high and the added pressure of another debt doesn’t make sense.

Job and Time

Student nurses may also be faced with the challenge of work and study commitment and finding the correct or a suitable balance between the two because although they need money, it is detrimental that they allow adequate time to study. Students need adequate time to study because its an intense course and where both emotional and academic skills will be pushed to their limits and without allowing enough time to study they increase the risk of failure. Seeking employment for students can often be a problem as they usually need part time rather than full time jobs, to create that balance as previously mentioned.

For this reason, the demand for part time work is higher leaving many students with no alternative but to take zero-hour contract positions as they are unable to get a part time job. Zero-hour contracts give you the lack of stability thus causing students to feel stressed and anxious not knowing how many hours they will have and for how long. Article from the guardian. com Titled ‘I could have got a better degree’ The Guardian asked students about studying and work, this is a statement from one of the students ‘I had a bad experience working on a zero-hour contract where the company would make us work 30+ hours a week. If you asked for less, they would give you three hours a week this affected not only my grades but my mental health. To conclude these are merely a few of the challenges that nursing students come up against whilst studying. Some personal i. e. have you got what it takes to be a nurse or is your character better suited in an office position, some are obstacles what may often fall out of your control nevertheless being a nurse is truly your ambition/passion you will find a way to surpass such obstacle that may arise on your journey to reach your goal.