- 01 March 2023
- 8 min read
How I Manage My Nursing Studies Alongside My Learning Difficulties
SubscribeLaura shares her experiences as a Student Nurse with learning difficulties, as well as what help you can access, what she’s learned along the way and her hopes for the future.
Hi, my name's Laura and I'm a second-year adult nursing student. This video is about how I manage my studies as a student with additional learning needs.
I wanted to make this video to raise awareness of learning difficulties and how they can make accessing a nursing career challenging.
Being a student and a qualified nurse is already hard enough without added obstacles. It is important to remember that experiences of learning difficulties are unique to each individual.
How Learning Difficulties Impact My Studies
Sometimes, I can find the social side of nursing quite overwhelming because I mask an awful lot to fit in. I enjoy being social, however, it can be a challenge because I miss read situations, socials, don't always understand cues, I can speak out of turn, I might say something too bluntly, I struggle. I also need to help staying focused in conversations that aren't about work and aren't about a particular interest.
And some people may think that I'm rude or uninterested, and this is particularly a problem when I get tired, and I begin to struggle to mask. In these situations, I find taking five minutes of quiet time helps me to recharge.
I also say to staff that I can't handle non-related work conversations at that moment in time so that I can save what's left of my social battery to give my patients my best. They come first.
It is common for people with learning difficulties to have sensory processing issues. Working in different environments can bring a range of sensory inputs.
Some settings can be overstimulating which can cause certain behaviours based on my level of overstimulation.
What Helps Make It Easier
I find I can desensitize myself to environments by using gradual exposure.
This is normally done by doing a two or three-hour shift on my first day of a placement and then that's normally enough to desensitize myself. Once I have been desensitized, I tend to thrive in busy environments as it's harder for me to get bored and lose interest.
On the contrary, I struggle more with under stimulation. I get bored quickly and I lose interest in things very, very quickly. I enjoy a challenge and I need to be kept on my toes. I find lectures awfully under stimulating and they are such a struggle to sit through.
I access material in advance so that lectures are more of a revision session, so that if I can't focus, I'm not necessarily missing out on learning.
I find having colour coded notes helped to make things more visual. And oddly, music helps because I can listen to two things at once and somehow I focus better.
I also find that I unconsciously ‘stim’ a lot and this can come across as disruptive or fidgety. However, my lecturers are a lot better with it than my teachers were at school.
One thing that helps me focus is having squishy Dinos. It's, you know, play over my hands. It's a sensory input, it helps.
My most significant sensory issue is noise.
As I struggle to filter out background noises it can make conversations hard, and I lip read an awful lot. Again, as I said I need help staying focused during verbal discussions and I often forget what has been said. As a nurse, this creates a lot of room for errors and confusion to a occur.
To make life easier for everybody, I tend to ask for things to be put down in writing or I will put it in writing myself. This way I have a visual reminder and it's the same as lectures. I need notes and slides and something visual for lectures.
As I said, I am forgetful, but I also experience object permanence. And this means that if I don't see something, I forget about it. So having everything written in a notepad is a lifesaver.
About this contributor
Student Nurse
Hi I’m Laura and I’m a student nurse studying adult nursing. I have recently joined the nurses.co.uk team and look forward to creating content in the coming months. I have an interest in learning disabilities and an amazing opportunity to complete an international elective in summer.
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