Let's be honest, relationships are hard no matter who you are dating. While dating any student is hard, nursing students can sometimes have it especially hard given all of the extra criteria that falls into their major in order to obtain their degree. Face it-- we're literally studying to take care of other human beings from the beginning of life to their final days. The stress is real. But the reward is also real!
1. Scrubs > clothes
At some point during nursing school when you look into your closet, all you own are scrubs. And for some reason, nursing student's love it. Honestly, scrubs are so comfortable I would rather wear them than... well, just about anything. So if your significant other tries wearings scrubs to dinner after a long day, know it's because they are comfy and they probably have no other clothing.
2. Fighting the clock
Nursing students have so many things to do-- clinical on the weekends, documentation after 8-hour clinical's, tests, dreaded group projects... The list goes on and on. I think I honestly believed at one point I could squeeze 25 hours out of the day-- as does every other nursing student. Usually, that extra hour is spent trying to squeeze in time for your boyfriend/girlfriend.
3. Your planner = your life
Whenever you ask your significant other if they can catch a movie or go out for a drink-- don't be surprised when they take out their planner and try to schedule you in. Don't take offense, we're just really busy and the only way to keep our sanity is to write our schedule out in highlighter 30 million times.
4. Early to fall, early to rise
If you think your significant other is lame because they go to sleep at 9 p.m. when they have clinical at 5 a.m. -- think again. I also remember the nights I tried to be fun and stayed up until 2 a.m. when I had clinical at 5 a.m., no bueno. I would rather be lame and function than a zombie the next day.
5. Bodily functions = not even a thang
First, I would like to point out that "thang" was written on purpose. At one point in my past relationship, I would diagnose my significant other based on his bowel movements and urine output. Totally normal to talk about when you're dating a nursing student.
6. Nothing comes before studying; not even you
Sorry friends-- studying comes before anything. It doesn't matter if it's Thanksgiving and you are begging them to come to dinner with your family, if they have a pediatrics test the Monday they come back to school-- sayonara! And don't plan on seeing them the entire break either, you can find them nose deep in a book that probably weighs more than they do.
7. Human test dummy
One of the very first skills in nursing school you learn is how to take a blood pressure-- and YES they will ask you if they can borrow your arm and you will say yes because you love them and want to support them to grow as a student. Although, after the 50th time of blowing up the blood pressure cuff on the same arm, you might be regretting agreeing to be a human test dummy.
8. Medical terminology is the new slang
It's so cool when we finally understand medical terminology and feel confident enough to use it in normal conversation. Although you may not think it is cool when you can only understand half of what we are actually saying, we feel pretty special when you acknowledge how smart we are.
9. "Grey's Anatomy"
This goes for any student in the medical field-- you haven't dated if they haven't forced you to watch all of "Grey's Anatomy." Then you can be prepared for them to start referring to as "their person".
10. Non-nursing friends + sickness
When your family starts asking you to ask your nursing student significant other what this odd rash is on their arm-- you know it's real. While we may not fully know all the clinical manifestations, diagnoses, or treatments-- we definitely will pretend we do!
11. You look put together-- you're not
While professionalism and appearance happen to be part of a nursing student's everyday lifestyle-- don't forget it's part of our grades and we need to look put together. We actually don't have our shit together and probably won't for the four years we are in school. But don't give up-- we'll get there one day!
12. Recognition is awesome
One of the best feelings in the world is when someone tells you, "You're going to make a great nurse." Recognition of all the hard work we are putting in is easily the best way to get on our good side. Sometimes it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel and sometimes you forget just how far you've come until someone reminds you! If you're dating a nursing student, don't remember that they could use a little recognition here and there!
