Time Management for Students on Placement

Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod. In this episode, Emma and Anthony are joined by Senior Lecturers, Ruth Roxburgh and Sue Grave, from Nursing and Healthcare Education to discuss time management for students on placement. We chat about strategies for managing your time and finding a work-life balance that can support you in your studies. 

Follow us! @AcadskillsUOC

Don't forget to like, comment and follow the podcast!

Transcript

Speaker 1 (Emma): Hi everybody and welcome to another episode of the Skills Pod. I'm Emma, and I'm one of the academic skills advisors at the University of Chester. Today, we're going to discuss time management with a focus on students who are on placement, particularly nursing students. I'm joined today by my colleague.

Speaker 2 (Tony): Hi everyone, I'm Tony, and I'm one of the senior academic skills advisors on the team. Today, we have some very special guests.

Speaker 3 (Ruth): I'm Ruth Rossborough, and I'm one of the senior lecturers in the School of Health. I predominantly teach first years at Marris House and I also teach at Wheeler Campus. My background is in learning disabilities.

Speaker 4 (Sue): I'm Sue Grave. I'm one of the senior lecturers in the Nursing and Healthcare and Education Department as well. I'm currently studying for a master's degree, so I understand the complexities of trying to manage time. I predominantly teach anatomy and physiology to second and third years and do some NMP work as well. I'm a district nurse by background and have a passion for homeless health.

Speaker 1 (Emma): Thank you for joining us today. So, time management for students who are on placement. Where shall we start?

Speaker 3 (Ruth): Well, I think what's important for students on their clinical placements is to bear in mind that they are going to have shifts with an early start, which might be something totally out of the ordinary. When they start the nursing programme, they might not be used to a placement that starts at 7:00 or 7:30 in the morning and takes them right through until 8:00 or 9:00 at night. This can be a total culture shock because that long day can be really tiring if you're not used to being in clinical areas for that length of time, as clinical areas are very demanding.

For studying and time management, it's important that students create a really comprehensive plan when they know they're going on placement. They will still have to check emails, review assignment guidance, and plan their assignments during their clinical placements. They need to have a really good understanding of what the priorities are and what is due and when, alongside the clinical learning experiences. It's about learning the strategy of the juggling act.

You also have to consider family commitments and the need for downtime, otherwise your head's going to combust and you're going to feel so overwhelmed. This is one of the problems that we find more than anything: this overwhelming feeling of, "How do I manage my placements, my three long days a week?" Then on the days when you're not in placement, you feel so tired. So, it's important that students get this balance right. When you've done your shifts, eat well; good nutrition is a priority. Making sure that you have meals to keep you well, your diet is good, and your fluids are up is crucial because ultimately that affects your memory, your planning, and your essay writing. If you're hungry and thirsty, you're not going to concentrate properly.

It's also important that you prioritise what is coming next. It's about prioritising what's due first: what assignments need to be submitted? What are your family commitments? Can your family help you? That is also an important thing. Do you have a partner, a mother-in-law, cousins—all of those people who may be able to help with shopping for the family or running errands? Delegating those things can be really valuable to get yourself organised. Also, telling people what your commitments are going to be is important because people just don't realise the demands of being a full-time nursing student. They often think that being a student is like being in another field or another degree.

Speaker 4 (Sue): I just wanted to reiterate what Ruth touched on there around family support. For me, starting a nursing degree as a mature student with a child who was just starting primary school, I found it has to be a whole lifestyle change, not just for you, but for those around you as well. You need that understanding of the demands from your family members. If you haven't got that support in place, then it's about reaching out to friends or extended relatives that may be able to help you, because I appreciate not everybody has got the support that I was lucky enough to have.

The other thing is, I know it's demanding doing shift work, but a placement that's Monday to Friday, 9:00 till 5:00, can also be challenging when you have children. When you get home, you've got to cook the tea, get them ready for bed, do the reading, and take them to activities. When you get your assignments while you're out on placement, try and start planning to write them as soon as you get them so that you're not leaving it until the last minute. That's when you're scrambling for time and the stress starts coming in. Even if it's just writing it down, having a diary, or taking a book with you to read while your children are at a play area—there are little ways you can get around those things.

Speaker 3 (Ruth): Yes, it's that analogy, isn't it, of "failing to plan is planning to fail." When I was a student, which wasn't that long ago, I used to make sure that when a module was launched, I printed off the assessment brief. I knew the submission date and the learning outcomes for the module. Then I went to the library—it was very much about getting your books off the shelf then—and I made a plan quite early into the module starting. I also still use a paper diary to this day, but I worked backwards from the due date. I knew that two weeks before submission was when I could send in a draft, and three weeks before submission, I needed to have it basically written. This gave me a countdown right up to the submission date.

I know a lot of students don't print things off. I used to have everything printed and on the wall in front of me where I was studying, so every time I looked at that wall, it was there. What I see now is a lot of students have everything on their mobile phone, so every time they need to check a due date, they have to look it up, rather than it being a constant reminder. It's like that saying, "out of sight, out of mind." That's what I see quite a lot; students forget because it's not something that's always there.

Ultimately, time management is about pre-planning, even planning for placements. It's about knowing your placement area in advance, going to the placement, or talking to the assessors. You'll find that most practice assessors are really supportive because they've been there themselves. Talk to a practice assessor and say to them, "I've got something due in six weeks," or whatever. Ask if there's any chance you can have an hour-long lunch break to go off the ward to a quiet space and do some note-taking. Take a book with you and use that time to make a few notes. Every minute is valuable when you're a student nurse, and it's important that placement areas know what you've got due.

We often see that when students are on placement, they don't see that the university is still here. It's like they separate the two areas and don't link them together. They can still access support from us in the university. They don't necessarily look at emails when they're on placements. I've spoken to students that say, "Oh, I didn't see the emails because I'm on placement," but you're still a student, and we are still here for support.

Speaker 4 (Sue): I was just thinking about time management. I'm seeing it at the moment where some of the second years have got two assignments due at the same time and they're also out in practice placement. When I've looked at their attendance at university for modules, it's been really low. I think this goes hand in hand with not being prepared for their assignments. As Ruth just said, when they're out in practice placement, they don't think that the university is there to support them. It's about reiterating to people that our study skills support is still there, and the tutors are here as well.

I had a student come in to see me yesterday for a tutorial who was really, really stressed about the assignments that are due. I think one good thing to do, from the first year onwards, is to use our study skills service to structure your assignments and get some advice. Also, take your feedback to them after you've had it so that you can further develop your referencing, citations, and sentence structures. I think attendance is crucial for nursing students in both aspects of the course. Attending university underpins the theory and knowledge to go out into practice, but it also facilitates their thinking so that their time management is better when it comes to their assignments. Would you agree with that, Ruth?

Speaker 3 (Ruth): Definitely. With regards to accessing the university when you are on your clinical placement, it's important to remember that there's more than just Marris House. There are libraries all over the place. The Seaborne Library on the main campus is open 24/7. So, if you've got a supportive family, you can say to your relatives, "Is there any chance you could babysit on Friday night?" and go to the library from 7:00 p.m. till 11:00 p.m. That's a time you could be using for studying.

Being in the zone of a study space within a library really gets you into working as a student. The books are available, you can get onto the library systems, and there are photocopiers—all of the resources to help you write an assignment are in a library. They are really useful places to go to get your head into thinking, "I've got this essay to do." The resources are all at your fingertips. At home, there are too many distractions. You've got your family, your children pulling at you saying, "I need this, I need that." Your partner will keep coming in, "Do you want a cup of tea?" It all affects your studying. I know people are trying to be supportive, but sometimes you just need to be in that zone to think, "I've got to get this essay written."

I used to go on Saturday mornings. I'd get up at 7:00, go to Seaborne for 8:00, take all my snacks, get a coffee, and spend the day sitting in Seaborne Library. As a treat, I'd finish studying at 4:00, walk into Chester, and have a little mooch around the shops. That was my treat after spending a day studying. I used to get my assignment written because I was in the zone of thinking, "I've got to get this done." And it used to be so valuable.

Speaker 4 (Sue): Especially as a mature student, I felt a sense of security being able to go into the library and know that there were academics on hand to point me in the right direction if I was really stuck. I know students get introduced to the library skills during their induction, but I think because they're overwhelmed with information that week, it's about highlighting to them that they should go back to the library after induction week and see what else is on offer.

Like Emma, you just mentioned earlier about the podcast on literature reviews. I wasn't aware that they were there until I started this study. Being a new student, and maybe not having studied before if you're a mature student or even if you've come from college, the resources might be a little bit different. There's so much on the Study Skills website to access. Podcasts like this are just so easy to listen to, and they're short and snappy. Half an hour of listening to a podcast, and the penny drops sometimes, doesn't it?

Speaker 3 (Ruth): We do have a lot of students with neurodiverse conditions, and they might have alternative ways of learning. These time management skills are really important for people who may have differences in the way that they learn and study. It's about sharing information and knowledge because you don't necessarily know what you don't know. A lot of people don't know that the main library in Chester is open all day and all night. You just need your student ID card to get in, and it's free parking. So, it's just an easy way to study.

If you've got a really supportive mentor, they might also have resources. When you talk to your practice assessors in placements and tell them what assignments you have due, they often say, "Oh, I've got books on that. I'll bring some in." This is especially helpful if you don't have a chance to get to a library or you're someone that doesn't work very well using electronic resources. I know some students with neurodiversities don't like using electronic books because they find them too confusing to navigate; they often want the hard copy. A lot of nurses have said, "Oh, I've still got my books, I'll bring them in." That's how I got some of my books—because mentors and assessors said, "I remember doing that essay. I've still got the books on it." They were really helpful and would say, "If you want to spend some time reading through the book while you're on placement, have an extra half an hour at lunch." Most assessors are really kind and thoughtful and will help you with your assignments. They are there to help you succeed.

Speaker 4 (Sue): The other thing is when you get your descriptor for your assignment. I have quite a few students that will come to me and say, "Well, I've looked at the example on there and that doesn't really match what the descriptor says," or, "I'm getting confused because it gives examples of how to write the assignment." I think it's about seeking out that support earlier rather than later, because a lot of students will bury their head in the sand and think, "Oh, I'll deal with that later on." Before they know it, time creeps up on them, and that's when the panic sets in.

Also, when you're looking at the descriptor and it says, "critically analyse," look up what those words actually mean so that you can find out what that learning outcome is actually asking you to do. This will prevent you from being too descriptive, and obviously, that steps up through level 5 and level 6. Looking at things like "evaluate," "critically analyse," and "review" is important. If you have an understanding of what it is, then you can split those learning outcomes by the word count to get a ballpark figure on how many words you need for each. It won't always be set in stone, but it just gives you a bit of a guide and a structure.

If you're a visual learner, write down a mind map with the question or the learning outcome in the middle and then put ideas off there to give you some sort of structure. I think a lot of students really struggle with breaking down those learning outcomes into what it's asking you to do. For instance, "What is the role of a nurse as an accountable professional and as an educator?" Just putting a couple of lines about being accountable to not only the patients but the NMC, and then breaking it down into what our accountability is as an educator to not only our colleagues but students as well. It's about just breaking things down a bit more that will help them, I think.

Speaker 1 (Emma): With that, we've got an interactive tool on our Moodle. I don't know if students know where it is, but it's about breaking down your brief. You can actually put all of your information in there and it'll export that as a Word file for you. It talks you through how to actually break down that brief, put all your dates in, your word counts, your keywords, all of that stuff. So please do use that stuff that's on Moodle to really help you. As I say, there are videos about breaking down those individual words, so we have all those resources in there.

As you both said, it's that engagement early on. We find a lot of students who come to us and they recognize, "Look, I'm on placement in four weeks' time, so I want to get the bulk of it done now, knowing that I am going to be relatively limited in my time over placement." In terms of support, a lot of students see our booking hours are typically between 10:00 and 4:00. But just because you're on placement during those times, it doesn't mean you can't access the service. You just let us know and we'll try and facilitate that. Quite often we do. Some students call us on their lunch break and we can see what's going on in the ward behind them or they're in their car. But quite often we will see a student at half-five, six, even seven. So do reach out to the team because that support is there. I think you're right, sometimes there is that disconnect of, "get everything done before placement, then I'll focus on placement and then I'll come back to it." It is so important that you continually work on this and that you plan. I think planning is the key message from today.

From our team, we would say that roughly 10% of your time should be spent on a plan, 50% of your time should be spent doing your reading and note-taking, 30% on the actual writing, and you should also spend around 10% of your time editing. Try and factor that into your plan. The biggest part of this, which a lot of students think is the writing, is not; it's the reading.

Speaker 2 (Tony): The other thing is what I often find when I have one-to-ones with nursing students is they say, "Our last assignment was months ago, so I've forgotten how to write academically," or, "we've had summer." The message that is coming through here as well is to keep chipping away at it. Because if you do leave it to the last minute and do it really quickly, then you're not honing your skills throughout your course. It's really important to get your assignment brief early, make sure you understand what's being asked of you, and use your lunch breaks to read or go to the library. It's not just about the practical aspect, it's about the studying too. If you let go of one while you're doing the other, then you're not being consistent and making it easier for yourselves. Keep chipping away. It can be something like reading a journal article and making critical notes. It's not writing your assignment, but it's all contributing to that final product. If you just keep at it, that means you're not going to lose those skills.

Speaker 1 (Emma): It's like eating an elephant in chunks. We know we've had students who have told us that they use the text-to-speech function on online journals. So we know we've had quite a few students who've said, "While I'm making the kids' tea, I'll listen to that article," or, "I'll listen to a podcast when I'm doing the shopping." Trying to fill in those gaps is so important. So when you do come back to that article, you're going to be a little bit more efficient with it.

Speaker 4 (Sue): I was talking to someone the other day, and she came up with some really good ideas about procrastination. What she said was when you're going to read something, do a "helicopter projection" of it. Just give it a quick scan, an overview of what you've got to do. Spend maybe a minute just scanning what it is, then leave it. When you have an idea of how long you think that's going to take you because you've already done a quick helicopter scan of it, then you can think, "Right, I think that's going to take me an hour." So then you can put it in your plan and your time management schedule and say, "I'm going to read that article and I know it's quite meaty, it's three pages long and it's quite heavy reading, so I'm going to make sure that I give myself enough time to read that properly." You've almost preempted how long something's going to take. I think sometimes people will put off doing something because they feel they haven't got the time to do it, so they just don't do it at all. Then it builds up to the next job, and you start to feel behind.

The other thing she came up with was, if you're a procrastinator like me, when you start to do something, write down the time that you started it. Then when you've done it, write the time that you finished. It helps you to think, "Well, actually, that didn't take me as long as I thought." Or if it has taken you longer than you thought, you'll know for the next time you come to do it. You're almost prepared and getting your mindset into thinking, "I need to dedicate this length of time for this task." It stops you from procrastinating because you're already forewarned and forearmed with how long something's going to take.

Speaker 2 (Tony): And the more you read journal articles, the more used you're going to get to the type of language they're using and the structure of articles. So the quicker you're going to become at doing those tasks. You might find that when you first start, it takes you a long time to read a journal article, but the more you do it, the better you're going to become at it.

Speaker 1 (Emma): And don't forget the tools that are available, such as using the Control-F function, or if you're on a Mac, the Command-F. That opens up your search bar, you type your keyword in, and it's going to show you where that appears in the document. That works for websites as well. You can be far more efficient in your reading.

Speaker 3 (Ruth): Because that's what takes a lot of time, isn't it? Especially if you have neurodiversities, if you're dyslexic and things like that. Reading is so mentally exhausting. If you're reading things that don't necessarily answer your question, you're spending time reading stuff that you didn't even need to. Whereas if you're able to narrow down your search fields and be more focused to get the correct things in the first place, that is going to take you a lot less time, and you're not wasting time.

Speaker 4 (Sue): And as Tony said, listening to those podcasts or putting the commentary on the journals while you're doing something else might be somebody's preferred way of learning anyway, so that will provide support. So yes, I think prior preparation is key.

Speaker 2 (Tony): One thing I will say as well is that a lot of students, because they are generally time-poor and they get right up against the deadline, don't spend enough time editing. We as a team quite often talk about editing and spending enough time on it, usually a couple of days and about five or so drafts. A lot of students kind of go, "Well, what's the point?"

We get a lot of questions, particularly from student nurses and midwives, about referencing, like, "Why do we have to be so pedantic about our full stops and all of that?" Not realising that, A, that's attention to detail, which you're going to need in your practice. You can't just let little things go. But also, if you get a good set of references and they're done correctly, that's a good couple of marks already in the bank, and then the rest comes down to content. A lot of markers, when they see a sloppy reference list, it kind of gives the impression that you haven't really bothered to do your assignment as well as you could. So I know those little things are important, and our team often talks about making sure you have that time for editing and proofreading, because that's easy marks. If you are on that grade boundary, getting those mistakes out of the way and rereading your work can help you make sense of whether it flows and if your references are right. That's easily a couple of marks in the bank before we even start looking at content.

Speaker 3 (Ruth): Definitely. This is what I say to students, especially in the first year: you are writing an assignment to teach someone something, not just to pass. The aim of an essay is for you to tell me, as an individual, something that I didn't already know. So think about when you're writing, "Is it explaining something? Is it answering the question?" Because you're telling someone something that may not know anything about the subject. From what I've heard from students I've spoken to, they say it changes the focus of their writing because they're not just thinking about getting that 40%, they're thinking, "What is this actually telling somebody?"

Speaker 2 (Tony): It's assuming, isn't it, that the reader doesn't know anything about the subject?

Speaker 3 (Ruth): Yes, and that's what students sometimes don't think. They just think they're doing it to pass a degree, but it helps them to focus on what they're reading and what they're writing if they think, "This is going to help someone understand the subject."

Speaker 1 (Emma): With that, we would often say write for a family member who's not part of your field. Think of that individual and ask, "Would they know that or have I assumed that?" Because a lot of students write for the tutor, or they'll use an acronym and not define it. Our advice is to think of a family member who's not part of your field and ask the question, "Would they understand it?" And even better, give it to them to read.

Speaker 2 (Tony): Yes, give it to a friend or a family member who isn't in your field to read and get them just to underline anything that doesn't make sense.

Speaker 1 (Emma): That's great. Oh, that's been lovely. Should we wrap up? I think that's lots of useful tips, and thanks for sharing your experiences with us as well. Hopefully, that was a useful episode. You know where the Academic Skills team are; we've got a little advert at the end if you need any further support. So thank you, Sue and Ruth, for joining us.

Speaker 3 (Ruth): Thank you. It's been great.

Speaker 4 (Sue): Thank you.

Speaker 1 (Emma): Bye.