What to Expect When Starting Your Diploma in Nursing Course
Do you have plans to take a nursing course in Malaysia? Nursing is indeed a noble profession. After graduating, rewards and benefits can be endless.
Many students are usually anxious during their first days, months, or year in nursing school. Understandably, the course is broad and can be challenging.
However, starting your diploma in Nursing in Malaysia doesn’t have to be a step into the unknown. It doesn’t always have to be a challenging experience.
In this blog post, we’ll explain what you should expect when starting your diploma in the nursing course in Malaysia, and how to better prepare for them.
1. Get ready to attend lots of hands-on and practical classes
Starting your nursing diploma in Malaysia, you should expect lots of hands-on experience. Be ready to leverage opportunities to do things and gain the relevant clinical expertise needed to excel in your profession.
During each semester, you will attend theoretical classes before you can participate in practical lessons. In the practical course, you will be required to carry out clinical procedures on dummies or mannequins, like IV insertion and injection.
As a nursing student, you will be required to achieve a minimum mark for both theoretical and practical classes to move on to the next semester.
2. Expect practical placements
Every student nurse gets excited about practical placements. Usually, because this is where you get to see what the job looks like in the real world.
In practical placements, you will be posted to different settings throughout your nursing course. The goal of this is for you to gain knowledge of the different types of nursing. When you qualify, you will have an idea of which area you’d like to specialize in.
Placements can last anywhere between 5 to 10 weeks or longer. During placement, you are expected to engage fully in nursing activities as well as observe clinical procedures to build your skills and knowledge.
On each placement, you will be assigned to a “nurse mentor” who is responsible for ensuring you achieve the aim of your placement.
3. Get ready to be proactive and find solutions for patients
As a nursing student, you should prepare to learn vital skills like communication and problem-solving during your course of study.
Working on patients will be part of your critical responsibilities during practical placement. At some point, you may encounter patients who come up with their diagnosis or deny that they need any treatment.
At such a point, you may get angry and ignore the patient. However, bear in mind that anger won’t solve the issue.
Here is where your communication and problem-solving skills should be activated. You will be expected to assess the situation and come up with feasible solutions.
If the situation gets overwhelming, talk to your senior nurse on a suitable course of action. The experienced senior nurses are there to guide and provide you with the necessary assistance.
4. Get ready to read — a lot
When you start your diploma in the nursing course in Malaysia, you should be aware that it requires an adequate level of knowledge in the field. Therefore, reading is a must!
During nursing school, it is easy to become overwhelmed by the number of books and notes available to you. However, there’s a way to surmount this — organisation.
The organisation should be your watchword in nursing school. Have a system that helps you become organised — an app, calendar, or paper-based organiser.
Plan your reading schedule by the day, week, and semester (if you can go that far ahead). Also, a study group can help motivate you to read and fill in your gaps of knowledge.
5. Expect to be busier than usual
You can mentally prepare for how busy you’ll be, but you won’t know – to what degree – until the first few weeks in nursing school.
Many nurses attribute nursing school as one of the busiest periods in their life. After your first semester, you should have foreknowledge of precisely what to expect in the coming years.
It doesn’t mean you won’t have a life. It is equally important to take some time out and do other things you would love to do.
However, the life you had before nursing school would be different from the life you have when starting your diploma in nursing in Malaysia.
Finally, to assess your learning process in nursing school, you will be required to write essays, examinations, and do presentations.
The number of essays, exams, and presentations will vary depending on the university.
If you still have any doubts left regarding pursuing a diploma in the nursing course, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at Contact Us.
