How to Maximise Your Learning Experience in an Online Healthcare Program

Despite being rooted in in-person interaction, healthcare benefits from online learning like any other industry. Perhaps more. It’s hard to overstate the convenience of studying when you want, especially when your spare time is wedged between 12-hour night shifts in the ER. 

But convenience often becomes complacency; before you know it, it’s Christmas and you’ve made little progress with the course you started last summer. Truth is, you need a plan to make the most of the online study. This guide, simple and brief, will help you form that plan. 

Create the ideal study space

The most seductive case for online learning is that you can do it almost anywhere. On the couch while the game plays in the background; in between people-watching at your local cafe; or even during a jaunt through Europe to avoid the winter. For some, this freedom enhances the learning experience. For most, routine is the bedrock for positive learning—and positive learning starts with a positive learning space. 

If you already work from home or have done so in the past, you’ll likely have a space ready to go. If not, it’s time to introduce your pragmatic side to your creative side—realistic meets no rules, with the only goal being a study space that lets you thrive. In other words, a study space as immune to distraction as possible. 

Once you’ve found this space, the fun begins. If your space is hidden from the sun, fill it with low-light indoor plants. Embrace accent lighting and vertical storage, anything that makes the most of the space without looking cluttered. The barometer here: how does the space make you feel? It matters little whether you’re starting a Bachelor of Science in Nursing or a Graduate Certificate in Advanced Nursing, the space you create has to make you want to learn. 

Time management rules

We’ve checked: there are enough hours in the day. Stating otherwise won’t fly as an excuse for poor grades. That’s why time management is so vital to your learning experience. Master time management and you’ll take a huge step toward mastering any study—especially healthcare study. If you want to avoid feeling stretched, stay organised. That way, you can best divide your time and energy.

Keep things external, not internal. Your mind’s a dam; fill it with too much to do and the levee will break. Instead, embrace one (or more) of the time management apps available. If a spare moment has you reaching for your phone like a gunslinger from an old Western, get an app that limits your social media time. If apps overstimulate you, it might take a combination of online and offline planning to reign in your schedule. Be patient and persistent and you’ll find the right recipe for managing your time. 

Set realistic goals

If strong time management is one side of the productivity coin, the other side is realistic goal setting. Unrealistic goals are mirages; setting them will have you snatching at things out of reach. Treat goals like you treat essays: piece by digestible piece. If the goal is to graduate before summer so you can focus on learning to surf, divide your schedule accordingly. By task, by unit, by days and weeks, it doesn’t matter. Don’t worry, you won’t lose sight of the bigger picture. Instead, you’ll gain momentum and satisfaction the further you progress. 

Talk to the experts  

Building healthy, professional relationships with your teachers is a smart move no matter what you’re studying. It’s particularly shrewd in healthcare, where it’s highly likely that most of your teachers are practising healthcare workers. If all goes to plan, you’ll be shadowing them around the hospital soon, so why not pepper them with questions when you have full licence to do so? 

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Maximising your learning experience is a process of trial and error. There’s no getting around it, you simply have to go through it. What’s handy is you’ll quickly find what works, the same way you’ll quickly find out whether you can live in a sharehouse with your bestie. Once you do, your online healthcare program will become the learning experience you deserve.