Nursing Journals, Do You Keep One?

Recently I've been seeing fliers around town inviting nurses to join a weekly meeting where their journal entries are shared and discussed. I found this idea of sitting around with other nurses discussing work-related journal entries very exciting. As a nursing student I think it would be a wonderful idea to get other nursing students together and do the same thing.

Along with all of the joys of being a nursing student there also comes a lot of fear, anxiety and stress. While we have all discussed the many negative coping mechanisms that nursing students often turn to, we rarely discuss positive ways to release some of this tension. Writing a journal about being a nursing student can be a great way to cope with the abundance of emotions and also help to solidify the many things we are learning on a daily basis.

Although I unfortunately do not journal regularly, I have written several entries during some of the more monumental days of nursing school. Looking back I can see how I grew from being a nervous wreck the night before my first clinical to finally being comfortable with patient care. I also think that by sharing journal entries with other members of the profession it might be encouraging to see some of the same fears or worries and perhaps get tips on how to deal with problems or situations in a positive manner. It could also be educational to have seasoned members of the profession and student nurses in the same group to remind older nurses where they came from and to let younger nurses see what to look forward to.

If any of you are members of a group like this, please share your experience with us! I am very interested to see how a group like this supports one another in a profession that needs a lot of peer support.