Nursing students’ second-year blues and how to beat them

Anxiety levels often shoot up amid increased academic and placement pressures in year two of your nursing studies – but support is available to help you thrive

The first year was fun: new friends, new skills, career prospects opening up. But the second year of your nursing degree is now looming and everything seems more serious.

The challenges will come thick and fast and clinical colleagues may be a little less tolerant of your rookie errors. The honeymoon is over.

Second-year blues is a much-referenced phenomenon which, supposedly, sends nursing students’ anxiety levels shooting up and their mood plummeting in the face of increased academic and placement burdens. But is it real? And if so, how can those blues be managed?

‘Nobody’s going