A master's-level nursing program requires that you have a comprehensive and exact knowledge of illnesses, injuries and immunizations. You will be studying high-level courses such as statistics, research management, health economics, health policy, ethics, health promotion, nutrition, family planning, mental health, and domestic violence prevention, says the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Each of these topics are extremely detailed and you must know them inside and out. Create flashcards so that you can drill yourself on information anywhere and at any time. You can study while standing in line, waiting for friends, in traffic or while you take a walk. Flashcards give you important sound bites of information that you can quickly hard wire to your brain.
You're not going to understand everything that you hear in lectures, so form a study group and help each other. While you could email or meet up with your professor, an even better solution is to get together with your fellow master's students. You can each volunteer to cover a subject studied that week, such as methods of anesthesia and explain it thoroughly to others with a question and answer period. Talking things out with others is a great way to master things. Additionally, other students might have a way of explaining a tricky concept that will illuminate the subject for you.
Being enrolled in a master's program in nursing might make you feel like you have to study hours on end per day, but that's simply not a realistic goal. If you continue to set unrealistic goals for yourself you're going to get discouraged quickly and possibly lose the confidence in your ability to master success in your program of study. Set reasonable study goals that you know you can accomplish each day. Give yourself study breaks because you deserve them.