Well, hello there. Welcome back to the straight A nursing podcast. I'm nurse Mo. I'm really happy that you're here hanging out with me today.

And today I'm really excited because we're kicking off our special say yes to success mini series that we created in partnership with ATI.

This is a mini episode number one of five episodes where we dive into a success related topic for new and continuing nursing students.

This whole series is graciously sponsored by ATI. They're the makers of the tease exam and in-depth resources that prepare students for NCLEX and the world of nursing.

For five weeks, we'll be releasing a new mini episode each Monday. So make sure you're following the podcast and following me on Instagram at straight A nurse for some great giveaways and discounts, which I'll talk about more when we get to the end of this episode.

So this episode is all about a really big culture shock for nursing students. And that is the constant scrutiny that you are under.

And all the times that you get feedback that might not have been what you wanted to hear or receive. And how do we accept that feedback without it blowing our confidence?

So we have midterm exams, we have quizzes multiple times a week, we have skills lab, skills check offs, we have clinical, sim lab, exit exams, all of these things, projects and papers, all of these things are going to be opportunities for your instructors to give you feedback.

So when it's not what we want to hear, it can be kind of hard at first, right? Now I've mentored thousands of nursing students over the years. And one thing I know about nursing students is that nursing students work really hard and care a lot about their academic and their clinical performance.

And when you add to that, this feeling that everything is brand new, you might not feel really comfortable with what you're doing and getting that feedback.

I don't want to call it negative feedback because we'll talk about that in just a minute. There's no negative feedback. It's just feedback, but getting feedback that you weren't expecting or didn't want to hear can blow your confidence if you let it.

You let it. So let's not let it. Okay. One reason that feedback can be a confidence annihilator is because of imposter syndrome.

So if you've ever thought I don't belong here, they're going to find out that I don't know what I'm doing. Everyone else here is smarter than I am.

I got in because of some kind of fluke. If you're thinking those kinds of thoughts, these are signs that you are dealing with some imposter syndrome, my friend.

And I want you to know very first thing, these thoughts are totally false, but they feel very real to you.

And when you have this untrue belief that you don't belong in nursing school, when you get feedback, that is not what you wanted to hear.

Here, this reinforces that false belief and makes that feeling of inadequacy, or I don't belong hearing this, it makes all of that even more pronounced.

So let's first reframe how we respond to feedback so that you can view it in the right context.

So I alluded to this a moment ago. I want to stop talking about feedback being positive or feedback being negative.

I want you to just start thinking of it as just feedback. Okay, not good, not bad, not positive, not negative. It's just feedback.

Sometimes it's reinforcing what you want to believe about yourself or what you want to hear.

And other times it's not what you necessarily want to hear, but it might be what you need to hear.

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