Nursing Students: Get Green!
Nursing school is full of waste. How many toner cartridges did you go? How many reams of paper? How many candy wrappers? I think in my first semester alone, I had a 4′ thick stack of PowerPoint slides for one single class; one third of my courseload that semester. Everything was single-sided and printed in color ink.
Why?
Because I was a brand new nursing student, and it was all so damn exciting, that’s why! A few weeks into pathophysiology, I started double-siding my slides. After that, I went to using discarded office stationary. Who cared if my notes were taken on heavy, beige letterhead? Not me. I’m broke.
Now that I’m in my third semester, I’ve been thinking really hard about ways that I can save money, and in the process, do a little something for the environment, too. I’m still surrounded by students with thick, heavy, paper-filled binders. I don’t begrudge them their notes, but I’ve learned a few things about my own note-taking so I don’t have to print the slides anymore. So, here are BrainScramble’s official tips on how to stay green during nursing school.
1. Analyze your own note-taking skills carefully. Are you more of an audio learner? Can you do without printing off all the notes from the professor? I found that when I take the time to listen to what is being said, I very rarely have to take notes. I know that not everyone functions this way, of course. Instead of printing off all the notes, could you take all of your notes on one or two pieces of paper, instead? Or, could you bring a laptop to class and take notes via computer?
2. If you do use PowerPoint slides, try to print off multiple slides on one piece of paper. I can go with up to six slides on one sheet without too much problem, and there’s still plenty of room to write (small) in the margins.
3. If your printer doesn’t print double-sided, consider saving your notes and printing on the opposite side next time. I started creating a stack of used, one-sided paper that I would print on before I would open a new ream of paper.
4. Don’t forget to recycle your toner cartridges! Most companies now have a recycling program; usually it’s detailed on their website. Often, when you buy a new toner, the company includes a prepaid envelope for your old toner. Use this! It won’t cost you a thing, and it’s one less toner rotting away in a landfill.
5. I am frequently the butt of many jokes due to the fact that I constantly eat during class and clinicals. I have mastered the art of cramming huge amounts of food into a single, tiny lunch bag. I use a lot of single-serving containers that you can buy pre-packaged. They are incredibly convenient, and incredibly wasteful. While some of them are recyclable, some of them aren’t, and waste is still waste. I just bought the cadillac of all lunch bags; a monstrosity that will be large enough to hold several reusable tupperware containers, instead. It also comes with a cotton napkin, utensils, and even salt and pepper shakers. The bottom line is, I’m going to make a commitment to stop using prepackaged containers. Even if you save one napkin per day, that’s 365 napkins that won’t go to the trash this year.
6. Not everyone is in a city with good public transit, but consider taking advantage of it, if you are fortunate enough to have it. Busses and light rails are frequently a little bit less convenient, but I think they speak for themselves, given the cost of gas and parking. I spend a lot of time on the bus studying, sleeping, eating, listening to books (and learning Spanish!) on my MP3 player, and I have to come to really appreciate the bus. In fact, I pretty much hate driving and refuse to do it at almost any cost. Bus time has become hobby time; there are tons of ways to pass the time, but I’ll save that for another post.
I’m not insisting that each of you reading this make drastic changes in your life. Change is tough and frequently comes at a cost. It’s taking me almost nine months of nursing school (HOLY CRAP!) to learn and adopt each of these practices, and I still forget, mess up, or just blatantly refuse to follow my own practice.
Here’s your challenge: make one green decision tomorrow. And then tell me all about it so I can do it, too.
This entry was posted on Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 6:13 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
February 17th, 2008 at 6:43 am
My green decision every week is taking public transit to school. I hardly ever drive anywhere. I also don’t print out notes or .pdf readings. I do all of that on my computer which is with me every time I’m in class. And I use a cloth lunch sack with reusable lunch tupperware so I don’t use a million plastic bags.
February 17th, 2008 at 7:43 am
We were talking yesterday about how your comments about getting green are tied to the 2008 presidential election. Wouldn’t it be nice to get a person in office who could truly inspire people to take these little steps to make a difference? Because really, think what a positive impact there would be if lots and lots and lots of us started avoiding pre-packaged lunch containers, and saying no to bottled water, and riding buses, and…one of my personal favorites…BRINGING REUSABLE BAGS FOR GROCERY SHOPPING. I started doing this last summer and feel very satisfied when I walk out of the store knowing that I won’t be cluttering my pantry with 15 plastic bags. I do keep a few around to line our trash cans, but they all fit in a little sleeve thingy that came with our Christmas gift from Caroline–a Terra Pass which balances the carbon emissions in our home. If you want to know more, go to http://www.terrapass.com/home.
February 19th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
My favorite “green” habit during PT school was raiding the secretary’s recycle box for one side used paper, which I used for all my notes in class. I used it to print out slides on as well, and used fast draft printing to save ink. Now that I’m out of school, I’m glad I work at a hospital where they do computer charting, which saves paper. But I am still appalled by how much waste I personally create. For instance I personally use about 8-10 pairs of gloves/day! Necessary to protect me and my patients, but concerning nevertheless.
February 19th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
@ Emory Student: I applaud your efforts! Seriously! You’re definitely doing your part.
@ Mermaid: Resusable grocery bags are a great idea. I’m with you; I use some plastic bags for things like cat poop, but I do try to use my super-fancy reusable bags, too. King Soopers is now selling reusable bags for $0.99. I like to see big business going slightly green.
@ Sarah: The gloves are definitely an issue, and I admit that this is one area where I care not about being green although I certainly wish there was an earth friendly solution. (Recyclable latex gloves?) I use TONS of gloves. I put gloves on automatically when I go in a patient’s room, because I just never know what they’ve been touching or coughing on or peeing…I don’t want to pick it up with my bare hands. Even if I walk in knowing there won’t be patient care, I still wear gloves because if my patient suddenly started bleeding, or needed emergency resuscitation or even if the nurse I’m with suddenly needed help, then I would want to be gloved for that. It’s unbelievably wasteful though, and I don’t imagine latex gloves do so well in a landfill…
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:09 am
[...] student concerned with the environment, has some great thoughts and suggestions for all of us in Nursing Students: Get Green! on her blog Brain [...]
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:35 pm
[...] ‘cadillac’ arrived, and by that I mean the lunch bag I refer to in my post about getting green. It is large enough to fit a small dog, let alone lunch. Although, I eat a lot, especially during [...]
February 23rd, 2008 at 9:51 am
I’m a kinetic learner so writing help cement it for me. What I learned to do is record the lecture and try an absorb as much as I can. Then get the powerpoints emailed to me and listen to the recording and type in notes at home. This method increased my test grades by 10 points. Why? I’ve learned the instructors have “tells” where they emphasis certain things that will be on the test, but it’s not obvious when I’m trying to make sense of the information. When I just listen, I can hear the emphasis. This method means I need no paper as everything is on the computer. Also, with the slides and my notes, I have ready made flashcards which I study at night before I go to sleep.
Here is something else to consider. This term we are doing group projects, instead of printing out paper drafts and passing them around, use email or google docs. Google docs, lets you share your documents.
March 2nd, 2008 at 7:41 am
[...] the complete article at Brain [...]
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:29 am
[...] student concerned with the environment, has some great thoughts and suggestions for all of us in Nursing Students: Get Green! on her blog Brain [...]
March 3rd, 2008 at 9:40 am
My Chronic Illness teacher has been posting 150+ slide powerpoints. For one lecture.
March 5th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
[...] Scramble absolutely threw me with this post. It never even occurred to me that I might be able to Get Green with my studies. As tech-nerd as I am, I still find myself printing out notes, assignments, etc. So [...]
March 7th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
this post made me so happy!
i carpool with 2 other girls to clinical 3 days a week.
i use a reusable lunch bag and a klean kanteen for my water every day.
i’ve also stopped printing powerpoints and instead have been taking notes on my laptop during class. and i recycle my old ink cartridges.
i will make one more change this semester: when i do print, i will never let a piece of paper get thrown out without both sides being used first.
October 20th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
hospitality jobs…
HHO Gas Conversion Kit- Can You Really Run Your Car On HHO Gas? It is no surprise when I discovered that everyday, thousands of people are searching for information on HHO gas conversion kit. With an economy in recession and rising oil prices, folks re…
June 13th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
I’ve been a nurse for 5 years and i’ve never had luck with my uniforms.
If anyone knows where I can get decent scrubs let me know.