30 Motivational Quotes for Nursing Students - NurseFuel (2024)

Being a nursing student is tough. Not only do you need to have an iron heart with a gooey center, you’ll also have to have legs of steel, possess excellent memory, be a speed reader, plus be able to survive on mere winks instead of sleep like other humans do. It can get pretty overwhelming sometimes and there will be times that you’ll be asking why you’re torturing yourself by staying in nursing school. Well congratulations, because that’s completely normal!

Here are 30 motivational quotes for nursing students that we’ve compiled from the deepest recesses of the internet plus random ramblings and scribbles everywhere else.

First off, let’s remind you why you decided to become a nurse:

1. “Behind every great doctor is an even greater nurse.” – Unknown

2. “Save one life, you’re a hero. Save 100 lives, you’re a nurse.” – Unknown

Unknown sure knows what’s going on, agree? Nurses for the win!

3. “Nurses have come a long way in a few short decades. In the past, our attention focused on physical, mental and emotional healing. Now we talk of healing your life, healing the environment, and healing the planet.” – Lynn Keegan

Hey, Lynn Keegan called it, nurses are gonna save the earth!

4. “The trained nurse has become one of the great blessings of humanity, taking a place beside the physician and the priest.” – William Osler

You knew you’re a people person and that you care deeply about other people, that’s why you chose to be a nurse!

5. “Nurses are the heart of healthcare.” – Donna Wilk Cardillo

Donna couldn’t have said it better! Nurses indeed are the healthcare system’s backbone, and heart, and kidney, and lungs, and you know what we mean!
It’s not just that, you also wanted to be a nurse because you’re tough.
Here’s some proof (in quotes) that nurses rule!

6. “I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them.” – Clara Barton

Clara Barton is one of the Chuck Norrises in the world of nursing. She founded the American Red Cross and worked on the field during the American civil war. She sure knows what’s she’s talking about.

7. “Panic plays no part in the training of a nurse.” – Elizabeth Kenny

See? You should be sporting the no fear hashtag (#nofear) along with the #nofilter one. Being in nursing school will let you get a glimpse of how real world nursing is, minus all the filters from movies, books, and popular media.

More so, you wanted to be a nurse because you’ve got too much love to give:

8. “When I think about all the patients and their loved ones that I have worked with over the years, I know most of them don’t remember me nor I them, but I do know that I gave a little piece of myself to each of them and they to me and those threads make up the beautiful tapestry in my mind that is my career in nursing.” – Donna Wilk Cardillo

Donna captured the thoughts of a lot of nurses above, and you’ll be thinking the same too in a few years!

9. “A nurse is compassion in scrubs.” – Lexie Saige

10. “Our job as nurses is to cushion the sorrow and celebrate the job, every day while we are just doing our jobs.” – Christine Belle

11. “Nurses dispense comfort, compassion, and caring without even a prescription.” – Val Saintsbury

Isn’t it obvious yet? Nursing is love in uniform…err scrubs

12. “Bound by paperwork, short on hands, sleep and energy… nurses are rarely short on caring.” – Sharon Hudacek

13. “When you’re a nurse you know that every day you will touch a life or a life will touch yours.” – Unknown

14. “Caring is the essence of nursing.” – Jean Watson

Nursing is indeed a caring profession, and that is precisely why you wanted to be a nurse and will work extra hard to be one someday. You care too much to stop.

Also, how can you not be a nurse? Patients love nurses!

15. “They may forget your name but they will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

From the very first patient you’ve handled, down to the last, each and everyone got to experience a little bit of you, your compassion, your grace under pressure, and how it is like to be under your care. Give them nothing but your best and they’ll surely love you!

16. “How can anybody hate nurses? Nobody hates nurses. The only time you hate a nurse is when they’re giving you an enema.” – Warren Beatty

Love you until you give them an enema and then you’ll be the big bad wolf, for a while at least.

17. “Nurses, one of the few blessings of being ill.” – Sara Moss-Wolfe

Because no matter what, your mere presence is a blessing, especially for those who don’t have that many friends.

18. “It would not be possible to praise nurses too highly.” – Stephen Ambrose

And that’s why patients can’t stop raving about the amazing nurses they’ve met!
Some patients even think nurses are otherworldly beings!

19. “A nurse will always give us hope, an angel with a stethoscope.” – Carrie Latet

20. “Nurses may not be angels, but they are the next best thing!” – Unknown

Perhaps nurses are not angels, but are cousins of the tooth fairy! Wings or no wings, one thing that patients can agree on is that they love nurses!

21. “Some people think that doctors and nurses can put scrambled eggs back in the shell.” – Cass Canfield

Now, that’s some real superpowers! The secret is some nurses and doctors can actually do that, well sort of anyway.Anyway, you know that you will keep working on becoming a full pledged nurse because…

Giving up is not in your vocabulary.

22. “When life puts you in tough situations, don’t say ‘WHY ME?’ Just say ‘TRY ME’.” – Unknown

Remember, you got to walk the walk and not just talk the talk.

23. “We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.” – Maya Angelou

24. “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” – Jim Rohn

25. “The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves.” – Logan Pearsall Smith

There is a saying that the best things in life are often those that you’ve worked hardest to achieve.

26. “The character of a nurse is as important as the knowledge she possesses.” – Carolyn Javis

27. “To do what nobody else will do, in a way that nobody else can, in spite of all we go through; is to be a nurse.” – Rawsi Williams

Becoming a nurse is worth all the hard work. It will be a constant challenge for sure, but how many lives you’ll touch is going to keep you going.
Plus, frankly, hospitals would be lost without nurses, so you better stick to nursing school until you graduate, okay?

28. “Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon.” – Dag Hammarskjold

29. “Nurses are the beating heart of our medical system.” – Barack Obama

30. “Nurses are the hospitality of the hospital.” – Carrie Latet

There you have it, the world needs more nurses and you’ve got what it takes to be one. You won’t know how far you can go if you stop walking so don’t stop. Don’t let go and keep going. Take a few baby steps and alternate that with huge jumps. Nursing is not meant to be a walk in the park, and you know that’s one of the reasons you’re in it.

We hope that this compilation of 30 motivational quotes for nursing students inspire you, motivate you, help warm you up, and provide you some much needed Nurse Fuel to face more challenges ahead. Living the nurse life is not meant to be easy, and that’s why you need all the help and props you can get!