At the bottom of my posts is a link that opens up to a
Critical Thinking Flow Sheet for Nursing Students. It was designed partly to help students study med/surg. You need to fill a page out for each disease. That is how you study for med/surg. Each disease is due to something in the normal anatomy and physiology that went wrong. That manifests as specific signs and symptoms. The doctor designs his treatments (many of which we nurses carry out) around those signs and symptoms as well as at the cause of what is making things go wrong. As nurses we also independently treat some of the signs and symptoms the patient has for each disease, but we also assess the patient's ability to perform ADLs and more importantly, the patient's
responses to what is going on. Thus, you get the psychosocial and self-care stuff. Part of what you have to learn is not only the nursing interventions but also what the doctors are going to order. I specifically set up a list of weblinks to help students find that kind of information since some textbooks aren't too good at supplying that information. They are on this thread:
Certain diseases are more prevalent in our society and you will be tested more rigorously over them. Heart, lung, GI and diabetes are right up there at the top. Since you didn't list what body systems you are studying I can't give you any clues on what you are likely to get tested on and that's the best I can suggest. I'm guessing you're going GI, diabetes and general surgical patients since that's generally what they have students do first. Know diabetes and its complications. Know the major GI diseases that land people in the hospital. Know the side effects and complications of general anesthesia and what nurses do to help patients avoid them.
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