[Peeps Mcarthur]

In the "student" forum there didn't seem to be much action on this subject, but here goes...........

Does anybody have favorite tutorials that come with cd-rom and books or manuals? The ones that test you with more than basic understanding of the material?
I've been to a few sites that sell some great software........if it was 1995. It seems to be just what's left over from what they used to sell to colleges and it is doubtful that they work with Windows XP.
I really don't care if I spend a few bucks. I want to learn science at a higher level and I am truly frustrated with the mediocre tools I've been given. I want to have some fun!

Anybody use software or learning tools that will help me learn clinical science at a higher level?

Thanks

[grnvillechick]

I think it is great you are so into science and the study of it...But my advice to you now is to just focus on getting thru nsg school...fine tune your asssessment skills..remember safety above all else..and use the NCLEX cd-roms over and over...that will ensure your graduation. After you pass and take boards--no small feat !-- then return and go further in your study...if you feel you are not getting what you need out of your program...considering changing schools(what is your schools'pass rate for boards?)--or at the very least see an advisor. Have you ever been tested to see what kind of learner you are? My first quarter, all I did was tape lectures...and made a C for my efforts...I was tested and sure enough, I was a 95% visual learner. I was told to sit near the front of the class ( I favored the back)...to write out my lecture notes as well as text reading onto flash cards to study...to study 2 hours for every one hour of lecture....and guess what happened??? I went to straight A's..and graduated with honors..as well as being a member of the nursing soriety..and I was no young chick then. I also worked 40 hours a week. so you see...it is up to YOU how far you will go. focus on NCLEX....and good luck...I think you already have a heart of a nurse !!!!

[Peeps Mcarthur]

Thanks Greenville,

I am also a "visual". That would explain my fetish for CD-rom based learning.
I think that making test questions out on flashcards is very good for learning the meaning of the material and not just regurgitating the facts. I, in fact, do just that to every ounce of the study guide and qualify it with the text. I have the NCLEX-PN workbook and CD-rom and have taken it twice in full and scored 70% and 56% without having read the text. I haven't even attended nursing classes yet(fall of 2002), but I think that a little A&P here and a little Microbiology with a dash of Psychosocial fringe theory there is not nearly enough of a basis for understanding the complexities of human response to disease.

Example:
In my A&PII class I'm also involved in an Honors section of extracuriccular case studies. I did one on what turned out to be ASD and Patent Ductus Arteriosis all in one bizzar ADULT patient.
I got to give a diagnosis(which I know nurses don't do) and use the signs and syptoms as well as the cath lab, echo results to prove it. very satisfying
I have volunteered(big surprise huh) to do a second study on Diabetic Ketoacidosis I was dissapointed that she choose to just start giving us the diagnosis and have us explain a series of questions but it'll be fun anyway. I "solved" all the questions in about two hours with variouse reference books I've purchased.........none of them from the college. They're just good reference tools I've picked out, but they are well ahead of these classes and I hope it stays that way. Its not a bad school, its just not getting very deep into the material............so I'm going to do that for myself.

[Peeps Mcarthur]

Anyway, where I was going with that before A Taco Bell run interrupted it was that as practitioners licensed nurses somewhere must use something to extend their knowledge out past the limits of the "required reading". Critical thinking comes from a variety of sources by definition. It would seem to follow that the greater the variety of sources, the greater the critical thinking skills.

For a group that uses that phrase so often it is strangely silent on the subject of extracurricular learning.

You however, were kind enough to answer my post and I do appreciate it.

Brad