Re: The 'wished-I-knew' before entering into my program... Originally Posted by Jessica 392 
if you become an absolute expert on say, hepatitis, you are going to get such a break when it comes time to test on it in the nursing program. You'll be confident that every NCLEX question that comes your way about hepatitis, you'll already know the answer to. When you get that first patient in clinical with COPD, it'll save you a ton of time on your paperwork & give you a huge chance to absolutely blow your instructor away with how much you already know about the disease.
Good luck!
If you become an expert on a particular disease process, resist the urge to "share" endlessly once you are in nursing school. Answer any questions the instructor asks, but keep it short. Focus on the issue at hand about the disease in question, and don't ramble on about what you know about it. For example, when the instructor asks you what the signs and symptoms are for a disease, BRIEFLY list them. Then be quiet.
When the instructor starts teaching you what the nurse's role is in dealing with that disease, DON'T ARGUE! What she is telling you is what you need to know to pass her test, and eventually NCLEX. Arguing your information versus the instructor's information is a waste of time and energy, and will confuse and annoy your classmates. Also listen carefully to what the instructor is telling you because one of the biggest things you will have to get straight in your mind is the difference between what the doctor does about the disease and what the nurse does about the disease.
I say this because I have a classmate who, when we get on a disease topic, will go out in la-la land about the disease, spewing trivia and minutae about it, when what we're trying to do is figure out what WE are supposed to know about it. Who cares about the molecular structore of blah-blah-blah and the scientist and his wife who discovered this thing in China and yadda-yadda-yadda? I want to know the following - assessment, diagnosis, plan, intervention, and evaluation. Period. Save the dazzling statitistics and academic BS for your term paper.
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