How do you take NOTES in class during Nursing Scool?

[NursingStoodent]

I am starting Nursing School in January and I am trying to figure out how to take notes once classes start. I have a windows 8 laptop and would like to do all my note taking on the laptop. During pre-nursing I used to see students taking notes on their computers and iPads and tablets all the time. I have no idea how they do it and I have never taken notes on my computer before. My typing speed is okay... not too bad. So my question to all fellow students is exactly how do you take and organize your notes using a laptop?

Is it easier to take notes on a laptop or a tablet or iPad or good 'ol pen and paper? I dont have a tablet so any advise on which kind to buy would be helpful as well!

Is there an app you download to take notes or do u just type away in a word document (which I dont think I am going to like too much)?

I like recording my lectures while I am taking notes. Is there a way to not record the clicking sounds of the keyboard while you type?

I love my paper, pen, and notebook but sometimes during lectures it get to be too much to write and since I like to type I want to give this new method a try. Plus I want to be able to share and print my notes as well.

Ideally I would like to be able to record my lecture, and type my notes while having the flexibility to draw out diagrams and insert tables within my notes.

Any advise regarding which apps I should use or how I should record my lectures or take and organize my notes would be helpful!!

[loriangel14, RN]

My professors make powerpoints for each lecture so I print them out 3 slides per page so I can take notes from what she says. If for some reason they don't provide a powerpoint, I just write down what they say in my notebook. A lot of students use ipads with the keyboard or they bring their laptop, but I personally remember things when I write them out.

I have never understood why people feel that you need something electronic to take notes with. Pen and paper work fine and don't cost hundreds of dollars.

[Just.Blessed.RN, BSN, RN]

This is great advice everyone! More ideas / testimonials please!!!

[VAgirl247]

Well I commute part of the week. The other part of the week I stay in a room down near my clinical site or will be doing that. I have been toying with the idea of using my ipad more since I commute over 30 minutes. Especially since nursing books already take up a ton of space and binders will only make the back pack or rolling backpack more heavy. I plan on syncing everything to cloud in the event it crashes. I have actually deleted my facebook and all other social media so I won't be as distracted and the professor can't ask me if I'm on facebook (like some do to other students) while taking notes. I think I have pinterest but that's it and its helpful for recipes. I don't want to be forgetting a notebook or something like I've done in the past and had to use a different binder for that day. I got the logitech folio in a fun color used, so if I don't like the method it won't hurt me as much if I decide not to use it. I've downloaded good notes and noteability.

[NuGuyNurse2b]

^ our school cures the facebook thing pretty easily - other faculty members will silently enter the lecture hall from the back door and see what everyone has on their screen. But it's usually shopping, not fb that people do.

[pmabraham, BSN, RN]

Good day:

Our school's semester starts on the 13th. I've been preparing by annotating two of the books I was able to get in ebook format -- A&P II and Microbiology. GoodNotes on iPad with the shape recognition tool on makes annotating a breeze (the shape recognition tool makes for straight lines while underlining and easier to highlight in straight lines). I'm hoping to use the iPad for pure paperless note taking while in school using the stylus to take notes for lecture based classes.

Thank you.

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

I have Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 12.5 on my computer. I do not use it to take notes during class because most of the professors that I am familiar with would not like me speaking in the back of the class. That's the problem with Dragon. You have to speak in order for it to do its work. To your professors, it sounds like you are talking to another classmate or something like that. Therefore, what I do is I print out my PowerPoints and use those to take notes, or I write them in the notes section of the PPT lectures during class. I type at just 44 words/min, but I can speak about 2-3x that when using Dragon. Because of the above in-class speaking problem, I use Dragon at home to write papers or pretty much anything else involving writing (like those darned care plans...) and I have found that this speeds things up dramatically. Sometimes you can have Dragon transcribe what it hears via recording, but you'll have to have a good quality recording to make it work.