Med Surge 2

Nursing Students General Students

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I am in my Med Surge 2 course and halfway through it. I am so overwhelmed by all the ATI and other things they add on to us (like projects and health fairs). I am in the Cardiac Chapters and am really scared I may fail this time. Also we are required to get a level 2 on ATI!! Any advice is helpful! I want to move on to my last semester (3rd level)

Any advice is helpful! I want to move on to my last semester (3rd level)

Get off the internet and read/study. You're welcome. :)

Get off the internet and read/study. You're welcome. :)

Excellent advice, Sour Lemon :cool:

The best advice I can give is to start studying early for a test, read all your chapters (yes, you heard me), take great notes, do literally thousands of NCLEX questions on your topic. After your test, review with your instructors to see what you got wrong. Make sure you understand the material not only because you are going to be tested on it, but because you might be a nurse someday and this information and the skills you are learning are very important. Don't take it too lightly, but don't become super stressed and overwhelmed either. What helped me was to practice teaching the material I was learning over and over to family and friends, I'd explain it in a way that they could understand (I pretended they were my patients). This helped me to really comprehend and analyze what I was learning, as I had to explain certain concepts from the basics, or answer tough questions they would throw my way. Your family might get tired of hearing you talk about the pathophysiology of mitral valve stenosis, so you can move on and work with your classmates to teach each other.* That was how I studied, and I made it out of nursing school alive and with a pretty rocking GPA if I do say so myself.

Now shoo, go study

*Study groups can be hit or miss, make sure you are actually studying, not chatting.

Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Moved to more appropriate forum for more responses

I studied differently. I used 4 books to study. Davis Q&A for the nclex rn, Saunders comprehensive review, Lippincott's Q&A review for the nclex rn & Nclex RN Q&A made incredibly easy. Pre-lecture, I would do 100 questions from incredibly easy for the corresponding topic to be lectured in class the week ahead. Then I'd read the rationales, both wrong & right , typing what I felt was important. Next, I read the corresponding chapter from Saunders review book, adding to the notes I took from the rationales. Armed with this, during lecture, I fairly knew what was being lectured. I also brought my questions to class. Post lecture, I did 100 more nclex questions of the corresponding chapter from both lippincott & davis, compiling more notes. It was these compiled notes that became my bible. For the weekly exams, I went from 15/20 to 18/20 or 19/20. That's when I knew this system worked for me.

If you do have summer holidays, I suggest you find a system that works for you. All the best, cheers.

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