Tips for doing well in Med Surg and Pharm

Sun0408, ASN, RN · Oct 26, 2012

Med surg is a huge amount of information and the foundation to most all other areas of nursing. Know it well, understand the patho.. If you have the course print out, start reading ahead, take notes. It is impossible to know every little thing re med surg but if you understand the systems involved, it will help you understand the larger picture..

Pharm on the other hand was my toughest subject, I am a hands on, visual learner and pharm was just memorization for the most part.. Not easy for me, so I put twice the amount of time in pharm as I did any other semester/subject while in nursing school. Note cards helped..

Good luck and hit the semester running :)

Tonks57 · Oct 31, 2012

Thank you for your advice. I just looked up my syllabus for the 3 classes and I am freaking out now. There is so much to do! I mean, holy crap. I am already having crazy anxiety over it! Ahhhh.

Sun0408, ASN, RN · Oct 31, 2012

Yes, lots to do each semester.. Get a large calender that shows the whole month. Write assignments due dates on them. Clinical dates and test days. This will help you get organized. Stay on top of your reading, I liked to tag all the chapters or assigned reading ahead of time and read before that class re the chapter, took my own notes and then added the lecture notes.. There is a lot of meatless reading, write down only the important information, S&S, nursing interventions etc.. Nursing shorthand LOL...

mkatts19 · Nov 2, 2012

It's all about understanding and not just 'reading' once you're in the med/surg/pharm land. If you can't explain it, then you don't really know it!

I'm an organized person and a post it/agenda lover but I never really used it well in nursing school.. only at the beginning when I'd get excited about writing down schedules.. but halfway through the quarters I was not following any sorts of rules haha. I was the type to not study early because I wanted to take advantage of that tiny break we got between quarters. However it's different for everyone, some people love the headstart you can get during that time and by all means go for it if that's you! What kind of skills/clinicals are you getting into soon? It's a pretty broad category so different charts, info, supplements online etc are specific to which you are focusing on. I ask because I might have something I can send you directly or for the most part you can google stuff. My favourite thing to do honestly is to youtube the crud out of everything haha. I'm a visual learner too and whenever I need a study break but want to keep studying I'll watch a surgery or some fun/dorky animation about diabetes on youtube. It all depends what type of learner you are and what info you're about to learn in this upcoming quarter :).