What should I study ahead?

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All the current nursing students out there!

What should I study ahead before I start the program?

Was there anything you wished you had studied ahead before starting the nuring program?

I have about 3 months left until the first day of class.

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

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Dont study ahead. Use this time to relax and enjoy your life.

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Specializes in Inpatient Psychiatry.

Disagree with above posted. Study now - begin reviewing formats of nursing school/NCLEX style questions, which are not necessarily content-based but critical thinking-based. It's not enough to know a disease, you have to know the immediate steps to take when an interaction occurs.

So no: don't ignore your studies, prepare. Nursing school is a whole different style of study.

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Disagree with above posted. Study now - begin reviewing formats of nursing school/NCLEX style questions, which are not necessarily content-based but critical thinking-based. It's not enough to know a disease, you have to know the immediate steps to take when an interaction occurs.

So no: don't ignore your studies, prepare. Nursing school is a whole different style of study.

Oh please.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Don't. Enjoy the time you have to yourself. Nursing school isn't as difficult as people on this forum make it seem. You'll be busy once you start, so relax and do things you might not be able to once you start school.

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Specializes in mental health / psychiatic nursing.
Disagree with above posted. Study now - begin reviewing formats of nursing school/NCLEX style questions, which are not necessarily content-based but critical thinking-based. It's not enough to know a disease, you have to know the immediate steps to take when an interaction occurs.

So no: don't ignore your studies, prepare. Nursing school is a whole different style of study.

I am going to politely disagree with this advice. You can't effectively study for the NCLEX with out fundamental knowledge of phathophyisology, pharmacology, and clinical judgement skills around which the critical-thinking of the NCLEX questions are based. These are skills you will learn in nursing school. There is no need to learn them before hand. Do make sure you have a solid foundation of anatomy and physiology before going in (if it's been a long time since you've taken the coursework a brief brush up may be in order).

Otherwise, my advice is to relax and enjoy life. There's lots of time to study and to stress once you are in school. Make time to care for yourself now, and bring those self-care habits with you into school. You'll be a less stressed student and more well-rounded individual if you do.

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I start my program in August. The one thing I am studying is dosage calculation using dimensional analysis. I do practice problems everyday. I also have started memorizing metric conversions. For me, these are the two things I wanted to be familiar with. Good luck!

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What's the major A&P things we need to look over? The last time I took that class was in 2005, so I'll for sure study up on that.

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Specializes in mental health / psychiatic nursing.
What's the major A&P things we need to look over? The last time I took that class was in 2005, so I'll for sure study up on that.

For me the big ones have been: cardiovascular and pulmonary systems, renal system, blood gas exchange, renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, and pituitary-adrenal system.

You come back to these systems a lot and having a general understanding of the parts and normal function helps a lot.

Khan Academy has some great 10-15 minute long overview videos. If you are looking for a free resource.

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I am going to politely disagree with this advice. You can't effectively study for the NCLEX with out fundamental knowledge of phathophyisology, pharmacology, and clinical judgement skills around which the critical-thinking of the NCLEX questions are based. These are skills you will learn in nursing school. There is no need to learn them before hand. Do make sure you have a solid foundation of anatomy and physiology before going in (if it's been a long time since you've taken the coursework a brief brush up may be in order).

Otherwise, my advice is to relax and enjoy life. There's lots of time to study and to stress once you are in school. Make time to care for yourself now, and bring those self-care habits with you into school. You'll be a less stressed student and more well-rounded individual if you do.

Thanks, I appreciate your advice :) I'm trying to work out and relax so I'm at my best when I start school.

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I start my program in August. The one thing I am studying is dosage calculation using dimensional analysis. I do practice problems everyday. I also have started memorizing metric conversions. For me, these are the two things I wanted to be familiar with. Good luck!

Do you study using online resources? Any suggestion on good websites for studying those and practice questions?

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I bought a great book from Amazon called Calculate with Confidence, Sixth Edition by Deborah Gray Morris. I cannot say enough about this book! I believe it is a dosage calculation textbook. Once you work through a chapter there are plenty of practice questions and answers to check your work.

Youtube also has great stuff when you type in dimensional analysis for dosage calculations.

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