A guide on how to prepare for ns

Like many of you I have recently been accepted into nursing school (WOOHOO)!!! Also like many of you I cannot wait to get started and would like to do anything and everything I can to prepare for my first semester this fall. I have spent hours reading through post on Allnurses to help me. The one thing I keep seeing over and over is to REST and enjoy life before school starts. Well.......I'm hardheaded and will probably regret this later but I am going to do whatever I can to prepare myself for the fall because my body just does not know how to sit and stay idle.

While researching how to prepare I have come across post after post asking how to prepare for nursing school and some prove to be useful while others do not.....so instead of digging through a bunch of old post I have compiled a list of the top 20 things you can do to prepare for nursing school.....all found from advice I have seen on this site!!

1) rest

2) organize your life (get a planner)

3) organize a plan A, B and C for when life happens during nursing school

4) organize back up baby sitters if necessary

5) get all physicals and shots or titers necessary

6) cook and freeze meals for those days when you are short on time

7) spend time with family and friends

8) brush up on A&P

9) learn or brush up on military time

10) learn to read lab values as well as most common lab values

11) brush up on NORMAL vital signs

12) brush up on taking vitals (temp, BP, pulse (be sure you can find all palpable pulses), breaths)

13) try to learn dosage calcs

14) brush up on conversions

15) learn or brush up on dimensional analysis

16) brush up on your critical thinking skills (many sites online to practice)

17) if possible print syllabus for upcoming classes and get familiar with them

18) many people have trouble with an analog watch....get friendly reading one as well as reading the second hand

19) reviews Maslow's Hierarchy

20) get healthy (eat well and try to find an exercise routine if you don't already have one that is doable through nursing school)

Good luck to you all!!!

P.S.

Please feel free to add anything I forgot!! :)