Advice for Med-Surg?

Kelly_the_Great · May 5, 2006

Hey SBSNNWCC,

Thanks for asking this question! I'm looking for additional study resources/advice as well. I'm starting Med-Surg II next semester which focuses on basic and critical care aspects of cardio, neuro, endocrine, etc.

From what I'm hearing from the previous level, many did poorly in it and a lot of them are very good students!

I've began reviewing the basics, assmt, patho/lab. Any suggestions out there, sure would be appreciated. :)

jazzyrn2b · May 5, 2006

I have finished med-surg I and II and I passed but I did not do very (I got a C). I think I am a very good student with strong study and testing skills. So you may be asking, "Why is it so hard?" Well, you have to have a broad understanding of most of the diseases that you will probably see in the hospital such as fluid and electrolyte imbalances, DM, COPDs, HD, and many others. Then on the test you have to be able to apply that information using critical thinking.

My advice would be to brush up on patho, read and study the assessment data, nursing diagnosis, outcomes, and interventions. Make sure you are familiar with your meds and client teaching. Some good resources to have are your textbook, your patho book, a lab manual, a dictionary, and a study guide that accompanies the textbook you are using. Hopefuly someone else can give you guys some more input. Thats all I have for you now!

mitchsmom · May 6, 2006

I actually didn't really find med-surg any harder than my other classes, but maybe it's just my program.

If you want to start learning some of it without reading actual texts and studying, you can learn a lot from Nursing or Nursing made incredibly easy magazines (I get AJN too and they are all good but I think the other two are better for students who are learning... the articles from those two seem almost like lessons in an easier/less boring-to-read format than texts).

I used my text (Ignatavicious "Iggy") of course,

Medical-Surgical Nursing: Critical Thinking for Collaborative Care

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0721606717/qid=1146873651/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-4950029-6848766?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

and to ascertain the highlights more easily I used these two:

Medical-Surgical Nursing: Reviews and Rationales

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0130304573/104-4950029-6848766?v=glance&n=283155

and my Saunders Review book:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0721603475/qid=1134186834/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-4950029-6848766?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

If your class includes critical care:

I realized into my critical care semester that this book followed our class almost to a "T" & I wished I had it sooner:

Critical Care Nursing Made Incredibly Easy!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1582552673/qid=1134186688/sr=11-1/ref=sr_11_1/104-4950029-6848766?n=283155

BeccaznRN, RN · Jun 5, 2006

The most challenging part of med/surg for our class was critical thinking. Probably more than half of our class failed the first exam (even our 4.0 student failed) because we quickly discovered that it was less about memorizing information and more about application and critical thinking. Great advice in the other posts about brushing up on patho, and I would also suggest buying a good NCLEX review book and practicing on some of the questions over the summer. This will give you a good idea on how the questions will be on med/surg exams and get you used to answering those types of questions.

USAstudent · Jun 7, 2006

Our 2 med/surg classes are also notoriously difficult. I've finished both of them (and did well). They required a LOT a study time, but the most difficult part was that the questions on the test were all application and critical thinking. Although we had this style questions in all our other classes, these were especially hard. My advice is don't get too bogged down in trying to memorizing all the tiny details. You won't be able to memorize them all and it is not effecient use of your time. For example, with fluid and electrolytes, don't try to memorize the s/s of hypo/hyper for each electrolyte. Memorize the normal values and try to understand what each electrolyte does. From that you can figure out what the s/s would be. (e.g. magnesium affects excitable membranes, the more mg the less excitable they are, therefore you could figure out on a test that if mg is 12.0 you should watch for respiratory depression)

I hope that makes sense and helps, just ask if you have more questions.

ukstudent · Jun 7, 2006

You wanted advice on what to study during the summer, so here is a list of books.

Fluid and electrolytes made incredibly easy.

Medical-surgical nursing, review and rationals by prentice hall.

Pharmacology made insanely easy by I can publishing.

Memory notebook of nursing, vol II by nursing education consultants.

Hope these help you.