Advice to a Nursing Student

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Specializes in Alzheimer's care.

For all of you that have earned their RN, I am looking for advice I haven't heard or read yet. I know nursing school is going to be hard and I will need to study and manage time well, is there any advice that you could share with me that you wish you would have been told before starting nursing school? I was accepted to nursing school in KY on April 2nd! Woo hoo! :)

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For all of you that have earned their RN, I am looking for advice I haven't heard or read yet. I know nursing school is going to be hard and I will need to study and manage time well, is there any advice that you could share with me that you wish you would have been told before starting nursing school? I was accepted to nursing school in KY on April 2nd! Woo hoo! :)

Best advice you will ever receive on this site is how to do a Search on AN: go to the yellow banner at the top of the page, far-right side you'll see a magnifying glass. Click it and enter key words to search. That's it! You will find TONS of great information, all for the reading anytime you want :)

Many, many times per year a student will come here to ask the exact questions you did, for the exact reasons. Some of the best information came from people who are not likely to retype it all out for you, but will be happy to help you via the archives ;)

You can pull up those threads (and some others!) with the Search feature.

However, I will give you this very EXCELLENT tidbit right now: please change your UserID. Using your real name is a VERY bad idea on a public forum such as this. Multitude of reasons, but the bottom line is you should choose something that cannot be immediately identified as YOU.

Good luck!

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You should definitely do a patient care tech or cna and make sure the job is what you want to do. I am not a nurse yet but I had a student nurse I trained for two weeks who was close to graduating school. She hated it and was in tears and said I don't even know if I like this and I went to school for it. Make sure it is a good fit for YOU! Another girl trained me in was in school to be a nurse and after three years decided to get her degree in massage. she loved it and had started to get burnt out on nursing. Its a job that isn't a right for for everyone.

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Specializes in Alzheimer's care.

Thank you RNsRWe! I had just created my account when I posted this so I didn't realize it automatically put my full name. I agree with you. That's exactly why I'm not on social media! :)

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I'll toss out a few things that come to mind (I'm towards the end of my 2nd semester of nursing school now):

You'll have to get used to a different style of exam and different ways of studying. You'll probably hear this as well from others, but it's important. Nursing/NCLEX style questions are about PRIORITIES and about what you DO as a nurse. In chemistry or anatomy or any of your other pre-reqs you don't get those sorts of questions. The lesson here is to really FOCUS on those things when you study.

If you happen to struggle with math, find some good resources on dosage calculation problems. There's plenty out there. You'll likely have a dosage calculation exam every semester.

NEVER assume you already understand a topic. Just because you talked with your uncle a lot about his eczema or you have experience with diabetes or phlebitis or whatever, don't think that will be all you need to know. What you learned elsewhere just might conflict with what your nursing program says, and guess which answer will count as correct on the exam. (I saw this a number of times with my classmates)

Do what you need to do to organize your time. You will have lots of assignments and things on your calendar and its very easy to let things slip by. Just this week I almost missed a due date for a really simple assignment. I happened to look in the syllabus after I completed it and noticed that if I hadn't done it on time I would have failed the course!

I know you said you aren't doing social media, but we have a private facebook group for our nursing school class and I have found it VERY valuable. As a private group, no one from outside can see it, so you don't need to worry about your professors or future employers seeing what you discuss. Some folks just use it to complain and vent, but others post helpful articles, discuss our assignments and exam topics, etc.

Start getting to know nursing diagnoses ASAP. It will take some time to get the hang of them. You will likely get a nursing diagnosis book with your textbooks. It won't be exciting reading, but just start looking at the names of the diagnoses. Think about what they mean. If any of them seem confusing, look up how they are defined. They'll be a big part of your first semester.

If you get a set of skill sheets to learn, just memorize them word for word. This was a big source of stress for my class in the first semester. It might seem like a lot of work to memorize them, but it will be a lot of work no matter what you do. If you start as soon as you get them it will make things easier for you.

Good luck!

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Specializes in Alzheimer's care.

Thank you so much! Even before I got accepted I bought some laminated dosage calculation cheat sheets and a dosage calculations for dummies book so I'm ready to study, just have to get past A&P then I can study that during the summer before starting my first nursing semester in august! Eeekkk! I'm so excited! I know it'll be a lot of work, but this has been a dream of mine for a while so its a passion for me! :) again thank you for your advice! I have learned already how to organize my time since I have had to work full time to pay for school, luckily I will be fortunate enough to quit working during nursing school so I will be able to focus all my time on school! :) I am going to continue on to get my masters in nursing so I've got 6 years left, but I know it'll provide an amazing future for me and my future big family :)

God bless

Katieaok

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Thank you so much! Even before I got accepted I bought some laminated dosage calculation cheat sheets and a dosage calculations for dummies book so I'm ready to study, just have to get past A&P then I can study that during the summer before starting my first nursing semester in august! Eeekkk! I'm so excited! I know it'll be a lot of work, but this has been a dream of mine for a while so its a passion for me! :) again thank you for your advice! I have learned already how to organize my time since I have had to work full time to pay for school, luckily I will be fortunate enough to quit working during nursing school so I will be able to focus all my time on school! :) I am going to continue on to get my masters in nursing so I've got 6 years left, but I know it'll provide an amazing future for me and my future big family :)

God bless

Katieaok

Can you share the books info that's a great idea. The specifics names and such? Please and thank you

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Specializes in Alzheimer's care.

Sure! Sorry for the delay. A&P has consumed my life! Lol

-Medical math quick study academics

-Medical abbreviations and acronyms

-Medical dosage calculations for dummies

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Specializes in ICU.

Organization, Organization, Organization!!!!! I honestly feel like every second of my life is scheduled at this minute. I am down to the last 2 weeks of the semester and so ready for it to be over. I have been up since 4:30am and just sat down for the first time an hour ago. I have to be in class tomorrow morning at 8:30 and am there until 4. Oh yeah, plus get my son to school and pick him up and get my house ready for my boyfriend to come up and visit for the weekend!!

I told my boyfriend today to find himself a new girlfriend for the next 2 weeks!! But I want him back in 2 weeks!!! I thought maybe he might need the company since my nose will be in books. I obviously was kidding but he laughed and said it was fine and he would wait. So make sure you have a great support system.

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Specializes in Alzheimer's care.

I definitely do! I'm so blessed in that aspect, I couldn't imagine going through nursing school with children, so props to you!! :) I thought just having a boyfriend during nursing school was stressful lol.

Luckily I learned organization skills a long time ago. I love being organized because when I know where something is or how long I have before I have to be somewhere it doesn't stress me out because I'm prepared.

Good luck to you :) and thank you for your comment!!

Katie

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Specializes in public health, women's health, reproductive health.

Don't compare yourself to others. This is the main bit of advice I wish someone had given me. Good luck to you in your nursing school education.

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Specializes in Alzheimer's care.

Thank you Everline!

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