Any suggestions on getting a head start

Intern67 · May 21, 2010

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Get a job as a CNA. Hospital jobs are hard to get but you can usually get hired with no experience at a nursing home. (You'll find out why this is pretty early on the job.)

bebahloo · May 21, 2010

I would suggest reading the chapters in your book that pertain to the Nursing Process (ADPIE which means Assess, Diagnose, Plan, Implement, Evaluate). This is the FOUNDATION of your profession. Also, get familiar or even memorize Maslov's basic needs and Henderson's Human Basic Needs. You will be prioritizing EVERYTHING you do according to these needs. It will make it easier for you to focus on the skills and content if you can just pull it out of your head quickly. Just reading the basic chapters usually in the beginning of your book like what the American Nurses Association and who Florence Nightingale is will get that stuff out of the way so you can utilize your study time for the hard stuff will help. But seriously focus on all the Needs importantly.

I would not focus on the skills because you will learn these in lab or lecture anyway plus your school might teach you these in a different order than other schools. If you really want to get a head start of a few skills I would start with Standard Precautions. For example, handwashing.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your time off while you have it. Before you know it you will be ripping your hair out.

RhodyGirl, RN · May 21, 2010

I am graduating this coming year, but I remember my summer before nursing school very well. I did not do anything to prepare, but if I had, I would have reviewed dosage calculations. The book we use is Math for Meds by Curren, and it is very helpful. At my school, we take a dosage exam at the beginning of each clinical course to determine whether we can stay in that clinical. We get two shots to achieve a 90% or better.

Dosage math is something that is really important to know--and know well.

While I think suggestions like buying NCLEX books, etc, are good in theory, I don't think they will help you much at this stage since you haven't even begun your curriculum yet.

There is a book called Test Success for Beginning Nursing Students by Nugent & Vitale. It actually teaches you how to answer nursing style test questions without getting into the advanced nursing stuff. A very good tool to have!

Good luck in your nursing program, and remember to relax. Things get hectic quickly, but try and keep your eye on the prize.

AOX4RN, MSN, RN, NP · May 22, 2010

I would say get the books Test Success and Fundamentals Success, both by Nugent and Vitale. Those are both helpful for learning how to take tests and apply critical thinking to beginners in nursing school. I knew the content of what I was being tested on but needed practice on how to get to the "right answer" with the NCLEX style questioning. I wouldn't worry about starting to read books from start to finish because we jumped around our Fundamentals and Med-Surg nursing books according to the subjects that were being taught. We skipped tons that will be returned to later in the program.

Nepenthe Sea · May 22, 2010

Ditto "Test Success" and NCLEX review books,, to help you figure out the testing style. We just lost three people that I know in my program that are smart and know the material, but have a hard time passing tests. If you haven't taken a medical terminology class, I would recommend that. At least get a med. terminology book and study it. It is like a whole other language, and will really help you in everything from A&P to your nursing classes. Once you know those suffixes and prefixes and stuff, you will be able to figure out the meaning of pretty much any word you encounter. It will also help you with abbreviations (God knows there's a ton of those in nursing school).

I have a couple of books, one is called "How to Survive Nursing School (And maybe Even Love it)", one is "How To Survive Clinical". I don't know the authors right off hand, but you can find them on Amazon.com. They were helpful to me before I got into NS. I didn't even know NS was supposed to be hard until I started seeing all of these NS survival books! LOL :lol2:

If you know you are weak in a subject or area that might be important, you would be better off brushing up on those. For me, the cardiac system and nervous system are some of the harder areas I have studied so I am going to be sure and go over those before we touch on them in class. If you are weak in basic math skills, definitely brush up on fractions, decimals, percentages. You will probably be taking a dosage calculation class every semester while in NS, and every few months while on the job, too. And you have to make a 100% on these! My school gives three chances on each test, and then you're out of the program. It really is easy math, just know how to do it.

If you have time after all of this, then it might be fun to read some books about nursing experiences. Echo Heron has several books, Michael Brown has a good one (and a great ER one), and there are several other authors, too. They are entertaining but give you glimpses into life as a nurse. There's a lot of disturbing stuff out there that we encounter, and it wouldn't hurt to know about some of it before you go into NS.

HTH

Music in My Heart · May 23, 2010

Get a job as a CNA. Hospital jobs are hard to get but you can usually get hired with no experience at a nursing home.

Don't waste your time, or your back.