how can i do well and pass my psych and maternity classes?

RN 033 · Jan 8, 2012

I would suggest a study group. Sometimes other students have excellent input on their feel for what will be covered on exams. Groups also help reduce the pre-exam jitters, which always helped me do better! I am also a visual learner and went to internet sites (youtube) for visual explanations of procedures. Good luck!

carolmaccas66, BSN, RN · Jan 8, 2012

Groups can be good but you can also waste a lot of time chatting & socialising. Groups didn't work for me at all. They wasted a lot of time mucking about. You have to be quite disciplined in a group and focus your time & energy.

Pscyh is very hard to study as it covers many areas (I can't speak for maternity as I have no experience in that area).

And I don't understand why you are studying psych & maternity? This will be a HUGE load for you.

With psych, at least get a very good psych handbook and set up a study schedule for yourself. Talk to a lot of people online and ask a lot of questions of your lecturers once you start studying. Set up an email buddy system where you can talk to other students as well, most universities provide this online anyway. But pscyh is a huge area, so you won't learn everything at once. Try to get the basics down first, then deal with specialities in psych nursing later.

AICU RN · Jan 8, 2012

I think one of the most important things is to keep an open mind. There were classes at my school that had bad reputations and psych was one of them. It ended up being one of my favorite classes. Don't get yourself worked up before you start because it puts you at a disadvantage. Study groups help for some people, not for others. If your teachers allow, try taping your notes, that really helped for me. I really didn't like OB but I made myself pay attention and asked lots of questions just to make sure I was absorbing what I was hearing. It still isn't one of my strong suits but I survived. Good luck!

OB-nurse2013, BSN, RN · Jan 8, 2012

We have a med/surg class, pysch and maternity all in one nice little semester.

jemmens · Jan 21, 2012

buy an nclex question review book for maternity and psych and do the questions of the chapters that will be in your exams. my instructor took alot of questions word for word from my maternity review book that someone recommended for me and that helped. alot of my classmates whiched i had told them, anyway once the instructor found out, she has decided to use a question bank for her questions. the book is Davis Succes Series: maternal and newborn success. goodluck

AZMOMO2 · Jan 22, 2012

Davis Succes Series: maternal and newborn success. goodluck

Are AMAZING resources! And they have them for every topic pretty much. I was working through the Pharmacology book and it even had questions like: Here is an ECG strip, which medication would you anticipate being used with a patient who has this rhythm? They really get your application and critical thinking skills going.

I also like the content review guides from HESI NCLEX-RN.

Rhyendel · Jan 22, 2012

Watching youtube videos of some the SE of psych drugs were VERY helpful for me. Most of the therapeutic communication is common sense when you think of the pathology you see in the clinical setting. Wordplays were helpful for me as well as making little puppets of the various SE for TCA, MAOI, etc.

Maternity- dont let it intimidate you too much- you're dealing with *mostly* healthy people, and the complications list is relatively short. For that, I would suggest visiting a message board like babycenter so you can put names/faces (so to speak) to some of the more common pregnancy complications and get a first-person perspective. There are boards for just about every issue.

HTH!