Do you actually READ your nursing books or just skim?

[starmickey03, MSN, RN]

Tomorrow starts my second week in the nursing program. The reading assignments havent been too much since the first week basically went over the syllabi and everything. So far I have read all the assigned readings, which hasnt been much like I said. Just one chapter in Foundations, three chapters in Assessment, and my other nursing class had no readings for the first week.

My foundations teacher stressed that the faculty doesnt expect us to read our nursing books like theyre magazines and encouraged us to skim and just read all of the info in the little side boxes, etc. My problem is that I feel like if I dont read the entire chapter I'll miss out on important info. I know some people are really good skimmers, but Ive never done it before so I feel uncomfortable with even trying it. But I also feel like if I keep reading the entire chapters, I'll fall behind because I wont be able to keep up (extremely time consuming as you all know). Im also summarizing the chapters as I read which is quadrupling the time it takes for me to read the chapters.

So my question is how many of you skim and how many of you actually read? And for those of you who skim, do you feel like you miss out on important points in the text or no?

Thanks!

[CuriousMe]

I'm surprised your instructor said that. I know that we need to read our books. I'd say only 70% of the material we're tested on is from lecture....the rest is from our books.

[SAHMStudent]

I only skim in desperate time-crunch situations. I wish I was a more effective textbook reader. I take copious notes and highlight often. I also tab pages with the sideboxes for quick reference when studying or to take notes on. I find that when I read, and re-write, I remember better. But I practically re-write the chapter, which is NOT time effecient, and bogs me down. I'd love to figure out how to porifice the text in ways that gives me the meat of the info without missing anything.

I have found that reading is really the best way to know the subject, and test questions are always from the reading and rarely from lecture alone.

[JStylesNY]

i'm pretty surprised your professor encouraged you to skim... in my foundations of nursing course, we didn't have exams or quiz's, but we did have many papers to write. we were required to do all the reading, and our professor always emphasized the importance of completely understanding the material in the course. having said that, i'm an extremely lazy person, so i always skimmed through the pages. made it out of the course with an a : )

i don't feel like i missed out on anything. skimming isn't skipping. if you're going to skim, then i suggest you read the first few lines of each passage, if you understand it, then skim the next page of "explanations". if you don't understand it at all so far, you probably shouldn't skim.

[CuriousMe]

i'm pretty surprised your professor encouraged you to skim... in my foundations of nursing course, we didn't have exams or quiz's, but we did have many papers to write. we were required to do all the reading, and our professor always emphasized the importance of completely understanding the material in the course. having said that, i'm an extremely lazy person, so i always skimmed through the pages. made it out of the course with an a : )

i don't feel like i missed out on anything. skimming isn't skipping. if you're going to skim, then i suggest you read the first few lines of each passage, if you understand it, then skim the next page of "explanations". if you don't understand it at all so far, you probably shouldn't skim.

you may find that method not working well past fundamentals.....i suppose it might....but fundy's was drastically easier than the rest of the program at my school.

[starmickey03, MSN, RN]

I'm surprised your instructor said that. I know that we need to read our books. I'd say only 70% of the material we're tested on is from lecture....the rest is from our books.

Yup, thats exactly what she said. And on the first day of class she let us know that the powerpoints she makes only covers the info from the text that she thinks is important. So Im not sure if she was implying that we could solely use her powerpoints for studying or what. Our Assessment teacher said the same thing about her powerpoints as well, but the Assessment book is an easy read, the chapters arent 40+ pages like the fundamentals book.

[starmickey03, MSN, RN]

I only skim in desperate time-crunch situations. I wish I was a more effective textbook reader. I take copious notes and highlight often. I also tab pages with the sideboxes for quick reference when studying or to take notes on. I find that when I read, and re-write, I remember better. But I practically re-write the chapter, which is NOT time effecient, and bogs me down. I'd love to figure out how to porifice the text in ways that gives me the meat of the info without missing anything.

I have found that reading is really the best way to know the subject, and test questions are always from the reading and rarely from lecture alone.

Thats the problem Im running into now. I read a section and then take notes on the section that I read and it feels like Im taking WAY too many notes. But I also feel like its better to be overprepared than under prepared.

I wish I would have learned how to skim a long time ago. It just seems like skimming for the first time in a program as rigorous as nursing is a BAD idea. Maybe if I was in a sociology program or something, but I dont think I should take any chances. I didnt even open my books for my first degree, so actually reading now is very new to me .

[9livesRN, BSN, RN]

i used to like "googleing" stuff, so Id see the subject and off to google health! then once i knew what was going on I only read the portions of "Nursing Interventions" and any "procedure IE: tube feeding technique, iv bla bla bla" It cut down alot!

of course that was before lecture, I also read this bullet points I have from mosby which are to the point basic KEY info you need to know about everything!

you can PM me and I can send them to you... they were amazing !

[Despareux]

I'm surprised, too. I'm not in NS yet, but I have taken Pharmacology and Holistics/Nutrition, and both were taught by nursing instructors. We were told to read each chapter THREE times to gain the best understanding. I couldn't imagine just skimming over information, knowing how much my education is going to cost me; it's just too much to risk--I would definitely take the time to read the material.

[CrazziiRN913, ADN, BSN]

I read then try to pull out key things to put on flash cards and then try to skim back over to refresh my memory, the day before class. my teacher said we need to read our books!

[SingDanceRunLife]

I do both. I skim/read only the necessary parts in full when doing the homework, and then go back later to read/reread the rest.

[Future O.R. Nurse]

It's funny you asked that. I started reading the whole first chapter of Fundamentals. Highlighted and took notes. How about the professor sent powerpoints that focused on the main point of each topic. :yelclap:My notes and highlights were exactly the same as the powerpoints. From now on I will be skimming. :loveya: