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?
We were given a "bootcamp" before classes started and were told the best way to skim is reading atleast the first paragraph and the last. If you have more time, read the first and last sentence of each paragraph. They said that's where the most important info is. If you don't get what the book is saying by those areas, then you must read all the stuff in between.
Oh and I didn't have time to read all the replies, so I just read the first one and left my reply!
Depends which classes, but in my program,(MSN_CNL) most classes I needed to read them deeper than skimming. I used highlighters - and could follow along in courses such as 'Med-Surg" and it helped to see what they were emphasizing.
Pathophyisology I had to read repeatedly ( sometimes get other text books from the library and read them, if the one I had was not clear).
Skimming was fine for communication type classes.
Most exams, for us were in multiple choice in the NCLEX format- which means you need to be able to recognize IN a scenario- what is the correct action to take- some people put all them are going to test on in their powerpoints- but some do not.
Reading took a large portion of my time starting out in the program- so that is to be expected. Good luck!
I read everything once and made notecards as I went along and there where specific things from the book on the test. It worked for me I got all A's in nursing school.
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.
I would skim the text and then let the powerpoint be your guide for what to study in more depth.
Specializes in taking a break from inpatient psychiatric nursing.
My Foundations class used the Chirstensen Foundations book, which is a poorly written and terribly organized textbook. And, unfortunately, my teacher wasn't a big help. All the students in my class attempted to read entire chapters, but only two suceeded. The rest of us skimmed and highlighted, and focused on interventions.
Wish we'd had a better textbook, since foundations for nursing are so important.
On the other hand, I found some of my other textbooks very readable, and went for every word! Then studying for tests required only a review.
You need to read, skimming may get you through school but when you are on the unit working do you want a skimmer or someone who really read and knows the material
I haven't been a student for several years, but here is what I found helpful. Read some text books, not others. Skimming or just reading the highlights is ok if you feel you have a good grasp of the material, if you don't feel comfortable with it then read and re-read if necessary. Your A & P and Med-Surg text books will become your best friends! The info in those books can and will be referenced in just about every nursing class you take. If your program has specialty nursing books on your required reading list like OB or psych nursing save your money and don't buy them unless or until your instructor says he/she will use them. I wasted over $200.00 on an OB/Maternity/Peds book that I never even cracked, and that was 10 years ago so God knows what it costs now! Also save money by not buying the associated work books unless your instructor utilizes them or unless your study style finds them helpful. The study guide books if available are a huge help though, at least in my program I found several test questions were taken word for word from the study guides or review questions at the end of textbook chapters. Good luck in school!!!
Specializes in maternal child, public/community health.
I think it is important to know how YOU learn best. Some people find reading to be very helpful but others find they do not retain much information with reading. I was in an accelerated program and found that I had to make choices about how to focus my study time. If I had read everything, I would not have had time to really study for thorough understanding. For me, that was the key - focusing on really understanding, not just for a test but because someday a patient's life may depend on my knowledge. I spent a lot of time studying both alone and with a study partner (and occasionally a group before a test). For me, studying with a partner-something I had never done before (you have to be a good match)- really helped. We talked through power points - ie why would hypertension affect the kidneys- and would look up any information we did not understand completely. This often meant having 5 or 6 books open to refer to - not just the ones for that class. We often referred to the patho book or the A&P book. Whenever one of us didn't understand something, we would look at all our references until we did. While we didn't read the books cover to cover, by the time we were done studying, we had read a good portion of them. For both of us, that was a better way to study. We did a lot of critical thinking by figuring out how the new information fit in with the information we had previously learned. We used other methods of learning like writing keys points or diagrams on a white board. I usually made study sheets with the key points that I could use for review. I am a visual learner so I used colored pens when I made study sheets, diagrams, etc. We did not wait to study until the night before a test; cramming does not work for nursing school. We were well-prepared for tests (although you can always use a little more time than whatever you have!) with NCLEX style questions and both did very well. Nursing tests focus more on understanding than rote memorization. You will need this information in the future so you need to be able to retain it.
Long post: you have my permission to just skim the first words of each paragraph, LOL!!!
I'm a little surprised nobody has mentioned different learning styles, although at least one person did say "we all learn differently" which is true (edit: now two... anurseatlast posted while I was writing this!) Many people who go into teaching are verbal-non-visual learners. Simplified, that means they learned best by reading. Many MANY people who go into nursing are kinesthetic learners who learn best by DOING. A few are auditory learners. All of this is complicated for some of you by life experience which includes a lot of TV (compared to someone like me who was raised in the 50s), perhaps some video games, and the Internet, all of which encourage a short attention span and a lack of patience (gotta-havit-right-now syndrome). Finally, and especially for today's teens who are just beginning their post-HS education, there is a lack of familiarity with note-taking time-savers like cursive writing.
I wondered why my students didn't take notes in class, but instead asked repeatedly for me to provide class notes, copies of my PowerPoints, exam study guides, etc. When I realized that the vast majority of them ONLY either print or type - excuse me, "keyboard", used as a verb - it makes more sense. My mom (b. 1917) did not understand how I could handle university without knowing shorthand. I'm amazed these young folks can handle it without cursive (speedy) writing.
I wouldn't presume to determine a learning style just from notes here, but most of you have probably had such an assessment by now (Google VARK if you haven't). It's true that you need to know the material in the book, and you aren't going to be spoon fed everything in lectures. This is deliberate - when you're in nursing you're going to get surprises and "pop quizzes from life" every day, and you need to be ready.
The read-three-times advice usually goes something like this: (1) Skim the chapter, noting themes and paying close attention to all diagrams and their legends. Make notes about what seems totally new to you.
(2) Read for content, usually word for word. Make notes of anything you don't understand. Outline the chapter. Visual-non-verbal learners (learn from graphics/illustrations) and kinesthetic learners should consider making a concept map of any major ideas, fact-trees, processes or procedures covered in the chapter. Auditory learners may find it helps to read the chapter out loud, possibly even recording yourself then listening to the recording. Kinesthetic learners can use clay to build models of concepts. Ideally all this is done before the lecture, but you can tell that some of these ideas take tons of time, so time management is crucial and you have to focus on what works for you and what is important vs. trivial.
(3) After the lecture, read the chapter again with your lecture notes available, to review what the professor thought was important enough to emphasize.
One last thought: it's possible to misunderstand a professor's instructions. On a larger scale, human communication is fraught with misunderstandings. I'm sure (or at least I hope) that part of your education includes training in communication, and how to be an active listener as well as use the spoken confirmation technique. (Person 1 says something. Person 2 repeats it. Person 1 confirms. In the most stilted version, the one that saved my marriage, ha-ha, Person 2's line goes something like this: "I hear you saying such-and-such," without added interpretation or really much of any response. After you're sure you heard what you thought you heard, then you can go on to respond. It takes forever sometimes. It really seems silly. It really DID save my marriage!)
In this case the prof may have been talking only about the first chapters, or only about Foundations, or only about their own teaching style. I'm fairly certain that you will all run into situations during your education where two different instructors tell you two different answers to the same question. An open, curious mind, good researching skills, and flexibility really helps!!
Sorry for the length of this - I'm an educator at heart. I want to see everyone not only make it through their education, but to excel at it, as well as in their profession.
Butterfliesnroses
348 Posts
I read the chapters the first time and then after that, I focus on the boxes and text that is in italics and bold.