forgot everything from fundamentals!

[raedee]

I am so frustrated at the moment, and scared! I am in my second semester of nursing school (finished fundamentals and pharm with a B average, now in pediatrics.) I feel like I've forgotten everything from fundamentals though! When I think about doing an assessment I feel like I don't know what to look for and how to bring it all together! If you ask me what to do for someone in respiratory or cardiac distress I feel like I'm drawing a blank!!! This isn't good and it's got me worried... I've been thinking about going back and studying my fundamentals textbook and getting a workbook to go along with it to study, but that's so hard to do with all the studying for my current classes. Are there any suggestions?! They would be greatly appreciated!!!

[LadyMermaid]

It might be beneficial to you to make a small amount of time each day (maybe minutes) to review that information. Review your notes form class for familiar information and you book for information that's more difficult to remember. I know how hard it is to find ANY extra time in nursing school making a weekly time management grid and sticking to it might help. (http://www.muskingum.edu/~cal/database/tocollege/schedule_plan_24hour.pdf)

What I've been doing to help retain information form past classes is to skim the notes during breaks form school and to use Saunder's NCLEX review book. It presents information in an outline form and is great for a quick review.

[Penny.Lane]

It may be helpful to you if you make flashcards (not a lot) with each system assessment and I divide it up into one for normal findings and one for abnormal findings and what they mean (nursing implications). Once you have created the cards it only takes moments a day to flip through them. If you want to check progress you can always mark on the ones you get right and the ones with less marks will start to fill up the more you do it. Having visible progress is always a confidence booster :)

NCLEX review books are good but after my first semester I really didn't find them that helpful because there is a large percentage you still don't know.

I hope this was helpful to you.