I wish I had studied this before Nursing 101.......

Nursing Students General Students

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I will be starting school in the fall & want to plan ahead, so what do you wish you had studied a little more before you started Nursing 101? I am an older student, out of school for a while & have not taken any math courses since 1992. I am brushing up on some simple algebra & math calculations, fractions & such. I have heard from some nursing students in my pre-req classes that the math was killing them, there were some recent high school grads in the mix, so I am a little nervous.

Can you list here some things you wish you had known before taking your first nursing courses?

Thanks in advance!

Specializes in LTC, MDS Cordnator, Mental Health.

Analyze your Study style and research that... it is half the battle

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

Brush up on your writing skills, and spelling. I cannot tell you how many students seem unable to write a coherent statement or paragraph, and spell correctly. Care plans, charting, lab sheets are often handwritten, and off the cuff, so no rough draft and no spell check available.

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Specializes in PICU/Pedi.
Test taking success for beginning nursing students. It was good for getting used to the style of questions and some basic information without the info being too in depth. Once you start you'd want to go to the next book Nursing Fundamentals Test Success. Culturally competent care is an interesting topic to read about, we haven't spent a lot of time on it but it's nice to read about other cultures and their receiving care in the US. Nursing made incredibly easy magazine is a fun and interesting read.

Test success for Beginning Nursing Students is a good one to have, I think. It is required for the Introductory courses at my school. They use questions from it on our tests. It's good because it helps you to make better choices when taking nursing exams. I didn't realize there was another one. i will have to check that out.

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Specializes in PICU/Pedi.
Now I'm freaked out! I start nursing this fall and I'm NOT good at math! I absolutely hate it! I know that math is a part of nursing...but OMG I don't want to get kicked out because I'm not good with it! What do I do? What sort of math book should I buy in advance that will help? Help please!

I am NOT a math person and I made A's in all of my college math classes just by PRACTICING math problems, over and over again. I did it until I "got" it. From what I have seen, with the HESI, anyway, most nursing math is 9th grade-level stuff. Find websites that help high school kids with math (there's one called Purple Math that I used). I was terrified of math in the past, and now it's not that big a deal. Just practice lots! HTH :)

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In my pharmacology class, we used the book Math for Meds. I liked it and found it very helpful. There were very clear examples and lots of practice problems.

It's fairly cheap and you can find it on Amazon, so it might be worth ordering and doing some practice work. It never hurts to get an early start!

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MsLoriRN...you helped a lot...thanks! It doesn't seem as bad as I thought. Something I would just need to brush up on, but I'm not going to like it, lol. Anyway, thanks for the post! To the other posters....thanks for the encouragement! 1 question....while learning this in class....do the instructors actually spend time and teach it or are they going to automatically assume you know how to do conversions?

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Geriatrics, LTC.

Definitely dosage calculations and medical terminology. ALso it won't hurt to start memorizing some anatomy and physiology. Get or make flash cards.

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Brush up on math....ratio and proportion is what works for me. Study and memorize a few conversion factors...gm to mg to mcg, etc.

Maybe start reading about anatomy and physiology....Cliff Notes worked really well for me. I was an older student , too and I like the simplified form of some things....easier for me to understand.

And enjoy school....enjoy the experience and keep your focus. Relax and I cannot stress the importance of keeping your focus. Try not to listen to hearsays. They will keep you out of focus. You know why you are in school, for you and your success. Believe in yourself. Keep your humor intact.

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Are you about to enter the program or start on Prerequisites?

If I could go back I would have studied dosage calculations, had a very good working knowledge of A&P, medical terminology, good study habits and TIME MANAGEMENT. good luck.

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This is my favorite dosage calculation book:

http://www.amazon.com/Medical-Dosage-Calculations-Looby-Olsen/dp/0132384701/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240148723&sr=8-1

The price is a little hefty, but you can buy it used. It's packed full of a lot of practice questions, explains everything pretty clearly, and on top of that it has pictures of medication labels and syringes and IV bags and things for you to practice off of so that you can learn what the different types of things may look like.

If it were me and I had this to do over again, I would work on the nursing process, the common medications, and medication dosage calculations.

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We were assigned "Calculate with Confidence" by Deborah Gray Morris, 4th ed. It covers a lot of what you will be covering in first and second semester. Just get your formulas down, it's easier if you pick one (ratio and proportion, formula or dimensional anaysis method) and learn it well. Oh, and make sure your math answers actually make sence! If you get an answer like "5" for whats 2+2, rethink you answer!!! that little trick alone will keep you out of a lot of trouble. :specs:

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