med surg

RNSuzq1, RN · Dec 30, 2005

Hi Tamara,

In Nursing School, each semester get's a little harder - but you'll see that each one builds on the one before, so although Med-Surg is hard, some of the material should be familiar to you from Fundamentals.

Our Med-Surg included Cardiac, Respiratory, Urinary, GI, etc. - I think the hardest thing to learn and the hardest test for all of us was Fluids and Electrolytes. F&E's were just really confusing so I went to my A&P Instructor and she broke it down in a way that it made total sense, it all clicked for me and I ended up doing well in that section.

I'm assuming you're now on Christmas break and the best thing to do is read ahead before your classes start up again. Even if you don't understand all of it, at least you'll get a good idea of what your lectures will entail. I'm going into my last semester next week - first subject is Advanced Cardiac - we were already given our reading list for the class, so this weekend I plan on jumping back into the books and reading all I can before class starts.

I actually feel guilty about not spending this past week "studying" - but I was so stressed out before our Finals last week and just had to take a break from it all and spend time with my family. Hey, a Girl's got to rest her brain once in awhile or you'll go nuts. Please - Do not listen to "horror stories" from other people in class about difficult subjects or difficult Instructors because it will just get you worked up and mess up your focus - just tune them out, do your best and you'll be fine. Best of Luck to You... Sue

mom2michael, MSN, RN, NP · Dec 30, 2005

Our 1st semester was I guess what you would call Fundementals. It was a basic overview of patient care. 2nd semester we covered all the body systems from top to bottom, but it a very basic fashion. We learned how they worked and what was normal for each system. We reviewed A&P.

Now I start my 3rd semester in a little over a week and I too have heard horror stories about this next semester for me. But I have faith that my teachers (no matter how cracked I think they are) have taught us some basic foundations for this next semester and hopefully after a year of learning what is normal, we'll understand the not so normals a bit easier.

I have Saunders NCLEX review (big blue book w/a CD), F&E Made Easy and NCLEX Review Made Easy. We are also required to purchase the Lipincott books (I have Psych, Med/Surg, Peds and Maternal) which all have great NCLEX style questions. I've used all of those books a lot this last semester and I'm sure they'll be my best friends when I start next year :rotfl:

mitchsmom · Dec 30, 2005

I'm going into my last semester & I have used these books a lot & I wish I'd had them during my first med-surg semester, I think they would have helped a lot & I'd beg, borrow, or steal to get them:

Medical-Surgical Nursing: Reviews and Rationales

Saunders Comprehensive Review for the NCLEX-RN

Nursing Diagnosis Handbook: A Guide to Planning Care

There is a Pharmacology: Review and Rationales book too but I've never even looked at it so I couldn't vouch for it. You just have to study a lot and memorize a lot for pharm. Organize your time wisely for this semester. Good luck - I was actually happy to get into my med-surg semester, finally into the "meat" of things! :)

crb613, BSN, RN · Dec 31, 2005

I agree w/other posters don't listen to the horror stories!!! Some people like to make things seem way more difficult than they really are...in so doing they look smart because they passed the class. I love med surg & it is just not that bad...fluids & electrolytes was the most difficult for me to "get". You really do need to get a good understanding of this because it is the foundation to build on. The made easy series explains it really well. I also suggest Saunders Comprehensive Review for Nclex-RN. It breaks all areas down in small easy to grasp portions w/questions to help you learn how to take nsg tests. Mine has a cd that I use all the time & it has helped me so much. You will be fine...block out the negative comments. Do your reading, ask questions if you don't understand & have faith in yourself! Good Luck

studentnurserachel · Jan 2, 2006

I second the Saunders Comprehensive Review for NCLEX-RN, 90% of the book is med-surg and it has a chapter on each system and outlines the important things you need to know. In addition, this is probably pretty obvious, but most textbooks have websites and I found the website for my book (Medical Surgical Nursing, by Donna Ignatavicius) was very helpful with lots of questions that incidentally showed up on our exams pretty frequently. I don't know how your instructors do things, but I think most instructors do not spend a lot of time sitting around and thinking up a lot of questions, most get them from test banks and if you get enough NCLEX review manuals, you will see that some of your test questions come from the same test bank. I also like the NCLEX manual put out by Lipincott.