Help Me Please!

Nursing Students General Students

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Hi everyone thank you in advance for trying to help me out here. I am in serious need of any tips or advice, I finished my 1st semester of Nursing School (Thank God!) and I start my 2nd semester on the 24th of August, but I just cannot get myself to read the chapters required. Not even a little it's a miracle I passed the 1st semester without reading, but I know that in order to pass this 2nd semester I am going to buckle down and read. Before starting I always told myself just sit down open the book and read, but I swear I can't even surpass one single page! Please any tips or advice you guys might have that can help me out, I would greatly appreciate. Has anyone else had this problem?

Specializes in NICU, Trauma, Oncology.

There are some great videos on YouTube that breakdown the best way to read nursing textbooks.

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I know exactly how you feel! I just graduated one year ago and am now working in the ER. Please feel free to ask me any questions you may have. I'm happy to help

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What works for me (but may not work for everyone):

Music - either instrumental or a language you DO NOT understand. Classical music is always good, especially piano compositions.

Location - you might need to relocate because a change in venue definitely can help. If you're having trouble reading at home, try a local Starbucks/Coffee Bean, public library, university library, under a freeway, heck - whatever works!

Study buddy - get together with a classmate, sit there and read separately, then discuss afterwards!

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This sucks, I know because I had a hard time opening my textbooks. I just graduated in May and I despised reading a textbook. I graduated from a really great university, and passed the NCLEX on the first try (75 questions) and rarely cracked open ANY of my textbooks. I relied on my instructors power points and lecture notes that I took during the lecture. The only time I opened my textbooks was to clarify a disease process or something I wasn't quite understanding. It seemed to be a waste of time to read 150 pages of text that was quite redundant. Go to class, take REALLY good notes, go home and revise your notes and look up the stuff you don't understand, make study materials, then study. You will do great!

(Oh... shut the phones/electronics off! They are so much more distracting than anyone thinks! I would allow myself a 10 minute break every hour on the hour when I was studying or revising notes. You can do it!)

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I never read... Not once... I did however go to every single lecture and take pages and pages of notes... Whatever works for you...

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The reading part is difficult. I love to read but not my nursing books. At the beginning of my first semester, I read every page word for word, but it took up so much time I didn't get to actually study like I wanted to. I quickly learned to let the lectures/PowerPoints direct my reading and that worked out better for me. I never read entire chapters, but I do read every note or key point that the books highlight or put in bold or pull out to the margin. That has worked really well for me.

You just have to try things and find out what works best for you. If you don't do well reading every word, then that's okay. Just try different things until you find what works. Good luck.

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There's a couple things that this could be chalked up to:

You may not have figured out how to study. There truly is a method to the madness. It takes skill to learn to read with comprehension, and that skill comes with practice. Sometime you must remove yourself from distractions and have a designated study space, with all electronics put away in another room. Perhaps you need to make an outline of what you are reading in order to help you focus more on it--this helps me when I'm feeling a bit antsy.

You could be very bored with nursing material. I happen to love reading about it, but if you asked me to sit down and read a book on computers or how to code, forget it. That would be a struggle.

As others have said, you may have a medical issue that needs attention. I actually was recently diagnosed with ADHD. I am a 4.0 student, but it has always been a struggle for me to focus myself, even if I find that the material is interesting ( I also cannot sit through an entire movie no matter how interesting it is). I didn't consider this to be problematic in the past because I was disciplined enough to force myself to do what needed to be done, though it would take me far longer than other students in my class. Recently though, I've had a lot more stress in life (financial, relational, family) and I can't seem to focus on what needs to be done: I feel like there's a carousel in my head, and each problem is sitting on a little pony, and the carousel keeps spinning, showing me all of the problems and responsibilities, but not pausing on one thing long enough to tackle the problem. I couldn't sleep. I was constantly running around completing half-tasks. But it really hit me when I went to take a very easy written CPR test and felt like running out of the room, test unfinished, because I could not focus on the questions I was reading. It as an awful feeling.

I wanted to share that last paragraph especially. If you have a medical issue that is hindering your ability to focus, that can be an excruciatingly frustrating thing.

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Specializes in Ortho.

I'm a weirdo that likes reading for fun. I always have. Nursing textbooks are not so much fun.....depending on what material we are covering for that test. Some of the material is more interesting to me than other material. Either way, I have to know it. My instructors plainly told us reading is necessary. There is no way they can lecture on every aspect related to a particular subject. So I read the book.

Some tips.....set a certain amount of time to read. I usually read for 30 minutes and then take a short break. Then I start again. It really helps to keep me focused on the material. As you're reading, make a little check mark beside important information. Before test days, review your check marks.

I also agree with the poster that mentioned NCLEX questions and reading rationales. It's been helpful for me. Good luck!

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Hey guys, thanks for sharing and for the tips and advice. Just to clear up in my 1st semester my lectures were not that great we barely got any, and I don't know how my lectures might be like in my 2nd semester, but I usually would just skim through the chapters (sometimes) when I really needed to know a concept, but I do learn and retain everything when I read, and I'm good at learning from lectures as well. I still love Nursing and everything that has to do with nursing and I find everything very interesting and I am very motivated because Nursing is what I want to do in my life. So I think my problem might be that I cannot maintain my focus for extended periods of time to actually perform the task (reading). So just to recap I have evaluated myself thanks to everybody here, by reading everyone's post's and different opinions on what y'all thought might be my problem, I asked myself: "WTH what IS my problem?" And have concluded that it is the reading not the concept or subject, but the actual task to READ; however this is not new I really have never been too fond of reading... Yikes I'm in trouble. I will however do what someone suggested here, I will start reading and set the length of times I will do so and increase the time little by little. It may sound easy for a lot of people, but really I find this to be excruciatingly difficult, just the thought to actually sit down for whatever time I will put (maybe I'll start with 15 min) and read without making any excuses uuuggghhh dreadful (boring), but it need to get done!

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What works for me (but may not work for everyone):

Music - either instrumental or a language you DO NOT understand. Classical music is always good, especially piano compositions.

Location - you might need to relocate because a change in venue definitely can help. If you're having trouble reading at home, try a local Starbucks/Coffee Bean, public library, university library, under a freeway, heck - whatever works!

Study buddy - get together with a classmate, sit there and read separately, then discuss afterwards!

This is true, classical music does help me get some reading done and also going to a calm not too noisy place where I do not know anybody, it has helped me in the past! Thanks for reminding me lol.

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This sucks, I know because I had a hard time opening my textbooks. I just graduated in May and I despised reading a textbook. I graduated from a really great university, and passed the NCLEX on the first try (75 questions) and rarely cracked open ANY of my textbooks. I relied on my instructors power points and lecture notes that I took during the lecture. The only time I opened my textbooks was to clarify a disease process or something I wasn't quite understanding. It seemed to be a waste of time to read 150 pages of text that was quite redundant. Go to class, take REALLY good notes, go home and revise your notes and look up the stuff you don't understand, make study materials, then study. You will do great!

(Oh... shut the phones/electronics off! They are so much more distracting than anyone thinks! I would allow myself a 10 minute break every hour on the hour when I was studying or revising notes. You can do it!)

Hi, Thanks yea see if I get good lectures then I really don't even worry about the readings, but like I had said in my other post my 1st semester lectures were a joke... Hopefully 2nd semester teachers will be more prepared and give us better lectures (One can only HOPE!) Thanks for the advice and motivation.

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just the thought to actually sit down for whatever time I will put (maybe I'll start with 15 min) and read without making any excuses uuuggghhh dreadful (boring), but it need to get done!

Yes! And I know I sound like my mom when I say this but if you try to think different it will be easier. Like here's an example, I've been dieting and exercising and yesterday got on the scale and weighed 2lbs more than the day before. At first I thought "I'm so discouraged. I hate this" then I stopped my thoughts and changed them like "I'm not going to think this way I'm going to just be encouraged to run a mile further today" and I think that made it easier to run rather than if thought "I hate running I have a hard time I get bored." I know it's silly but how we think can make it better or worse. Oh this example also I have one Friday class at 2. I hate that! I kept thinking, waste of a day since it takes me an hour to commute in traffic. I don't want to hate going to class every Fri for a semester though so I thought "no change this. Look at it like just some thing that needs to get done." Anyway I know that sounds maybe unimportant but I think it will help make reading go easier.

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