Help with Neuro

you can learn all the nursing interventions in the world, but that is not necessarily going to help you answer questions correctly on nursing tests. you have to learn how to think critically. to think critically you have to know how to use the nursing process. the nursing process is the problem solving process that nurses use every day of their nursing life to deal with all kinds of situations that come up at work. and, it works really well in answering test questions as well.

take note of the activities that goes on in each step of the process:

1. assessment (collect data, do a physical assessment of the patient, assess adl's, look up information about your patient's medical diseases/conditions to learn about the signs and symptoms and pathophysiology)
   
2. determination of the problem (make a list of the abnormal assessment data, decide on the problems)
   
3. planning (write measurable goals/outcomes and nursing interventions)
   
4. implementation (initiate the plan)
   
5. evaluation (determine if goals/outcomes have been met)

the basic strategy for answering critical thinking (application type) questions is as follows, you must:

• know and consider the normal anatomy and physiology
  
• know and consider abnormal anatomy for the disease in question
  
• know and consider the resulting signs and symptoms when the disease occurs and how they proceed from mild to fatal - each sign and symptom can be related back to the pathophysiology of the disease
  
• know and consider how the doctor diagnoses and treats the disease in question
  
• know nursing interventions for the signs and symptoms you are being asked about
  
• know the steps of the nursing process and what goes on in each of the steps and consider how they are affecting the question you are being asked
  
• know and consider the principles behind the actions being done - there are many kinds of principles: principles of nursing, principles of biology, principles of chemistry, principles of physics, etc.
  
• read the stem of the question carefully and answer that because the test makers try to trip you up by distracting you with conflicting information they give you in the answer choices that sounds good but has no relationship to what the question is asking for
  
• ask yourself "why" a patient is experiencing some sign or symptoms to get at the underlying problem. nursing like other disciplines treats the problem/signs and symptoms.

one of the biggest misconceptions of nursing students is ignoring the learning of medical diseases, their pathophysiology, the signs and symptoms they produce, and the tests and treatments that are ordered by the docs to treat them. you have to know this information in addition to the nursing interventions. you also have to understand, from all those pre-requisite courses you took, the various scientific principles underlying some of the treatments and pathophysiology going on with diseases or patient conditions. you have to ask yourself "why" do we or the docs do this intervention as opposed to another one that sounds like it might be better. why, why, why. asking why gets you to better answers. dig for these answers in books other than your textbooks because they are out there. when you get a wrong answer on a test, determine why your thinking went to the wrong answer. where was the mistake in your thinking? there is a big difference between your thinking and the way you use the facts that go into your thinking. you can have the right facts but process them incorrectly if you misunderstand the concept referred to in a question.

also read the information on this thread:

• https://allnurses.com/forums/f50/looking-test-taking-stratagies-224581.html - looking for test taking strategies (on the nursing student discussion forum)