how do I pass Med-surg!!

Published

I am going to be taken Medical- surgical nursing this summer and everyone has told me what a difficult call it was. Actually we only had about 5 students out of 40 to pass it this spring so I am scared. Is there anything anyone could tell me to help pass this class. I really can't afford to fail!!

Thanks.:heartbeat

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ED, ICU, MS/MT, PCU, CM, House Sup, Frontline mgr.

Study and PRAY the entire semester! Med-Surg I is not as bad as Med-Surg II. Learn basic concepts and you should be fine critically thinking your way through exams.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

people think when they go to nursing school that they are there to only learn nursing and that is wrong. in med/surg you are exposed to patients undergoing the major surgical experience and those having major medical conditions. in most cases the patients end up hospitalized. in the old days, and i mean "the old days", part of nurses training involved actually going to the or and being scrub nurses, setting up instrument trays and the sterile fields and assisting the docs with the actual surgery. that doesn't happen anymore as these jobs have been replaced by central service technicians, or techs and scrub nurses who are specially trained. but there is a special section in your nursing textbook about the patient undergoing the surgical experience. there is special generalized pre-op, peri-operative and postoperative things that need to be done for them. in addition, depending on the specific surgical procedure being done, there will be specific things that will have to be looked after in each patient as well.

with medical diseases that you cover you will need to know the underlying pathophysiology that is the cause of the disease and it's sign and symptoms, how the doctor tests for and diagnoses the disease, what treatments (medications and therapies) the doctor orders for the disease and finally how this impacts the nursing care as well as what nursing care is going to be involved. if you do not learn all of that as well as what medical and nursing treatments (interventions) have priority then, yes, your grades will be less than stellar.

some time ago i put together a critical thinking flow sheet for nursing students to help people with this. it is attached to the end of every one of my posts. all you need to do is click on it (it's a link) to open the file, which you can then copy, and download to use.

for tests you also need to have an understanding of the nursing process. the nursing process is a 5-step problem solving method that nursing has adapted for its practice. it can be used to help work through all kinds of problems that come up whether in the clinical area (as will happen when you are a working rn), on a test when you are trying to answer a question, or when determining a patient's problems when writing a care plan. memorize and learn the steps and how to make them work for you because it is the best weapon you have to passing nursing tests and the nuclex. this nursing process is not foreign to you. you've been solving problems in this way as you've become an adult--you just never called it "the nursing process". it is an extrapolation of the scientific process. think about it. what steps did you go through the last time you had a flat tire, the electricity suddenly went out and you needed light, you lost something or a plan you had went wrong and you had to adapt and change gears? when you start thinking about what goes into how you determine problems and making decisions about them, you are beginning to learn how to think critically.

  1. assess the situation (collect known data from every possible source)
  2. determine the problem (make a list of the abnormal assessment data)
  3. planning (write measurable goals/outcomes and interventions)
  4. implementation (put the plan into action)
  5. evaluation (determine if goals/outcomes have been met; if not, go back to #1 and begin again)

some helpful threads on allnurses that you should check out:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Critical Care.

You are AWESOME!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
You are AWESOME!

For real

:bow:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in med surg and acute behavorial health.

Im going to be taking MedSug2 in the fall, MedSurg 1 was hard but i used to go and talk to my instructors the best advice i ever got while taking Medsurg1 was when doing your reading ask yourself "what will the nurse do". For example if the pt. will need surgery what should you do preop/postop, what pt teaching can you do. I used questions like this to focus my reading, also it may help to know values of things RBC, WBC and so on, I sometimes overlooked that and when a value was placed in the question I wouldnt know if it was normal or abnormal and at times that could havehelped me pick the right answers.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ortho/neuro, geriatrics, med-surg.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE INFORMATION!!!!!! :bow:

I failed Adults II the first time, but I am keeping the faith that I will make it this time. I have a WONDERFUL instructor that I am meeting with that is helping me direct my studies. My problem is that I get so wrapped up in the disease that I get sidetracked. It's not uncommon for me to be on one subject for like 3 hours! I have also been told that I study too much. (average about 38-46 hours a week). So... I am trying to lay off the studying so much and just focus on the important parts. I am thankful that my instructor is willing to help me though. I just pray that I make it this time!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

i will tell you how i passed all my classes on the 1st try

take good notes

immediately after class go home or library, and re-copy the notes while going through them say them to yourself

do this for every class on each day you have class

then read(good - i mean don't skim, read it all, i found that alot of questions on tests came from charts and boxes) the book correlating with the material, i never read anything before class, only after

then teach this knowledge to a study buddy, if your study buddy and you are not on same page, get a new buddy, i had a great buddy in school:twocents:

do not get behind, that is the killer

FYI i felt that Medsurg made sense as opposed to OB

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Study cards!!! Plain old index cards that you transfer info onto for each topic/disease/illness, etc...etcfrom your text. Bring them w/ you wherever you go and glance at them here and there. I even drew pics on the backs of them to help w/ the visual learning piece. This helped to both reiterate the context into my own words to get a deeper understanding, plus it helped me to correlate the problem to it's symptomolgy, or its' presentation. A great example for instance would be:

Cushing's Disease

I would write that on the top of the index as the title and then explain in subtitles using my own words,

physiology of the disease:

symptoms:

nursing concerns:

Then draw a man/woman on the back of the card w/ puffy cheeks, edematous legs, draw a heart w/ an arrow in it to represent tachycardia, etc. etc. etc. I learn best by both visual and rewriting the info. The balance of the two made things stick...Obviously, because I completely remeber this pic that I drew right off the top of my head! I think the key for learning ANYTHING is to understand HOW you learn best first and then going from there to strategize your studying habits. Good Luck!:up:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion