In desperate need of help

swansonplace · Jul 5, 2013

A tutor is really a great idea. For assessment, you may want to go to youtube and view assessments performed by nursing instructors. For pharm, the first one is mostly math, my book had an online portion which was a great help. Davis Success book for questions. The Davis Success book has tons of questions, and It's a great book to just do all the questions on. I used the reviews and rationales book all throughout my program, and there is one for fundamentals. If you can't find a tutor in your area, you may consider a virtual tutor. One that you meet on your computer using google plus to discuss things. This way you can get the help you need right away.

During my first semester, I just did not have enough time for everything. So I just watched videos on assessments, and memorized the process. I spent the most time with fundamentals. Practicing lots of questions really helped me a lot. That was key. The trouble initially that I saw was not studying the material, but in learning how to answer test questions. That is how do you break down, and prioritize what the correct answer could be when they all sound so close. Pharm first semester is a matter of getting the list of rules handy to know when to round and not to round. Otherwise, it is just practice.

Help this helps you out.

green34 · Jul 5, 2013

Contact your school asap and tell them that you need help. It is vital you get help as early as possible. Contact your adviser and your teacher. Does your school have a lab that can help you?

2bRNatasha85 · Jul 6, 2013

I'm actually doing well in the performance and math portions. My trouble is that since it's an accelerated program, I am finding difficult to properly prepare for written exams and my classmates aren't much help in this area. In addition to that, I'm not use to the NCLEX style question so I keep making stupid mistakes.

2bRNatasha85 · Jul 6, 2013

I"m having issues in the written exam portion but not the lab. My adviser already spoke to me and just told me to practice more nclex style questions. As far as teachers are concern, the one I have for most of my classes is extremely self-important and doesn't hide the fact that she only want to teach who she considers intelligent. Since, I'm not doing well in any of her classes, her attitude towards me is very belittling and really makes me not want to approach. I've complained about her but it doesn't really go anywhere. I'm not the first to ever complain about her. The school's response is basically if you don't like her, then you can leave the school.

MendedHeart · Jul 6, 2013

For the NCLEX style questions,

1. Determine if its a positive or negative question?

2. Pull out all the keywords such as priority, first diagnoais, labs etc..never add any info that could be a possibility or you might think applies.

3. Is each answer true or false?

This will depend.on if its positive or negative. For positive questions, your answer will be the only true one.

For negative questions, your answer will be the only false one

4. Select all that apply: treat them as true or false too.

It will never be just one answer or all the answers.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Jul 12, 2013

Nursing process questions are unlike questions from any coursework you ever took before.They aren't all strictly factual-based ("What were the main factions in the War of the Roses?") or memorization ("Name the three bones found in the middle ear.").

Also remember that nursing school isn't like any other education you ever had. You can't take a course, pass the final, sell the book to someone in the next class, and forget it. All the classes you take will have a direct and immediate use in all the courses to follow. You will constantly refer back to the books you used in prior semesters. You have to really understand the whys of everything they teach you, so you can apply them to the novel situations you will encounter in a later semester.Your faculty-- and the NCLEX-- will expect that you will be able to do that, and if you can't/won't, you will fail.

Therefore the minute something doesn't make complete and total sense to you and you can't think why it would ever be useful, find out immediately. (I used to ask my students all the time, "Why do we care about this?") Those moments tend to pile up if not cleared away, and before you know it, you're in too deep. Always know why, and you'll have the tools you need for problem-solving (what they call "critical thinking") later.

So. These questions are trying to find out if you can read carefully, discern the important ideas, discard the lesser or inaccurate ones, and choose the best answer as it should be from a nursing process standpoint. That means, for example, that if you have two choices that both seem correct (and may, in fact, be correct facts), only one is the right nursing answer. You are in nursing school to learn to think like a nurse.

Here's another thread on "thinking like a nurse"https://allnurses.com/general-nursing...ou-802684.html

And here's a little vignette that may help you refocus. You are quite clearly intelligent, well-spoken, and thoughtful, and you correctly deduce that you need to be completely changing your approach. You need to understand rationales for why we do what we do. Perhaps an example will help explain what "thinking like a nurse" means.

1). You are working in an outpatient setting and a woman who is well-known to you comes in with yet another set of injuries from her husband in a fit of rage. She says she will not leave him, she loves him, he is so sorry, gave her flowers, and promises he will never do it again. What do you say to her?

(two of the four answers are totally wrong, so you can eliminate them ... so you have to choose between these two)

a. "And yet you are here again. Let's try to think of a way to keep you safe."

b. "The research shows he will do it again, and it could be worse next time. You have to leave him."

Both look like "good" answers. Both are factually true and contain a second phrase. Which to choose? Well, we know (or will know) that the nurse's job is not to direct care but to help the person along the path to wellness using specific kinds of interventions. Which one of these answers does that? Right, A, because the nurse does not deny the patient's decision (patients are allowed to make bad decisions even if we don't like them) but points out a fact known to the patient ("And yet you are here again") and then offers to engage her in a way for her to make choices about how to plan a way to improve her health (".. a way to keep you safe"). The patient can then discuss options along those lines-- how to recognize the cycle of abuse, how to see when his behavior is beginning to escalate, keep a bag packed, have a cell phone, keep a little money for travel, know the women's shelter hotline phone by heart, how not to internalize his abuse as her own fault, whatever....

While choice B is factually true (he probably will beat the crap out of her again, and it likely will escalate), it denies her feelings and desires (she loves him, she has decided not to leave him), and tells her what to do (even though she has already said she won't). So it will make the patient shut down and not hear another word the nurse says. She's not going to leave him. Saying this offers her nothing she can use. It does not recognize the ultimate nursing value of patient autonomy and does nothing to take the patient along the path towards health, a primary nursing value.

See?

So what you want is an NCLEX study guide that gives you the rationales for the right answers AND tells you why the wrong ones are wrong. I leave it to you to thumb through a few in the bookstore or get recs from other students who have been there, done that. It's your first step to better success in nursing school....and nursing.

swansonplace · Jul 12, 2013

How to break down a question? Try and google the Kaplan decision tree. They have a free one hour class on it.

1. Read the question

2. Read all the answers, and see what the question is asking by looking at the questions. This step is important as

if you do not have enough time, the questions will not be read properly.

3. If the answer an assessment or an intervention

4. If it is an assessment, look at the question and see if there is an assessment in the answer

5. Does the assessment answer apply, if yes it is the answer

6. If not cross it off the list, and look at the next assessment answer, does it apply. if yes, it is the answer.

7. intervention answers are evaluated by priority

Priorities include: stable vs unstable patient,

acute vs chronic

maslow's hierarchy(physical, then safety, etc)

is the patient about to die, lose an organ, deteriorate? select the worst first

Go back and review your old tests, and see what the issue is? Lack of time on the tests, skimming questions, test anxiety, lack of knowledge from tests. Each has a different handling.

If you are running out of time to study for tests, try and get more time practicing questions until you get a minimum passing grade. Learn to skim the chapter reading the headings, topic sentences, and boxes, and summary. This will give you an overview of the chapter. Answer questions at the back of the section to see what main concepts you missed. Do it again until you have basic concepts down. It should take about an hour for a chapter. Now read the chapter and do lots of practice questions. Some students just read reviews and rationales to get basic concepts down. They also give quizzes to test basic knowledge. Do this before the lecture on the topic. Now in class see what your professor emphasizes. Ask questions in class where you are weak as you already studied the material.

Visit the professor at least once a week, and ask questions. See if you are on track. Visit your tutoring center, the may be able to sit with you longer and get help on topics needed every week. They can give support, and direction with respect to how your professor teaches.

Ask students that are acing the class, how they study, what books they are using etc.

See if your school keeps a nclex lecture series on the computer the librarian or the tutoring center will know. My school kept one by Judith Miller. You are looking for nclex review lectures. You may want to watch the lecture before reading the book and before going to class. It's just a fast lecture of important points.

The trick for me was really having enough time to study the material in a short amount of time, and to practice the questions. Would be great if you could get questions similar to your professors type questions. That's why you should ask around and find out what books the other students that ace the test are using.

swansonplace · Jul 12, 2013

Watch video on the material you are learning. Youtube is a great help for that. It's a fast overview.

jayaay · Jul 12, 2013

Hey there,

I know your pain. The accelerated program is tough and is very fast paced, so you probably don't have enough time to grasp key concepts in these areas. Well, like most people have responded, you most likely need a tutor.