Kuriin, BSN, RN 967 Posts Specializes in Emergency. Has 7 years experience. Sep 23, 2013 Flash cards are great. But, you get used to seeing them so often when doing your care plan, that it becomes easy to memorize.
Guests Guest 0 Posts Sep 23, 2013 I'm a huge fan of flash cards but for labs I created a sheet which could be folded to hide the values. It was easier than making flashcards and easier to carry around.
MendedHeart 663 Posts Sep 24, 2013 Flashcards, repetitively writing them and reviewing them in context of your patients problems. There are a few little tricks that help a little.Many values are 2 or 10 -20Potassium and Albumin are the same, I try and find similar lab values.If you are asked a lab question, its usually blatently abnormal, so even if you just remember approximately what the valus are, you should be able to pick out correct one.Applying the labs in a disease process and in deficit and excess helps conceptualize and understand the values
classicdame, MSN, EdD 2 Articles; 7,255 Posts Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator. Sep 24, 2013 while you are in clinical look at all the labs for the entire time the patient has been in the facility. When you review something over and over it eventually will stick. Also, if there was an episode of a lab being out of normal parameters, look at the chart to discern what was going on at the time and if there were any interventions required to balance the lab work. That way the numbers have meaning.
brycross33 33 Posts Sep 25, 2013 Thank you I guess it's kind of like some of the meds you get so used to seeing them that you can just remember it off the top of your head which group they belong to adverse effects and so on
