Looking back I'd wish I'd know......

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I'm a pre-nursing student working on my final pre-req and I'll be applying to the nursing program in April 2013. I'm looking for words of wisdom, advice, anything helpful from a current nursing student that you wish you had known before hand.

Test Success by F.A. Davis and Saunders Comprehensive review.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.
I start nursing school in May. So nervous! Any specific recommendations for a good NClex review book?

Hello all! I'm in my 4th semester, one more to go after this! I just picked up Lippincott's Q&A review.

I really like it and I'm using it to help me study for my pediatric/OB tests.

To the OP: Clinical is what you make it! If the floor is not busy (like mine was last semester), get involved! Ask if you can follow a nurse around, - it can help you see how to prioritize care and they can teach you a lot of tips/tricks! And speak up! If there's something you are struggling with and want to perform a certain task, say it at the beginning, and keep reminding your instructor, if necessary.

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Stay away from the students that bad mouth the instructors, or complain and gripe about everything. When in clinical offer to help others and do it. Don't be late, if anything it's ok to be an hour or so early, use the time to study or go over your pt assignments. Take those care plans serious this is where you hone your critical thinking skills. Know you pathophysiology of you pts disease this will lead your care. Take a break, go have your nails done, get a massage, read something not related to nursing.

Awesome advice. I try telling nursing students to stay away from the gossip. Don't care when people role their eyes when you ask a question in class (but at least make them sensible, not questions you can answer on your own by looking it up.) Make good impressions with all your instructors.

For example if there is a concept you are struggling with, take advantage of their office hours.

You'll not only learn, but you build a report (sp?) with them and it shows them you are working hard and serious about nursing. This is crucial because when the time comes for job hunting, you may have some great letters of*recommendation from them. With this economy, you want those letters of recommendation to make you stand out from other applicants. I wish I would have ran for the nursing school student club. That would look great on your resume. Maybe help make a change for the better while in the nursing club. Putting that on your resume will look great too. As for studying there is a book called nursing reviews and rationales. They have one for each class like OB and PEDs, but I found the med/surg one the most helpful. When I didn't have time to study from the text, I just used Prentice Hall's Reviews and Rationales for med/surg. For example, if we had an exam on neuro, I read the neuro chapter because it takes out all the fluff text books have and it gives you the nitty gritty. It was recommended to me by someone and I literally survived nursing school because of this book.

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I start nursing school in May. So nervous! Any specific recommendations for a good NClex review book?

I love the Saunders as mentioned for review. But I swear by Lippincott's Q&A for NCLEX. Their rationales for an answer being right and why the other ones are wrong are wonderful. I can't think of a topic not coveted in that book. I wish I had bought it at the beginning of nursing school and used it all throughout the program. It'd an amazing book.

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Great advice thank you!

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First and foremost you don't need all the books they recommend going into the program. I went and bought them all and only end up using my med-surg book for most of my studying. Get an Nclex review book, this is really important. The nursing curriculum and tests are worded differently than pre-req classes they focus more on critical thinking and the best way to learn this is by doing lots and lots of practice questions. All the answers for a multiple choice question might be right but you have to pick the best answer, the thing that you would do first in that situation. Getting a review book with rationales helped me understand what you do first and why in a given situation. I love Saunders comprehensive review. I've even seen some questions from my Saunders review on the tests. Find a good study group, I mainly studied solo my first semester, but later found study partners and it really helped to retain the info. If you have to explain it to another person I've found it helps me understand it better and retain it for later, as opposed to just reading about it. Also I gained like 30lbs the first year. I went from being really active in an active full time job to working 2 days a week going to school 4 days a week and spending the rest of my time sitting. Lots and lots of sitting, at the library, in class, at home, reading or in front of a computer studying. When it comes to going to the gym for an hour or two and using those 2 hours to study, studying comes first. Plus I'm a total stress eater, I craved sugary things when I would get stressed out I also developed a caramel mocha habit to stay awake to study. Nursing school is stressful, one week I'm doing good just passed a test with a 92% on a test and then I'd do bad on the next test and feel super crappy all week. Stressing about the final hoping to just pass and coming out of it with a B, 6 points shy of an A, it's an emotional roller coaster.The grading system at my school is 80% passing, 85% is a B and 92% is an A. Last class there were only 280pts possible, there is not a lot of room for error.

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