Lost and insecure..

[AbbyJones]

I just started my prerequisites for nursing school, I am feeling totally unprepared and overwhelmed. I am going to a very competitive health sciences school, and my place in the program is not promised, which is adding a great deal of stress to me. I am having trouble finding my study style and getting totally organized. I feel like I am not retaining any information my instructors are giving me. Does anyone have any words of wisdom or tips to get better prepared?

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

1) Make an appointment to meet with your professor(s) every week to clarify anything that you're weak on, and do NOT skip this. Believe it or not, they mean to help you learn and want you to succeed, but they will not reach out to you. This is college. You are responsible for getting the help you need. They all have office hours for a reason. My daughter is a physics professor. She had a haiku on her door when she was teaching as part of her PhD program:

Office hours.

No one comes in, though I am here now.

Perhaps they'll all fail.

2) After every exam, sit down with the professor and go over the questions you got wrong. Figure out why the right answer is right, and more importantly, why the wrong ones are wrong.

3) When you study, whenever you read a fact or conclusion, close the page and explain to yourself why it matters or why it's important or why we care, whatever language works for you. Because the fact is, if you don't understand the whys, no amount of fact memorization will help you.

4) You got admitted, and a lot of others didn't. Somebody in admissions thinks you can do this, and they've seen a lot of applicants come through the door/mail slot. Take heart from that.

5) These courses aren't called prerequisites for nothing. You can learn these because you want to succeed in nursing, and you need them for that. Go forth!