Made it Through My First Semester in NS

lifelearningrn, BSN, RN · May 13, 2012

Thanks everyone for your kind words. I have given NS all I have. And even then, I felt like I just squeaked by Assessment. (High C in the end)I gave that class more time and effort than all my other classes combined. --- I know people don't want 'c' nurses but that was the hardest fought C in my scholastic career.

lifelearningrn, BSN, RN · May 13, 2012

double post

lifelearningrn, BSN, RN · May 13, 2012

I'm about to start my first semester this summer. I'm takin fundamentals 1&2 and health assessment. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Pay attention in Health Assessment. Read, reread, and then type up your own outlines of the chapters to study some more. There is no other way to deal with all the normals, abnormals, and minute little details they tend to pick out of the book to test on. The class is brutal. No two ways around it. It's the foundational class that will follow you for the rest of your career.

Pneumothorax, BSN, RN · May 13, 2012

I'm still in a little shock. 1 semester down, with 3 to go. And MAN was it a crazy semester. Assessment class about killed me. Pharmacology was fun, and Pathophysiology was pretty easy, an Fundamentals were a blast. But Wow- hardest thing I've ever embarked on, ever!
Any tips for making the second semester the best it can be?

congrats! the first semester sucks LOL....

jacksonleo · May 13, 2012

I am on my last semester.. just started Complex Med-Surg which is our last class, then we do 108 hour practicum and we are done. This is our fifth and final for our Associates Degree although I am also enrolled in a BSN program (its a concurrent program, not sure if those are that common everywhere else but there are a couple in our area) which is mostly online classes and will not be over until April.

This is what I have learned... it does not get easier. It just simply becomes the new normal for you and you get to be an experienced nursing student. Also, what I thought would be the easiest classes ended up being the hardest so never let your guard down. I am telling you... we lost more classmates during Mental Health, OB and Pediatrics than with any of the med-surg classes or pharm (we have a sequence of three... Basic, Advanced and now Complex).. so keep on trucking and always give it 100 percent.

Good luck.

buytheshoes11, MSN, RN · May 13, 2012

Congratulations! Remember to take a little time to have some fun! :jester: There are some days when I really wish I could go back to nursing school. Good luck with your last three semesters!

athomas2340 · May 14, 2012

Pay attention in Health Assessment. Read, reread, and then type up your own outlines of the chapters to study some more. There is no other way to deal with all the normals, abnormals, and minute little details they tend to pick out of the book to test on. The class is brutal. No two ways around it. It's the foundational class that will follow you for the rest of your career.

Thanks Moonchild! I really underestimated Health Assessment and have been focusing more towards Foundations. I even bought my foundations book and started reading. Is Health Assessment more time consuming (as far as studying) than Foundations?

Shorty11, BSN, RN · May 14, 2012

I just finished my first semester of BSN program as well. (Intro to Nursing, Pathophysiology, and Health Assessment) I made an A+ in all three classes. I have to say that I thought my first semester in nursing school would be a bit more challenging. Yes, I did study approx. 8 hrs for every test, but as long as I put in 8 hrs of studying, I made easy A's. I found Health Assessment to be more time consuming that Intro (which is the name given to our foundations/concepts class). Just make sure you read the chapters as you go along, no waiting until the last minute, and do your best to actually learn the "big picture" on what topic you are studying, don't just memorize, try to really understand.

THELIVINGWORST, ASN, RN · May 14, 2012

I just finished my first semester of BSN program as well. (Intro to Nursing, Pathophysiology, and Health Assessment) I made an A+ in all three classes. I have to say that I thought my first semester in nursing school would be a bit more challenging. Yes, I did study approx. 8 hrs for every test, but as long as I put in 8 hrs of studying, I made easy A's. I found Health Assessment to be more time consuming that Intro (which is the name given to our foundations/concepts class). Just make sure you read the chapters as you go along, no waiting until the last minute, and do your best to actually learn the "big picture" on what topic you are studying, don't just memorize, try to really understand.

Oh man! You did awesome!!

I am sooooo close to an A in 101 final is on tuesday so we will see. Im pulling an B+ in Pharm...ugh final is tomorrow. There was one test in each class that pulled me from my 101% in 101 and my 94% in Pharm. I really should have studied more. Oh well, I understand the material so I feel good about Med Surg and Mental Health next semester. I am soooo glad I too Patho before the program because that helped me sooo much.

Good Luck with next semester guys!

Shorty11, BSN, RN · May 14, 2012

Thanks. I'm taking Pharm and Basic Nursing Care in the fall. I'm a little concerned about Pharm bc of what everyone says on this site. But I think with hard work I can hopefully pull an A in it too. I also went ahead and bought my textbooks for Pharm. next semester so I can get a head start and prepare a little over the summer. Good luck on your finals! And next semester!

lifelearningrn, BSN, RN · May 14, 2012

Thanks Moonchild! I really underestimated Health Assessment and have been focusing more towards Foundations. I even bought my foundations book and started reading. Is Health Assessment more time consuming (as far as studying) than Foundations?

YES! Foundations is actually not that difficult. It has a lot of pretty easy, common sense concepts. You learn it all hands on, and a lot of it is reinforced through writing care-plans and doing clinical. Assessment it the real beast. This is where you're learning body systems, how to do exams on each body system, what is normal, what is abnormal. How to tell if something is normal or abnormal. How to do it all properly and how to document it all properly. Sounds simple? It's NOT! lol I'm sure every school is different, but we didn't get to use any kind of standardized form- we had to do all documentation on a blank sheet of paper. You have to use proper terminology, there are different rating scales for certain conditions, some of the exams have a learning curve. It's just a really BIG course. If you're going to pre-study- make it that one!

lifelearningrn, BSN, RN · May 14, 2012

Thanks. I'm taking Pharm and Basic Nursing Care in the fall. I'm a little concerned about Pharm bc of what everyone says on this site. But I think with hard work I can hopefully pull an A in it too. I also went ahead and bought my textbooks for Pharm. next semester so I can get a head start and prepare a little over the summer. Good luck on your finals! And next semester!

I found Pharm to be a fun and not all that challenging course. We had a tag team of two older woman teach it and they were a lot of fun. Because all of our exams were always clustered together- 1 on Friday, 1 (big one) on Monday and Pharm on Tuesday evenings- I rarely studied for Pharm until after my lab at 1:30pm the day of the exam. So about 2 hours of studying gave me high Bs on the exams all semester. With a little more effort I'd easily have made an A in Pharm- unfortunately I simply didn't have the time.

Pharm is not the monster so many say it is- unless your teachers are a beast.