Med Surg: What Works For You?

ER(notso)n00b, ASN, RN · Jun 12, 2012

I just completed Med-surg 1 and got an A. My school had power points, but just studying those wasn't enough. You have to be able to apply the information from the lectures to different situations and I found the textbook to be really helpful with that. It's a tough subject because not only do you have to understand the subsystems and the related/common pathos, you also have to know what to do as the nurse when presented with variations in the subsystems. You have to be able to think like a nurse! When I test, I like to imagine I am at the bedside and play out the scenario. As long as I have a good understanding of the patho, it's usually fairly easy to pick the right answer. So in a nutshell: understand how the subsystems work, understand the problems that you might see within the subsystems, and know what to do as the nurse. There aren't any shortcuts, you just have to know it. I haven't had my coffee yet so I hope that makes sense. :lol2:

OB-nurse2013, BSN, RN · Jun 12, 2012

I did pretty well in it. I used the study guide to my book and used that as my method for kinda picking a part the chapters. The power-points that my professors used were very helpful too. I learned the most in clinical though, for me that really helped me apply the information and helped it make sense.

QuarterLife88, MSN, RN, NP · Jun 13, 2012

My program utilizes power points for notes and lecture, and that is the bulk and focus the instructor wants you to know. It really depends on the instructor as well. Mine liked to throw in a few questions from the assigned reading, so I skim and focus based on the slides. No way was I going to read 200+ pages every week on top of everything else. Most of the text is fluff to boot.

One of my clinical instructors said it best: There's nice to know, and NEED to know. Focus on the need.

cndn_grl08 · Jun 18, 2012

I had some trouble understanding Med Surg when I just used the power points, and the text book readings were WAY to much to go through it all. I found it made way more sense to me when I did my patho research in clinical, it helped me to put it all together and understand how everything relates together.

♑ Capricorn ♑ · Jun 18, 2012

I just completed Med-surg 1 and got an A. My school had power points, but just studying those wasn't enough. You have to be able to apply the information from the lectures to different situations and I found the textbook to be really helpful with that. It's a tough subject because not only do you have to understand the subsystems and the related/common pathos, you also have to know what to do as the nurse when presented with variations in the subsystems. You have to be able to think like a nurse! When I test, I like to imagine I am at the bedside and play out the scenario. As long as I have a good understanding of the patho, it's usually fairly easy to pick the right answer. So in a nutshell: understand how the subsystems work, understand the problems that you might see within the subsystems, and know what to do as the nurse. There aren't any shortcuts, you just have to know it. I haven't had my coffee yet so I hope that makes sense.

Well said. I'm curious about Med-Surg too. I am by no means nowhere near it yet, but I will be. I'll be starting my fundamentals this September. I am guessing that this type of info could be applied to Fundies too? I don't think we'll be doing much pathophysiology, yet. But, the test-taking will be the same, I think.

maccheese · Jun 18, 2012

I do reading only according to the powerpoint and the class outline. For some reason, they assign hundreds of pages of reading, but when it comes to the lecture, a lot of it isn't even discussed. I 've also found it to help to answer questions from the textbook and this Med Surg Sucess Book by Colgrove.

Katie71275 · Jun 18, 2012

We had 2 quarters of Med Surg, I made a B in both courses.

I read some of the chapters, but to be honest, mostly read the parts the portions the teacher said to focus on..As I read, I was typing up the information I felt was pertinent....That became my study guide for the test. Then I studied that plus the powerpoints.

Hoosier69 · Jun 23, 2012

reading 200 pages within a week's time seems a bit overwhelming! :bugeyes:

THELIVINGWORST, ASN, RN · Jun 24, 2012

it is.... :banghead:

Nurse Kyles, BSN, RN · Jun 24, 2012

The med-surg teachers at my school did not utilize power points. We would have to make mind maps for each disease we learned. They told us which things we should include on the mind map. This really helped me learn a lot. I am attaching a couple samples of the mind maps I made for each disease process. I would just look up those things they wanted on the mind map in the book. I found that learning everything very well in the first med-surg class made the next two med-surg classes very easy.

The medical-surgical nursing made incredibly easy book helps too, because it explains the content simply. The Kaplan RN coorificebook can be found really cheap on the internet as well. This boils each disease process down to the need to know stuff.(in a bulleted format) You can then just look up the things you don't understand in your med-surg book.

Infective endocarditis.pdf

Cad.pdf