Med-surge Studying Help

[EmxoRenee]

Hello,

This is my first semester of med-surge, and I find I'm having a hard time studying the vast amount of information I need to know and making it stick. We always have two or three big topics, and then 5-6 exemplars for each. So for example, one topic we're doing right now is inflammation, and then we also have to learn about specific diseases that fall into that diagnosis, such as ulcerative colitis, crohn's, hepatitis A,B,&C, cholecystitis, etc.

I've made myself color coded study guides, and I read through them all several times daily, but I just feel like I'm having a hard time getting the information to stick! I'll read and then be like....what did I just read?! It's so frustrating! Does anyone have any ideas or tips that helped you to study for med-surge in a way that really helped the information stick?!

Thanks :)

[CalArmy]

Do lots of questions!!! You will never remember enough because of the large amount of material. Questions will help you blend it together and understand. Get one that has rationalization for answers.

[NorthernNurse BSN,RN]

Yes I agree with CalArmy, all I did was lots of questions and read the rationales and that is what helped me study and remember the information. One of my friends from my cohort and I always would get around the same scores on tests in NS but for med/surg I just did questions and looked over the notes from class and she would read and read the textbook then look at the study guide and I always scored higher on the exams. I did not have much time to read, so I only read what I was having a hard time understanding. If your professor gives you good notes, just study those and do practice tests and you should be OK!

[HarleyGrandma, RN, EMT-B]

It's really important for us at this stage to be taking in this information and *doing * something with it. As I read I'm always asking myself why/how/what does that do to the body? What else does it effect? Is the patient getting sicker or better? I find that being able to transition the information I read into a real person makes it much easier to get the concepts behind the topic. Unlike anything else we've ever studied before, this information is not going away, we'll be using it for our career.

I also find that I need to mix up the medium that I study in; so read the textbook a bit, watch some nursing videos, read a bit of a secondary source written a different way, then go back to my textbook.

[Natasha A., CNA, LVN]

Have you been taught the 3 nursing concepts: ADPIE, safety, physiological needs?

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Try concept mapping - works very well with an integrated curriculum such as the one OP is describing. Essentially, develop a visual indicator for each defining characteristic of inflammation - mapping it to each of those diseases to see how it plays a part.