Medsurg: Advice?

For every disease/disorder, know:

• Etiology / Risks
  
• Pathophysiology
  
• Diagnostic tools and labs used, and what values to expect
  
• Signs / Symptoms
  
• Nursing Management (biggie), this is your assessment, diagnosis, planning, interventions, and evaluation
  
• Medical Management / Collaborative Care (this is your drugs, therapies, etc)
  
• Possible complications
  
• Patient education
  

Just make it an outline, concept map, web, whatever you need to connect it all in your brain. Keep it short and sweet, just use small one- or two-word memory triggers to help you memorize. I use flash cards for the labs and their values. This helps you keep information on one specific disease all in one place for you to peruse on test day. It's also helped me organize information a lot better, especially when two disorders have a lot of similarities, like asthma and COPD.