My Guidlines for Success for New Incoming SN's

[mttzakr87]

Nursing School is Brutal, and Crazy and Insane... getting by isnt so bad though.... I just follow these rules for success: (of course these will vary for different people/ programs)

1.) People who try to read all thats assigned are f'n crazy because you will really may not retain and remember all of that, and if you can....drop out, go to med school ....the world needs great minds like you !!! (Some Sarcasm here)....this will vary some school to school and person to person though, .... on a serious note, some people can do all of that, and if you can....it wont hurt you at all, and if you find out that reading in your program is read everything or fail.... then get an organized reading schedule going, but ive discovered at my program that when I read, im really just giving myself way way too much info, and taking great notes in class, and only read what i have a hard time understanding is better.

2.) Lecture Notes/ Powerpoints..... I live and die by these, usually a majority of material we will be tested on comes from these, so I just take excellent notes in class and I study immediately after class and I NEVER EVER WAIT UNTIL LAST MINUTE to study ....you do this in an RN program ....and you're executing yourself

3.) I Supplement my notes with Saunders NCLEX Review which gives outstanding summaries and Pearson NCLEX review (I feel like im cheating for my exams when I read Pearson)

4.) If I have time, I match my notes up and what we covered in class on the powerpoints/ lecture with the textbook and read...if I have time to only supplement my knowledge.....reading does not hurt...but some programs actually make it a hardcore and strict requirement to read

5.) Dont Complain: RN school is hard..... if you complain because its hard and spend hours and hours of time complaining, ....ask Why? ..... Seriously What did you think you were going to school for? Paint Mixing? Liberal Arts? Gym? I can understand initially when we all started because of the shock, but really complaining is just time I can use to study.....it's hard on all of us ....deal with it.

These are mine...., If anyone else has their own guidlines for success, id surely be curious to know

[aquarius04]

these were some good tips...thank you, i will surely being using some for my first semester this summer!

[LobotRN, BSN, RN]

Always rise to the occasion, but keep your head down and your butt lower. There are always those in the program who become targets early and easy (read: loud, complain, too much reading, not enough direction, whaaaaa whaaa whaaaa!). Don't offer up your own anatomy! Be the best, and then be quiet. And sometimes seeing now NOT to do something is the best teacher.

On a different note, I agree that not all the reading can necesarily be done. Develop a bullet point mentality. I found it useful when still in school to look at the disease o' the day, and list typical demographics of clients (race/eth/lifestyle/sex), s/s, clinical manifestations (labs!), treatments, expected outcomes, and what the nurse needs to monitor for. SOoooooooo....when you have a test question, or now a real life situation, about a pt who has acute pancreatitis, you should be able to confidently answer, "the RN recognizes which of the following as most indicative of resolving pancreatitis?"

[Silverlight2010]

These are a lot of great tips and one I'd add, and I'm dead serious about this....show up for class. Seems obvious but I had a few classmates that missed class on a regular basis, to the point that if they all showed up in class one day, the rest of us started asking if there was a quiz or test we forgot about

[cndn_grl08]

Great tips, and I suggest following all of them as I also agree with them all. To add to the list, always keep in mind that marks don't matter when school is over. Getting a job has nothing to do with your marks, as long as you passed and know the information. No one is expected to know everything. However, what IS important, is what you learned throughout clinicals. Learn from the start how to critically think, how to put things together and make it specific to the patient, learn how to advocate, and what to do if you don't know something (remember, no nurse knows everything!!!!). If you do well in clinical, you will do well as a nurse. Basically, my point is, I know lots of students who have AMAZING marks and think they're better than everyone else, but does that really make them a good nurse? Not really...

[Naturalist]

Silverlight, how do your classmates get away with missing class in nursing school? At my CC the BRN monitors attendance closely. If we have to miss a class we must inform our instructor beforehand, and if we miss a certain number of classes (not sure if more than 2 or 3) we are asked to withdraw from the program if make-ups are not possible.

To mttzakr, which Pearson do you have? I see a couple different ones on amazon. Thanks!

[charli_appleRN]

I want to add that you should always read the implementation portion of assigned chapters. All exams are application and implementation=application.

[Cuddleswithpuddles]

My tip...

Take on the hardest patient during your clinical rotations. You know that patient. The one nurses do not want to get assigned to, spits, bites, has pressure ulcers everywhere, in isolation, several doctors on the case, social services consult, crazy family, noncompliant, on a vent, coughs up a storm, likes to climb out of bed, g-tube, 20 meds in one pass, has hypertension, diabetes, renal failure, history of drug abuse and a raging case of herpes.

Nothing has forced me to be more efficient at learning my pathophysiology, pharmacology, medical treatments and planning nursing care quite like taking on such patients.