New nursing student

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I will start my nursing program in the spring. In my first semester, I will take fundamental of nursing and introduction patient care.

I want to buy some study guide or textbook to prepare those classes.

Anyone have suggestion?

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Specializes in Critical Care, Capacity/Bed Management.

I recommend the Saunder's NCLEX-RN; the only stuff that will be pertinent at that level of nursing education is located in the first few chapters of the book but as you progress you will find it more valuable.

Also you can look and see if there are any online resources for your textbooks. Many utilize some form of online test questions that are incredibly helpful when studying content.

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Specializes in ICU.

The fact is you really can't prepare because you won't understand what they are talking about. Enjoy the holidays and rest up for next semester. You will be busy.

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Specializes in Aesthetics, Med/Surg, Outpatient.

Enjoy your break because you WILL need it... once the semester starts however, Id recommend

ISBN 9780803627796 - Fundamentals Success : A Q and a Review Applying Critical Thinking to Test Taking 3rd Edition Direct Textbook

ALL THE BEST

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Fundamentals Success is great! Also practice your dosage calculations!:)

April, Student Nurse

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I agree that you can't really prepare for those specific courses. You've learned a lot in pre-nursing, but now you will learn an entirely new way to process and apply that information, which you shouldn't try to teach yourself.

Instead, I recommend brushing up on your medical terminology! Understanding how to break words down is very helpful when sitting in lectures where you're moving very quickly through material that has many words you may have never seen before. Understand hypo- versus hyper-, as in hypotensive VS hypertensive, or hypo/hyperkalemic, etc. Or tachycardia VS bradycardia, apnea VS tachypnea.

If you're already confident with these things, then brush up on your basic anatomy of the body systems. The better you understand how the body normally works, the better you can understand what happens when something is WRONG -- a critical skill you'll learn/need to master.

Other than that, seriously, enjoy your free time. Good luck to you!

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Thank you everyone for all the suggestions. I will reread all my anatomy notes and build up prefix, suffix words. Also relax and enjoy that coming holiday.

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I agree with the above, take a break. Once you start, I HIGHLY recommend getting a few NCLEX books and then studying for tests by going through questions related to those systems. The 2 books I used for fundamentals are listed below. Both of these books have sections that are relevant for fundamentals and then you can move on to the other sections when you get to med-surg. I liked the review of systems done by Hogan more than I liked the Saunder's book.

- Prioritization, Delegation, and Assignment by LaCharity, Kumagai, and Bartz.

- Comprehensive Review for NCLEX-RN by MaryAnn Hogan

GOOD LUCK!

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