New student! First Exam in 3 days!!

brit.pz · Jan 17, 2015

Hard to guess what your instructor is going to ask, but for vitals I would just attempt to know the normal vital signs for an adult - BP, Temp, Respirations, etc.. I would think they would tell you about a patient give a list of vitals and have you select which vitals were abnormal/normal and which abnormal vitals would be highest priority. Should be pretty easy. For mobility and immobility I would focus on aspects of safe patient handling/transfer, how patients properly use assistive walking devices - crutches, canes, etc. Good luck on your exam! Use the chapter overview and questions at the end of the chapter to help you study!

Carriecath · Jan 17, 2015

Do you have access to the evolve website? There are some great reference materials on there for most of their books through your student portal.

Shagce1 · Jan 18, 2015

Are there questions at the end of the chapters? If so, review those. They can be a good overview of the content.

PaulBaxter · Jan 18, 2015

Be sure to know the correct terms for everything. Be sure to know what sorts of things are priority items. Be sure to know what sorts of things would get you in trouble.

Be prepared for questions with more than one "right" answer. You might need to know what you should do FIRST in a situation. If you have skills to look at for the test you might want to review the ORDER of the steps carefully.

We use the same text in my program. It seems like a decent textbook.

Don't get discouraged if you don't quite get the grade you want on the first test. It will be a good opportunity to learn about what nursing tests look like and how they are different than tests you had in other classes.

Good luck! (and study hard)

Summer Days · Jan 18, 2015

Hmm let's see. Know BP cuff sizes and when you would use each size. If you use too small a cuff size on a large pt, do you expect BP to be high or low? And vice versa.

The elderly have low tolerance to VS changes. Know the difference between their parameters and compare it with those of an average adult.

When taking temps know which routes give you a core temperature value and which ones that don't. Expect questions that will ask you to place VS in order of priority.

Know all the VS parameters and what interventions you would do if they are normal or abnormal. For instance, if you took a pt's temp via the oral route and you got 36.1 C, what would you do next? Do you a) document the result, this is normal temp b) recheck the temp in 15 min c) get another thermometer because this temp value is wrong d) check pt's temp history.

Mobility: when would you go active ROM and passive ROM? Which electrolytes does immobility affect? Know Braden Scale if you've been taught.

All the best, cheers

targetlady · Feb 11, 2015

Thank you! I used the chapter overview and relied mostly on that...scored an 88% ... :) I guess i was nervous because it was our first exam into the program. I had my second exam and scored 86%, I was actually more proud of myself with tese results because it covered much more than the first. Thank you for your advice...all helped :)