Nursing exams and drug cards

PurpleLover · Jan 21, 2014

I feel your pain. I am in the first semester and I am studying, but unsure if I know it. Which is a weird feeling. My old study style was to write things often, that is just not practical now.

Congrats on surviving the first semester!

christina731 · Jan 21, 2014

Hello all I'm in my second semester of nursing and still have no idea how to study for the exams. I can't seem to find a method that works for me. Any tips or advice? What methods helped you? I've also found myself really behind on drug cards. I have no idea if it's because I'm writing too much and going too in depth with them or what. Any advice is greatly appreciated! Feeling quite lost and overwhelmed and it's only been a week into the semester. Yikes![/quote']
As far as drug cards, my 101 clinical instructor told me that I was writing too much (sometimes as much as the front and back of a 4x6 card). She told me that if I write so much I might as well just carry my drug book in my pocket. Now I just do the most common/most life threatening stuff that pertains to YOUR patient. There's no way that you can memorize everything that's there, so make it easier for you.
As far as lecture, I find it best for me to print put my PowerPoints and take notes on them in lecture then I go home and go back to the book to clarify things that I don't get. Then I write each slide's info on a notecard and use that to study so I can just bring a stack with me wherever I go. I don't use any supplemental books, just what is required. I have done fine with my first 2 semesters (funds, pharm, medsurg I and psych) with this study method. I also do the NCLEX questions that go with my text, as well as reading my ATI book for that subject. It really helps me to write things out rather than just reading. I tend to get bored and easily distracted when I read so it's better for me to write.

PixieRN14 · Jan 22, 2014

As far as drug cards my 101 clinical instructor told me that I was writing too much (sometimes as much as the front and back of a 4x6 card). She told me that if I write so much I might as well just carry my drug book in my pocket. Now I just do the most common/most life threatening stuff that pertains to YOUR patient. There's no way that you can memorize everything that's there, so make it easier for you. As far as lecture, I find it best for me to print put my PowerPoints and take notes on them in lecture then I go home and go back to the book to clarify things that I don't get. Then I write each slide's info on a notecard and use that to study so I can just bring a stack with me wherever I go. I don't use any supplemental books, just what is required. I have done fine with my first 2 semesters (funds, pharm, medsurg I and psych) with this study method. I also do the NCLEX questions that go with my text, as well as reading my ATI book for that subject. It really helps me to write things out rather than just reading. I tend to get bored and easily distracted when I read so it's better for me to write.[/quote']
I like the Kaplan drug cards. It focuses on the most important aspects of the drug. If you need to write your own, then just pull the information off of them.

christina731 · Jan 22, 2014

I like the Kaplan drug cards. It focuses on the most important aspects of the drug. If you need to write your own, then just pull the information off of them.

I wouldn't mind trying them out but I hate purchasing additional items that are not required. I'm too broke :/

lwhatley · Jan 22, 2014

Before I dive into the advice, let me start off by saying that I'm sorry you're feeling lost and overwhelmed, a lot of people on these boards can relate, you're definitely not alone. With that being said, here's some advice, step back and take a look at your history of learning, ANY learning.

1. Identify a Learning Pattern.

Yaknow all those random facts of knowledge you have stored in your brain? The ones that you either feel odd for consistently remembering or repeatedly being reminded of over the years? My examples: I'll never forget the names of the great lakes because the mnemonic H.O.M.E.S, or I can recall the names of every state because I learned that song way back when in elementary school, I never missed a deadline date or appointment after I write it down in my planner...etc.

After hitting nursing school and feeling the same frustration you felt by being suckerpunched with a massive fist of content/material, I was desperate to figure out the best way for me to retain the information in the least amount of time for the sake of using the spared time to retain the information from OTHER nursing topics/classes (exhausting, I know, hang in there). So, given our experience in at least 12 years of schooling prior to nursing school, I decided to call upon that experience and try to I.D the times that I felt like I mastered material, didn't matter what kind of material it was, and exactly HOW I did it...was it a memorable lecture? Did I go and ask the teacher to give me another explanation? Did I study the topic with a group of peers? Did I watch an interesting movie? Draw a diagram? Etc.

The pattern I found for myself was that I learned best from being exposed to the lectured content. Professionals in the biz call this being an "Audible Learner". Remember those learning styles? Kinesthetic? Audible? Etc...the learning styles I didn't exactly believe could be condensed into such few styles? Yeah, they were on to something....anyway...

Use this pattern identification to then outline your future learning & study habits. Keep in mind that you might have a different learning style for different types of courses, like how I learn the content of History Courses better by actually reading the textbook (its the ONLY subject that this remains true), and I physical science concepts, for me (and probably most), are learned best by actually conducting an experiment in a lab.

There are exceptions to rules and different unique methods you'll find for yourself as you go along. By the end of nursing school, I figured out that I actually could cram (never responsible) for exams better if I color coded the material, and that I could sit down and focus for longer periods of time if I listened to dubstep with no words....it's the little things, but remain consistent! You'll notice results!

2. Establish a Study Zone

Self explanatory. Establish an area that you use and associate primarily for studying. You'll find yourself more focused and productive later on. I could not EVER study for classes in my house because I was the type of person who would rather talk myself into prioritizing ANY household chore over remaining focused on studying stuff. My study zone was the library, and I literally spent DAYS at a time there (not recommending that practice, just admitting my experience).

3. Resourcefulness is the Key to Success

Have a painfully boring professor that you can't stand to listen to for more than 10 minutes? Are concepts of certain courses being explained in a way seemingly more complicated than astrophysics? Time to move on to a different source of knowledge...but howww?

You already noted some experience in this supplementation suggestion with how you use the NCLEX review textbooks to review concepts you've encountered in class, great! Here are some more that I used while I was in nursing school, I still joke that at least half of my degree should be attributed to what I learned on behalf of Apple, I probably should owe them tuition...

Podcasts, Itunes university, youtube, and specialized forums like this one (allnurses) were invaluable to me over my nursing semesters. The more ya gotta dig for podcasts/videos/recordings on topics you want clarification on or an alternative teaching method on, the more well-rounded your understanding of the topic will become.

My psych nursing lecturer taught in a format that may well have been in pig latin for how well I comprehended the content, sometimes I'd eve recognize a concept I actually REALLY wanted to know more about and the prof didn't deliver the way I would have liked, so what did I do? Dave's Psych Lectures podcast on itunes was AWESOME and taught me the majority of usable/testable content from the course in a style that I felt was tailored to ME, but this resource took some time to find, there are a ton of podcasts and itunes university pages on the subject of psychology, like I said before, ya gotta dig, but once you find that lecture that you felt was written and composed FOR you, you'll be glad you did the work to find it.

Non-internet based resources to consider:

1.Attending medical conferences in your area. Most of the content will be above your head, but exposure to the material will help you in the long run, and it's an excellent opportunity network, and I don't care WHO tells you otherwise: nursing is, and always will be based on WHO you know first, and WHAT you know second. Took me a while to actually swallow that news and resent not networking more before graduation, but the concept as repeatedly been reinforced during my job hunts.

2. Keeping current on Journal Articles coming out. You don't have to understand the intricacies of the results being presented, but like attending those conferences, exposure to the material and the content being actively researched will help you cement topics you're currently trying to nail down in a variety of your classes. Making associations is one of the best ways to remember ANYTHING, it's how your memory works the most effectively.

3. Concept maps, drawings, comics: I drew things out, I marked diagrams, I made inappropriate comics about certain topics so that when I came upon them later on, I could laugh about making stupid comics about it, and then be reminded about all the data I tried to jam into a stupid comic, again, associations are awesome, get creative.

Bonus: not sure what you're interested in, but assuming they're similar to my interests, here are some of my favorite podcasts that I still regularly listen to: Mark Crislips podcasts (persiflagers, puscast, quackcast), EMcrit, EMbasic, Frontline, ICU Grandrounds, ERcast, Tedtalks.

Summary

That's all I got for now, but mostly because in the time that I spent writing this out, I neglected the actual project that I need to finish sitting right in front of me. Remember how I said I can't be productive in my own home?

Basically, exposing yourself to content in as many ways as you can will help ensure you remember it, but don't waste time exposing yourself to the content in a way you know doesn't jive with your learning style. I stuck with lectures because if people kept TELLING me about the topic, I could almost start reciting the material. I also figured out that if I wrote something down a couple times, I could remember it forever, so I started writing out ALL of my notes instead of typing them out like I used to in previous classes, my grades inflated! Find your pattern and expose yourself to methods that get along with the pattern you identified!

Hope this helps.