Nursing mnemonics

[vishalisekar]

Hi, I am a first-year student and I am struggling with memorizing tons and tons of crap. Can someone give me tips or mnemonics that you have used to help me out?

Currently, we are allowed to do pain assessment, vital signs and move the patient. For moving a patient, there is a specific assessment I need to do like asking the patient to grip my fingers and to roll over in bed to judge their stability. SO Do you just remember the nitty gritty stuff by a lots of practice or is there any way you remember them?

[OHN19]

Most assessment stuff you just kinda have to memorize. I've never heard of any mnemonics for them at least. Repetitiveness helps with assessment stuff once you start clinicals/preceptorship/whatever you want to call it you'll do so many assessments that it becomes second nature. Don't sweat it if you forget stuff early on. I would hope you're not expected to be a full fledged expert at first.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Back when the Earth's crust was still cooling, and we all used narrative charting (yep, no check boxes - even in critical care) we were taught to proceed "head to toe" and then "surroundings". Easy Peasy. Start at the patient's head and work your way all the way down - assessing, checking vitals and noting findings as you go.... then note & document all the stuff that is surrounding &/or attached to the patient. We also strictly adhered to the "strip and flip" requirement for baseline shift assessment - everyone was turned, and we eyeballed ALL skin surfaces. It was pretty easy to remember and provided a very thorough basis for documentation.

Documentation was also a lot faster before electronic health records reared their bulbous heads. Paper (AKA random access hard copy) records didn't have mysterious glitches, down time or interface problems... & 'charting' was possible anywhere we could find a firm surface. But, I digress.

You'll develop your own groove. It will happen. You've got this.

[AliNajaCat]

There's nothing better to help you learn something than having to teach it. Partly because you have to understand it really well before you start planning your lesson, and partly because you have to put yourself in the position of your learners by anticipating their confusions and misconceptions. These last you will identify while your prepare the material...because you will recognize them as your own.

This is one thing I learned when I took a class where we were all required to teach two classes to our peers. (Later when I became faculty I realized what a sweet deal this was for the professor, too 😀... in fairness, she was available as a resource to help us prepare.)

I always had my undergrad clinical students teach two 10-15 sessions per clinical semester on topics of their choice. They got good practice, learned a lot, and gained recognition from their classmates as a resource on their topics. Win-win-win!

[tnbutterfly - Mary, BSN]

Here is a great thread that contains some excellent nursing mnemonics and memory aids.

Mnemonics and Memory Aids