Nursing Student Success course

augurey · Dec 20, 2014

Ours was part of our program (first 8 weeks of the first semester, 1 credit). Actually, the class was called Success Strategies; however, it was about 1/4 success strategies and 3/4 med term.

The main things discussed as far as strategies go is how to read the textbook (SQR4 method), learning styles, etc. The only thing that made it "difficult" was learning 200+ terminology weekly (diseases, disorders, procedures, etc), but I'm not sure if that's something you'd have in your course or not. As far as the success strategies, easy.

The strategies aspect, I didn't find it very helpful. It was pretty much a self taught class and there was such little focus on it. I didn't really learn much that I didn't already know about myself or methods, but that's me.

Doing the med terms was helpful - stressful as there were so many in such a short period of time - but I'd rather get them down early (I already knew a lot - it was a refresher for me from 12 years ago) and already know them when I come across them in my later classes.

I'm not sure about how your program does the success course, but I really think about whether or not it is helpful really depends on the information they present and you.

It's exciting though! Which months do you think you'll go with? Good luck :)

dorkypanda · Dec 20, 2014

Ours was part of our program (first 8 weeks of the first semester, 1 credit). Actually, the class was called Success Strategies; however, it was about 1/4 success strategies and 3/4 med term.
The main things discussed as far as strategies go is how to read the textbook (SQR4 method), learning styles, etc. The only thing that made it "difficult" was learning 200+ terminology weekly (diseases, disorders, procedures, etc), but I'm not sure if that's something you'd have in your course or not. As far as the success strategies, easy.
The strategies aspect, I didn't find it very helpful. It was pretty much a self taught class and there was such little focus on it. I didn't really learn much that I didn't already know about myself or methods, but that's me.
Doing the med terms was helpful - stressful as there were so many in such a short period of time - but I'd rather get them down early (I already knew a lot - it was a refresher for me from 12 years ago) and already know them when I come across them in my later classes.
I'm not sure about how your program does the success course, but I really think about whether or not it is helpful really depends on the information they present and you.
It's exciting though! Which months do you think you'll go with? Good luck :)

thank you for your reply.

Do you think taking this will be helpful for NS? It's not part of my program or anything, it's an online course for clinical terminology. https://www.coursera.org/course/clinicalterminology

I will take on any months. It's been awhile since I've been in a class. The last time I had class was last fall, fall 2013 for anatomy. I've been a little relaxed since then hehe. I am in the process of starting to volunteer again but at a new place. Do you think it's possible to volunteer at a hospital for 4 hours a week and still do fine in NS?

How is your program going so far? Are you through the first year now?

what books do you recommend for NCLEX review questions for during NS? I hear that you should buy these NCLEX books to get familiar with the test question style.

Lidiacabrera2004 · Dec 20, 2014

Hey Dorkypanda, did you get accepted to sd city? I just got my acceptance letter yesterday too, which was a great early surprise. I don't think the Nursing success will be hard at all, so volunteering should be feasible for you. Good luck!

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Dec 20, 2014

thank you for your reply.
Do you think taking this will be helpful for NS? It's not part of my program or anything, it's an online course for clinical terminology. https://www.coursera.org/course/clinicalterminology
I will take on any months. It's been awhile since I've been in a class. The last time I had class was last fall, fall 2013 for anatomy. I've been a little relaxed since then hehe. I am in the process of starting to volunteer again but at a new place. Do you think it's possible to volunteer at a hospital for 4 hours a week and still do fine in NS?
How is your program going so far? Are you through the first year now?
what books do you recommend for NCLEX review questions for during NS? I hear that you should buy these NCLEX books to get familiar with the test question style.

Looking at the course....yes it will be helpful

pmabraham, BSN, RN · Dec 20, 2014

Good day:

I took the coursera clinical terminology class (it was one of their better ones in so far as health and science classes from my experience/opinion). I found it to be very helpful.

Thank you.

dorkypanda · Dec 20, 2014

Hey Dorkypanda, did you get accepted to sd city? I just got my acceptance letter yesterday too, which was a great early surprise. I don't think the Nursing success will be hard at all, so volunteering should be feasible for you. Good luck!

Hi there Lidiacabrera2004,

Yes I did! congrats to you too. Do you think the secretary will be in office on Monday the 29th of dec or should we wait till after jan 1st to contact them?

maybe I'll see you in class for the nursing student success course that starts on the 29th of January.

Lidiacabrera2004 · Dec 21, 2014

I emailed ***** that same day I got my letter, she said that she will have the add codes after the break.(even though our email says they have codes) you can try to contact her on the 29th but I reckon it will be closed til jan 5th. I am going to do the success course in march, please keep me updated!

dorkypanda · Dec 21, 2014

Oh wow really? I emailed her at 5 pm on Friday I guess she left already..I tried emailing **** but her automatic response was she is on break till Jan 21st and if we need to, contact *****. Plus we need to notify them ASAP if we can attend the nursing student success course and if we intend on being in the program or not by Jan. 9.

augurey · Dec 24, 2014

Based on your link, it looks like it'd be helpful!

I can only speculate as I'm just finishing my first semester, but I do know that it helped with the second half of the semester. A lot of my classmates complained a lot about all of the med terms, but I looked at it as getting a foundation before the other classes. I'd rather learn those now rather than having to add that to the work I have later on.

As for the other questions, no idea since I'm only through my first semester. It's all stuff I'll be figuring out on the way :) I did buy the Saunders and Kaplan NCLEX books, but I haven't really had the opportunity to use them. I also read on AN that the Success series for the different nursing classes have been a huge help. I'm planning on getting those as well as I go along.

As for the volunteering, I think that's only something you could know. It's absolutely possible to do both, but for some, it's not. I know that I couldn't do it, but there are many that could.

dorkypanda · Dec 24, 2014

Based on your link, it looks like it'd be helpful!
I can only speculate as I'm just finishing my first semester, but I do know that it helped with the second half of the semester. A lot of my classmates complained a lot about all of the med terms, but I looked at it as getting a foundation before the other classes. I'd rather learn those now rather than having to add that to the work I have later on.
As for the other questions, no idea since I'm only through my first semester. It's all stuff I'll be figuring out on the way :) I did buy the Saunders and Kaplan NCLEX books, but I haven't really had the opportunity to use them. I also read on AN that the Success series for the different nursing classes have been a huge help. I'm planning on getting those as well as I go along.
As for the volunteering, I think that's only something you could know. It's absolutely possible to do both, but for some, it's not. I know that I couldn't do it, but there are many that could.

One semester down! Enjoy your time off =)

did you have to spend a lot of time at the hospital for clinicals during your first semester? How many hours/days did you have to go?

augurey · Dec 24, 2014

It's only 2 weeks off! I'm enjoying them, but I'm actually ready to get back into the swing of things.

I haven't had any clinicals yet. My program prefers to have the pre-reqs taught along side the nursing courses, so we haven't gotten there yet. This semester was Dosage & Calc, Success Strategies, and A&P. Next semester I have Nutrition and Diet Therapy, Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Fundamentals. Our clinicals are due to start in March, but I'm not sure how much clinical time we'll get in for that part of the second semester.

From what I know, starting May at least, it'll be 48 hours clinical per 8 weeks per nursing course (our semesters are broken down into 2 - 8 week sections so we have 4 classes per semester, but are only taking 2 at a time). Then I think last semester we have a certain amount of community service plus, I think, 96 hours for our practicum.

From what I heard from the seniors, our clinical days are Saturdays for 8 hours. Senior year January/February is the only exception where we have clinicals Saturdays and Sundays (I think that's the only 8 weeks where we have 2 nursing courses together for clinicals). I know some of the rotations will be during the week (OR, home health, and I think psych).

I think the majority of it will be in a hospital though. The night before we have to go to our clinical site to research our patient.

So I haven't gotten to that exciting/nerve wracking part yet! :)