700 pages of reading, per week, for one class

[caffeineRx]

How do you do it?

[MauraRN]

I agree with the advice to use a NCLEX book to focus your studies, a study guide for practice questions. I would add the following;

ADPIE: Assess, Diagnose, Planning, Interventions, Evaluation of the patient

ABCD: Airway, Breathing, Circulation, Disability (Neuro)

MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS. For this one, use the chart of the pyramid to answer priority questions; basic physiological needs come before love and belonging, etc. Ya, you have to know ERICKSON'S stages for school, but never again.

A patent AIRWAY comes before anything else including BREATHING; you can't breath if you don't have an airway.

If you can answer the questions using ADPIE which is the NURSING CARE PLAN, or ABCD or MASLOW, you will likely come to the correct answer in cases where all of the answers sound correct. Nursing instructors almost never give you this info in a coherent way, a way that you could apply to your exams. Try this with some end of chapter questions and see if it works for you. If you need to find the "priority" answer this system usually will work. Don't overthink the questions, they are not "real world" questions.

[mappers]

I rarely ever read. Used the textbooks for reference only, might take a look at the boxes, etc. (And yes we were assigned reading.) I took good notes, had a study group. We divided up objectives (like someone else said) and came up with NCLEX style questions that we then quized each other with. I used the CDs that came with the books too to get questions and to do exercises. Everyone in my study group did well.

[kxvc]

As a recent graduate I would advise you listen in lecture. Read up on topics you don't understand.

If you can form a study group assign each member a certain section to read and take notes on. When you get together each one of you can take turns teaching what you read to each other.

It's possible. It's been done before. You're not a whiner. You just need to outsmart the teacher. Nursing school was hell. Good luck!

[matchsticktgt, LPN]

You have had some really good suggestions here - I just finished up (last term) Med/Surg, and Foundations before that.....each class was 8 weeks and I had the same teacher (argh!)...she didn't actually "lecture", just read us the powerpoints that came with her teacher's edition text book....we got to sit in the dark and see the powerpoints, and listen to her read them. The sad part was, just because it was covered in class, did NOT mean it would make it to the tests....we had between 8-12 chapters to cover per week. The semester before that, when I had Patient Assessment, the "teacher" would talk in class, cover next to nothing from the book, and tell us that she made it through nursing school and we could deal with it or not. I promise you I self-taught myself that term. The failure rate for these three classes was VERY high. From the original 40 or so people that started with me last Spring, only 3 (yep, THREE) have made it thus far. The amount of reading is almost humanly impossible, since we do need to eat and sleep. I read something last term that actually helped me out - an hour of sleep is worth more to us nursing students than an extra hour of studying. I have since found that to be true. I, like you, are an exceptional reader. But there is so much "filler" and "detail" that while nice to know, is not vitally important or crucial...the problem is that we as students have a very difficult time knowing what we can filter out...I found the key points at the end of each chapter to be very beneficial in summing up the important info in the chapter, but found the questions to be irrelevant to my instructor's test bank questions.....not to mention, the answers at the back of the book didn't always agree with what she said the answers were! My advice is to hit the high points, pay close attention to lecture, get as much sleep as possible and eat as little junk food as possible You can do it! (But nobody ever said it would be fun or easy

[ellakate]

This must be where bullying starts in NS. I've been trying to figure out when the teacher begins to wave a whip. This may be it.

It makes me so happy to see you all sharing this valuable peer information.

[matchsticktgt, LPN]

Some instructors have an entire collection of whips - they seem to want to make you suffer the way their nursing instructors made them suffer - since they can have no retribution against the original source, nursing students will have to do! With that said, I have also had some absolutely wonderful instructors - I was fortunate enough to have as a clinical instructor for two semesters a very experienced, talented nurse who actually WANTS nursing students to succeed, and takes it very personally when they fall short. I can certainly say that without her nurturing attitude and wealth of knowledge, I don't know how well I would have done in my foundations and med/surg classes.....med/surg was as hard as everyone warned me it would be - literally 1/2 my class were repeat students, having failed it already once before. Only 6 of us made it out "alive".

[psalm, RN]

Read the chapter objectives and the summaries before you read the chapter, to see what is highlighted. Stay awake in lecture.

Eat, sleep, breathe...

[cokristinug]

From what I learned from nursing school is that there is NO WAY that you are going to be able to read all of the material that the instructors assign. Each instructor will say that their class is the most important etc. You will soon realize which classes you need to actually read the material for and which ones you don't (i mean you still need to study, but you get the idea...) When I first started nursing school I bought all of the books that they "required" and tried to read all of the material...yeah that lasted about one week. Then I learned to prioritize and still did excellent in nursing school. You will figure out what works best for you.

[liebling5, MSN, RN]

I agree with this post: "Used the textbooks for reference only, might take a look at the boxes, etc. (And yes we were assigned reading.)"

Those highlighted boxes were very helpful to me. I'm the type of student who could listen to the lecture, take brief notes, find syllabus objectives in the book, and still earn a B. I'm not saying it was easy by any stretch, but you can do it! Like others, much of the "required" reading was never addressed. I now buy one main text for each class, and perhaps the study guide for the very scientific stuff, like pathophysiology.

[Maghunter]

I never read the book...never. I do read the important parts and do all the homework. I also often make my own flash cards of the important points or key terms...but I hardly ever just sit down and read. Nothing ever sinks in for me by reading. In fact, making my own flash cards is my best method to learning what's important. Most of the time I never even use them to study, because the process of making them is often enough for me.

[netglow, ASN, RN]

Do you have a large medsurge book: access the online or CD powerpoints associated with it.

Get a NCLEX book: I very highly recommend, Comprehensive Review for the NCLEX-RN, Reviews and rationales by Mary Ann Hogan!!! This will outline all your content, it's better than Kaplan or Saunders in that it is pathophys based and is not loaded with therapeutic filler. I actually stopped reading assigned text and jotted down topics and used my resources for study... you can look under Vicki's Blog for student resources too!!!

Hope you kept your A&P books: I go back often.

Join Medscape: search titles

Another book for quickies: I very highly recommend Professional Guide to Pathophysiology, second edition by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. This also has Cause, pathophys, S/S, complications, DX, TX, nursing considerations!!!!

[caffeineRx]

memorizing sure seems like the only way to do it! good idea again :)