Picmonic and nursing books

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Hi all!

I begin the BSN nursing program this spring. I think I counted 14 books for three classes. I’ll probably get them all, as I don’t anticipate them really being unused. But how has it been for the rest of you? All the books and the recommended ones too? And does anyone use ebooks? Good, bad, ugly?

I sprung for an Osmosis and a Picmonic membership.

Any other good learning aids?

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Specializes in Mental Health.

I use all ebooks. Copy and paste stuff directly from those into Anki (notecards) along with lecture notes, practice questions, screenshots from Picmonic, etc. and then once it's all in there I can just use that one source for studying all the material. I find this particularly useful when it comes to studying for cumulative finals since Anki manages spaced repetition with all the cards and you can stay current with all the material throughout the semester.

I found that all the study methods presented to students at my school were nearly completely useless to me. Highlighting books and stuff like that has been shown to be very ineffective when compared to active recall. It took me a while to develop a system that worked really well for me, but am just wrapping up my final semester in a couple weeks and have been sailing through my tests. I def recommend checking out Anki - it's used by a lot of medical students. Way better than quizlet.

I hadn't heard of Osmosis before - just checked them out and signed up for the 7 day trial. Seems like a great resource, will definitely check it out more when NP school rolls around.

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Thanks @Rionoir I haven’t heard of Anki, it sounds like osmosis. I can add my notes, pptx, and handouts and it’ll suggest videos, Flashcards and links to picmonic and other sites. It also does the spaced reputation learning.

I think I start with a few ebooks. We have some that must be purchases as a bundle from the bookstore. I just can’t see trying to keep up with so many books.

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Specializes in Mental Health.

I took a look at their notecards on Osmosis - they actually have an option called "Anki-style" cloze formatting. Definitely going to play around with this site some more.

Do you have any problem at the end of the videos where the quiz button either keeps flashing and then doesn't let you click on it?

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In osmosis? No I don’t think I’ve even noticed a quiz. It could be a subscription thing with them. I’ll look at those anki style notecards. I’m still trying to figure it all out. I used the free stuff over the summer in anatomy and physiology and completely forgot about using it this semester (I had better instructors, fewer gaps to fill in).

you can email them, they will get back to you quickly. They do have a YouTube channel which is what I mostly used. I just sprung for the membership yesterday. Sorry I’m not more help.

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Specializes in Mental Health.

At this point I only have finals left so I'll probably just use the videos too, but when I go back to school I'm definitely going to be using that site. I'm just looking at workspaces and how it analyzes the powerpoints right now. Some amazing stuff in there. Yea don't bother with Anki it's got it setup pretty much the same. Awesome so glad you mentioned that in your post. ?

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On 11/18/2019 at 5:38 PM, Rionoir said:

At this point I only have finals left so I'll probably just use the videos too, but when I go back to school I'm definitely going to be using that site. I'm just looking at workspaces and how it analyzes the powerpoints right now. Some amazing stuff in there. Yea don't bother with Anki it's got it setup pretty much the same. Awesome so glad you mentioned that in your post. ?

Hey they have a refer a friend program, when you're ready this gets you 2 weeks of prime access. I'm a little jealous that they have different access for RN vs med school, but I suppose it'd just be more information than I need to sort through. I wanted to go to med school but thought RN was more feasible and I can work my way to being a surgical nurse, I think my mindset is still MD-ish.

https://www.osmosis.org/

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I left a link for a 2 week osmosis trial that is waiting to be approved by a mod for you @Rionoir.

I ordered 2 ebooks so far. I think its the way to go. Thanks!

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Specializes in Skepticism, Anti Quackery.

Both are great!

I use Picmonic every single day in my Nurse Practitioner program and it has been awesome! It uses research proven learning methods such as spaced repetition and active recall. I would for sure recommend it! You can actually get a free account and watch 1 video per day. However, it is cheap compared to other programs such as Osmosis, Sketchy, etc. I belive it is around $25 per month.

Since I am a premium member I can actually share my sign up link and it will give you 20% off if you sign up through my link in my profile.

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