Picmomic

Thanksgiving is a great time to express what we are thankful for. Allnurses and Picmonic are very thankful for all nursing students. We realize that even in the best of times, nursing school is challenging. The Pandemic has caused so much additional stress and challenges. This Thanksgiving Giveaway is a chance for us to thank you for hanging in there and an opportunity for you to win some great prizes and bring a smile to your face. One Winner - $200 Total Prize $100 Picmonic Nursing Swag Free Picmonic Premium Subscription Critical Clinicals: 70+ Nursing Cheat Sheets Contest ends on November 25th. To participate go to this FORM and answer the following questions: What Study aid/app are you most grateful for in nursing school? What class are you thankful is finally over/you never have to take again? On scale from 1-10 how valuable do you think using NCLEX style question banks are to passing the NCLEX exam? Would stress management tips be valuable to you during nursing school? What school do you attend? Submit Your Answers! Contest results and email addresses will be shared with Picmonic. Prizes will be distributed by Picmonic. About Our Sponsor: Picmonic Remember more in less time and boost your test scores with Picmonic, the world’s best visual mnemonic learning resource and study aid for medical school, nursing school, and more!

We’re aware that there have been changes to the logistical components of the NCLEX® to ensure safety precautions, such as limited test dates or length of the exam. This may be causing you anxiety and leave you feeling unsure of how to prepare. Here at Picmonic, we want to help minimize the stress of this uncertain time and know that we are here to support in any way possible. We’ve collected some favorite tips from our scholar team on how to prepare for the NCLEX®, and we have included a “ 2-Week NCLEX® Essentials Guide” if you have to take it without as much notice as you had initially planned. 1. Back-to-Basics: Remember the Foundations While you’re studying, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the massive amount of content that you feel you have to review. Focusing on the foundations is extremely important for the NCLEX®; review the nursing process (ADPIE), review vitals, lab values, and assessment findings. This may seem like it’s simple information, but the NCLEX® will be presenting you with a lot of this information, so make sure you have it down. 2. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat Even though your NCLEX® plans may have changed and may be out of your control, you have to remember that prepping for the NCLEX® is like marathon training; the more repetition, the better. Sticking to a routine and practicing questions over and over is a necessary component. We recommend you do at least 50-75 practice questions from a quiz bank every day; do even more questions if you have less time. Get in the habit of having the NCLEX® question mentality so that you are familiar with it when the time comes. 3. Apply Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs for Yourself! (Proper Nutrition, Sleep, Exercise) At the base of Maslow’s pyramid is taking care of physiological needs; apply this to yourself as well! Although this is an extremely stressful time for society, the importance of keeping a healthy routine is essential, especially when facing the big exam. Keep focused on constantly getting a proper amount of sleep (7-8 hours), eating a nutrient-dense diet full of fruits and vegetables, and getting at least 30 minutes of exercise per day. The night before, let yourself completely relax. Don’t try to cram last-minute information into your head. Give yourself time to calm down; go for a walk, eat a healthy dinner, reduce phone/computer screen time, and get to bed early. The morning of, make sure you eat a breakfast that will keep you satisfied for the exam without having a sugar crash. Also avoid having too much coffee in order to reduce the jitters that you may have already. These foundational elements are extremely vital to your success when approaching this exam, and will considerably reduce your stress levels as well. Below is a “2-week NCLEX® Essentials” guide with Picmonics we recommend you study prior to your exam. Review these Picmonics along with doing your spaced repetition quiz on the home screen. In addition, do 50-75 practice questions from your question bank of choice per day, and add in any supplemental resources that you see fit! WEEK 1 Monday Culture Communication Delegation +SPACED REPETITION QUIZ Tuesday Leadership Patient Safety Patient Positioning +SPACED REPETITION QUIZ Wednesday Lab Values +SPACED REPETITION QUIZ Thursday Infection Control Vital Signs Lung Sounds +SPACED REPETITION QUIZ Friday Medication Administration Needle Sizes and Uses +SPACED REPETITION QUIZ Saturday Immobility IV Fluids Wound Care + SPACED REPETITION QUIZ WEEK 2 Monday Oxygenation Chest Tube Management + SPACED REPETITION QUIZ Tuesday Blood Types Blood Transfusions Hypertension Medications + SPACED REPETITION QUIZ Wednesday Electrolyte Imbalances Acid-Base Imbalances + SPACED REPETITION QUIZ Thursday Burns Insulin Antibiotics + SPACED REPETITION QUIZ Friday Antidepressants Antipsychotics + SPACED REPETITION QUIZ Saturday Toxicities and Reversal Agents + SPACED REPETITION QUIZ

You need the best learning resources to suit your needs. You may be overwhelmed with the different options out there, especially when it comes to visual learning platforms. In this two-part article, we’re here to break it down for you and explain what to look for so you can make the most informed decision to which is the best study tool for you; the student who needs an efficient and effective solution to mastering the massive load of information you need to know. Let’s use these two visual resources as our examples: 1) Picmonic Study App, the established leader in visual mnemonic learning for nursing students, and 2) SketchyNursing, the new video library offshoot of SketchyMedical. Learning Aid for Broad Coverage of Topics #1 Content CoverageIn nursing school, you’re expected to know thousands of facts ranging across all the nursing areas; fundamentals of nursing, pharmacology for nursing, med-surg, psych, obstetrics and so much more. Content coverage is important to a well-rounded study routine, and if you’ve found an effective way to study using one tool, you’ll want to use it for all topics, not just a few topics. Picmonic has a wide range of topics covered and have over 1,000 videos to get you through day one of nursing school, all the way till the NCLEX®. SketchyNursing currently only covers pharmacology and has 67 videos, but they are very detailed if your only focus is learning pharm. PicmonicTopic Coverage (10 Subjects, 1,000+ Videos): AnatomyPhysiologyMicrobiologyFundamentals of NursingMedical-Surgical NursingPharmacological NursingObstetricsPsychiatric NursingPediatric NursingCritical Care NursingSketchyNursingTopic Coverage: (1 Subject, 67 Videos) Nursing PharmacologyBonus! Knowledge of science is ever-changing, and so are the medical guidelines along with it. Picmonic’s team of medical experts is constantly auditing and updating the content based on the newest research and community feedback, and anyone has the ability to report errors if they exist. #2 Tying Related Facts/Topics TogetherIt’s not just about memorizing every detail of all the bugs, drugs and diseases; you have to learn each topic AND how it relates to everything else. For example, if a patient presents with a set of symptoms, you need to remember every possible cause. You have a question about a drug? You’ll need to know every condition it could treat. Differentiating between annoyingly similar information is one of the most challenging aspects of medical education. PicmonicWith just one click, Picmonic relates the facts from one topic to the next, so you can form those visual connections and quickly navigate between the meaningful concept maps.SketchyNursingRelated topics are mentioned verbally during narration.An Efficient Learning Experience #1 Which Nursing Mnemonics Resource Is The Most Efficient?OK, picture mnemonics have been proven to be effective, but which ones should you use? Time management and the need for efficiency is the reality of a nursing student, and because of this, you need to consume and retain as much information as possible in the shortest amount of time. *Current research shows that there is diminishing value after six minutes of watching a video, but if you need a substitute for going to class, a longer, more comprehensive video may be helpful. *http://up.csail.mit.edu/other-pubs/las2014-pguo-engagement.pdf PicmonicOver 1,000 videos no longer than five minutes. Highlights the most important facts that you’ll be tested on, and breaks down complex topics into multiple videos; separating assessment, interventions, side effects etc, therefore you’ll never watch a Picmonic video more than three minutes long. Picmonic also provides you with a written transcript of the video you just watched, so you can pick out the important details by skimming through it if you prefer.Picmonic content is mapped by Courses, Body Systems and NCLEX-prep, and integrates popular nursing textbooks for more efficient learning.SketchyNursingVideos range from 10-30 minutes with a lot of information in each video, almost similar to a lecture format.Videos walk through a lot of the factual information that is covered in class, which is helpful if remediation is the goal or if you need an alternative to your current instructor!#2 Focus On The Most Need-To-Know InformationWhen deciding which resource to use, you must first discover which way you learn the best. The two tools provide radically different approaches. PicmonicPrioritizes the high-yield information for you, leveraging known science around the maximum amount of information that can be effectively retained by the brain at any one time.Picmonic Image: 9 characters SketchyNursingAllows you to pick and choose what will be most important to study, and tends to fill their videos with a lot of information, similar to a lecture you would have in class.Images: 49 symbols Bonus! Picmonic talks a lot about efficient studying on their website and in their blogs and youtube videos. Their multiple course layouts (Courses, Body Systems, Books or NCLEX Review) and integrations with the most popular nursing textbooks can be a time-saver. As a nursing student, you are assigned a large amount of reading on a weekly basis. Are you really doing all your reading? In class, are you familiar with the lecture material and able to keep up with the instructor? Picmonic has mapped the most popular nursing textbooks into the platform, so you can follow along with your assigned readings and quickly learn the Picmonics that appear in those chapters. For example, if you are assigned chapter 31 of the Fundamentals of Nursing by Potter and Perry, you know the exact 52 Picmonics to learn before class so that you create a framework of the information in your memory ahead of time, making it easy to keep up in class and retain your instructor’s lecture material. If you know what book you’re learning and pages you need to read, you can find exactly what Picmonics you should learn side-by-side.

In Part 1 of this article, we covered the bascis of the memory formation process and how picture mnemonics will help strengthen new memories. Now in Part 2, I am going to let you in on the three evidence-based techniques that you can use to help you master nursing school. The Memory Formation Process (Continued)StorageAs I said before, the memory formation process is a three-step process; encoding, storage and retrieval. We went over encoding to understand how newly learned information becomes encoded into our memory, and how to make sure that those are really durable memories. But once we’ve improved the mediums we use to encode new information, how do we ensure it sticks? Here comes step two in the memory formation process; storage. This is where mnemonics come in, which are tools designed to help you remember something. A very basic form of a mnemonic and usually the most common is an acronym, which takes the first letter of every word in a list and create a new word. If we can remember that word, and spell it, we should be able to remember the list. Many of us have been using acronyms all our lives. Remember ROYGBIV for the colors of the rainbow? Nursing school loves acronyms as well (ADPIE anyone?). However, sometimes with acronyms, it's hard to remember what each letter stood for. Ever find yourself during a test thinking, “What did the “I” stand for again? Is it for identify? Is that for individualize? Is it for I have no idea?” So this is where we take it a step further. Time to bring back that Baker-Baker Paradox and make more associations. Instead of only the first letter of each word, we create a phonetic representation and a visual character to go with it, because remember, the more associations you can attach to something, the better the chance is that we’ll remember it. So let’s get creative with the little help of a picture mnemonic. Let’s turn that “I” into an Implementing-Imp character, and he's adding pie (for ADPIE) to the situation. Remember; according to the memory science, we want to make it weird and stand out! Now you're going to always remember that the “I” stands for implementation. Now if I can create an interaction with another visual character, (more associations!) then the stronger the memory will be. Let's add the Evaluator (for the next step; evaluation) into the mix, and when you visualize these characters interacting, you will be strengthening the web of memory connections even more. RetrievalOK, we’ve now gone over the first two steps of improving the memory formation process, beginning to understand a little bit about the science and tools behind making strong memories. Now how do we ensure we can always recall these memories when we need them, like in a stressful exam? That brings us to step three; retrieval. First, to pose an interesting question; how many of you study by rereading your textbook, reviewing study guides and concept maps over and over, hoping that the information will somehow stick? Well, friends, this is actually a huge misconception. When you do this, you are trying to re-encode the information again and again, but you don’t actually know the information, you are just memorizing the visual text, which creates an illusion of mastery. Don’t feel bad though, just change the technique! Instead, you want to practice, practice, practice! Practicing recalling information makes it easier to recall than trying to re-encode that information time and time again, and it is a more efficient use of your study time. So practice that active recall, basically; quiz yourself! You can do this by using flashcards, question banks, or even having your friend ask you questions out loud, all to stimulate that active recall. That way you can really identify what you need to work on, and from there narrow in on those areas of weakness. Now the question becomes, when and how often do you do this? Spaced RepetitionHave you ever over-caffeinated yourself, cramming all night in hopes to pass that test the next day, only to zombie out and forget the information as soon as you leave that exam room? I’ve been there, and not only is it no fun; it’s actually inefficient as well. Let’s go back to that forgetting curve to show you why cramming doesn’t work for the long-run. When you cram, sure, you might remember the information for the test, and that’s fine. But here’s what happens a few days later; that information you crammed all night to get in your memory is most probably long-gone, and may I remind you, you need to have this information committed to memory to be a successful nurse. Instead, you want to space out your review of information over increasing intervals of time, otherwise known as spaced repetition. When you start studying with spaced repetition; every time you review that information, the slope of the curve becomes less and less, until it’s eventually stored as a long-term memory. In the same amount of time spent studying you can remember for years, not just days! Now the key to reviewing that information is right at the moment you are going to forget it, but unfortunately, as human beings, that’s pretty difficult to predict. That’s why there are study tools out there that have software algorithms doing that for you, so you don’t even have to think about it. When you are evaluating your study tool, a good idea is to make sure they have spaced repetition incorporated, that way you can maximize your learning. Tying it all togetherEvidenced-Based LearningSo, you might be thinking this sounds a little crazy. I get it, it’s not the typical way you would learn in your classroom, but let’s stop and think about how well that is actually working out for you. The thing is; research actually proves that picture mnemonics work, really, really well. An independent double-blind research study was conducted on the picture mnemonic company, Picmonic, a few years ago (check out the PubMed study) and the results were pretty outstanding. After one week, students who studied with the aid of picture mnemonics saw a 50% increase in exam scores. Even more significant is that after one month, they saw a 331% increase in long-term memory retention. Not so crazy after all! So all in all, you can see how these three evidence-based techniques are simple enough to use in your study routine in order to boost your scores and remember information forever; picture mnemonics, practicing active recall and spaced repetition. You can see that with these tools and techniques, you are very much combating that forgetting curve. So take that, Hermann Ebbinghaus!