Reading?

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It seems like there is so much reading assigned for nursing school that if I do all the reading I won't have time to do anything else. Should I just skim? Pay attention to bold terms? Help!?

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Mindful reading. Take good notes in class. Usually lectures mirror the outline of the book. Gather keypoints discussed in class and look for those in your text. Ask why. Ask why. Ask why when you read. Reading 45 pages is useless and waste of time unless you engage in the text. Become an active reader, connecting dots and ask questions.

When reading the symptoms of a disease for example, think about the pathophysiology and how the pathophysiology of the disease can be seen through the symptoms. Don't just read these are the clinical manifestations, rather have AHH moments! Ah! Yes those symptoms make sense given the nature of the disease.

I did not read cover to cover. Takes notes from class and build on the points discussed in class.

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Specializes in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.
Should I just skim? Pay attention to bold terms? Help!?

Both and listen to lecture and re-listen to lecture if recording was allowed. I read cover to cover and all the pictures, captions, and modules because test questions were from there also. Nursing school is/was a full time job in my mind.

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Mindful reading. Take good notes in class. Usually lectures mirror the outline of the book. Gather keypoints discussed in class and look for those in your text. Ask why. Ask why. Ask why when you read. Reading 45 pages is useless and waste of time unless you engage in the text. Become an active reader, connecting dots and ask questions.

When reading the symptoms of a disease for example, think about the pathophysiology and how the pathophysiology of the disease can be seen through the symptoms. Don't just read these are the clinical manifestations, rather have AHH moments! Ah! Yes those symptoms make sense given the nature of the disease.

I did not read cover to cover. Takes notes from class and build on the points discussed in class.

This seems to be very sound advice. Did you also skim the reading prior to class?

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Specializes in Critical Care.
This seems to be very sound advice. Did you also skim the reading prior to class?

Yep. Just a quick skim. I usually wrote down the main headers. My school provided NO notes, outlines, or power point slides. Come to find out so many students are spoiled with such luxury. My school said we were not babies and did not need them. I disagree with their views but anyway.....

I made outlines of the chapters to be covered. The books typically outline the reading with titles and subtitles.

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Thank you so much for the tips! I really appreciate and I will use this advice this semester.

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Thank you so much for the replies. It's been one day and I already feel overwhelmed.

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Specializes in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.

This might not be the best advice depending on how you study but the only time I used my books was as references for care plans. I took each patient I had to do a care plan on and exhaustively went over everything pertinent to their situation and history. If there was anything that I was particularly stumped or completely in the dark on, I would read through what the text had to say about it, see if it satisfied my needs and went from there. If I felt I needed to supplement, Medscape was exceptionally useful (and now, Khan Academy has fantastic medical videos and articles). Don't feel like you need to read everything (because, honestly, by the time you're done with nursing school, those texts will be outdated -- if they aren't already) because you won't have time to engage the text appropriately.

What I did, especially at the start of nursing school, was to pick on certain topics that were extremely common (i.e. wound care, beta blockers) and home in on them. Whatever I was given in the powerpoint slides usually correlated with my textbooks so I would just answer questions in the textbook and try to actively use the material (in the beginning, there were weeks where we would be assigned 50+ chapters -- what am I supposed to really do with that?!?!). As tests came and went, I saw what each instructor was looking for and would tailor my efforts toward meeting their priority objectives. But, I never was able to (even though I had every intention to) read the texts. There's information everywhere -- it's just finding what works best for you.

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You'll get a feel for the pace of the class and adjust from there but quite frankly I read 20 pages of the 100 assigned prior to our first day of instruction and that was about it for me. Everyone is different but you can decide if you want to gamble with what might be asked on a test or what might you remember during clinicals. I'm doing fine and I tell myself at the start of every semester that I'll commit more time to reading and studying but honestly, I have trouble remember what I read as opposed to what I physically do and encounter in clinicals.

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Actually a lot of things out there that you can look up to apply to your method of studying and retaining information, A lot of helpful videos on youtube as well. I learned a lot about studying and how to study properly from reading into it / watching youtube videos. I suggest you take the time to do the same.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.

I did the reading for my nursing prereqs. I often read and re-read chapters.

In nursing school, not so much. I used google much more- reputable sites like NIH and CDC.

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