Starting a DNP Program... advice on anything I should study before it begins?

Nursing Students NP Students

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Hello everyone,

I'm starting a BSN to DNP Program in the fall, and in the hopes of making good use of the time I have before it begins, I wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts on anything I should review? I have a lot of very varied experience in psych (my specialty) and geriatrics, but I haven't had med/surge experience since my ADN program.

I've been told to review A&P, but I'm not sure how deep to go with that, or if I should focus on anything in particular. Specific resources (books, websites, whatever) would be really helpful.

Thank you!

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Specializes in Family Medicine, Medical Intensive Care.

There are a lot of things you could review before starting your program, but I would focus more on having a strong foundation in medical physiology. It really will set you up for success and make learning advanced topics much easier so that you can function well at the provider level. I prefer, as well as my FNP program, Guyton and Hall for physiology. It can get overly detailed sometimes but is pretty comprehensive. If you're looking for a physiology text that focuses more on high-yield topics, a pretty popular textbook is Costanzo's. Either text will give you the depth of knowledge needed for graduate school.

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Awesome, thank you! I'm extremely detail oriented myself and tend to remember things better in the long term the more thoroughly I understand them. This is exactly what I was thinking would be helpful in filling in some of the "holes" I have in my knowledge base so I'm not lost when more advanced topics come up.

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Specializes in OR Nursing, Critical Care, Med-surg.

Following! Would love to hear some recommendations.

Since Pathophysiology is one of my 1st classes, I've purchased the required text and have initiated my studying this summer. I'm in a MSN/FNP program. Also, if you have access to Epocrates and UpToDate, those are great resources. However, they are a bit pricey. My employer provides access which is great; check with your employer and university before you think about purchasing. If you're with AANP, they have free CEUs and lots of journal articles that are very informative.

Good Luck!

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