Study like a NURSE...

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

Entering nursing school is half the battle; you work hard in your pre reqs, use some pretty good study habits and test taking skills, and you find those good efforts that got you As have now resulted in B's or, much to your shock, Cs, or worse; take heed your instructors by thinking like a nurse-by using the Nursing Process as a means to study like a Nurse. Each subject has nursing diagnoses-learn to identify them; break down the assessment, interventions along with rationales, and evaluations.

[emmjayy, BSN, RN]

Could you expand on this a little more? I'm in my first semester and pulling 90's on my tests, but I always walk out of the test feeling like I failed and like my studying was totally ineffective and that I only managed to get the good grade because I had lucky guesses or because I'm a fairly decent test-taker. I've learned that I need to be studying "the big picture," but I'm not sure what that means for me as I'm very detail-oriented and don't feel prepared unless (let's take my nutrition module for example) I can rattle off the names/functions of each of the B-complex vitamins. But then I get questions like "What group of people need calcium the most?" on the test and my mind is a total blank! Should my studying be more focused on stuff like... "what are the risk factors for x," "what are common responses to y," "what are the life span considerations for z," instead of "What exactly does heparin do and what are all the possible side-effects to it?" I'm so confused and am constantly terrified that despite the good grades I've gotten, on the next test my studying style will fail me and I'll bomb.

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

I can certainly explain; one has to move from this is x and the side effects are 1, 2, 3...and go to this patient is on heparin; my nursing diagnoses is x, my assessment is 1,2,3; my goals are 8,9,10, my interventions are these five; and finally, my evaluation is the patient responded north, south, east and west to use your analogy and expose of verbiage, but if course, the use to actual nursing info.

A good source to help with studying supplementally is the NANDA handbook, as well as LeFevre's Critical Thinking and Nursing Jugdment; the use of Blooms Taxomy helps as a building block of critical thinking like a nurse as well.

Best wishes.

[RNbarbie]

What are good questions to ask yourself concerning topic materials? We're learning cardiac and cancer next in med surg and I failed the first exam I study in that block method but when there's a question asked, sometimes I can't put two and two together. Can you go through a thought process for diabetes or any topic really?