Study tips for nursing students

Learn to make your connections. No bit of information is an island. For example, you're going to learn pathology and the drugs used to treat disease and their physiological effects - never fail to juxtapose this info with the healthy norms you learn in A&P. With nursing theory and assessment, those will double back on each other and you will begin to draw connections between what's normal and abnormal, how to reason about it's management (going back to drugs, pathophys), and draw conclusions based in critical thinking. It's no longer about memorizing little facts here and there.

Saunders Comprehensive Review for the NCLEX-RN Examination, 5th Edition: 8965132282019: Medicine & Health Science Books @ Amazon.com

Buy that book ^

This is what you need to do to past the exams. Follow this list to the T for all your disorders/diseases. Pathophysiology learning does not have to be so DETAILED unless you are studying to be a doctor... just know the basic pathophysiology.

KNOW the

Disease pathophysiology

Risk factors

Assessment common to that disorder that you will see (signs and symptoms or labs)

Nursing interventions for the disorder

What you will teach your patient (for discharge, about monitoring at home, etc.)

I found my first year of nursing school was a trial and error for study techniques because it is a completely new language and way of thinking you are going into. Find a group of girls who you know you can all benefit from study sessions together. I found the most helpful way for me to learn the pharmacology and A&P was in groups doing visual exercises to figure out the similarities of all the medications and how the body systems work/are affected in A&P!