study tips?

sunshine_RN · Aug 26, 2015

Congratulations on getting into nursing school! I have been a nurse for two years and I remember how overwhelmed I felt my first couple of weeks of nursing school. It can be very stressful and very overwhelming, but just remember to focus on your end goal and don't give up!

As far as study tips, it helped me to break down the pathophysiology into general "chunks". Let's say your patient has heart failure. I would describe or summarize heart failure in as few words as possible and then work outwards getting more detailed. I would end up with a "web" of that disease or issue with the main points in the middle (for heart failure it would be fluid overload, shortness of breath, easily fatigued, etc the main points that define what the disease is) and then all of the finer points on the outside (what would their lab work look like, not as common signs & symptoms, treatment, diagnostic procedures, etc). This helped me because I'm very visual and I need to walk/think through what all is going on. At the beginning of nursing school so much pathophys and reading is thrown at you, if you can absorb the basics of everything that is huge! The details will come. There are also a lot of great diagrams, pictures, and pneumonics online that help with remembering pathophys (pinterest is full of nursing stuff surprisingly :nurse: ). Remember your ABCs, air way air way air way!

Also your planner is your friend! I kept a calendar on my computer that was color coded with my different classes and I put in all of my assignments and the dates they were due. If you can stay organized that is half the battle of nursing school. There will be a lot of unexpected and disorderly things that go on, regardless of where you go to school I think :) but keeping yourself organized can be helpful amidst the chaos!