Studying for Med Surg...

malenurse69, MSN, NP · Feb 22, 2016

How are you studying for med surg and what are your tips/techniques to help??? Any material you would suggest?

The content is rudimentary but vast. Concepts should be feasible to grasp and apply once you dedicate enough time to understand how each system works. Problem with nursing school in general for most people isn't special little tips or techniques they use to learn, everyone is different. It's how much time you are willing to sacrifice to understand the material. You will learn as time passes that re-exposure to content will be necessary to refresh minutiae. What will remain is a permanent framework and core understanding of how everything works together, and that can only be learned by putting your nose to the grindstone. Experiment with different study techniques, see what helps you retain information the best, what works for some may not work for you. Don't lose the forest for the trees. When learning concepts, try to always globalize the information and see how it affects the bigger picture.

An example just to hammer home the point, I'm sure you've learned about insulin at this point. You know it helps cells uptake glucose thus treating hyperglycemia. What else might this cause? If you spend enough time reading, being curious etc. you'll also find that it reduces serum potassium and increases intracellular uptake of potassium by increasing cellular permeability of potassium through the NA-K pumps. Can you name some symptoms of hypokalemia? Which major organ are we worried about? what vitals signs and clinical manifestations to assess? All these things will come in time, my long-winded take home point is always focus on the big picture. Always assess first!