That nauseous feeling again....

suzy253, RN · Jul 29, 2004

you'll be fine. don't go by the big picture.....one bit at a time.

Ari RN, BSN, RN · Jul 29, 2004

Welcome to the Nursing World........ I am sure you will do great. Take it a step at a time. GOOD LUCK!!!!! :)

LauraLou · Jul 29, 2004

What made me less nervous was organizing everything. I photocopied calendar pages and put them in the front cover of my binder. I wrote everything I had to do on the calendar, including all the pages that I needed to read, etc. Sometimes I had to write pretty small! Whenever I was feeling overwhelmed, I could look at the front of my binder and see exactly what needed to be done for that day, week, etc.

It is scary, especially the first checkoff, test, clinical day, but you will make it! Good luck!

RegisteredNurse06 · Jul 29, 2004

Thank you all for reassuring me! I keep trying to remind myself that I have to think of it and only take it "one day at a time" and I keep telling myself that if I do that, I can get through it. Then I do something stupid, like looking at the syllabus, and I feel overwhelmed again!:chair: lol...I'm determined to keep my eye on the prize though...and I WILL get that prize someday:)

camkib · Jul 29, 2004

you'll be fine. don't go by the big picture.....one bit at a time.

When we first started one of our instructors told us that nursing school is like eating an elephant one bite at a time.

She also told us...."If its wet and not yours...don't touch it without gloves!"

~Camkib~

Jen2 · Jul 29, 2004

One day at a time does the trick. You have to work in blocks or you'll kill yourself and burn out quit. I used to read and study for hours until my test grads dropped and then I changed my way of studying and they improved again. I found that I was putting less time into studying and doing better. Study smarter not harder. Allow time for yourself, even if it's just a hot bath or walk around the block. Come here for support or advice. The people here are wonderful. Good luck and just remember if you let yourself get behind it will be a domino effect. An hour or two every day does it but you have to commit to that.

RegisteredNurse06 · Jul 29, 2004

When we first started one of our instructors told us that nursing school is like eating an elephant one bite at a time.
She also told us...."If its wet and not yours...don't touch it without gloves!"
~Camkib~

Hehehe......I LOVE this! Gotta remember those quotes!

RegisteredNurse06 · Jul 29, 2004

One day at a time does the trick. You have to work in blocks or you'll kill yourself and burn out quit. I used to read and study for hours until my test grads dropped and then I changed my way of studying and they improved again. I found that I was putting less time into studying and doing better. Study smarter not harder. Allow time for yourself, even if it's just a hot bath or walk around the block. Come here for support or advice. The people here are wonderful. Good luck and just remember if you let yourself get behind it will be a domino effect. An hour or two every day does it but you have to commit to that.

Ya know, it amazes me how much support I've already found on this board. I love it here and I can see myself coming back time after time all through school to both give and recieve support. You make a good point about burn out and I surely hope that doesn't happen to me. I guess I'll just have to make sure that I get some time for myself that isn't spent studying though that's hard to imagine after looking at that syllabus!lol........Thank you all for the support and advice!

jemommyRN · Jul 30, 2004

I used to read and study for hours until my test grads dropped and then I changed my way of studying and they improved again. I found that I was putting less time into studying and doing better. Study smarter not harder.

So are you saying not to read the book. I want to actually read the book because it has great explanation, but I don't want my grades to drop. What is your study technique (if you don't mind sharing).

jemommy

Jen2 · Jul 30, 2004

I learn my notes frontwards and backwards. Then I do practice NCLEX questions to find out what areas I'm having difficulty in. For example when we were learnning about pediatric heart conditions I was having a really tough time understanding those types of questions, so I opened my book and read only about the nursing care part of the condition. Some text books will give you 6 pages of statistics and so on. I used to read every chapter and not pay as much attention to my lecture notes. When I took the test I would find that almost everything I needed to know was right there in my notes. So I started reading my notes more and the book less and my grades improved. My strategy to successful test taking in nursing school is this:

While you are studying you need to ask yourself:

1. What is this condition?

2. What does it do to my patient?

3. What is the doctor going to do for the patient?

4. What am I going to do for the patient?

While I am studying I think about these 4 questions. If I can answer these 4 questions and gain a good understanding of this condition from my notes and answer NCLEX type questions about his condition effectively then I move onto the next. If I don't understand something, then I will read about it in the book. I found that I really learn from the charts in the book. If is wasn't for this one chart in my text book I'd have never been able to grasp CHF or fetal circulation. Then I will also read all key points and anything that is in bold in the book. If the author thought enough of it to put it in bold then you can be sure you are going to see it again. So instead of reading word for word. I just look for these key things and it has helped me so much. I used to read my text for 3-4 hours a day and would get bored and not remember a thing. Now that I just read what I don't understand I don't get bored, it gives me more time to focus on my lecture notes and do NCLEX questions. I learned along time ago that there is way too much info to humanly possible know all of it, so I just try to focus on the important things, which are usually talked about in lecture. Because a good instructor only has X amount of hours to teach you something, so they "should" be teaching you what you need to know. This is only what works for me and has improved my test taking. Some people may learn better from reading everything, but I don't and was missing test questions because of it so I had to change the way I did things. Try a few different techniqes and find one that works for you. Good luck.