Tips on studying for medsurg?

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Hello everyone,

I just finished my first semester! Woo hoo...I now have a month off of school ( so weird) but I was wondering if anyone can give me tips/book suggestions on how they studied for this class? I know it's going to take so much critical thinking and outside of the box thinking and I want to get into the habit of my brain functioning that way before school starts in January! If anyone has tips tricks or any kind of advice I would appreciate it :) thank you! ❤️❤️

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For every disease you need to know the pathophysiology, manifestations, and nursing interventions. Sometimes the disease seem to clump together which makes it a little harder to learn but if you have cues to help you remember things it becomes much easier

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Okay! Thanks so much. I just wanna do well in each class that comes my way and the fact that I have month break i wanna take advantage of it :) I appreciate your advice!

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Specializes in CVICU.

Just apply the nursing process to every disease that you learn about in class. Assess - what are the signs and symptoms? Diagnose - what problems will this patient be facing that a nurse can address? Plan - What can you as a nurse reasonably hope for this patient? Intervene - What can you as a nurse do for this patient to help achieve that goal? Evaluate - If progress isn't being made, how can you reassess the situation?

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When you study, do make note of early/initial and late s/s of disease processes. Assessment will probably be the biggest thing drilled to you. Make friends with your nursing diagnosis handbook; there lies in many answers to questions regarding the nursing process.

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Specializes in Cath/EP lab, CCU, Cardiac stepdown.
Hello everyone,

I just finished my first semester! Woo hoo...I now have a month off of school ( so weird) but I was wondering if anyone can give me tips/book suggestions on how they studied for this class? I know it's going to take so much critical thinking and outside of the box thinking and I want to get into the habit of my brain functioning that way before school starts in January! If anyone has tips tricks or any kind of advice I would appreciate it :) thank you! ❤️❤️

Personally I did my notes in color coded pens. They would be based on general info, pathophysiology, risk factors, signs and symptoms, diagnostics, treatment, complications, and nursing interventions/things that a nurse should be aware of.

The focus should be on the nursing interventions because exams shouldn't be so straight forward as what are the signs and symptoms is this and that. Rather, they will usually give you signs and symptoms and then ask you what is the priority intervention. So you need to be able to know what disease it is and them decide on your course of action.

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Thanks everyone for your advice and input! Just heard some crazy things about this course and I want to be prepared by the first day of class :) I have only taken 2 HESI tests as well so these tests are going to be a bit different too

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Specializes in L&D, infusion, urology.

For the meds, get familiar with the labs/vitals you need to know before giving them. Why do you need to know these? Understanding that will help give you a sense of what the med is for, which can be helpful.

With exam questions, think about the patient that is most likely to die first, or if you can only do one thing then leave, which will you do? What is the most immediate threat to safety?

There are a ton of threads on here with meds you can start studying, if you want to go that route. We had to know everything about any med we were giving. (mechanism of action, class, side effects, contraindications, indications, etc.)

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Specializes in ICU.

Make sure you understand the basic anatomy and physiology. It surprises me how many don't then they can't understand the disease process. We just dealt with this the past few week with endocrine. You will be learning a lot of disease processes and what the nursing interventions are with them. I would review how each system works in anatomy and physiology and go from there. It will help you a great deal.

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Thank you runbabyRN and heather!

I will look into what y'all have said. I definitely need to review my pharmacology it's been a while since I reviewed medications besides what my patients were on this semester at clinical & I will make sure to go over A&P that's a fact! Thanks so much ❤️

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Specializes in Psychiatry.

My mentor gave me some excellent advice that I feel is applicable to your question. If you understand the patho and the action of the drugs really well, you won't need to memorize laundry lists of symptoms. That has served me well and I don't see it changing in med surg.

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Specializes in Psych, Substance Abuse, Case Management.

Don't read too much into the questions, and remember, with multiple choice questions, the answer is right there in front of you! :laugh:

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