What to do before classes start?

missninaRN · Jul 1, 2006

I start nursing school soon too. Although I am going through a drug calculations book, I'm not working too hard on it and am trying to get the rest of my life in order before the craziness starts.

This is what I'm doing with my free time:

-I'm getting my house in order. Organizing closets and drawers, hauling stuff to the dump or the shelter, doing all of the painting and re-decorating I always said I would do someday (I painted the kitchen woodwork this week and just got done hanging new curtains in there. It looks great).

-I'm stocking up on school supplies-highlighters, my favorite fine point black click pens, notebook paper, printer paper, ink cartridges, etc

-I'm re-writing my 4 week menu plan, focusing on meals that can be made in big batches and frozen.

-I'm reading books for fun instead of for educational purposes and am sitting down to watch movies with my kids when they ask.

ms mimi · Jul 2, 2006

i totally agree with the last post!! your break is a great time to catch up on "you" time: house, family, and freinds. use this time now before the craziness starts. i had the greatest intentions to read all of the readings for next semester, and i got half-way thru and thought this is crazy. i just spent 3 1/2 grueling months thinking about nothing but nursing and now i am spending my summer break doing the same. i stopped that quickly and am now focusing on enjoying myself. i am reading literature instead. a few weeks before school starts i will start up my nursing reading again, but i am taking a break. so my advise is try and enjoy yourself, there will be so much time to stress out about reading soon enough.

SNBran · Jul 3, 2006

I would suggest getting a backpack or rolling bag for your books, lots of pens and pencils, notebook paper, computer paper, be prepared to work on your computer alot. You'll want to buy a few NCLEX review books. I use them to help study for tests plus I reviewing for the NCLEX as I go along. Other study books are good. Heck, just add a Barns and Nobles gift card to your Christmas List. :lol2: You'll want a good medical dictionary, medical terminology, lab values guide, nursing diagnosis/care plan book, and medication guide if they are not required. You will want a good stethoscope, penlight, bandage scissors and comfy pair of shoes. Clipboards and mini clinical guides are good for clinicals. Make all the study guides you can for tests. Get to know your classmates and everyone work together to help each other. Getting organizers and a bookcase would be a good way to organize your books and notes at home. Binders and folders make getting notes to class less trouble. A calender or day planner would be essential to keep you updated on important dates.

You can do this! No matter what the age. My class is made up mostly of people over 32. Just remember, the age of the people in the class doesn't matter. You are all in this together and are there for a common goal. Keep your head up, keep organized, and work together and you'll do just fine.

I wish you lots of luck and success in the future! (((HUGS))) :nurse:

midcom · Jul 3, 2006

Thank you all for your suggestions so far. They are invaluable.

When I called the school & talked with the department head telling her that I was having to postpone until October & wondering what I should do in the meantime, all she could or would say was to get super organized. I asked if working on medical terminology would be helpful & she agreed. I'm going to do some of your suggestions (reading for fun sounds really nice!) & get organized. I liked the suggestion to set aside a bookcase especially for my med books. I have so many books & it would be smart to get them all together so I'd be able to use them when necessary.

I'm not really worried about being an old student. I went back 7 years ago to work in the IT field. Most of my fellow students were in their 20's but we got along just fine.

Dixie

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Jul 3, 2006

check with the bookstore at your school and see what the textbooks are for your classes. you might want to buy one or two of them ahead of time just to get started. it would be helpful if you could get your hands on the syllabus from the class that started before you. then, you'll know exactly what is coming! i can give you some web links to online medical terminology, basic nursing terms and some college anatomy study sites that you can check out and bookmark as well. i don't have any links for the psych or for any specific nursing fundamentals. most of the college nursing programs are very stingy about sharing any student information on their nursing fundamentals and leave it to the students to get this information from computer and library sources at their schools that only their students can get access to.

medial terminology:

http://www.msjensen.gen.umn.edu/1135/med_term_activites/ - medical terminology help from the university of minnesota - includes link to their interactive quiz program that has a medical terminology section - lots of online quizzes to help you learn medical terminology

http://www.csufresno.edu/nursingstudents/fsnc/abbreviations.htm - common abbreviations used for nurses, particularly related to medication administration routes, times and measurements, iv solution shortened names, abbreviations of dosage forms, commonly used documentation terms and common lab tests that are ordered.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/wnor/terminologyanatplanes.htm - this really is more for someone taking anatomy, but it is medical terminology. the site the shows and tells you the anatomical planes of the body, defines terms of relation or position, defines terms of movement, and has a listing of frequently used medical terms in anatomy with their definitions. a reference you might want to print out for your anatomy notebooks.

http://www.sweethaven.com/free-ed/healthcare/medterm-v02.asp or

http://www.free-ed.net/free-ed/healthcare/medterm-v02.asp - this is a free on line medical terminology course. this link takes you to a page of links that are organized by stems (word roots), prefixes, and suffixes. there are multiple choice and matching exams after each section that give you instant feedback that tell you if your response is right or wrong

anatomy and physiology:

hole's human anatomy and physiology is one of the popular anatomy textbooks being used in college programs today. here are links to the online student help sites for the past 2 and the current editions. you can get into and access everything in the older editions, but not as much of the newer, 10th edition. not much about basic anatomy changes, however. play around and explore these sites and see what you like and may want to use to help you study.

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072919329/student_view0/index.html - the site of the textbook holes's human anatomy and physiology, 10edition on line learning center

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0070272468/student_view0/ - this is the 9th edition online learning center

http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/ap/holehaap/student/olc2/index.htm - this links you into the 8th edition website where you link into subject areas and will find quiz questions

http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/biologypages/ - this is a very simple review of biology subjects covered in a basic college biology class from the online site of the biology textbook maintained and written by john w. kimball, a former harvard professor.

http://www.utm.edu/staff/amills/index.html - anatomy and physiology home page for the university of tennessee at martin. interesting set of study tips, advice and frequently asked questions about studying a&p. http://www.utm.edu/staff/amills/examinfo.htm - links you into a bank of almost 200 practice anatomy questions (no answers given) at this site

http://www.rad.washington.edu/atlas2/ - nicely presented drawings of the muscles of the upper and lower extremities. select a muscle to view a beautiful drawing of it's location, and a listing of it's origin, insertion, action, innervation and arterial supply.

http://www.unomaha.edu/hpa/ - a&p web site for the students at the university of nebraska at omaha. this is almost all histology (cells). the sections include practice exams with lots of questions and the answers

i like to get into high school web sites when i can. if the teachers can get high school students to understand this stuff, then we certainly should be able to!

http://www.sirinet.net/~jgjohnso/index.html - home page of the biology teacher at frederick high school in frederick, oklahoma. this instructor teaches a high school class of a&p. although you want to link into the biology ii homepage, i notice that there is information in the biology i homepage to link into that also pertains to some a&p. there are plenty of quizzes and practice exercises scattered throughout this extensive site, but i could not find any answers. presented in a little easier than college level, i thought this was an awesome introduction to a&p!

bookmark this site--web anatomy! http://www.msjensen.gen.umn.edu/webanatomy/ - these are links into fun interactive anatomy quizzes designed for freshman anatomy and physiology students presented by the university of minnesota. they are organized by body system and subjects. you can take the quizzes as a single player on your own, against a timed clock, or on line against other students (still under construction). at the left side are links into a group of matching questions and lots of diagrams of anatomical structures to label that are organized by body system.

physical assessment of the patient:

http://www.mededcenter.com/module_viewer.asp?module=+118#headtotoe - this is a great guide to physical assessment. it is called head to toe assessment in 5 minutes (well, maybe a little longer than that) that was originally posted on this thread https://allnurses.com/forums/f205/help-health-assessment-evals-139193.html by scmomof3.

http://web.archive.org/web/20041115042143/www.vnh.org/shipwreck/shipwreck.html - the u.s. navy's shipwreck's go-by physical examination guide used by naval corpsmen. an excellent source for learning how to do a physical assessment

http://www.meddean.luc.edu/lumen/meded/medicine/pulmonar/pd/contents.htm - the physical exam - this site is set up for medical students, but nursing students can learn from it as well. this link takes you to a page of links to the various parts of the body to be examined. when you link into a body part you will find an explanation of the method to examine that site and what is normal, a button at the bottom labeled "abnormal" will bring up information about abnormal findings during examination of that site. there are also some photographs with some of the pages. the "knowledge" button gives you a little outline breakdown of the pathophysiology going on. a fourth button, "self eval" is a list of test questions--remember these are designed for medical students, so don't feel badly if you miss a few. this is from loyola university medical school.

http://medicine.ucsd.edu/clinicalmed/introduction.htm - a very nice site to help with doing physical assessments of patients from the university of california, san diego. explains how to examine the various parts of the body and has lots of photographs showing abnormal conditions and how to assess for them.

there is a section on measuring blood pressure.\

on studying, in general:

well, if you're older than dirt, i don't know what that makes me because i'm older than you! in any case, you might want to check out these tips on how to study for college students.

http://www.accd.edu/sac/history/keller/accditg/ssindex.htm - strategies for success, an online primer and tutorial on how to study for students from the alamo community college. this is a pretty extensive resource with links on the right side of the page to click into the following subjects: learning styles, note taking, memory techniques, time management, overcoming procrastination, sq3r (a method for getting the most out of reading your textbooks), study tips, critical thinking, preparing for tests, and oral presentations. also, take a look at the faq's (frequently asked questions).

http://go.dbcc.edu/hhps/nursing/study_skills.html - study skills for the nursing student from daytona beach community college nursing department with some good advice.

http://go.dbcc.edu/hhps/nursing/test_taking_skills.html - test taking skills also from daytona beach community college nursing department. a couple of sample questions and how to chose the correct answer for these application type questions.

guess this should keep you busy until october!

mitchsmom · Jul 3, 2006

-I'm getting my house in order. Organizing closets and drawers, hauling stuff to the dump or the shelter, doing all of the painting and re-decorating I always said I would do someday (I painted the kitchen woodwork this week and just got done hanging new curtains in there. It looks great).
-I'm stocking up on school supplies-highlighters, my favorite fine point black click pens, notebook paper, printer paper, ink cartridges, etc
-I'm re-writing my 4 week menu plan, focusing on meals that can be made in big batches and frozen.
-I'm reading books for fun instead of for educational purposes and am sitting down to watch movies with my kids when they ask.

I just graduated and looking back, I think this is a great plan!!

The only other thing I can think of that I would have done from the beginning is get Saunders NCLEX comprehensive review book and Nursing Diagnosis Handbook: A Guide to Planning Care, just because they came in handy for my classes as well as NCLEX later (but that's for after classes start - stick to the above plan for now!) :)

medicwife · Jul 3, 2006

I have to agree with missnina....I start back in Aug. and I too deceided to just take the summer and catch up with some long overdue (unfinished, etc) projects around the house, reorganize the office and clear out the clutter to get ready for the next onslaught of late nights soon, stock up on all my needed supplies-coffee (highlighters, pens, pencils, notepads, binders, paperclips, staplers, erasers, post-it mini flags-love those for flagging stuff in the books)-take advantage of the back to school deals that will be popping up in the next couple of weeks at places like Office Depot...you can get a lot of stuff there and you will need it to keep organized. I enrolled in their awards program so always get coupons in the mail for for shopping there...it's great.

Financially, you might want to look into financial aid, talk to the financial aid officer. Nursing school is tough, having to worry about if the repo man is coming in the middle of the night doesn't help.

:eek:

Just a suggestion, but I use tote bags intead of backpacks...I find them easier to get in and out of and carry actually more than bookpacks sometimes. I have a couple of them that I split up into different classes. I love them and makes my life easier and cheaper.

Otherwise...enjoy your summer...congratulations on nursing school...you'll do great.

midcom · Jul 4, 2006

Wow, Daytonite, that's quite a list. Thank you. I've bookmarked each one & suspect I'll be using them all.

And you are older than me, I'll be darned.

Dixie

princessneenee · Jul 4, 2006

That's a nice saying, I always say Never Put a question mark where God has put a period. Nursing Student fall 06