What was most emphasized your first semester?

[wannabenursetx]

I have a friend who is almost finished with nursing school. She told me that I really needed to focus on my assessments the first semester because everything builds on this. She recommended the pocket guide "Assessments Made Incredibly Easy" to carry with me during clinicals.

Those of you who have already completed your first semester - did you find this to be true for you as well? Anything else that will be emphasized the first semester that I should prepare to focus on?

Feel free to throw in any tips or words of wisdom to get me thru the first semester!!

[Chantilly]

Nursing diagnoses and the nursing process was pounded into our heads! But great thing about that is that it made care plans much easier during second semester. I agree about assessments being focused on but, at our school that is what they focused on in skills not in classroom. And know how to prioritize according to the theory you school uses (ours is Maslow), that seemed to be huge at our school. These are things I think you are just going to have to learn as you go though, its not really something that you can practice for ahead of time. Good luck in your first semester!!

[luvschoolnursing, LPN]

Fear and obedience. Sorry-that was 20 years ago, that's mostly what I remember!:chuckle

[armywifern2b]

nursing process and drug dosage on every test!!

if you have a palm, there are great programs that, once you have your diagnosis in mind, will walk you through the rest!!

palms are well worth the investment!

knowledge at your fingertips

[donsterRN, ASN, BSN]

My first semester was nursing process, diagnoses and care plans, as well as assessments and math for drugs.

[Jilaweez, BSN, MSN, RN]

We focused on assessments, communication, and fundamental skills.

[Toey]

assessments, basic skills, and a lot of fundamental concepts like care, spirituality, family, etc.. Biggest thing to remember would be assessments! I still am horrible at them, but I got better when my clinical instructor made our group do a head to toe for each patient as well as nursing diagnosis.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

the foundation of the nursing process (which is the problem solving method that nurses use) is based on the complete assessment that you do on each patient. if you fail to pick up on important assessment information then your ability to solve the patient's problems fails.

throughout nursing school and later on the job you will be problem solving. that is what rns do. your nclex test questions and many of the questions on your nursing tests in school will be based upon how well you understand the nursing process. assessment is the first step of the nursing process. that assessment information is very, very important to know. not only what is a normal assessment, but what is abnormal as well (as is what you would expect to see in the various medical diseases). allnurses has whole threads devoted to assessment and medical diseases.

• https://allnurses.com/forums/f205/health-assessment-resources-techniques-forms-145091.html - health assessment resources, techniques, and forms (in nursing student assistance forum)
  
• https://allnurses.com/forums/f205/medical-disease-information-treatment-procedures-test-reference-websites-258109.html - medical disease information/treatment/procedures/test reference websites
  

[CTstudent]

Along with what others have post, I remember "Therapeutic Communication" coming up a lot. We needed to know how to talk to the patient and get them to open up. Also for clinical we had to learn how to do those vitals.

[missninaRN]

The nursing process, drug calculations, therapeutic communication, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, medical terminology, assessment, and the holistic approach to nursing.