What should I know for Block 1?

NCRNMDM, ASN, RN · Oct 13, 2011

I'm a first semester nursing student, and I've been in nursing school for almost four months now. My advice, really, honestly, is this: don't study anything before you start nursing school. Enjoy the time you have, relax, and do the things you want to do. A lot of that will end once you get into the program, so enjoy it while you can. Each program is different, but our instructors didn't take a lot for granted when we started the program. I, along with a few others, had completed all my pre-reqs prior to beginning the program, but a lot of people where in various places as far as pre-reqs were concerned. Some had done A&P I but not II, some had done I and II but not micro, some had done I, II, and micro, but hadn't done any of their psychology courses, etc. Because of this, our instructors assume that we didn't know, or had forgotten, everything, and they started at the bottom and worked their way up. At our school, the first fundamentals class isn't terribly involved in pathophysiology, so it isn't too much of a concern. We need to have a basic understanding of the pathophysiology and etiology of the diseases we cover, but our instructors don't expect us to know as much as the second semester or second year students. In skills lab we were treated as totally ignorant to nursing, which many of us were. A few of us, myself included, had CNA or LPN experience, but the majority had no idea what they were doing. Our first skill was catheters, sterile field, sterile gloving, hand washing, bladder irrigation, urine sampling, different types of precautions, and an introduction to charting. The bar was set pretty high, but it got higher with each lab. By the time we got to IV starts and NG tubes in skills lab, we were expected to be on point. Our charting exercises were also expected to be immaculate and very thorough. Like I said, it varies from program to program, but you really aren't expected to have any nursing knowledge before beginning the program. No one is going to think you are stupid because you don't remember every detail from anatomy, micro, and psych. Your instructors will tell you what they want you to know, they will teach you what they think is most important, and you will be tested on that material. I highly doubt that in your first nursing class you will be forced to understand complex pathophysiology that requires a sound understanding of microbiology and anatomy and physiology. The first course will be hard, I guarantee you, but it won't be incredibly complex and deep. Generally the first nursing course is like a giant catch-all. You study ethics, charting, safe patient care, wound care, medication administration, cognition, stress and coping, tissue integrity, elimination, comfort, mobility, infection, inflammation, hyper and hypothermia, teaching and learning, accountability, oxygenation, fluid and electrolytes, family, culture, grief and loss, diversity, spirituality, health, wellness, illness, legal issues, managing care, quality improvement, informatics, advocacy, health care systems, and self management. Those are all concepts that we cover during the first nursing course. In each nursing course you learn new concepts, but you also deepen your understanding of concepts you previously covered. For instance, right now we don't need to know a ton about acid base balance, so we are doing a brief introduction, learning the basics, and moving on. When we get to critical care nursing, next year, we will go very in depth and learn all the ins and outs of acid base balance. I think right now you need to relax, rest, sleep in if you can, and enjoy the time you have left. There will be plenty of time for learning and work when the program starts. Good luck!

udohas · Oct 13, 2011

Thanks for your reply. I'm feeling overwhelmed already! I haven't taken microbiology yet and plan to next summer. I just don't want to feel like I'm going in already behind. When I say my pre reqs were several years ago, I mean more than five. In fact, they're so old that if I applied to nursing school this instant, they would be outdated and I would have to redo them all.

I'm a f/t teacher (so already very busy) and just wanted to refresh my memory on anything that's really helpful to know. Maybe get a jump on things. I ordered an a & p book to review, but it would help if I knew where to direct my studying.

NCRNMDM, ASN, RN · Oct 13, 2011

We started out with really basic things. We did communication, documentation, safety, ethics, and that sort of thing first. For the documentation unit it was really good to already know a lot of medical terminology and abbreviations. If you aren't familiar with medical terms and abbreviations commonly used in charting, you might want to Google them and start getting an idea about them. You will see things like Zofran 4 mg q 4 hr PRN. You will also see a lot of abbreviations for medical diagnoses like CHF, AMI, CVA, HTN, etc. If you already have an idea what these things are, you will be very ahead. After we got those units out of the way, we went on to discuss urinary tract infections, cellulitis, infection and inflammation. We didn't go very deep into the actual infectious process like you do in microbiology. Instead, we focused on what signs and symptoms the patient will typically have when they are suffering from some type of infection or inflammation in the body. Our teacher didn't care that we knew about Mast cells, histamine release, cytokines and that sort of thing. Our nursing books provide all the knowledge we could ever possibly need about a condition including the pathophysiology, the treatment, nursing interventions, nursing assessment, the evaluation, expected and unexpected outcomes, and so forth. In our nursing program, pre-reqs can't be older than five years, but we have quite a few people whose pre-reqs are exactly five years old. They aren't doing poorly because their pre-reqs aren't current. We also have a lot of people, myself included, who have very recent pre-reqs, and there isn't that much of a difference between all of our scores. On the first test, I made a 94 which was the highest grade in the class, but after that grades didn't differ much. The lowest was an 80, and some people had 88s and 90s. I don't think that you will suffer any due to the fact that your pre-reqs aren't very recent. I don't know of any nursing 111/fundamentals instructor at our school who makes the students learn anything overly complex or complicated. I studied way too much for the first test, and I focused on very complex things. When I took the test, I thought the material was pretty basic, and I knew a lot more than I thought I was going to. Don't worry about trying to study medications or lab tests right now because they will be meaningless to you, and you will be frustrated and confused. Right now a CBC with a differential doesn't mean anything to you, nor does Promethazine or Enoxaparin, and they shouldn't. You will learn these things as you progress through both your first nursing course and the rest of the program. If you feel like you really need to study something before starting the program, study medical terms and abbreviations, study the normal values for things like heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, and temperature, look back at the organs of the body and where they are located. Know which abdominal organs are on the right side and which are on the left side of the body, know which lung has two lobes and which has three, look over the urinary system and get a basic idea of how the kidneys, ureters, urethra, and bladder work together (but don't go into great detail with this), and get comfortable with the bones. You don't have to know anything complicated about the bones, just familiarize yourself with the name and the general area it's in. For instance, know that the humerus is in the arm while the femur, tibia, and fibula are in the leg. Like I said before, relax and don't stress too much, you will learn everything you need to once the program starts.

udohas · Oct 13, 2011

Thank you! That was a very helpful post :) It gives me some direction for studying and I feel better just knowing what to expect.

NCRNMDM, ASN, RN · Oct 14, 2011

You're welcome. Good luck with nursing school!