What should I know before entering Nursing School?

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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Hello. I was hoping you guys could give me some pointers. I am due to start the Nursing Program in the Fall. I want to get a head start on some basics. What should I know before my first semester of nursing school? In my current job, I have a lot of down time and want to prepare myself for what is coming in 6 months and counting...Any pointers?

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Specializes in MICU - CCRN, IR, Vascular Surgery.

I don't know if I'll be starting in the fall, I'll find out this summer, but one thing I plan on doing is looking online for a top 200 most commonly prescribed drugs and familiarizing myself with them. I'm not going to go to the level that Pharm class will, but just to kind of have a starting off point.

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Specializes in Urgent Care NP, Emergency Nursing, Camp Nursing.

As a first-quarter student, here's what I think you should know:

Learning pharmacology (which I have this semester, yay) is more about starting off learning a drug or two in each category of drug (and by category I mean Penicillins vs. broad-spectrum penicillins vs cephalosporins of various generations vs. aminoglycosides vs. macrolides vs. sulfonamides vs. floroquinolones for the antibiotics, and that's not an exhaustive list). Knowing your physio goes a long way in understanding pharmacology, and knowing not just the names of drugs but what they do.

Learn your vital signs - find someone who does EMS or hospital stuff and learn how to take a pulse, respiratory rate, and BP - you don't need a good stethoscope for most BPs, and in fact they can be easier to do with a cheap one.

Know your anatomy. There's a reason why A&P are commonly taught together - you need to know where stuff is and what it's doing (or, in the case of pathology, not doing or doing wrong). Getting a handle on this will help you learn to do assessment. It may be dry stuff, but the why of most of what nurses do is hung upon A&P.

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Whew...LOL! Right now I am currently working at a Pharmacy so I am learning new drugs and therapies everyday. I do need to learn drug categories though. And that is a great idea to learn the most commonly prescribed drugs. I have an idea but I am sure I haven't even scratched the surface of all the drugs out there.

It will be a good idea to start practicing vital signs.

I think my main concern will be unit conversions and all the terminology. I took A&P seperately so I may need to go back and review that.

Thanks! I am so excited but I know its going to be hard work!

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