What are some things I can Do NOW to prepare Myself??

Nurse Paolo · Jul 22, 2012

So I am super excited to be going to nursing school in the fall... is there anything I can do now to prepare myself? I have been reading a little out of my friends last semester Pharm book... My classes will be: Fundamentals Pharm 1 Thanks.. any advice would be awesome!!!! RN to B!!! :)

Read some fundamentals of nursing book and scan a medical dictionary to learnnew medical teeminologiea

phuretrotr · Jul 22, 2012

To prepare for pharm, I bought pharmacology flash cards. Each card seems loaded with information, but as your go through lecture, you can pick out the drug cards that you went over and study them. They are called Pharm Phlash! By Valerie I. Leek. Or if you really want to, you could create your own flash cards with the information taught in class.

Cali_Nurse_209 · Jul 22, 2012

Congratulations!!!! I also start nursing school next month. I've bought my required textbooks and been looking over them. I started reviewing medical terminology and dosage calculations. Also, fundamentals and health assessment. I have Fundamentals of Nursing Made Incredibly Easy, Health Assessment Made Incredibly Easy Visual and Dosage Calculations Demystified. I plan to use those books as supplements to my required texts. You should check out the ”Made Incredibly Easy” series because they are so helpful. Have you received your book list yet?

BloomNurseRN, ASN, BSN, RN · Jul 23, 2012

Sounds like you're making a good start! Reading the Pharm book and your Fundamentals book are an excellent way to get moving. Also, I would highly recommend an NCLEX study book. I didn't purchase one until this year and I wish I had had one last year before starting the nursing program. I like Kaplan NCLEX-RN 2012-2013 Strategies, Practice, and Review, as well as Prioritization, Delegation, and Assignment. Both of these books will show you the difference between regular test questions and the NCLEX style questions you will encounter as a nursing student. Again, I think I would have been able to tackle these types of questions a lot better had I had these books a year ago and absolutely recommend them to new nursing students. Good luck and congrats!

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Jul 23, 2012

get solid in algebra so you can do med calculations; this will take a huge load off your mind and free it to do more later when all your classmates are stressing over it.

if you have a med terminology reference, do a few pages every night at bedtime. while many students understand the words, sometimes there's a microsecond of hesitation when the term goes in the ears until the brain adequately uses it, and those microseconds add up until something gets missed. the more proficient you are with terminology, the less effort you'll have to expend on figuring out what people are saying.

you'll take anatomy, but perusing a good anatomy text (like the anatomy coloring book-- for real, great book, my students loved it) will get you ahead there, too.

personally, i wouldn't spend a lot of time trying to cram nursing per se right now, because you lack the foundation to do that well and misconceptions built now will rise up to bite you late. learning the foundations above will make learning nursing itself easier when the time comes.