After years of tedious prerequisite courses, you’re finally starting your journey into nursing school. You’ve made it through the nightmare that is anatomy and physiology and worked hard to ace your chemistry classes. You’re already accustomed to studying hard. But now you’re asking yourself, ‘how will I ever make it through nursing school?’
What is the first thing I should do to prepare for nursing school?
The first thing to do is to take a deep breath. You’ve got this. Your teachers and classmates will be there to help you through. You’re all in this together, so you shouldn’t feel alone. Everyone who starts nursing school is nervous and apprehensive.
The next step is investing in a comprehensive planner. This is going to be a lifesaver in the next two to four years. The schedule for nursing school is really rigorous and busy. You’ll want to make sure that you have every lecture, test, lab and clinical rotation accurately laid out.
How do I keep everything organized in my planner?
I remember thinking to myself, ‘how am I ever going to keep all of these events straight?’ In addition to getting a quality planner, it's really useful to get a collection of assorted pen colors. Give each event its own color. For example, mark every lecture in pink, every test in yellow, labs in green, and so forth. This way when you glance at your planner it’s really easy to see what your day holds.
How do I study for nursing exams?
Unfortunately, nursing exams are not like A&P or chemistry. Although those classes are difficult, what they require is very different from nursing. In A&P and chemistry you must rely a lot on memorization. In contrast, nursing school requires much critical thinking. I made the mistake of trying to memorize every chapter. You will be surprised how many chapters are assigned per topic each week. It’s almost impossible to read every chapter, let alone memorize them.
What should I focus on learning for nursing exams?
Nursing school is made to prepare you for the NCLEX or National Council Licensure Examination for nurses. This is what all nurses must pass in order to legally practice nursing. When studying for nursing exams, it’s always important to focus on ADPIE, prioritization (what should be done first), ABC’s (Airway, Breathing, Circulation), Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, medication side effects, and safety.
If you focus on learning just these topics when studying for a test, you will be more likely to pass than from memorization alone.
What is ADPIE?
ADPIE is one of the first things that you’ll learn in nursing school. Nurses love their acronyms, and ADPIE is an acronym for the nursing process. This is the process that every nurse must go through when providing care to patients. It involves assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation.
· Assessment involves
the nurse checking in throughout their shift to take a close look at their
patient. Assessment is essentially a physical with vital signs.
· Diagnoses in
nursing are different than diagnoses by a doctor. Nursing diagnoses are within
the nurses' scope of practice. A nurse without advanced training is not able to
diagnose a patient with, for example, COPD. Yet, a
nurse will be able to diagnose a patient with "Impaired Gas exchange"
as their diagnosis. These focus on what a nurse can do to help their patient.
· Planning is
what is involved in preparing what will be done for a patient that day or
shift. Planning for a COPD patient would be setting goals that help the patient
breath more effectively.
· Implementation
is what you do for your patient. This could involve teaching them how to breath
better, giving medications, or repositioning them.
· Evaluation is the last part of the nursing process. This is the time to decide whether the patient achieved the goals you set for them.
What can I do for stress in nursing school?
It’s important to realize early on that nursing school will be stressful. Nursing as a career is one of the most stressful jobs. If you’re going to make it through nursing school, you have to develop healthy coping strategies. You must also invest in ways to decrease stress.
It's important to not neglect your health, especially when learning to care for others. You should try different things like meditation, napping, yoga, and exercise. Managing your stress in nursing school is as important as making good grades.
You will be a nurse. You can do it, and you will help so many people along the way. Nursing is a rewarding profession and nursing school can be equally fulfilling.
