The BEST Study Techniques for Nursing School | From Lecture Notes to Practice Questions

Welcome to Nursing School Explained in this video on the best study techniques to be successful in nursing school. So, there are several different approaches that I highly recommend. Number one is build a foundation. So, those are your lecture notes, any PowerPoints that your instructor has given you copies of, and of course, your books, your reading. But, sometimes the reading assignment can be quite overwhelming, hundreds of pages. So, it's best to skim the information, look for highlighted, italicized, bold items that are standing out. Always look at the nursing interaction or the nursing care and see what applies specifically for whatever you're studying for the nurse that's bolded and highlighted by the book publisher. They do that stuff for a reason. Number two, repetition. So, do some stuff prepare some study cards for memorization. It is best if you handwrite those. I know that can be labor intensive, but there are studies that show that if we actually use pen and paper and write the information down, it helps us retain it. And these study cards are for things that you definitely going to have to memorize. So, normal and abnormal lab values, vital signs, mechanism of action for some drugs, for some medications. So, those are things that are not going to change, you're not going to miraculously learn that, you just have to memorize these hard not facts and study cards help with that. Number three, concept mapping. Guess who does that a lot? Me, when I explain important topics to you here right at the whiteboard. I categorize things, a big topic into usually signs and symptoms, treatment, pathophysiology, diagnostic tests, any nursing care, and applicable medications. So, if you have a visual, you concept map it just briefly, you'll use your own abbreviations, and then you have it right there in front of you. Again, you see how it all relates, plus it helps you use that memorization technique of putting everything in pen and paper to help you retain the information. And then number four, active testing, practice questions. Because guess what? There's a lot of quizzes and exams in nursing school, and at the end you're going to take your NCLEX exam. These questions go anywhere from recall, some of this memorization, all the way to application and analysis. Critical thinking is what we need to practice to prepare us for the NCLEX. The sooner you start with these practice questions, the better off you'll be for your NCLEX. So start as soon as you can. Many of your textbooks will have practice questions. I really love the books or the resources from FA Davis, because all of their practice questions, first of all, there are thousands of them for any topic you're looking for, but they all have the question, they have the rationale for every correct and the incorrect answer. So not only do you get to know what the right answer is, but you know why the right answer is right and the wrong answer is wrong. Because we know so many times in nursing school for these quizzes, that there might be more than one answer that is correct, and one is just more correct than the other one. So knowing the rationale of why B is not the correct one might be a game-changer in practicing these questions and also retaining the information, knowing how to sort through these questions. So please check out any of my other videos that help you get better, especially this concept mapping where I go over these topics that really help you build the foundation for the understanding because that's really what it comes down to. We want to understand the information and not just memorize it. Thanks so much for watching. Please like the video and I'll see you soon right here on Nursing School Explained.