In this instructional video, the presenter walks nursing students through a step‑by‑step process for mastering a nursing fundamentals course and excelling on exams. She first eases viewers’ anxiety by outlining what to expect in a fundamentals curriculum—lecture, skills lab, and clinical components—covering core topics such as nursing assessment, the nursing process, fluid/electrolyte balance, vital signs, infection control, care planning, and documentation. She then introduces a proprietary critical‑thinking framework she calls the D‑R‑C model (Definition/Description, Reason/Rationale, Connection) and demonstrates its application using oxygen administration as a concrete example, showing how to describe the procedure, explain the underlying physiology, and link it to related concepts like assessment, perfusion, and the nursing process. The video emphasizes deep, conceptual learning over surface memorization, provides study‑question prompts, a downloadable cheat‑sheet, and links to deeper dive videos on related topics. Throughout, she motivates viewers, invites them to comment, and promotes the Nursing SOS membership community for further support and a dedicated fundamentals course.
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Are you freaked out about nursing school and not sure what to expect or how to pass? In this video, I'm going to walk you through my step by step process for how to ace your nursing fundamentals class. I am not kidding you friend. These tips that I'm going to share with you will help you figure out exactly what to focus your study time on, how to learn it faster, and how to critically think along the way. This might just be the most important, important video you ever watch in nursing school, so be sure to stick around until the end because I'm about to just blow your mind. Now like this video, hit the subscribe button and click the notification bell and let's dive in. So if you remember from this video I shared my top tips for how to get straight A's in nursing school. But being honest, that was not an easy road. There was a lot of trial and error that I was trying to figure out exactly how to study. I came home pretty much every day with a headache and feeling like I wanted to quit pretty much all of the time. That first term in nursing school, I cried all of those tears so you don't have to I've spent a lot of time thinking about exactly why I got straight A's in nursing school while other students really struggled to make it. It's not that I'm special or gifted or super talented. I know my husband can give you a whole list of things that I am just terrible at. Starting with keeping any plant alive for an extended period of time. Those are just a few of the casualties that we've had over the years. It's pretty sad. I am not special friend, but here's what I do know. I followed a particular critical thinking model in nursing school even before I created it and recognized what it was. This is the model that I created to help walk you through, step by step, how to critically think in nursing school. In a few minutes, I'm going to walk you through this critical thinking model for how to study in nursing school so that you can ace your fundamentals class. But first, I want to put your mind at ease and walk you through exactly what you can expect in your nursing fundamentals class. Now, I have received a lot of questions about this over the past few weeks from our nursing SOS members and I know you're probably a little freaked out about it too. So if you're heading into your nursing fundamentals class, listen up. Here's how it will go. You will have your main lecture class where you'll learn all of the basic concepts and the main things that you'll learn about is the nursing assessment and the nursing process. Now I have a deep dive video on the nursing process right here for you to check out after this video. So along with the nursing process, you will learn about things like fluid and electrolyte balance in the body, how to take vital signs on a patient, infection control practices, how to write care plans, and how to document in a patient's chart. Do not worry, we cover many of these topics here on our YouTube channel. I will put all of the links down below in the description for you to check out. Now, along with this lecture class, you will also most likely have a skills lab class and a clinical class that go along with it where you'll be able to practice all of those things. Now, during skills lab, you'll probably get to use mannequins and supplies in your school simulation lab. So it's like you're taking care of real patients without the fear of a real patient judging you or putting you at risk to hurt somebody. It's really important to practice your skills first before doing them in real life. On a real life patient, you'll practice your nursing assessment, learn how to give medications, maybe practice some basic skills like giving vaccines and things like that. It's super exciting that first term and then during your clinical class, you'll finally be able to practice all of your assessment skills on a real live person. How exciting is that? So do not worry friend. Take a breath, trust yourself and do the best you can. It took me the better half of a clinical day to assess my first patient in nursing school because I kept forgetting everything and having to go back into her room and ask her more questions. That was rough. So do not worry if you are super nervous, you are not alone. I was right there with you, so that is generally what you can expect for your nursing fundamentals class. Make sure that you practice as much as you can in the skills lab so that you are then prepared Prepared for clinical now let's talk about how to study in Nursing Fundamentals. I have created a critical thinking model that you can use again and again and again for every topic that you're studying throughout nursing school. It will walk you through step by step how to study in nursing school. Following this critical thinking model will be the difference between getting a C on an exam and getting an A. So pay attention, take notes, and let's change your life. The critical thinking model goes like this, drc. The D stands for definition or description. The R stands for reason or rationale and The C stands for connection. So let's write this out and go through an example to help it all really come together for you. Because seriously friend, this is the key to success in nursing school. Follow this model and you will be golden. The D stands for description or definition. So what is it? What is it that you need to know about? What's the description of it? This is the high level stuff. Don't worry, we will get to the critical thinking and the deep stuff in a minute. So stay with me. So let's take an example of giving oxygen to a patient. Giving oxygen and oxygen administration is absolutely something that you'll study during your fundamentals class in nursing school. You have to know it for nursing school in your clinicals. So the definition and description of oxygen administration, giving oxygen is that you are actually giving oxygen to your patient. You may give it at different levels or different concentrations and through different ways, but you're giving it as a medication. And if you want, you can write all of those down here as well in this category. Now the second part of this process is the R which stands for reasoning or rationale. Now this is where you'll write about the why. Why does it happen? Why does it matter? This is the reasoning behind it. And in this section I really want you to dig deep and focus on the underly reason for it. This is the first step of critical thinking here. Now I'll walk you through the next step in a minute. So stay with me, we will get there. So in our example of giving oxygen, why do we give oxygen to a patient? Well, we give oxygen to a patient if they're not able to oxygenate themselves. Either they aren't able to get enough oxygen in or they aren't able to circulate it as well. So here I want you to dive into the pathophysiology behind it. Listen friend, if there is one reason that I got straight A's in nursing school, it's this. I dug deep constantly. I didn't just learn the surface level stuff like everyone else. I use this model and practice my critical thinking skills over and over and over again. That is what made me successful. Because when I got to my exam and it gave me a case scenario question about oxygen administration. I didn't just memorize the surface high level stuff that the rest of the class focused on. I was way more prepared because I did the critical thinking and learned why it matters. And that's what I want you to do too. To really dig deep and ask yourself why? Why do we give oxygen? Why does it matter? Why is it important? So that is step number two, reasoning or rationale? Why do we do it as nurses? And now the third step is the ultra critical thinking part. And this is the C connection. This is where you'll, you will see how it connects to other things that you're learning. This is the how. How does it connect to everything else? This is where you will really shine at your critical thinking skills and where it will really start to show to your instructors that you know your stuff super well when you can connect the dots and put it all together, put all of the puzzle pieces together. So when our example of giving oxygen, how does that connect to other things that you're learning about? So in your fundamentals class, you will be learning about also the nursing assessment. You'll also learn about oxygen and perfusion, oxygenation and perfusion, how the body gets oxygen, and then how it circulates throughout the body to keep us alive. If you want a deep dive into the nursing process and what the nursing assessment is, be sure to check this video out right here after you finish this video. So this is the final part of critical thinking, being able to connect it to all together with everything that you're learning. Do not worry, friend. I'm not going to leave you guessing on how to do this. So let's keep our same example and walk through it together. So when you give oxygen to a patient, there are a lot of things that you need to assess before, during, and after giving it. You'll look at things like their lips and their mucous membranes to see if they have a blue tint to them, which could indicate a lack of oxygen. And you look at how they're breathing. You'll listen to their lungs, see if they're having difficulty breathing. They may need to be on oxygen to increase their blood oxygen level. If that's the case. So walk through each of those nursing assessment components that relate to giving oxygen. How does giving oxygen affect the body? You'll also learn about oxygenation and perfusion in your fundamentals class. So how does that affect oxygen? Well, giving a patient oxygen will hopefully increase the amount of oxygen in their blood, will get more oxygen to their brain and their other vital organs to keep them happy. Are you seeing how all of these concepts fit together? This critical thinking model is vital to follow in nursing school. Like I said, practicing this will be the difference between getting an A in your nursing school classes or a B or a C on your exam. Now, I have a series of critical thinking questions for you to follow as you study as well. These will really help to guide your learning and help you focus your studying even more. Do a deep dive in these questions in this video here and I've also got a free cheat sheet that outlines them as well, so be sure to download that. The link is down below in the description of this video. Woo. Friend, okay, I know that that was a lot of information right here. I really wanted to do a deep dive video for you to give you everything that you need to succeed in your fundamentals class in nursing school. So if you found this deep dive training super helpful, write love in the comments below to let me know and tell me the date that you start your nursing program. Or if you're already in nursing school, tell me the month and the year that you will be graduating. Oh my goodness friend, I am so pumped for you and your nursing school journey and I feel so blessed to have this opportunity to help you through nursing school. Do not forget to like this video and subscribe and click the notification bell so you don't miss out on any other nursing school tips that I've got for you. And of course, if you want more help with nursing fundamentals, make sure to join the Nursing SOS Membership community where we are currently releasing a brand new fundamentals course. I am so excited. You are going to love it. Now click on the next video to help you keep rocking nursing school and go become the nurse that God created only you to be and I will see you over there.
