How to answer SCENARIO QUESTIONS on NURSING SCHOOL EXAMS

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nine o'. Clock.

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Time to answer scenario questions on nursing school exams. Let's jam on it.

All right. For those just joining, welcome to the Nursing School show. Ask Me Anything. This is Christina, this is Matthew. We are here to answer some questions.

Yes, welcome. This is going to be really quick.

This is so. So we are in the middle of a virtual conference. Virtual conference, which is new and fascinating and fun. So we are in the middle of that. So this AMA will be an abridged version. Abridged version of our lives. So welcome. Thanks for joining. Hope everyone had a good weekend. Christina is just going to go over a question from a member that had to do with scenario based questions for nursing exams, which is a whole lot of words strung together that I don't exactly know what they mean. So good thing that I am not answering it. Good thing that Christina's answering. So we're going to go over that. I feel like this is a question that a lot of people do ask and it's helpful for a lot of people. Hello, from Kentucky.

Hello. Hello, everybody.

How's it going?

Hi, Instagram.

Hi, Instagram. Hi, YouTube.

Thanks for joining us.

Thanks for joining us. Scenario based questions, how to answer them on nursing exams. All right, take it away.

So there are always, always, always going to be three main things that you have to focus on when you take any nursing school exam at all. Now, let me preface this by saying this is a normal thing that happens. The student that wrote into us, it sounds like if you are the student, I'm taking a guess, I'm taking a gander. Taking a guess, a gander that this is your first term in nursing school and when you just start nursing school, you don't know what you don't know. You've never taken a nursing school ex. Let me just clarify it for you and tell you exactly what's going to be on that test. Here's what's going to be on your nursing school exams. Case scenario, questions. Scenario questions. Patient scenarios are going to be on your nursing school exam. They are not going to pull things out of the textbook and test you on facts. They are not going to test you on the pathophysiology of a disorder and say what happens during heart failure. No, they're going to tell you, here's a patient situation. The patient came in with these symptoms. Here are the vital signs that you just took. Here are some things that you have assessed already. Now what are you going to do about it? That is what you're going to see. On your nursing school exams, they're not going to test you on just facts, Random facts from the textbook, random, you know, just facts about nursing. They're not going to do that. They're going to ask you about how you critically think and apply that information. So to caveat this, oftentimes we think, oh, I just have to critically think in nursing school. That's the end goal. And yes, that is the end goal, but that's not where you start. You have to start by actually understanding the facts and knowing them and learning them first, and then you can apply that information. So we need both. You really need both. You have to study the information like we teach. You have to study the information first and learn it first. Right. You can't actually critically think about something that you don't understand. Right. Can't critically think about something, can't apply something you don't actually understand. So you have to know the information first. And when I, when I, when I do this, I'm saying, like the books back there, like, read the books. Right? Okay. Well, not all books.

Well,

woke up myself. Follow our study suggestions, Follow our study system that we have. Follow it step by step and learn the information first, and then you will be able to apply it and critically think about it. So that is what your nursing school exams are going to test you on. They have assumed they are expecting you to understand the information, and then you come to the nursing school examination and they're going to test you on how well you apply it with those scenario questions. So you have to understand the foundation facts, you know, learn the content first, and then when you get to your exam, you can apply it. Does that make sense? Are we all on the same page? Can I get some thumbs up? Can I get some hearts?

So to recap just that little bit.

Yes, you go ahead and clarify.

Yeah, so just clarifying. So I guess just going through nursing school and just learning material, that's one thing. Just learning facts. Learning facts. Going through memorization, rote memorization, I guess is what we called it before. That's one step. And you have to know those facts. Yes, but you don't stop there. You take that and then you learn with critical thinking and you learn to, I like, synthesize the word of the day. Word of the day, synthesize all that information together. And the critical thinking really comes into taking that and being able to apply it to real life scenarios or real life problems. And that's really what the test is about, is trying to simulate that real world. Because as a nurse when you're on the floor or doing nursing things, doing nursing things, doing nursey things out there, your, your job or you as a nurse, you're not going to be just ask one simple thing like, oh, by the way, what's the, what's the medication dose calculation for this? That, that's not going to be the end of what you're going to be doing. Doing nursey things. Right. So it's going to be taking all of that information that you learn from books in classes and synthesizing it into something that is akin closely to what you're actually going to be doing out on the floor. Which to stimulate that is the scenario based question. So the scenario is, okay, in this scenario, what are you going to do? So learning facts, learning books, that is definitely needed. You definitely need to know those facts. But beyond that, that's like, yeah, that's baseline. And then beyond that, it's taking that and how to synthesize it into what you're going to do on the floor.

Absolutely right. And so that is what they're going to test you on. They're going to give you a patient situation, a case study, something like that. They're going to go through a scenario and you are going to have to choose the best answer based on the information that they give you. So there are, when you get to this point, when you get to those nursing school exams, you have to be thinking of three main principles. Okay, so let's walk through these three things now. I'm going to walk through them just briefly here. We do have a deep dive video on every single one of these things up on YouTube. So check out nursing SOS on YouTube. I will just call these out so you know what to search on YouTube. That's totally fine. So, but here are the three things that you need to focus on when you're taking your nursing school exams. Now the first one, arguably the most important one, is the ABCs. And you've heard this before, if you've been in nursing school for a while, you've heard of the ABC, ABC 3 as 1, 2, 3. I'm going to do like an Instagram reel or something on that. That would be so good.

That would be really good.

So good.

I'm sure it's on there too.

ABCs, airway, breathing and circulation. Say it with me, friends. Airway, Breathing and circulation. Abc. Your patient airway has to be clear. You have to make sure that their airway is clear. You have to make sure that they are breathing, they are able to exchange oxygen abc, airway, breathing, circulation. And then circulation is their blood circulating through their body. Those are the three most important things you're gonna have to focus on for that One of the three most important things you're gonna.

And that's the, the top.

So that's, that's, that's the top, right? So airway, breathing, circulation. That's number one. Focus on. So we, we're talking about three principles to focus on your nursing school exams. The first one is ABC's airway, breathing, circulation. Now the second one, number two, is Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Now, the fun thing about this is that Maslow's hierarchy of needs is basically the ABCs. So the first foundation of Maslow's hierarchy of needs is physiological needs. You have to solve a patient's physiological needs first before you can move on to anything else with that patient safety, needs, love and belonging, self esteem, self actualization, everything up the tier. If you've seen Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it's a pyramid. And it starts with the foundation. Think of the old food pyramid, right?

The one I like. The one that allows you to have 11 loaves of bread.

That one, that one. The bread on the bottom, the rice on the bottom.

Of course, it's always on the bottom of the plate. You layer a layer layer, right? And then you put everything on top of it. When I was little, that's literally what my play would look like.

It's a pyramid, right? A little bit of everything else. Yes, it's great. So think of the food pyramid. Think of it's Mouse's hierarchy of needs. Physiological needs. You have to solve physiological needs first. If you are not breathing, do you care about being in relationship with other people? Do you care about, you know, other things? If you cannot breathe, you know your main focus is going to be like, I need to breathe right now, right? So you have to solve physiological needs first. That is the abc. So when you think Maslow's hierarchy of needs and the physiological needs, you have to solve those first. Airway, breathing, circulation, the ABCs. So those are the first two principles, the ABCs and the Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Now Maslow's hierarchy of needs will go up the pyramid. So if a patient's airway is clear, they're breathing, and their blood is circulation circulating, then you can move up the pyramid, which would be then safety needs. Mostly on nursing school exams, you're. It's really one of those three main categories. It's going to be something is critically wrong with the ABCs. Like you need to get this patient breathing right now. Second issue is going to be a safety need. Making sure that their environment is safe. You know, IV tubing is, is, you know, has to be clear. They're not, they're not at risk for falls, you know, things like that, safety things, medication, giving medication safely, stuff like that. Then the third one is going to be more the mental health phase. You know, therapeutic communication. Can you interact with a patient, with a client, things like that. So that is moving up Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Now, the third principle you need to focus on when you're taking nursing school exams, when you're answering these patient scenario questions on your nursing school exams is the nursing process. And someone said this in YouTube. Thank you, Chastity. ABCs add pie. Adpie is the nursing process assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation and evaluation. But when you look at ADPY of the nursing process, the nursing process assessment is always first, always first. When you get a patient situation and it says what is your initial action? What is the first thing that you're going to do? If you get this patient and they've got all these issues, all these symptoms, all of these things, what's the first thing you're going to do? That question. The answers are most likely because very rarely do they not most likely going to include something to assess for, something that you're going to want to assess. They might have a whole list of interventions and you might have to prioritize your nursing intervention. Sure. But a lot of the time there's going to be something for you to assess there and you are going to want to pause and make sure that you, if, if you're not going to choose that assessment one, you need to make sure that that's already been taken care of, that you don't actually need to assess it. I would be very, very cautious about not choosing an assessment 1. When you get a priority nursing school question, a patient situation on your nursing school exam, and they ask you what's your initial action? You best be thinking, what, what do I need to assess for? Because that is the foundation of the nursing process. So you're going to want to move up the nursing process just like you do Maslow's hierarchy of needs, assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation and evaluation. So you have to assess your patient first before you can do anything about it. So for example, some students get confused. You know, there's depends on the, it of course depends on the exact wording of the test question. So but here's a good example. Oftentimes if the test question is like, the patient is having, you know, something's going on, their oxygen level is dropping or something, you know, whatever the question says, you know, having difficulty breathing, something like that. Well, depends exactly on what the question says, of course. But oftentimes, if it's like a airway breathing, circulation question like that, the answers might say what it, what is your, what's your initial action? What are you going to do first? And you might get two. Oftentimes you will get two really good answers. Give oxygen or assess their oxygen level. Well, what are you going to do? I would be very, very cautious of, well, cautious. Check that answer. Are you going to give oxygen first or should you actually assess their oxygen level first? So make sure that you are just aware of that. We go up the ADPY ladder, airway, breathing, circulation breathing, obviously assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation and evaluation. Assess your patient first. Now, of course, like I said, caveat, that depends on the particular question. If you've already assessed that, if they've already assessed it in the question, you might not need to worry about it. But you know, just be very, very like awareness. When you see an assessment answer. I would, you know, be. What's the word? What's the word? What's the word? Like aware. Aware is the only word that's coming to me. Be aware of that. It's the exception.

So, yeah, so added this on YouTube. So just read it out and just take your, have your take on it. Assessment is always first unless a patient is in active danger. For an example, a patient with a gunshot wound who is actively bleeding out, you need to intervene to limit the blood loss.

Absolutely. So we're not going to be like, oh, you know, if, you know, your patient is hemorrhaging. This is a great example. If your patient is hemorrhaging, we're not going to be like, oh, let me just take your blood pressure here and just make sure, you know, that it's not, you know, make sure that I really need to stop the blood loss, you know, nowhere going to stop the blood loss. We're going to be taking their blood pressures, but we're going to, we're going to intervene, you know, so it really depends, it depends on patient situation. That is the, you know, that is an exception. We need to make sure that we are reading the question fully. Right. Read the question and, but just be aware that you want to assess your patient first.

Oftentimes. Yeah, and that goes back, that exception goes back to, I guess what we were Starting with this discussion is the fact that this is all synthesizing all the information that you learned, all the singular pieces of information that you have out there and all your books and all your lectures and all your slides, taking all of that that's just out there. And then getting this scenario and learning to critically think and putting it all together and being able to make the right judgment call based on. Based on your knowledge. So you can't just go in without any critical thinking and just knowing all the facts. You need to take those facts and actually synthesize them together into what would happen in that actual scenario. So in this case, that is part of the critical thinking, seeing, oh, okay. It's an. They are in active danger. I need to do something that is part of the critical thinking. So that. That is really good, though, is that. Yeah, it takes thinking. It takes thinking.

I really like this also and also partially with my breathing example, like patient having trouble breathing. This also goes. This is why we put it in that order. ABCs are first. ABCs are first. So if your patient is bleeding out, if your patient. Literally, if your patient cannot breathe. I mean, come on. So airway breathing and circulation, that is first. We need to solve that first before, you know, really. I mean, really anything else? You know, it depends on the scenario question, of course, but, you know, you're going to stop an active bleed. Active bleed before we go, you know, really check their vital signs.

Yeah.

You know, put pressure on the wound.

So definitely it is going down that list. Those three principles that you have. First, ABCs.

Yep.

Second, Maslow's. Third advice. Yep. Yeah, right.

Absolutely. All right. Maslow's. I would say Maslow's with that. Physiological need is really part of that. It's really part of that. Yeah.

Yeah.

Does that make sense? I think that was good. And then, like I said, the last thing that I wanted to say about case scenario questions or scenario questions is you have to read the full question. Read the full question before you go into anything else, because oftentimes there might be some nuances in the question that you miss. Make sure that you understand the question fully before you answer.

Or something at the very end. I'm not sure if they do this for you guys, but I know for one of the certifications I took a long time ago, they said, read the full question because they might throw something in at the very end, like it's a whole giant paragraph, and at the end it says, by the way, blah, blah, blah, and it changes the whole thing. Right. So I'm not sure if that happens to that extent, but for sure. But yeah, definitely read the whole question and make sure that you understand it all and that all that you understand all that information.

Most oftentimes what I've seen is they give you like a whole paragraph and then they're like, you know, it's just. It's a super basic question at the end that like really almost has nothing to do with all the other information that they gave you. Yeah, you know, that was.

That was a lot in one of. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So just make sure to read everything. There is one other thing that I know that I've heard you say about it as well when doing the test. 2. It. What was it? It was on the tip of my tongue. What was it?

I'll remember by Wednesday. That'll be great.

Yeah, I'll just start off the live.

By the way, did you know?

Did you know? Oh, no, that's what it was on a. See, I remember Fortnite on. On exams and things. You want to. It's a perfect environment. Right. Except. Except for what's in the question. Right. So you can expand on that, but I think that's the best part of it too.

Yep. Nursing exams are a perfect world. That's what you're referring to?

That is what I'm referring to, yes.

Nursing exams are a perfect world. So of course, like you have to. You have to prioritize. Of course. But when you're taking especially case scenario questions like, you just have to forget all of your past experience out in clinical as a cna, as a tech, as an lpn, what have you. Any of your experience, you gotta get rid of it. Because nclex World is a perfect world. You have unlimited time, you have unlimited resources. You have a whole team of nurses right in that room with you. It's a perfect world. So just make sure that when you're answering Todd's questions, you are answering them. Textbooks.

Book.

Textbook perfect.

Textbook perfect.

Not real world, anything. Yeah, textbook perfect.

Yes.

Okay, that's a good point.

That's funny, Chastity. Omg. So many times I pick what you should do when it's asking you what not to do. Yeah.

The big thing about reading.

Reading the question.

Read the question. Because it will. They will switch it. They will switch it up. They'll say, now what should you not do? Yeah. So make sure that you read the question. Absolutely. All right. Well, guys, we have a conference going on virtually.

Thanks for joining us.

So we are going to head out.

Yep. Thanks for joining us for this abridged one. Happy Monday to all. Hope everyone has a great week. And we will see you again on Wednesday.

Yes.

Same time, same place, 9 Pacific.

Yep.

12 Eastern and everything else. Look at. Look at the time.

So 9am Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday.

All right, thanks a lot, guys. Take care.

Bye.

Bye.