How to CRITICALLY THINK in Nursing School

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Good morning.

Welcome to the nursing School show.

Alrighty, friends, Today we are talking about how to critically think in nursing school.

How to critically think in nursing school. Good topic. Good topic, Christina.

All right, well, thank you.

Let's get going. If you have any questions regarding critical thinking in nursing school, go ahead and shoot those in the comments. We'll go through our little chat here, Christina's little deep dive into critical thinking, and then we will field some questions. Any questions relating to nursing school in general, shoot those in the comments too, and we'll see how many we can get to. To help as many people as possible.

Absolutely.

All right. How do I critically think in nursing school?

So the first thing that I want to mention is that we have a free critical thinking cheat sheet for you that walks you through nine critical thinking questions that you really have have to be cognizant of as you study or you will be missing things. I do not want you to miss anything. As you're studying a nursing school, I want you to focus on the most important things. This cheat sheet is going to help you with that. So download it. NurseSchoolOfSuccess.com Critical Thinking. NurseSchoolOfSuccess.com critical thinking. Download that free cheat sheet or how to critically think in nursing school. Now, there's two parts to critical thinking. Planning ahead and connecting the dots. No, it's very simplified. Let me explain it for you. So planning ahead really means that you are always kind of one step ahead of things. This is when I talk about this mostly, particularly at clinical. When I was in clinicals in nursing school, I had a fantastic instructor, and she would always tell us that when you walked into a patient's room, you had to do a minimum of three things. So this really forced us to plan ahead. Right? Which is part of critical thinking. Planning ahead. Planning ahead. What are you going to do now? What were you going to do later? Like, what was your plan four hours from now with that patient? And could you do things now to make that easier? You see what I'm saying? So it's like planning ahead, thinking of, where are you now? What are you. Where are you now? Where are you going? And how are you going to get there?

What do you want to be in five years? Not, not quite that far.

Where do you want to be in five years? What do you want to, you know, what is going on with your patient in five hours? Right. So, planning ahead. Planning ahead. So there's a Challenge for you for today, let's are going to accept this challenge. Accept this challenge. Next time you're at clinical in person, Next time you're at an in person clinical, when you walk into a patient's room, try to do at least three things. Like what three things are you going to do in that patient's room?

Okay.

That will help you to plan ahead.

Shoot a thumbs up. Thumbs up. YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, shoot a thumbs up. If you are going to agree to do this when you walk in, accept the challenge that you are going to think about. Think a little bit further ahead. What are three things you can do when you walk in the room?

Walk into a patient's room? What are three things minimum three things that you're going to do? So that was, that was our, my nursing clinical instructor. Love her. She's great. It really helped you to really plan ahead like we said, you know, it really kind of forces you to, to, to think, to think. Where are you going to be four hours from now with that patient? You know, all right, next thing, connecting the dots. Hey, by the way, we have these things listed out here on page walks you through 15, page 15 through 21 of the Nursing school studies system.

So we do have our nursing school study system.

And I'm going to go through some of the critical thinking questions here that you will get on the free cheat sheet. But also we have more of a deep dive for you here in the nursing school study system. So nursingschoolofsuccess.comstudysystem if you want to follow.

Along, that is there you get that.

If you want to follow along. So page 17 has the nine critical thinking questions. But also if you go to nursing school forward slash critical thinking, you can get those. So it walks you through basically how to connect the dots between what you're learning and other things that you're learning. This is really a huge gap that I see in nursing school. My in kind of the world, right? Like a critical thinking, it's hard to kind of put puzzle pieces together. Like different information that you get from random sources. How do those things combine and fit together, right? How do they interplay with each other? So when you're thinking about oftentimes what we hear from students is actually I'm going to mention it because I just, was just got an email about this yesterday from a student saying, I'm Christina, I'm so good at clinical and I'm so good at skills. But you. But then I get to my lecture exams and I totally bomb, you know, I just don't know how to critically think. And so that. That's really the problem. Right. Are you. Can you guys tell me, can you shoot a number one in the comments if you are a rock star at clinical but have a tough time in lecture? And then put a number two in the comments if you are a rock star at lecture but have a tough time at clinical, or maybe you're just a rock star at lecturer and clinical is okay, but oftentimes what we see is number one, your rock star at clinical. Rock start Skills. But maybe struggle a bit more with lecture and connecting the dots, all the concepts. Gabby. Thank you. Erin. Thank you. Deep Hello. Did I say that right? Okay. Hi, friends on Instagram. Sally, number two. I was with you, Sal. Yeah, I mean, that's what we hear a lot, which is kind of how I feel. Like God really set me up. God set me up for doing this in life because I. Clinical, not my thing. You guys have been around for a while. Skills, not my thing at all by any stretch of the imagination. Lecture, however, that's my jam.

So you would be a number two.

I'm a number two.

You're a number two.

Sally. I'm with you. It's the little things. Life number two on YouTube, boom, I'm with you. But pretty much everyone's saying number one. There you go. I am a number two. So that's why I'm here to help teach you through nursing school, because I am a number two. I can break lecture content down for you very, very simply. That's what we do. So connecting the dots between things. So I'm just going to hit some of the highlights on the nine key critical thinking questions that you need to ask yourself as you study. So funny that I actually created these in nursing school to help other students in nursing school. So that's really fun. There you go. I created these. This is one of the first things I created for nursing sos, where these nine key critical thinking questions. Because as I was studying for nursing school, I was like, this is what I'm doing. Like, these are the questions I'm going through to ace my exams. This is what people need to know. There you go. This is what you need to know. All right, let's hit the highlights. How does this disorder impact a patient with comorbidities? How does this disorder. Now we're talking med search, we're talking ob, we're talking pediatrics, we're talking fundamentals. Any disorder issue in the body that you are studying. So for fundamentals, let's put in an example to it. Hyperkalemia. How does hyperkalemia impact other disorders that you are learning about? How does heart failure impact other disorders you are learning about? How does stroke impact other disorders you're learning about? How do different disorders fit in together? So if you are in nursing school right now and you are studying tbi, traumatic brain injury, neuro. If you're studying neuro, how does the neurological system impact relate to other cardiac, cardiac disorders, respiratory disorders? You know, you've got to connect these things together. So even if you are studying neuro, you are not studying just neuro because when you get to your exam, guess what that exam is going to test you on? The exam is going to test you on how well you critically think and connect the dots between neuro and other things that you've studied. Most likely cardiac, respiratory, renal, GI. The other things, right? Fluid and electrolyte imbalances, ABG, ABGs, you know, metabolic acidosis. How do those things relate to each other? So that's, that is actually question number three. I am picking and choosing these questions, so make sure that you get the free cheat sheet that we have for you. Nine key critical thinking questions. Please go through these. I'm just going to hit the highlights or else we would be here for a while because we all know that Christina can talk for hours. What interventions are within my scope of practice as a nurse to do without an order? Do you see where I'm going with this? Anybody, raise your hand if you see where I'm going with this? How often do you get a nursing school exam question that gives you a case scenario question, Case scenario question, and then asks you what will you do first? And then one of the answers is call the doctor. Are you going to choose call the doctor? Most likely not, because you're going to look at this and you're going to say, oh, wait, Christina, I remember point number five on the critical thinking teaching was what interventions are within my scope of practice as a nurse to do without an order. Right? What can you do within your scope of practice do without an order to help that patient? You do that first. See where I'm going with this? Okay. Critical thinking, connecting the dots, putting things together. So basically what we're doing here is learning things in class. Whatever you're studying right now in class. Can you guys tell me what are you studying in class? Tell me what you're studying. What you studying? Fundamentals, med surge. What are your topics? Tell me. Miriam, you said ABG is my favorite. I love ABGs. They're so fun if you are struggling with ABGs. Miriam, we have a whole ABG playlist on YouTube. So if you type in Nursing SOS, I would type in like Nursing SOS, ABG, and it'll pop up there for you on YouTube. Nursing SOS, ABG. Pop it up. It'll pop up on your YouTube and you're saying fundamentals. Okay, what are you studying in fundamentals? Most likely it's going to be like abg, you know. Oh, yeah. Sally, you said health assessment. Fluid and electrolytes. Big, you know, assessment. Med surge. Kathy, what are you studying for? Med surge. And J. Am I conception? Did I say that? Med surge. Ob. Okay, cool. What do you say? Tell me, what are your topics?

Psych. Maternity.

Psych and maternity. Perfect. Yep. So any, any topic that you are studying in your class right now, when you are going, you know, when you were going after class to study it, you have to be thinking of everything else that you have learned and are learning in nursing school and how do they relate to each other? We do not learn things in isolation. You do not just learn. Sure, yes, you go to a nursing lecture and they will just talk to you about the cardiac system, but then it's your job, it's your responsibility to then go and think, oh, wait, how does the cardiac system impact or play a role in the respiratory system, in the renal system? How often you guys do you get nursing school exams that combine everything together, like always, right? Always. We're not, they're not going to ask you questions in isolation of each other, especially as we have, like more case scenario questions. And especially when you go to clinical. Right. When do you ever see a person in the world with one thing? Right? Hardly ever. Yeah, really? Hardly ever.

So can I, can I just tangent a little bit? Jump in here? I'm going to jump in, jam my way in here. Just, just, just tangent a little bit, but not really tangent. Anyway, what are you guys in school to become? You're in school to become nurses. And the best nurses that you can be, you want to help as many people as possible under your watch. You want to be the best nurses. And what Christina just alluded to real life, what happens in real life when you see patients, they are not just going to have this one disorder and that is it. They're not just going to have this one slice that you just studied in lecture and that is it. That is not how the real life works, unfortunately. So what is nursing school for? It's to prepare you to become these really rock star nurses. So they're not going to go ahead and just teach you in isolation and want you to learn in isolation these things. But it is your job to critically think beyond that scope and start connecting the dots, because you will have to do that in real life. You will have to do that in your clinicals that you've already seen. You'll have to do that with actual patients. So it is just practice. So really, it's the first part of this, planning ahead, thinking ahead, connecting, and then combined with this, connecting the dots. So, oh, any heart issues? And then how does that actually affect other parts of the body? Everything else. So start realizing that we are. We don't live in isolation and our bodies don't act in isolation. That'd be kind of. Kind of odd. So, yeah, just that, that is, that is really the point of nursing school, of preparing you guys, preparing you for the real world, preparing you how to really think and connect the dots in.

Real life, all of that.

So just think about that. And also, once you, once you think about this, I'm sure Christina might talk about this a little later, but once you think about that and understand that you are critically thinking and going above and beyond just what they're teaching you and trying to connect the dots, it's actually really fun when you're just thinking or going through lecture and thinking about something and it just happens automatically. Oh, wait a minute. That happens because of this. And it just pops in because you're already priming yourself to think that way. And then the more you do it, the more it will become easier for you.

Absolutely. You will get to a point. In nursing school, for me, it happened for my fourth term in maybe kind of three going to fourth term in, where you really start seeing, wow, all of this stuff is coming together. So when you are. If you're just starting fundamentals right now, and you come to me and say, christina, I don't know how to critically think, I'm going to tell you. Of course you don't. You just started nursing school. That's why we do this. That's why we walk you through this. That's why we have these nine critical thinking questions, which is why we have our DRC Critical thinking model, which I will talk about in a second. That's why we have those things for you, is to help you learn how to critically think, so that as you go through nursing school, you can start connecting the dots and start connecting the dots easier than other students in your class. Everything, you might not have these tools. Everything takes practice. Everything takes practice. So give yourself a break. If you're studying fundamentals, it's fine. You're gonna do great. So did you have anything else?

Yeah, just one more thing. I'm going to butcher your, your name on YouTube. Dennett Applebaum, even management and leadership, for sure. That connects with everything as well. So even if it's not directly health related or disorder related, just think how does that connect? How does everything connect? It all comes together. All comes together. So thank you guys for. Yeah, you guys are learning a vast majority of different disorders, but they all come together. Oh, Danita.

There you go. Perfect.

All right.

Yeah. With leadership and what was it? Management and leadership. Are you learning? Delegation. We just talked about delegation on yesterday's tutorial. Tutoring, tutoring call for nursing SOS members. And delegation, I mean, of course integrates with everything. Like we did, like, I don't know, it's like we just said, what interventions can you do without an order? What can you delegate to somebody? It's another great question. What can, like, what can you delegate? What can't you delegate to different, you know, other members of your healthcare team? Right. So these are all things, just like Matthew just said, these are all things that it's just, it's, it's, you have to practice it coming together in order to have it come together. It's not just gonna like all of a sudden get there. You have to actually practice it, you have to actually study it and then it will happen faster.

And I'd always also say that it's, it's an ongoing thing kind of thinking. More meta. This is, we're talking specifically about nursing school, but beyond that, this is, this is skills for everyday life, planning ahead, connecting the dots. We're specifically talking about nursing school, but yes, all of this critical thinking goes above and beyond. So it is something that needs practice constantly and that it's an ongoing thing. You're constantly learning and refining these skills too. Someone just commented on Instagram that they're in senior year and still struggle with this. And that's fine. That is okay. Just, you just can't give up. Giving up is the worst thing to do. So just realize that this is something that you're going to be working on and you just keep working it.

Yep, absolutely. Now, the next part of this, now this is not in the critical thinking cheat sheet. The critical thinking cheat sheet is the nine key critical thinking question that we just went over some of the highlights of. So to get that, go to nursingschoolofsuccess.com critical thinking, you can download a free cheat sheet for you. Now. This is the DRC Critical Thinking model and it is in our nursing school study system. So if you go to nursing schoolofsuccess.com study study system, you can follow along with me. It is digital. I have mine printed. You can print it if you would like, recommend printing it at home or printing it on an online printer or you know, something in your neighborhood. So how to critically think? Drc. We call it the DRC Critical Thinking Model. This is a framework for you to use as you study to help you connect things together. So the D stands for definition or description. What's the definition? Or what's the description? What is it? What are you studying? What's the definition of it? You cannot move on to the next steps unless you know what it is, right? What's the definition or description? So literally, as you're studying on like a paper, write drc what's the definition? And I do not want you, when you are studying and doing this DRC Critical thinking model, I do not want you to write a thousand things. I want you to challenge yourself. We've got lots of challenges today. Challenge yourself to break it down into simple terms, simple steps, simple phrases, simple words, right? Like just keep it simple. Keep it simple. Yes, you can read a whole textbook on pathophysiology of disorders. But then give me just like a one liner. What's the pathophysiology of a disorder? Just give me a one liner. Challenge yourself to really break it down into simple terms for yourself. Because the process of doing that is going to really help you learn it better. When you know how to break. When you can take a very difficult, challenging concept and break it down into simple terms that anyone can understand, then by golly, you are ready for your exam.

Challenge yourself. Think in your head. If I can describe this to Matthew and that I can understand it, you've succeeded.

You have succeeded. Can I explain this to Matthew?

Yep. So think about that. Can I explain it to that guy on YouTube or Instagram or Facebook? If you can. Yep, there you go.

So there you go. Description, definition. That is the D in the DRC Critical Thinking model. But I want you to break it down into like a one liner, simple terms. That's how we do it. No, the R stands for reason or rationale. What's the reason that it happens? Okay, now we're going one level deeper. So with a description or a definition, let's talk about if you're studying heart failure, description or definition of heart failure. You know Heart failure. The what I would say if I were to write a one liner on heart failure. The body, the heart cannot pump blood in the light. The heart is having a hard time pumping, moving blood forward in the cardiac system. That's it, right? Heart failure. Heart is having a hard time doing its job. It's another way to say it. So then you would go to the R. Reason or rationale? Why is this happening? So in heart failure there could be numerous reasons. So you can pick one or you can write all the one is it, you know, diastolic heart failure? Is this systolic heart failure there? Is it coronary artery disease? Why? You know what is happening? What is the cause of the heart not being able to pump? That's the pathophysiology. So here for reason or rationale, I want you to be thinking pathophysiology. What's going on? Why is it happening? Why is it occurring? What's the reason? What's the rationale? Why is it occurring? You guys with me, is that making sense? So DRC definition or description? Reason or rationale? So definition or description? Like I said, high level overview, one liner. What is it? Break it down in simple terms for me, reason or rationale are reason or rationale? What is the pathophysiology? Why is it happening? What's going on? Why is it happening? Why? What's the rationale for it happening? Moni. Moni Moan. Monet. Hello. Thank you. I'm glad it makes sense. Tippy toes. Oh, I love that. Yes, I'm glad it makes sense. Perfect. Okay, sweet. So, yeah, let me know if you guys, if you guys, if this is making sense to you, actually put a thumbs up if you get, if this is making sense to you. Can you put a thumbs up for me, please?

Put a thumbs up. If you have any more questions specific to the DRC model right now, go ahead and pop them in the comments. We'll circle back around on those. And I'm taking notes. So any other questions? Shoot them.

All right now, like I said, the reason or rationale is really the pathophysiology. This is really where I see nursing students really getting confused is you try and you try and you try to learn everything else in nursing school without understanding why first. So you can memorize a list of signs and symptoms? Sure. You can memorize a list of nursing assessments. Sure. You can memorize a list of nursing interventions. Sure. But when you get to your exam, what you're going to have is a list of words in your mind that is not helpful for you. So this is what the DRC critical thinking model does, is we start with the reason why. What is the rationale as to why this is happening, which is oftentimes the path. What's the pathophysiology of what's happening? When you understand what's happening in the body, what is the reason or the rationale for what is happening, what is going on? Then you can move on to the next part, which is connection. How does it connect to everything else? Meaning signs and symptoms, nursing assessment and nursing interventions. How does it connect to those things? So if you guys, I see some nursing SOS members on here. We've got a few. If you guys are, hello, you're a nursing SOS member.

She knows who you are.

I know who you are. You try to get away. You try. I love you guys. So when you log into your dashboard, you will see all of our courses there for you. And you might get into the membership community and think, wow, Christina, there's a lot of videos there for me. Yes, there are. There's a lot. We break them down so easy for you. Step by step, literally following this, we do not give you a video on signs and symptoms or nursing assessment or nursing interventions and then tell you to memorize a list. No, absolutely not. That's not how we do it here. What we do, how we teach, is we give you the signs and symptoms, the nursing assessment, the nursing intervention. So we tell you why. We tell you why those things happen, why you need to assess for those things, why you need to do those nursing interventions. We tell you the why behind it. Because that, my friends, is this. See the connection? This is what we were talking about when we were talking about the nine critical thinking questions on the critical thinking cheat sheet. You have to connect the dots. What are the connection points between the pathophysiology and this nursing intervention? What are, how do we connect the dots between this nursing intervention and that nursing intervention? You have to start connecting it all together. That's why we do that. So you can't just take, like we were saying, you can't take like cardiac in isolation, respiratory in isolation, neuro in isolation. You have to think about them all together. Same thing with this. You can't just take pathophysiology in isolation. You have to consider what's the pathophysiology of this disorder. Then how is that going to impact the signs and symptoms that you might see, or the nursing assessment that you're going to assess for, or the nursing interventions that you're going to do to fix it. You have to really track it in those steps. D, R, C. Does that make sense? Thumbs up. I see lots of thumbs up. Can you give me another thumbs up?

Guys, we really like thumbs up.

I really like thumbs up just to, you know, make sure that I'm all making sense because you guys know me and I can talk a lot. There you go. I hope it helps. So this is, this is on page 19 of the Nursing school study system. So this is page 19. It's the DRC Critical Thinking Model of the nursing school study system. There you go. There you go. Yep. And then we've also got. I've got examples here for you and action steps. Because of course I don't leave you hanging ever. Like walk you through.

Like I give you, you know, Christina likes helping.

I help.

Christina likes helping.

Helper. There you go. I hope it helps.

So I just want to jam a little bit on, on memorization versus critical thinking.

Oh, good one.

You definitely, you definitely touched on that a little bit.

Set me up.

Memorization and critical thinking. Right? So technically you could just memorize everything. You could read your entire book word for word. You could just memorize facts. Memorization will get you those questions that are strictly facts. But what did we talk about a little bit earlier? That that's not how the real world works. There's connections. There is the need to take something, a fact from way out here and realize that it connects to this fact way over here and put it together. So that is the critical thinking. So memorization will take you place places, just not as far as actually taking those facts and synthesizing them together. So memorization, it can, it can go a long ways. And I know this because that's probably most of how I, I got through. Not nursing school. I didn't not go to nursing school, but school in general. I kind of just relied on, on memorization, which is, which is fine, but it does have a limit to that. If you, if you aren't willing to start connecting the dots, going through the DRC model and, and really diving into the why behind things, you need to understand the why and you need to start understanding the, the connections between those. Because at that point, that's where the learning occurs. That's where everything that is complex happens. So memorization is great for just raw facts, raw data, which there are reasons to do that. Anatomy, physiology, immunization schedules, things like that. There are things that memorization is needed. But the vast majority of nursing school become great nurses. You need to start getting beyond that into the DRC model and really connecting those points together so that you can understand, oh, this pathophysiology leads to this. Because if you just memorize this pathophysiology and this signs and symptoms with no connection between the two, you might be able to answer questions about patho and you might be able to answer questions about signs and symptoms, but you're not going to be able to answer, oh, this patho. What, what does it lead to?

This guy right here.

Right.

Listen to this.

So there you go. That was my, my little jam.

I didn't even have to add anything. I think that was great. I thought you were setting me up for a soapbox, but.

Oh, you can go in your soapbox if you, if you'd like for those just joining.

It was great.

Welcome to the Nursing School Show.

Hello, I'm Christina.

And I am Matthew. We're Christina. Mostly I just, I just do my little tangents like that we talk about nursing school and how we can help you through nursing school.

Yep.

We are currently talking about how to critically think. Christina went through some main points of critical thinking. If you have any questions regarding critical thinking or nursing school in general, pop them in the comments below and see what we can get to.

Someone asked, how do I get this? So this is the nursing school study system and you can get it@ Nursing SchoolofSuccess.com forward/study system. And I highly recommend it because it's basically all the answers to every question you've ever had about nursing school. It is literally, I'm not, it's not even an over exaggeration. It's pretty much every AMA question, every tutoring call question that we get about how to study. How do I study fundamentals, how do I study med surg. How do I critically think? What do I do if my instructor doesn't teach? How many hours do I study? What if my classes are online? How do I study for that? It's all in here, all of it.

It is a digital product so you can go ahead and get it and either keep it on your computer to go through that or you can print it out at home. If you want to get it bound, I'm sure there's, there's local shops around that you can, you can get that bound and printed.

We also have printing instructions that come with it.

Yes. Yep. So I think it is a great resource. It's basically our step by step guide of passing nursing school condensed into one handy dandy study system. It's the same system that we use in our premiere nursing SOS membership community. That is closed right now.

But it's opening next week.

It's opening next week. So if you want the membership, go ahead and join nursing school success. Nursingschoolofsuccess.com join, join the waitlist and you'll be the first to know when it actually does open. Yep, it's opening next week. Stay tuned, Stay tuned. And that is more of a guided step by step process of passing nursing school. And if you like the study system, it is actually available for free inside the membership. It's included in the membership. If you just want the study system part of that, then you can just go to nursing school success.com study system and it is there for you.

There you go.

There you go.

Someone on Instagram was that. I need to scroll back up.

Okay. Moni.

Monet. Am I saying that right? I'm happy I found this page. I'm definitely about to purchase the membership. Oh, I'm so, so glad to have you. Oh, is it Jackie? My peds class is a recorded lecture and no clinical. We definitely talked about that. And friend, it's in the study system. What did you basically what did you do if your classes are online? Right? Recorded lecture, no clinical. That's kind of like so many people right now.

Yeah.

Yep, yep.

So we do have a question regarding critical thinking that came up on Instagram by Jazzy. Jazzy. They're still around.

Jazzy. Hello, Jazzy.

You just mentioned that they were bad at critical thinking during testing. During testing. So I'm not sure. Maybe you're okay in other situations, but maybe the pressure of the test taking environment or something did that occurable thinking during tests? I can't seem to apply it to the questions and don't know how to improve, so.

Oh no tippy toe. It's nursing school. Schoolofsuccess.com forward/critical thinking. Nursing schoolofsuccess.com forward/critical Thinking. That will get you the free cheat sheet. So nursing School of success.com forward/critical thinking. If you want the study system, it's nursing schoolofsuccess.com forward/study system. There's that. So that's that. Just to clarify, on Instagram you had a question about it. So there are two issues with this. Oh, a little bit more context.

I can understand what the teacher is talking about in class, but when it comes to test, the test, I just don't understand.

My guess is that it's mostly case scenario questions. Am I right? It's mostly case scenario questions.

So in this scenario, in this scenario.

With this patient situation now, what are you going to do? Referring to the critical thinking. Yes. Are your exams more case scenario based questions, which I'm assuming that they are because, you know, welcome to nursing school, right? Everyone said, amen. It's like all case scenario questions, all patient scenarios, where you have to choose the best answer based on this patient situation. Jazz, you're like, yes, I know. It's the thing, right? It's the thing. So when you walk through Jazzy, do you have this critical being? That's going to be my first question to you because it literally. I'm not kidding you, friend. You got to get it. These critical thinking questions as you study are going to set you up for huge success on your exam, because your exam is really going to ask you questions that relate to these questions. They're going to ask you questions about, you know, hey, you get, like I said, right? What interventions can you do that are within your scope of practice? Practice without a doctor's order. Then you're going to go to your exam and you're going to get questions asking you, what's your first priority? And are you going to call the doctor? Most likely not. You're going to do something else. But you have to know before you take your exam what you would do, right? You guys, like I said, this was the actual. Literally, this was the first thing I created when I started nursing SOS all those years ago when I was in nursing school for this reason. Because when I was studying for my exam, I was like, wait a second. Like, this is. This is how I'm getting A's on my exams. Like, this is it. These are the nine critical thinking questions you have to be asking yourself. This is how I study. So use this, please.

Okay, Jazzy, you are a member. Tanya, you're a member. You find it under. When you log in on your dashboard. Go ahead and go to the course. Watch this first. Yep.

Watch this first.

And then it's just another section there. The nursing school study system. I put it in there just in hopes that when people join, since it's watch this first, they'll see it when they first come in. But I understand that. I just added it. It's brand new. We just added it not too long ago. So you might have missed that if you've been with us for a little while. So go ahead and go back to the watch this first course. And it's a new section there.

Oh, Tanya, I can see how that can be confusing. So we're Going to fix that. Thanks. Yeah, Tanya, it's in the. Watch this first course. Yep.

Sorry about that.

Great. Love it. Yeah, we are going to make that a whole lot clearer, more clear. So there you go. How long does the membership last? It opens on Sunday, but I do not start nursing school until January. Wait until two months before you start your program to join there.

There are things that you can go through in preparation, but you. You want to wait for a little.

Bit longer and like, January even. I mean, I would say even if you join in, like, January, you should be fine, you know, even if you wait until the start of your program. I mean, I don't know when enrollment's gonna open. We actually don't have a plan, but.

You know, we'll come up with one.

We'll come up with one. But join, like I used to say, two to three months. But now I'm thinking that it might be a little bit. That might be too much. Like one to two months before you start your program. So, like, two months, I think is a good ballpark because we also don't open enrollment a whole lot during the year, which is, you know, that's kind of the stickler, too. So one to two months before you start your program is when. So it's too early now for you, Ally. There you go.

All right. We have some people that actually got the study system, so just, I guess, household, clean air or whatever. The link in the email that you get, you get two emails. The second email has a link that goes to our site that has a page that you put in a password, and then it goes to a page with all the downloads available there. So if you're still having issues, go ahead and email us and we'll get that squared away. Janine?

Janine. Yeah. Okay, so if you're having issues with it, please email us. We'll get it taken care of for you, even worry about.

Thanks, Trisha.

Scroll all the way to the bottom. Okay. Oh, you got the second email. Okay, perfect. Yeah, just wait for that second email. Because it can be kind of confusing because you get like a first email saying, I don't actually know what the first email says. I think it's just like the invoice, like, hey, you purchased it. But then you'll get a second email with the actual download. So don't get confused. It'll come, don't worry. Check your spam folder. Tried a couple of times to enroll. Yes, it's opening on Sunday. So the Nursing SOS Membership community opens on Sunday. It's Only open a couple of times throughout the year. So it's like it's closed for the vast majority of the year. But we will. I spilled the beans on Monday. We're opening next week.

Christina did it. Christina spilled beans. The beans, Beans everywhere. Also, there was a question that they did buy the study system, but then plan to join the membership. Since the study system is free in the membership, it. Does anything happen and. No, nothing happens. Just. We're really glad that you found the study system really helpful. And if you want a more, more guided tour with additional lectures and things, that membership just gives you more in addition.

Yeah, they are different. This is the diy. So this is the nursing school study system. This is DIY basically, like step by step. How do you study in nursing school? Now if you want more help with nursing school, where you get videos of, of me teaching it to you, you get, you know, we've got all the med surg videos, fundamentals videos, fluid and electrolyte videos, OB videos, critical care, the whole medication database. Like if you guys don't want to learn your medications from a textbook, you can pull up a video and we'll teach it to you. You know, it's everything, it's all the videos that walk you through how to apply this really. So this is really your step by step guide how to study yourself in nursing school. And then when you join the nursing SOS membership community, that is me guiding you through. Here's what you need to know to study in nursing school. It's me holding your hand.

There's also extended in depth tutoring calls once a week that Christina fields more in depth questions that we then post up on the membership as well. So someone is asking that. Tutoring, that's how we do tutoring is once a week tutoring calls that you can ask questions and then Christine will go through them in detail that way. So just a couple things just to wrap up a few more things about membership and then we'll field a couple more questions here because I know that we want to. We want to answer a couple more critical thinking questions. So thanks for joining us, everyone. For the membership as well. What was, what was I actually gonna say? I forget what I was gonna say, actually.

Oh yeah, Jackie.

It is open. It'll open on Sunday when we open for enrollment. It is open for five days, Sunday through Friday.

Yeah.

So Sunday through Friday is the window that it will be open. So go ahead, nursing schoolofsuccess.com join. We'll get you on the wait list and then you'll be the first to know when it will open. And it will be open for the that time period.

Yep. Until Friday. So Friday at 4pm Pacific Standard Time. Please do not email me at 4:01 asking to get in because you'll just have to wait. It happens every single time and it breaks my heart.

So. All right.

Will you have Pete's videos? It's on the roadmap.

Yes, on the roadmap.

Yep.

Okay, so just to, just to wrap up, Jazzy, I know that you just comment again, but just to wrap up on your question about bad at critical thinking during test taking and again, can case scenarios, I'd say that also is like we said, practice, practice, practice. It's all about practice. It's all about moving beyond memorization into connecting the dots.

Yes.

And I think that it will just take time, but really take a look at those nine tips in the study system and work through that. Get really comfortable with case scenarios because again, they want to teach you how to be the best nurses out in the real life. And case scenarios will get as close to that as possible. So that's why they're giving you those kind of case scenarios so you can practice that. So it is for your benefit. Those tests are there for a reason. So look at it from a positive light. Just say, not just saying, oh, it's hard, I can't understand it. Just look at the positive side of things. And then learn how to move beyond memorization, using those questions to connect the dots. And I think you'll do great. Just practice that.

And so when you go to take your exam, actually, let's talk about before you take your examination, those case scenarios, like I said, following the nine critical thinking questions in the study system is going to help you so so much in the DRC critical thinking model because it's going to solve a lot of your problems. You're going to know the information before you get to your exam. You're going to be much more prepared in this critical thinking mindset than you would have been otherwise. So if you use the nine key critical thinking questions from the study system, if you use the DRC critical thinking model from the study system, you will be so much more prepared than your peers in your class. I mean, hands down, for sure. Because you will have already going to help to train your brain to critically think right? Push yourself, challenge yourself. How do these things? How do I connect the dots between all these concepts? And that's what those nine key critical thinking questions walk you through. That's what the DRC critical thinking model walks you through. So then when you get to your exam, you. When we get to our exams, oftentimes we overthink things. We second guess ourselves. We, you know, how often have you had this experience? Can you, like, raise your hand? We've done a lot of thumbs up. Can you put your. Your favorite emoji, whatever your favorite emoji is, put it in the chat. If you have over thought a test question, if you have second guessed yourself on a test question, if you have, you know, if you have selected one answer and then changed it and then it submitted your test and it was actually the first answer that you had selected because you second guess yourself, put your favorite emoji in the comments to tell me that you are. That I'm not alone and that you've done it too.

I'm not laughing at Christina. I'm laughing at all the great emojis.

Yeah. Love emojis. Oh, man. I have done this so many times at the beginning of my nursing school journey. Yes, friends, put your favorite emoji in the chat. I love it. You guys have the best emojis. Oh, man. I didn't even know that was an emoji. Love it. This is great. I love these emojis. Okay, man, this is awesome. That is the problem, right? That is a big issue in nursing school, is we second guess ourselves. We. It's almost like we just don't have confidence. We just don't think we can do it. It's totally a lie. You can totally do it, friend. You. You've got this. You've got this, man. These emojis are the best. I love it. All right. You make me laugh today on a Wednesday. I love it. Oh, man. So I want to direct you to some videos, but I'm trying to think of which one because we have. If you go to YouTube, type in nursing sos test taking tips. I think that'll.

Yeah, you.

You do have to do a lot of.

A lot there. And I think they're all gold. So definitely go back through our. Our channel.

And Allison, you win. That's my favorite. A unicorn. So not only that, actually. So we have a whole video on test taking strategies, texting tips. We have quite a few, actually. But then we also have, if you go to YouTube, type in Nursing SOS Case Studies. Nursing SOS Case Studies. On YouTube, we have a whole video where I walk you through how to study using case studies. Gold, friends. It's gold because if you're not studying with case studies and your exams or Case studies like that obviously doesn't work. Right. You know, you want to make sure that you are studying in the way to set you up for your exam, which is case studies. So we gotta practice case studies. Right? That's critical thinking. That's common sense. That makes noble sense, right? Yeah.

Definitely want to study what you're going to be tested on. So.

Yep. All right, let's jam on some questions.

All right. So kind of related to this or just critical thinking in general. A G conception as also I had an A in pathophysiology and I'm still struggling and just kind of curious why that is occurring. And I'm going to shoot out my theory. Christina, if you have any other theories you can, you can add on to that. Again, I might be totally off base. So it's kind of general. Jake, Inception. If you had any more insight into. Into this or any more details on whether you still have an A or if there's specific parts where now you're struggling with patho where you worked before. But my guess is it's again the movement from memorization into critical thinking. So patho is great. If you're just studying this, is the patho of this disorder siloed, then yes, you can just memorize that and you're good to go. But once you move beyond that, into the needing to critically think this patho leads to these signs and symptoms, this patho is related to other disorders as well. That's when it can get kind of tricky if you are just siloed in the memorization lane. So that's when we want to again move out of memorization, which is great for some things and even at the beginning of critical thinking, but then definitely move into how it relates to other things, how to connect the dots. And then I believe that you'll find that once you start practicing that muscle, practicing that connection, that you'll see the dots being connected. And that will help you a lot in the future. And hopefully you won't be struggling as much with those future concepts or more quote unquote advanced topics. If you say, but that's my two cents. Anything else?

Yeah, you know, pathophysiology can go a couple of different ways. Pathophysiology could be more memorization if it is more of like pathophysiology A and P. Is that what you're dealing with? Or are you dealing with patho integrated with med surge disorders, which is what Matthew was talking about. So absolutely. I mean, you've got to go. If you're struggling with pathophysiology. Here's a what I recommend. I recommend that, like I said, with the DRC critical, the model, start with that definition. You have to break it down into a one liner. What is happening? What's the one liner? Tell me, tell me what the one liner is. Break it down into simple terms that he can understand. Non nurse can understand.

So that's your, that's your new challenge. All right. Whenever you're trying to define something, explain something. Picture me in your mind, someone that doesn't know anything about anything. And just say, if I can explain it to Matthew, if I can explain it to him and he doesn't go off on one of his crazy theories or whatever. If I can explain it to him in simple, simple, please. Simple, please. Simple language. Then I know that I actually know the material and I am good to go.

Yep.

So there you go.

You'll be good.

That's a little life hack.

You'll be good.

Pass it by me and see if it passes the Matthew test.

The Matthew test. Hashtag Matthew 10. That's hilarious. I love it.

Jackie.

My favorite thing. That is my favorite thing. Okay. Yes. So you have to break it down into simple terms. Now then, the R part of that DRC critical thinking model. If you were saying pathophysiology. You guys have heard me say it before. What I always recommend when you're studying patho, break it down step by step. Step by step. I love step by step processes. I'm sure you love step by step processes. If you're here, you probably do because pretty much all our videos are step by step. I literally walk you through nursing school step by step. It's what I do. So what we do. So break the path of physiology down step by step. What happens first, roughly. And then what happens? And then what happens? And then what happens? I. I think that's a really great way to think about it and to have it come together for you faster, you know, to where you can actually remember it. So so much better questions.

Great. No, I think that that is good critical thinking. A little bit of tangent, but someone asked on YouTube if you have a little bit more. Oh, okay.

What was the.

Well, circle. We'll answer this question.

We've got a couple good questions.

So this question right here, what was the C C of the drc?

C of the DRC is connection. How does it relate to other things that you are studying? I'm going to say it was about 9:30. It was about 20 minutes ago. So once this replay is up, go Back and watch that. Yes, the C of the DRC critical thinking model. So the critic. DRC critical thinking model is definition. Definition or description? What is it? Give me a one liner. Just simple high level terms, please. Are reason or rationale? Why does it happen? This is mostly the path of physiology. I want you to challenge yourself and a lot of you guys out there. You said that you would accept my challenge.

Challenge it.

Accept the challenge. Challenge yourself to think critically about the pathophysiology. The C is connection. How does it connect to other things that you're studying? Signs and symptoms, nursing assessment, nursing interventions. You will walk through do I believe it was page 17. We even have a concept map, map, map for you. Concept map for you on page 17 of the nursing school study system. Nursingschoolofsuccess.com forward slash study system. Highly recommended.

Barbara. Hey, you're in that screen, which is.

A Facebook screen, which is a YouTube screen. Welcome, Barbara. Thanks for hanging out with us. So excited that you're here again. All right, so those nine critical thinking questions are on page 17 and 18 of the nursing school study system. And then I walk you through the DRC Critical Thinking Model on page 19 through 21. Seriously, I can't even. I get it. Because it's so helpful for you. So this is literally everything you need to know in nursing school for how to study. Highly recommended. So C is for connection. So you walk through those critical thinking questions. You will think about how does it relate to other things? I'm studying signs and symptoms, nursing assessment, nursing interventions. How does it all come together? And yes, I give you an example in the study system. So don't worry, you won't be lost. Does that help?

Hopefully it helps.

Can you please make a video on DNP courses like its qualifications required? I could, but it would not be helpful for you because I am not a dnp. So I'm not going to make that video because I can only teach what I know and I don't know that. And it wouldn't be helpful for you because it'd probably be like, I just don't know what I'm talking about. So I'm not going to make a video on that for you. Sorry. Because I'm not a dnp, can only teach what we know and that is not.

Gnp. Yeah. Since I don't know what DNP is, that's probably best for you.

Just, just, just saying it's a nurse practitioner.

Okay. All right.

Yep. That'd be so fun though. Can't say I haven't Thought about it. Maybe, maybe. And maybe I will go get my np. I don't know. I have. Haven't fully decided. Haven't fully cut.

Sweet question. Tangent not related to critical thinking, but someone was asking about nclex resources and were there any free nclex resources that you know about?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the nclex RN Mastery app has a free. It's like an app. It's like a free plan, right? Free.

Okay, so there is a.

There's like free. I think there's a free plan.

Okay.

I recommend you get the paid one which is like 15. Oh, I think they changed their pricing actually. So I'm not even going to say that.

But as far as resource in general.

That one is my recommended one. Yeah, the nclex Mastery app. I'm pretty sure they still have a free plan. Pretty sure. As far as other free resources, most of them are like books. Like I like the song Saunders book. Bnp. Yeah. That's not. Yeah, BNP and DNP are two very different things. That's awesome. I love it. So it's actually really funny. That was great. Oh, Picmonic. You do have to pay for it. Does Picmonic have a free plan? Jazzy, can you tell me what are your guys's favorite resources for Dan collects? Can you, you tell me what do you use for the nclex quizlet? I've heard people like Quizlet and I think that's free, right? Something like that. Or they have a free plan. But the like Saunders Saunders nclex guide that I have.

Yeah, we talked about that a little bit on Monday. Right there.

Oh, it is that one right there. Can you see it pointing? Oh, it depends on what screen you're looking at. Is that one right there? So yes. Oh no. But they have a free seven day trial for Picmonic. Okay. Well, you know. Yeah. So Saunders, I honestly, I gotta tell you that Saunders book and the nclex are in Mastery App. They're not that depending on. Depending on your situation. That one I think is like $50. The Saunders book, it's like 50 bucks. The NCLEX mastery app. I don't even know how much it is now, but I don't think it's too much. But if that's what's stopping you between now and becoming a nurse, I mean I would, I'd do it. I would do it. Right, because you want to pass your nclex right. Like that would be not so good. If you even the nclex that's costs Money to take so you don't want to have to pay for that again. Simple Nursing. Yeah, good one. Pikmonic. Yeah, everyone's saying picmonic.

So U World.

Uworld is U World. That sounds like a paid thing, but I hear that it's good. Someone said it's good. See, I don't know. I've never used UWorld before. 39. 39 what? Yeah. So yeah, does Simple Nursing or registered nurse RN have practice questions? Because I think that's more what the question is asking for like nclex resources for practice questions. They might. I don't know, I'm not aware of those options.

So.

Hey, Instagram. Sorry, we only have an hour with you so it's gonna to cut us off, unfortunately.

Instagram. Thanks for joining.

Oh yeah youw World. Yeah, I don't know if it's a page. Oh yes, they do. Okay, sweet. Great. There you go. All right, friends on Instagram, come on over to YouTube.

All right. Yeah, those are all really great resources.

Thanks guys.

Yeah, questions. I think we actually wrapped up all the critical thinking questions that we had for today that you guys had. Go ahead and pop any more in if you had more and we can feel those out a little bit. Let me see here. Do we have any other things that you want to go through or.

Well, the biggest thing is that on Monday.

Okay.

Yes, on Monday we're going to talk about pharmacology and how to study pharmacology. So when you are hanging out with us on Monday, next Monday we're going to talk about how to study pharmacology. So in nursing school.

So mark your calendar.

Monday at 9am Pacific.

Pacific Standard Time, 12 Eastern. Look it up for everything else.

We don't know all the time though.

No, no, we do not. So that is on Monday. So it is. What is it again?

How to study pharmacology.

How to study pharmacology. That's a big topic. Everyone is that. That is. I think it's the fourth. Something like that.

Monday, Monday, whatever Monday is.

Okay. And for those just joining, it's the fifth. Oh, it is the fifth.

There you go. Okay, the fifth. Monday the fifth.

Monday the fifth.

And then on Tuesday, the sixth, you should definitely email us and say happy anniversary, Matthew and Christina. Happy anniversary. Because it's our anniversary on October 6th. There you go.

So this coming next week is a big week. We spilled the beans on Monday, spilled the beans again today. But we'll spill it one last time today. Membership is opening up on Sunday. Yep, the fourth. Since Monday is the fifth. I can do simple math, that is Critical Thinking opens on Sunday. So if you're itching to join Nursing School of Success, join. We'll get you on the waitlist. You'll be the first to know when it opens. So there you go.

There you go. We'll see you guys on Monday. How to study Pharmacology. We'll see you there. Take care. Bye. Bye.

Bye.