How to PASS MED SURG | Nursing School FAQ Series

In this video, we are diving into my top tips for how to pass Med Surg in nursing school. Med Surg is a really tough class for most nursing students. It's really where you need to step up your critical thinking game and start really connecting the dots between all of the concepts that you're learning. It's also the time when there's suddenly a lot more material and information to learn. So don't worry if you are struggling with Med Surg right now. I've got your back in this. I am going to give you my top tips to help you pass Med Surg with flying colors. And be sure to stay until the end of this video because the last couple of tips are so good. They're all good. But the last ones are really, really good. So don't miss it. Now hit that subscribe button and click the notification bell and let's do this. So I wanted to start a new series here on this channel called the Nursing School Frequently Asked Question. So over the next several weeks, I want to answer the questions that I get asked the most about nursing school. And I would love it if you could type in your question in the comment section below and let me know your biggest struggle in nursing school so that I can hopefully do a video on it in the next few weeks to really help you out. So in this one, we're going to talk all about Med Surg. Huge question that I get. Like I said, Med Surg is really where you need to deepen your critical thinking skills and really start piecing things together and applying them to the real world. There will also be a lot more material to learn. Topics like cardiac and respiratory disorders, endocrine issues, neurological disorders, all of it. It can really be a lot to learn in such a short amount of time over the course of just a couple of semesters. So tip number one to passing Med Surg starts with how you take notes in class. You want to make sure to go in prepared and catch much of what your instructor says as possible. Oh, I have my. Okay. Still hear me? Okay. Okay. So here's what I would do. Always before I would go to class, I would always print out PowerPoint slides. So if our instructors gave us a PowerPoint slides and then I would print them out in this format. So if your instructor gives you slides, I would recommend this. Three slides per page with the lines on the other side. Now, this system worked really well for me, so I would take notes in class on these lined areas and save all the blank space around it for something else. And I'll get to that in just a minute. Now, if your instructor doesn't send you a PowerPoint ahead of time, or maybe they just don't use one, that's totally okay. That happens too. All you'll need to do is bring a lined notebook or just scratch paper, preferably notebooks, to this all together. And that's all you need. Now, the key to med surg is making sure that you are studying the right things. And this starts with trying to catch as much of what your instructor says in class as you possibly can. So when you're sitting in class, pay attention and take as many notes as you can on the line section or in your notebook. This is super important for one main reason. Your instructor will test you on the things that they believe are the most important things for you to know. And what they believe are the most important things for you to know are roughly going to be the same things that going to lecture on. And then of course roughly going to be the same things that they test you on. Which is tip number two, how to study for Med Search Focus on studying the things that your instructors talked about in class. That's why taking notes is so important, because you're going to take these notes and then focus on studying those topics that you learned about in class. Because those are the things that you are most likely to be tested on that are going to show up on your exams. Now here's where a lot of nursing students get stuck. Most nursing students go into nursing school thinking that they will read every page of the textbook and do all of the assigned reading before the exam and that that will be enough to pass. Now if that's you, don't worry. I thought the same thing when I started nursing school, but unfortunately that is a recipe for disaster failure, my friend. Because here's what will happen. You will end up spending all of your time learning a little bit about a lot of different things, but you won't learn enough about the things that you will actually be tested on. If you read the whole textbook, sure, you're going to have a general idea of the topics, yes. But you're not going to know enough about them to critically think through it all and apply that critical thinking to your med surg exam. And if you've taken a med surg exam, you know it's all about how well you critically think, right? So why would you waste your time reading just for the sake of reading when you could be using that time to actually understand it and critically think about it? Right? So here's what to do. Instead, take the same paper that you took your notes on in class, either your lined paper or PowerPoint, and write in a different colored pen notes from the textbook that relate to what you learned about in class. Now, there's two keys here. Make sure that you use a different colored pen when you take notes in class than when you take notes from your textbook. Now, that way you'll know what information came from where, and if you need to ask your instructor a question about it, you'll know what they said in class versus what the textbook says and you'll be able to ask them about it. Now, the second key is to keep your notes clean and write all of the info from the textbook in the white margin of the paper or on the back blank space. So remember earlier when I said that I only took class notes here on the lined sections of the PowerPoint. There's a reason for that. I wanted to leave the margins available for notes from the textbook. So these are all notes I took from the textbook. That way all of your notes will be in one place and you won't have random sheets of lecture notes you need to sift through. They're all in one place, all there for you. So I know those were a lot of tips within that last tip number two, focusing on what your instructor talked about in class. And I really recommend that you go back and watch this video again and again so that you don't miss anything. You don't miss any of these steps or any of these tips, and you can really follow this process the next time that you study. It will really be helpful for you. Now, tip number three is huge, so pay close attention here please, because not very many nursing students understand this. Your number one priority for Med Surg should be focusing on learning the pathophysiology of whatever disorder you are learning about. The pathophysiology of a disorder just means what is happening inside the body that is not normal. Now, learning the pathophysiology of each disorder should be the first thing that you study, because this is the foundation that everything else you need to learn is built off of things like the signs and symptoms you'll need to know or what nursing interventions that you need to do for your patient. Everything builds off that pathophysiology, so it is critical that you learn that first. Which now leads us to tip number four. After you understand the pathophysiology for the disorder for Med Surg, you will be able to move on to learning the other main categories. There's three signs and symptoms, the nursing assessment, and the nursing interventions for that particular med surg disorder. So if you think back to your med surg exams, those are the three main things that you are tested on. You're tested on the signs and symptoms, you're tested on the nursing assessment for the disorder, and then you're tested on what nursing interventions you might need to do for that disorder. You're not often tested on the actual pathophysiology of the disorder itself. You're mostly tested on those other three things. But learning the patho first is crucial to understanding the other three components. Because if you don't know what is actually happening in inside the body with the disorder, how can you expect to know what to assess for and how to fix it? It's so important that you focus your study time on those four main things. You don't want to waste your time studying, things that just don't matter and won't be on your exams. That's actually why we break our video series down into these four main categories inside our nursing SOS membership kit community. It's basically like having me as your personal nursing school tutor. It is pretty awesome because I walk you through all of the med surge disorders that you need to know step by step. You don't need to dig through a 30 minute video to find what you need because for real, my friend, that's kind of annoying. Right? I give you exactly what you need to know for each of those categories. That pathophysiology, the signs and symptoms, the nursing assessment and the nursing interventions. It makes it so easy for you to learn everything faster. So if you're interested in joining the nursing SOS membership community and having me hold your hand through nursing school and walk you through your nursing school journey, I'll put a link down below to it in the description box for you to check out all of the details. You are going to love it. Now, of course, it can't stop there. You can't just memorize the patho, can't just memorize the signs and symptoms or the nursing assessment or the nursing interventions. Right? Right. You have to actually apply that information and be able to critically think about it. So this is tip number five. Are you ready? Learn how to critically think. Let's talk about it. Because as you know, nursing school is all about critical thinking. But the problem is that no one tells you exactly what that means. They just expect you to figure it all out on your own, which is a real bummer. That's why I created a critical thinking model for you to follow as you study in nurse nursing school. It took me a long time to discover this, but when I did, it was absolutely game changing. So I wanted to give it to you so that you can use it too and help take some of that stress out of nursing school and take the stress out of learning how to critically think. Now, the critical thinking model for nursing school 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 here's what you'll do. For each med surge topic that you're learning about, you will write down those three things. D, R, C. Under the D category you'll write what is it that you're studying? What is the description of it? What is it exactly? This is the high level part here, the high level overview. You're just giving an overview of what it is, what's going on with it. Now, the R is where you start to dig deeper. Now this stands for reasoning or rationale. Under this category you'll write down why it happens, what's the reason for it, why does it matter? Why does it happen? Now, the C stands for connection. And this is the key part here, really. In this category, you'll ask yourself how it connects to everything else that you're learning. So for your med surg classes, you'll want to include the signs and symptoms that you would expect to see and assess for, then what you would need to assess for, and then what interventions you'll need to do. And you'll also connect it back to other disorders and other topics that you are learning about. You need to dig deep here. Really spend some time thinking about how topics or disorders connect. How does heart failure connect to respiratory issues? How does hypertension connect to stroke or diabetes? What things do you need to assess for? Or what nursing interventions would you need to do for those things? The more you can connect these concepts together, the better off you're going to be for your exams. That critical thinking model is going to help you soar in nursing school. If you use that to study, you will be so amazed at how well you understand all of the med surg disorders. And then of course, you will do so much better on your exams. So for every med surg topic you're learning about in nursing school, you can use this critical thinking model to really help you connect the dots with it and really deepen your understanding of it. Now, if you're interested, you'll want to get the critical thinking model pad inside the nursing school study box. It will walk you through it step by step and you can just fill it out. Fill out these boxes here as you study. It makes it so easy. Now the Nursing School Study box also comes with tons of other goodies to help you pass nursing school as well. Things like the Concept Map Pad and the Step by step Nursing School Study system to help you study better in nursing school. These things will be game changing for you and it's really a step by step guide for how to study in nursing school. You're gonna love it. So you can get that box@nursingsos.com and now of course there's three ways that I can help you more through nursing school. Download this free Nursing School Study checklist that has even more study tips for you. Don't miss out on number two. Get that Nursing School Study box so that you can snag that critical thinking notepad and the Concept Map notepad. And of course the full nursing school study system that walks you through how to study step by step. And of course if you want me to hold your hand through nursing school, don't miss out on joining the Nursing SOS Membership community. It is packed packed full with step by step nursing lectures to help you understand everything faster in nursing school and in Med Surge plus plus you'll get access to our wonderful nurses so that you can ask questions anytime. We are here to help you out. The links to all of those things are down below in the description and if you like this video, be sure to hit that like button. Leave a comment below and tell me what your biggest struggle is in nursing school so that hopefully I can do a video soon to help you out with it. And share this video with one of your nursing school friends if they need help with Med search too. And of course click subscribe and hit that notification bell so you never miss a video and click on what it these videos right over here so you can keep rocking nursing school. And as always my friend, go become the nurse that God created only you to be. And I'll catch you next time on the Nursing School Show. Take care. Bye bye.