How To Pass Nursing Fundamentals | Nursing School FAQ Series
In this instructional YouTube video, Christina Rafano, creator of the Nursing School Show, delivers four concrete strategies to help nursing students succeed in their Nursing Fundamentals course. She begins by emphasizing the importance of an effective note‑taking system: printing lecture slides, annotating them with a single pen color in class, leaving generous margins, and using a different colored pen for textbook notes on the same page or notebook, while also comparing notes with peers. Next, she advises students to avoid reading the entire textbook and instead focus only on the sections that align with lecture content, integrating those notes with class notes to prioritize exam‑relevant material. The third tip introduces a two‑part critical‑thinking framework—connecting the dots among pathophysiology, signs/symptoms, assessments, and interventions, and planning ahead by anticipating patient needs. Finally, she stresses intensive practice of the head‑to‑toe assessment, recommending repeated hands‑on drills on a teddy bear, friends, or family to build muscle memory. Throughout, she promotes free checklists, the Nursing SOS membership, and paid resource boxes (pharmacology, dose calculation) as supplemental support. The video concludes with calls to like, comment, share, and subscribe.
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In this video I am giving you four tips to help you pass Nursing Fundamentals in Nursing school. We're going to talk all about it, friend. Listen, I know nursing school can be so tough and it can feel like there is just an endless amount of things that you need to learn, especially in Fundamentals when it all feels so, so new. So I'm going to give you the best strategies to help you rock Nursing Fundamentals in Nursing school. So hit that subscrib button and click the notification bell. Let's do this. Hello there my friend. My name is Christina Rafano and I am the creator of the Nursing School show welcome where we help you get better grades in nursing school and have more free time. So we are going to go through in this video today four tips that will help you rock Nursing Fundamentals. Now make sure to download this free free nursing school checklist that walks you through really how to study in nursing school. Step by step it's going to help you so much. So the link is down below in the description for you to check that out. So be sure to get it. And I am about to give you four more tips here in this video. So let's talk about it now. Nursing Fundamentals is typically one of your first nursing school courses. Not the prereqs. It's your first nursing school course. Everything you may have done for other non nursing courses, the way you take notes, how you read and go through the textbook, how you prepare for your exams, it will all be different in Nursing Fundamentals now. So that brings me to our first tip. How to take notes. Let's talk about it. So since Nursing Fundamentals is usually one of your first nursing school courses, I am going to let you in on my note taking secret. Okay? So I will go through the step by step process, process for taking notes here in this video for you. So it'll help you out a lot. All right, so there are a lot of different ways to take notes in nursing school. But I am going to tell you what really consistently worked for me for every course, not just fundamentals. So that way you can try it out to use it for your courses. So for me I always loved to print out our lecture slides beforehand and I wrote directly on those. So here's what I would do. I would print them out with slides, three slides on one side and the note taking section on the other. This is how I recommend that you do it. So then you have all of the information from the PowerPoint and then you can just write down the other details. The other Notes that your instructor mentions in class on the other side. So everything is together. It just makes it so easy. Hang on. I know what you're thinking. I know what you're thinking. There's one snag to this. If you don't have access to lecture slides, what do you do? So I hear this all the time, so don't panic. It's totally fine. Just plan on taking a blank like notebook, like spiral bound notebook to class with you, along with a pen. And then just take notes. That way it's no big deal if your instructor doesn't give you slides. All right, now listen to this detail here. So when you are in class, take notes in one color of pen. I'll tell you why this was really important in just a minute. And then take notes on everything your instructor says in that one color. If they drop any hints about your upcoming exams, what might be on them, put a star next to it. And then if they outline any key points or talk about one thing for a super long time, you know that it's important, so star it. Now, they wouldn't talk about something for a long time if it wasn't important, right? So just make sure to make a note of that and then try to write down really as much information as possible that you learn in class that your instructor says. And make sure that you leave space around each page of notes. And I'll tell you why about that too in a minute. So see? Stick with me. So if you're taking notes on lecture slides like I did, I always like to take my class notes in the lined sections right over here, right? And then I would leave all the extra space around the edges. Now if you're using a note notebook paper, like just a spiral bond notebook, only fill up half of a page with notes and leave the second half blank. So that's really important and I will tell you why, like I said in just a minute. Then after class, if you have a nursing school buddy, then compare notes with them and fill in any gaps that either of you may have missed during class. Now this is really important that your notes from class be super comprehensive and complete. Because your instructor, they most likely know what you're going to be tested on and they're much more likely to teach you about those things during class, right? So that's what's most likely to show up on your exams. So make sure to take really good notes. And of course, if you're a nursing SS member and if you are confused about any of the topics that you are learning, about in nursing school, in Nursing Fundamentals, in your Med search classes, what have you. Don't worry, I've got you covered. Just head on over to your membership dashboard and click on the Nursing Fundamentals course that we have for you. And if you are learning about any disorders, you will find them there as well. In the different body Systems courses, it's step by step step lectures to help you learn everything faster and then pass your exams. And if you are not a Nursing SOS member yet, don't worry, you absolutely must join when enrollment opens again. It's going to change the game for you. So it's like having me as your personal nursing school tutor. So whenever you have a question, you can get your questions answered. It's pretty awesome. So there's a link down below in the description for for you to check out all of the details on that. Now this brings us to our next tip and really one of the most popular questions that I get asked is how do you find time to read the textbook and have time to study everything? So I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Although I know if you've been around for a while, I've been saying this for a long time now, so it's not quite a secret anymore. But but don't read the entire textbook, okay? Yes, you heard me right. Don't read the entire book. When you go home, here's the thing you need to do. Focus on reading the sections of the book that your instructors talk about in class. Now I know it's hard to focus on just those things, but I've told you again and again and again, if you've been in my world for a while, this is the most effective way way to study. Start by finding the sections of the book that correspond to what you learned about in class. What your instructor talked about. Remember, you took really comprehensive notes in class, right? In one color pen. So get those out again. Then read the sections of the book and take notes on them on the same paper that you took your class notes on, but use a different colored pen. Now do you remember when I said that you need to use one color of pen when you take notes in class and then only fill up half of a page if you're using a notebook or spiral bound notebook. So here's why these two things are super important. When you get home, you will take notes from your textbook using a different note colored pen than when you did in class and you will write it in the leftover space here around the margins is what I Used to do. Now, this does two major things for you. It allows you to keep your notes all in one place. And then second, it lets you see what notes came from your instructor and then what notes you took that came from the textbook. So remember what we talked about. Your nursing instructors, they know what is going to be on your exams. They're going to test you on what they cover in class. So those are the notes that you will want to study the most. And then the textbook notes are helpful to give you more understanding, a deeper understanding about the topics. But it's important to keep these two notes separate so you know how to prioritize studying the things that your instructors talked about in class. So that's why we use those two different colors. So your time is too valuable to just read the entire text book just for the sake of reading the entire textbook. Right. So focus on reading the sections of the book that your instructors talked about in class, and then really start critically thinking about it. So that will give you time to critically think. So this brings us to our next tip. All about critical thinking. Right? So now I know we get this all the time. Students, ask Christina, what in the world is critical thinking? Now, I break down critical thinking for you in this video so you can get a deeper understanding of it there. So be sure to watch that after you watch this video. Okay? So critical thinking. I know. Don't freak out. It's fine. Critical thinking is a lot easier than you probably right now are thinking that it is. There's only two parts to it, all right? Planning ahead and connecting the dots. Everything that you're learning now, fully understanding the pathophysiology of the disorder that you're learning about, the topics that you're learning about, and being able to connect that then to the signs and symptoms, as well as to things like your nursing assessment and nursing interventions. That is going to help you connect the dots with everything that you are learning. So as you study, you should always be thinking about those four main categories that we talked about. The patho, the signs and symptoms, the nursing assessment, and the nursing intervention. So any disorders that you're learning about and nursing fundamentals, focus on those things and how they all fit together to the path of the physiology. Then planning ahead means that you are always thinking of what you will do next or what could happen next with your patient. So always being one step ahead of your patient and then planning for that. Planning and anticipating their needs. So when you're working on the floor, try to anticipate your patient's needs. Before they ask or before they need it. So you do think that they will need more pain medication in an hour. So then ask them what their pain level is the next time you are in their room. Or maybe you start educating them now on what they will need to do at home to stay healthy and then recover. So you don't need to wait until they're signing all their discharge paperwork to do all of that patient education. So be sure that you are always trying to really just connect all the dots, concepts together and that you're planning ahead, always thinking ahead for your patients. So that's really what critical thinking means in nursing school. So that brings us to our next tip. Practicing for clinical. Now it is time to get really uncomfortable, my friend. Time to step outside your comfort box. Nursing school is going to challenge you. That's really just the reality. And challenge you in ways that you never really thought of. So is it difficult? Yes. Will it push you outside your comfort zone? Absolutely it will. But will you come out better on the other side than you were before you started nursing school? Absolutely. So be proud of that. So with this tape, you will go outside of your comfort zone. Now listen to this. This is most important skill that you need to learn in nursing school is your head to toe assessment assessment. And thankfully this can be practiced just at home. It doesn't require a hospital unit or a SIM lab or anything like that. All it requires is that you have a teddy bear or another person if they are willing, that you recruit family or friends or pets or whoever you can. So remember, I said get outside your comfort zone, right? That's what we're doing here. So now you are going to practice your head to toe assessment over and over and over and over and over and over and over again until you start having dreams about it. So practice it on everyone who is willing verbalizing your thought process as you go through your assessment and then thinking ahead for abnormal findings. And then just keep practicing and keep practicing and keep practicing it more until you do it perfectly with muscle memory. Even while you sleep. You need to get completely comfortable with your head to toe assessment. And all you need, like we said, is a stuffed teddy bear or a willing friend or maybe a dog. It's pretty great. You have everything that you need to totally rock your nursing fundamentals course and your head to toe assessment. Now, of course, as always, there are three ways that I can help you more through nursing school. And number one, download this free cheat sheet that I have for you to help you, of course, rock nursing school number two. We have a lot of fantastic resources inside our nursing school boxes for you. We've got a pharmacology box right now and a dose calc box. You absolutely have to get it. You're going to love them, I promise you. They are packed with resources to help you rock pharmacology, learn your meds faster and rock your dose calc exam. And of course, number three, if you want me to hold your hand throughout your whole nursing school journey, walk you through nursing school step by step, I am absolutely here for that. It's exactly what I do. So be sure to check out the Nursing SOS Membership community and be sure to enroll next time enrollment is open. You can check out all the details to all those things down below in the description. And if you like this video, make sure to hit that like button. Of course, leave a comment below to let me know that you loved it. I love hearing from you. Share this video with a friend. And of course hit that subscribe button and click the notification bell so you never miss a video. And click on one of these videos right over here so you can keep rocking nursing school and go become the nurse that God created only you to be. I'll catch you next time on the Nursing School show. Take care. Bye bye.
