HOW TO STUDY IN NURSING SCHOOL (TOP 3 STUDY MISTAKES)

Hey, friend Christina here with nursingschoolofsuccess.com and today in this video, we are going to talk about how to study in nursing school. And more specifically, I'm going to dive into the top three study mistakes that I see nursing students make all the time. And a lot of these were mistakes that I made especially when I started nursing school. But also even I actually realized at least one of these until after I graduated when I was studying for the nclex. And I wanted to share it with you because it would have changed my life. It would have changed the game for me in nursing school. So I know it's going to help you too. So we're going to dive into all three of those today in this video. So the first one that I wanted to talk about is to not read every single word in the textbook. I know, I know, I know. You hear it all the time. You hear it all the time. And it goes in one ear and it goes out the other. It did for me, for real. So here was my experience when I went into nursing school. I was this super guzzled, super uptight, like, I'm gonna rock it. I was like, so straight A's all through, like the prereqs all through forever. Not really forever, but for the most part, I got straight A's a lot. And I expected that in nursing school. I thought that I could just go gung ho, work my booty off and just rock nursing school. So I was gonna read every single word on every single page of every single chapter of every single book that was assigned to us. Right? So just like you, I know you've probably felt this pull too, but I did it like the first week at least. I think the first, probably week two, maybe three, at least that first week, I went bananas in my mind. I went crazy. It took forever. Not efficient. So I talked to upperclassmen. And what did they all say? They said, do not read every single word in the textbook that's assigned to you. Just don't do it. So I did not listen at first. And then after about a week of not sleeping and just reading and reading and constantly reading, I decided to, hey, let's try it out. See what happens if I actually focus my energy on the things that mattered. And guess what happened? My grades improved and I didn't have, obviously as many things to read. And I didn't have as much stress because when you're focusing on the right things, you're saving time because you're not spending all this, all that energy that you should be actually sleeping on the things that don't matter, right? So when you're actually focusing on the things that matter, then you have time to actually do things that are important like sleep and eat and take care of yourself. So that's tip number one, is to not read every single word on every single page of every single thing that's assigned to you. And later in this video, I'm going to talk to you about the things that actually do matter. So we're going to get to that. Now. Tip number two is to actually organize your study time to where you're not and kind of your organization, your notes, your class lecture notes organization so that you're not actually re reading the textbook. Talk about a time saver. Honestly, I'm not sure. I knew a whole bunch of students in my nursing class that actually did this. I know a couple of people that I told this about. Hey Jennifer. Welcome. So we are going to talk about how to identify a little bit later in this video. Thank you for that question. I will get to that. How to identify the things that are important to study for. So that's tip number three. We're going to get there. So, so along with organizing your study, your lecture notes to how to study, and this is really important for when you get to your finals. I don't want you to read the textbook ever again when you're studying for your final exams. Here is how you do that. As you go through your nursing classes, as you go through the term, as you go through the semester, as you go through your quarter, you are going to have, I forget what they call them. They're like module exams or like your, you know, just, just basically your kind of block exams for whatever chapters you're studying, whatever topics you're studying. Right? So you're, these are your weekly or twice monthly exams or maybe monthly if you're really, you know, if you, if your nursing school is nice and you have monthly exams, we had weekly ones. So whatever your kind of routine exam schedule is. So as you're studying for those routine exams, here's what I want you to do. I want you to write on your lecture notes in class the things that your professors are outlining in class. So take notes on your lecture notes, on your PowerPoints or just blank pieces of paper. Just however you take notes, take notes in one color. So that one color, let's call it pink. So take notes in class in pink, in the, in pink pen. Take your lecture notes in pink. And then when you get home, I want you to read your textbooks, just those sections of the book that you learned about in class. So then when you get home, you're going to read those sections of the textbook that you talked about in class. Then when you're taking notes on your textbook, write those notes. Take notes on, on the same piece of paper that you took notes in class. But here's the key in a different color. So let's call this purple. So you'll have pink and you'll have purple notes. So you know that the pink notes came from lecture class and those were the things that your professor said in class was in pink. And then when you get home, you're going to read those sections of the book that you learned about in class, and you're going to write those notes out in purple. Now, here's why this is really, really important. I really want you to hear me. So stop whatever you're doing right now. Stop whatever you're doing, because this is so important. It's going to save you a ton of time. I don't want you to read the textbook again when it comes to your final exams because you have already rewritten your textbook notes on that same lecture notes page. Are you tracking with me? Does this make sense? This is like game changer right here. So when you are taking notes every week through your textbook for each of your module exams, your weekly exams, or your monthly exams or whatever, by the time you get to your final exams, you will have already taken all the notes from your textbook that you need to know about. All of those things that you need to know about from your textbook should already be written on your notes that you took in class. Just like write them kind of in the periphery of your notes or something. Just write them on that same page so your notes are all organized right there in the same spot. And then when you get to your final exams, you are able to then see all of your notes from lecture and from your textbook right there. It's all in front of you. So you don't need to open up your textbook again. You see what I mean? Amazing. So this is how I studied in nursing school. It was super, super duper effective because I really saved so much time. I saw a lot of my classmates. You know, you have to just lug so many books to school. I mean, there's tons of books, tons of books. Talk about back pain. Goodness gracious. So I don't want you to have to break open your books again when you're studying for finals or take them all to class so you can Study. No, no, no, no. So by the time you get to your final exams, all of your notes should have been written all on that same page that you wrote your lecture notes out. That way, everything is organized. Does that make sense? I hope that helps. Now here is where we get into, I think, just the best tip of the day. So I've organized these by the top three study mistakes that I see nursing students make. So the first one is reading every single page and every. Every single word on every single page and every single chapter that's assigned to you. Don't do it. It's going to waste time. You are not going to be focused on the things that actually matter. Now, tip number two is to not reread your textbook again and again and again. So when you come to final exams, you should have already written all of your textbook notes on the same page that your lecture notes were on. So that way, when you get to your final exams, it's all super organized all in the same place right there in front of you so you don't have to break open your book again and try to figure out, you know, what's going on, where everything's at. Like, it's all right there on your notes right in front of you, and you don't have to stress about it. It's all organized. Now, tip number three. This is the juicy one. This is how you know what is important to study. Okay? So I always teach. This is. This is something that I did not personally know in nursing school. I actually figured this out as I was studying to take the nclex. I wish I had known about it gazillion years sooner in nursing school because this would have just been. Made my life so much easier. So there are five, five key things that I want you to focus on when studying in nursing school. Now, these five key things are pathophysiology, signs and symptoms, nursing assessment, nursing interventions, and patient education. So you will see me preaching this from the rooftops, you guys. So these five key things are the main things that you will be tested on in nursing school. Now, of course, I can't guarantee that you won't be tested on some, you know, crazy things here and there, but for the most part, these are the five categories that your nursing instructors are going to test you on as well as the nclex. So if you have a really solid understanding of these five key things for the med surgical disorders that you're learning about, this is just going to help you save a ton of time because you're not going to be focusing on all of the other things that don't matter that you don't actually need to focus on. So, Jennifer, you asked if I could repeat those five key categories. They are pathophysiology. So the pathophysiology of the med surg disorders that you're learning about, then you've got signs and symptoms. So what are the signs and symptoms of those disorders? Nursing assessment, what will you assess for? Nursing interventions, what are you going to do about it? And then patient education, how are you going to educate your patient? So patho, signs and symptoms, nursing assessment, nursing intervention, and patient education. These are the five main categories that you've got to know for each of those disorders. Now this is also what I preach and what I teach in the nursing SOS membership community. So actually all our videos are broken up into these categories, which makes it so super easy. So if you are a nursing SOS member, make sure to head over there, log into your dashboard. I've got all those med surg training videos for you. They are broken up in those categories. And this is exactly why I created it this way, because those are the five main areas that you've got to know. So if you're struggling with one. I just wanted to make it super easy. If you're a nursing SOS member, say you're studying with, let's say heart failure, pathophysiology, that, that video is right there. You just click on it, ready to go. If you're studying, if you're struggling now. So why that's important and why these five main categories are really, really the big. I don't know what to say. The really big areas, I don't know, no words are really coming to my mind for that one is because everything kind of flows from the pathophysiology. So here's kind of what I want to explain from this. The first thing you need to know is pathophysiology. And here's why. It's super duper important for you to have a very, very good, solid understanding of patho. And this is why I teach pathophysiology so often and so much for all the disorders, is because once you learn the pathophysiology, the signs and symptoms, the nursing interventions, the nursing assessment and the patient education will all naturally flow from that pathophysiology. So once you have a solid understanding of patho, you already know how it's acting, how that med surg disorder, that disease or disorder acts in the body. And when you understand how it acts in the body, you kind of can critically think and already know, okay, what signs and symptoms can I expect to see? Does that make sense? And then when you know the signs and symptoms that you expect to see, you know, okay, what do I need to assess for? You know, so obviously heart failure, you're gonna have blood flow problems. You know, you're gonna, for things like that, signs and symptoms, it's going to flow through that. What nursing interventions can I, can I, you know, can I expect the doctor to order or what can I expect to do without a doctor's order? And then what patient education needs to happen? All of those four categories stem from that first category of pathophysiology. So that is why these five main categories are so, so important. Because those are the five main things you've got to focus on. You guys, I can't guarantee this because I know there's gonna be one nursing instructor out there that's just, you know, doesn't follow this plan. But for the most part, and especially for the nclex, if you go back on your exams, you will notice that the majority of your questions do follow these five main categories. It's super cool. Go back to your exams, go talk to your nursing instructors, and you'll see. You'll see. I know you will. Of course, I can't guarantee it because there's going to be that instructor out there that's, you know, not following this. But the five main things, pathophysiology, the nursing assessment, signs and symptoms, nursing interventions, and patient education. Those are the five main categories that you really, really need to focus on. Those are the ones that you're going to be tested on, most likely in your nursing school exams as well as on the NCLEX Exam 4. For sure. Like for real. That's gonna happen. So I hope that these study tips really helped you out today. I know depending on if you're in a semester program or a quarter program, semesters, I know you're kind of more in the thick of it quarters. You probably just started your term, so yay. Good luck to all of you. I hope that these study tips are really going to help you throughout the term do better on your exams and especially when you get to finals. So let's recap these three study tips and what I'm going to call the three study mistakes that I see most nursing students make. Now, the first one is reading every single word on every single page in every single chapter of every single book. Don't do it. Don't do it. Just. No, just no, don't do it. It's a waste of time. You're going to, you're going to expend so much energy and waste so much time learning things, and actually not even learning things, but just reading things that don't matter that you're not going to be tested on. So don't waste your time reading something that's not going to be on the exam or reading something that doesn't matter you don't need to know about. You see what I'm saying? Now the second thing, the second mistake that I see nursing students make is rereading their textbooks over and over and over again. So like I said, what I really, really recommend is that as you're studying throughout the term and as you're taking your nursing exams and studying for your nursing exams, like your weekly exams or your twice monthly exams or what have you, that you write your textbook notes on the same paper in a different color pen. That's a key thing here. So you know which one came from which. So your lecture notes are written in one color and your textbook notes are written in a different color. That's really, really key. So you know which notes came from which. So write your textbook notes in a separate color on the same piece of paper that you wrote your lecture notes on. Now this is super cool. And this is why this is such a big deal, is because when you get to your final exams, you, you don't need to break out your textbooks ever again, ever again for that exam, for that final exam because you have already spent the time throughout the term writing your textbook notes down on that same piece of paper. So all you have to do is look at that, those notes right there and you have both your textbook notes and your lecture notes right in the same place. Does that make sense? I hope that really helps because, oh man, that's what I did in nursing school and huge deal, big deal, huge deal. Now tip number three is to focus on those five key components that we talked about. And now these are the five key things that you should focus on because these are the ones that you're going to be tested on in your nursing exams and also on the nclex, most likely. So these five key areas that you should focus on are pathophysiology, signs and symptoms, nursing assessment, nursing intervention, and patient education. So what's the pathophysiology of the med surgical disorder? What are the signs and symptoms that I can expect to see in that disorder? What are the nursing assessment points or components that I need to hit you know, during my nursing assessment for that disorder, what nursing interventions can I expect to do? You know, things. What, what's gonna be ordered by the doctor? What can I expect to be ordered by the doctor? And what things can I do, you know, by myself without an order? And then what patient education things need to happen? What, what knowledge pieces? What, what, you know, what, what education points do I need to hit on with the patient or their family in order to help them continue with that plan of care when they go home? Does that make sense? So those five key areas, patho signs and symptoms, nursing assessment, nursing interventions, and patient education. Now, I saw someone just recap here. Thank you. D triss. Yep. Perfect. Beautiful. Thank you so much, you guys, for joining and for supporting us on the live chat. I really appreciate hanging out with you guys all the time. I've been doing more YouTube live streams because of. I love them. They're amazing. It's so good to connect with you all the time. I know if you are on my email list, I do. I do send emails to you every week. So if you are on there, thank you very much. If you are not, you'll definitely want to get on there because, hey, I sent a lot of cool stuff. So you can go to nursingschoolofsuccess.com for forward slash. Is it forward slash that Right, that way. Forward slash. Signup S I G N U P so nursingschoolofsuccess.com signup and you can sign up for our email list. So every week I will be. Actually, every week I will be. I do now I do send emails every single week with new YouTube videos, resources, just a whole bunch of fun and fancy things because that's what we're all about here is fun and fancy things. Because I'm fancy. Not really. We just have fun. So it's a great community, super supportive community that we've got here and I hope that you will join. So again, that URL is nursing schoolofsuccess.com signup. I hope to see you on our email list. Of course, if you have any questions, you can always, always email me. I think my email is below in the description. If it's not, it's Christina C H R I S T I n a@nursingsos.com so I'll just give it to you on the video so you can email me anytime. I'm always here to answer questions and I hope to see you guys again in our next YouTube livestream, which will be. I don't know when, but it might be impromptu. Either way, it's gonna be fun, and we're gonna have a good time. So I hope that these three study tips helped you out today in nursing school. Now go be an amazing nurse. Go become the amazing nurse that God created only you to be. You know it. Very well. I will see you guys later. Have a great week. Bye.