MAY 17 LIVE SHOW | The Nursing School Show | ASK US ANYTHING!

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Hello. Check, check, check.

Hello. Good morning, everyone. Welcome, welcome.

Welcome to the Nursing school show. Happy Wednesday.

We are talking about nursing school and your nursing school questions of the ask us anything variety.

And we got a lot of questions.

So we have a lot of questions. Yes, we talked about a lot of good things on Monday and we're going to catch up with some of those questions. But if you have any other questions related to nursing school, pop them down below. Also let us know where you're joining.

Us from in the world.

Good morning.

Eccentric.

Hey, that's my line. Good morning, Happy hump day. That's usually what I do say. So. Hello. Happy hump day, everyone. How is your Wednesday? Yes, South Carolina.

Yes.

Hello, welcome, welcome, welcome. Thank you for joining us today. We are talking about all things nursing school. We had a couple good questions on Monday, including, including what should I be doing over the summer. We kind of touched on it at the end of Monday. And meds, best way to learn medications. We'll talk about about farm. So definitely hang around and ask your questions as well. Hello. I'm watching from England. Welcome.

Hello.

Hello.

Want to join school, but I'm not going to math. We'll talk about math.

Starting mental health. How do you, do you have any tips on how to prepare? Excellent question. Good question.

Hey, Sarah, you know, inside the community we have all the mental health, psychiatric stuff. Stuff and okay, so Sarah, like all the like psychiatric and mental health, we have that video on like therapeutic communication stuff inside the community. Really though, like the biggest thing for psych nursing is the medications. You will be so surprised there when you go and take your mental health or your psych exam that like just how much you are actually tested on those meds. So we're going to talk about meds today.

We are talking about meds today.

It's huge. It's huge.

Huge. Okay.

And huge.

Gwendolyn, where are you from Monday? I hope you're joining us today because that is your question. The best way to learn medications with side effects to them. So, Gwendolyn, if you're not on, hop on. I'm not sure how you're supposed to hear me if you're not on, but if you are. Hello. Hello. We are going to be talking about your topic as well. Also, if you have not yet hit subscribe, hit the bell, hit the follow. Hit the things stuff so you don't miss out because you ask questions. And sometimes we answer them on the next one.

Yeah. Because sometimes we run out of time. Because we get a lot of questions each day.

We do. We, we had a really good day on Monday talking about all your questions. We had original topics that we did not actually.

No, we actually didn't even cover them.

I finally scheduled my nclex. Yay.

I'm so glad. Can't believe it's here. Thank you for helping me through nursing school. I'm so glad.

Awesome.

Fabulous.

Amy, I'm adult nursing and I've been watching your patho videos and it's helped me so much. Great. We are glad. That's why they are there.

Yes. Can I explain comorbidities? Yes, I can. Can you post that in the.

Okay. I can add that. I cannot explain comorbidities, but she can. I am not a nurse. If you guys are wondering, even if you're not wondering, I'm telling you anyway. I am not a nurse.

This is Matthew, by the way.

Hi.

Are you Matthew? I'm Christina.

Welcome.

We hardly ever introduce you.

We don't introduce because it's because all you guys have been here before, right?

Yeah.

Right.

Wish I found you sooner, Amy. We hear that all the time. That is so interesting. We hear that all the time. It's funny. So tell your friends.

Yes. And actually I have a follow up question because. Because we can do that. Because we're live and we're talking and interacting.

There you go.

Amy, how did you find us?

Oh, yeah, well, I guess I assume YouTube.

I am assuming that too, but I don't know. I don't know. Did you find us from a fellow student that said, hey, you should check us out?

Yeah.

Did you find us through Facebook or through Instagram or through YouTube or through any of those other ways?

Let us know what else?

YouTube, Google search, who knows?

Yeah, I don't know.

Okay.

Okay.

All right. So what are we doing first? Should we do over. Do. What should we do be doing over the summer? Are we doing that first? Okay.

Because that was a really big question. Okay. Who is just starting nursing school in the fall or the summer? Anyone? Good morning, Chris. Who we had on Monday, we had a lot of students on who were just starting nursing school in the fall. And so there was a lot of questions about what do you do to prepare, how do you get ready all of those things. So we wanted to talk about it today.

I think it. You. You did this a little bit on Monday, but just kind of making it clear it does kind of fall into two categories. Right. What you do over the summer when this is going to be your first term in the Coming fall?

Yes.

And what are you doing over the summer if you're, if you don't have a term over the summer and so you're taking a break from nursing school and what do you do? And then to kind of prep for next fall, I guess, or something like that.

Returning student.

Yeah, returning student. That's what I mean.

Yep. So you're going to be either in one of two camps, either you're just starting nursing school, like your core nursing classes in the fall, or like you're just like you haven't started those yet and you're just starting them, or you have already taken a term or two in nursing school or you're like halfway through or whatever and then you're just gearing up for a new term. Right. So you're a returning student. So there are two camps, just like what Matthew said. There's two pieces of advice that I have for you.

All right.

And depending on which one you're in.

I have a, I have a follow up question for that.

Okay.

Is there a third camp? I am wondering of you. You. You have school during summer. Is it, is that, is that a camp too?

No. Because whatever you do to prepare is going to just be for whatever term you are. Like, you don't need three months to prepare for the fall.

Like, like if you, if, like if there is no break.

If there's no break, it's fine. Like, ideally that'd be nice. Like it would be nice if you could get into the nursing essence. Membership, community and practice. Dose calc for three months. Like that's what we recommend. And but for so many of you guys, that's not the option. Like the option is you get two weeks before, like between your terms and that's it. Right. And so that's not, you know, it's kind of, it's. That's okay. Like just know that that's okay. You can totally prep for your next term in those two weeks that you have summer taking nursing 209. Now tell me what nursing 209 is because.

Yep.

Schools name things. Weird.

Yes. The numbers are not standardized across schools, so unfortunately nursing 209 can be something completely different for someone else. So what is nursing 209 to you?

Simply be.

And Amy. Yeah. You're just putting things into YouTube and.

Found us, so I'm glad.

Thank you. YouTube algorithms, I suppose.

Thanks. The YouTubes. So when they're watching us right now. Oh, Nurse management. The third Nurse management. Yeah. See, that's so funny. It's like, like that, that would not have been any of my guesses. Simply, it's funny. Like those, those names and things that they give these courses. It's funny. So when you are. So like Matthew said, there's two camps that you can fall in. Either you are just starting nursing school or you are in nursing school currently and just starting a new term. Okay, so let's talk about how to prepare for either, depending on which camp you're in. So tell me in the chat, tell me in the comments. Which one are you? Are you just starting nursing school like you haven't started yet? Or are you in a returning term? Like, are you coming back? Are you. Have you done a term or two in nursing school or five and then you're coming back for a next term? Are you brand new? Are you returning? Tell me in the comments.

So Brenda says returning fourth semester. Amy's in year two now.

Yep. So simply the summer taking nursing 209.

Chris, just starting nursing school, fall of 2023.

Simply be. I'm assuming this is your second year. Yeah, Amy, you're in your second year, just like Mo said. Awesome. And then we had a couple on Instagram. Let me scroll up that I missed.

Scrolling, scrolling.

Returning student.

Yeah, returning student.

Awesome.

All right.

Returning fourth semester. Okay, cool.

So mostly returning, except for Chris. Chris, you're a brand new one, a.

Newbie, as they call it. Chris already knows everything, so.

And I'm sure there's more of you guys out there.

He knows all the advice.

Are there shy people out there that are just starting out but don't want to say it in the comments?

That is okay.

That is all right.

That's all right. No big deal. So if you are just starting nursing school, let's start with that. If you are just starting nursing school, there are a few things that you absolutely must do. Okay? The first one is dose calc. Like, you have to understand dose calc. You guys, I cannot tell you enough. When you are starting nursing school or even if you're coming in for another term, you will have a dose calc exam within the first two weeks of your program, okay? And you have to pass it in order to stay in your program. Now, when nursing students hear this from the nursing school, they go, oh, what? That can't be a thing. Seriously. And then they come to us and they email me and they say, christina, you won't even believe what my school said. I have to pass this Doscalc exam with 100% in order to stay in the program. And I say, welcome to nursing school.

And I'd say that that is again more surprise of the brand new students that are starting rather than the returning students. Right? Am I right about that?

I would say so.

You returning students, you should be used.

To this by now.

Yes, you should be used to it. You might not like it still, but you might. You should be used to the fact that each semester or each term that you come back, there is still a dose calculation.

There is a dose cock exam. Whether simply, yes, just took cars yesterday and you passed. Fabulous. So this is what happens, you guys, like, if you get into nursing school. They tell you that you have this math test and that you have to pass it to stay in the program. I want you to know you heard it first here. This is across the board how it is for nursing programs. Your program is no different than any others, okay? It's the same for everyone. Some schools allow you to get a 90% on the dose CoC exam. Most schools require a 100% on the Doscal exam. So if you are in that 90% camp, just consider yourself blessed, okay? Just know that regardless of what program you are in, you need to pass that exam, okay? So don't get into nursing school and freak out about it. I want you to prepare ahead of time, all right? So it is a math test. That does not mean that it's going to be complicated, okay? Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be. If you are in our nursing SOS membership community, which so many of you guys are, thank you very much, we have an entire dose calc course for you, and it is hands down fabulous. It is just the best. So if you are struggling with dose calc at all, like, I cannot tell you enough how much you have to get this course, like, how much you have to get into our community. So we've got our dose calc course. We've got tons of practice problems there for you. And if you get stuck on anything, you have access to our nursing tutors who could help you. All right? This is how we do it. So dose calc is a huge deal before nursing school. You absolutely need to understand it because here's exactly what you don't want to happen. This is what you don't want to do. You guys, you do not want to put it off and then get to nursing school and have to learn dose calc at the same time that you're studying for your first exam or you're preparing for your first clinical. Those first two weeks of nursing school are like, hit the ground running. There is no what would you call it like buffer time. Like, there is no, like, easing into it. You know, there's like, there's no on ramp. It is literally like zero to 60 in one hour in nursing school. Like, when you get to nursing school, your first class is going to be content. That's it. Like, there is no, like, there's not going to be like an orientation phase. There's not going to be any of that. It's just going to be like you are, you're in this, you're in the mud all of a sudden.

All right, tangent. We're going to go on a tangent and then come right back. Trevor. Hi. Hi. I'm writing, writing the Bible verse before. Help me relax before my exams. Just wanted to say thank you. So that's a call back to our previous live a couple days ago.

We talked about that.

We talked about that. How to relax and how to prepare for your exams.

Which verse did you go with? I'm curious.

Awesome. We're glad that that helps you and.

I highly recommend that you guys. So if you were taking any tests, if you're, you know, that's what I would do before my exams in nursing school. Dose calc, lecture exams, HESI exams or otherwise. I would get to the exam, write a Bible verse on the whiteboard or whatever piece of paper they give us, and then that would really, like, help. Sarah, you said, I remember the first dosage exam. I was so nervous because I felt like it was life or death. But with practice, it's not complicated. 100%.

Yeah. John 3. 16. Awesome. Simply use Romans 8, 28, 28. Awesome.

I love this community for this reason. Oh, you guys. If you're a Nursing Essence member and you missed our coaching call last night. The coaching call last night was really fabulous because we Talked about Galatians 5 and the fruits of the spirit. So if you are a Christian, if you are in our community, definitely watch that coaching call once Matthew posts it. The replay.

The replay will be up today.

You're so good up top.

Along with our community call for Monday as well. So both of those will be up in the membership today. So take a look for that. That's under bonuses and the replays. Yes.

So we talked about the fruits of the spirit and I think you would enjoy that. So since Sarah, I found the only people who really fail the exams are the ones that don't practice before or review conversions. And that's the thing. You guys like dose calc. It does not have to be complicated, but you still need to practice it, right? Like you still need to make sure that you understand it before you go take your exam. Because that's exactly it. They're like, I do not want you guys to get to nursing school and then be surprised that you have to take a dose calc exam right away. Basically you, you don't want to be in the position where you are stuck studying dose calc and having to study for your exam questions, your, your next exam or having to prep for clinical. And it's just, it's a lot. So set yourself up for success. Okay? And this is how we do that. Set yourself up for success by planning ahead. Okay, so start studying early.

Yeah, so that's what we're talking about right now, for those that are just joining us is what you should be doing over the summer, whether you're going to, going to be returning back to nursing in the fall or whether you're brand new starting. And so really tip number one is get ready for your upcoming dose calc exam because you're going to have it whether or not you like it. And that's really the thing too. With dose calc, especially with our six step process, everything is the same. Like once you know the process, once you understand this is how you do it, the process doesn't change. Obviously the question changes and the specific numbers change, but the process doesn't change. And so it is really easy to practice that beforehand. And that's really, again what Christine is recommending is you practice, practice, practice. You get used to using the process so it comes automatically to you. That is something you can do before you've even started nursing school, before you really understand any of the other nursing concepts. Because at the core it's just math. It's just this process that you just need to get used to. So that is why that is number one recommendation not to read. Well, I'm sure Christina is going to touch on this next.

On what maybe not what not to do.

So, but this is something to do because it is something that you can do without knowing much about nursing school, especially if this is going to be your first term into it.

Yeah.

So practice, practice, practice. Lots of practice questions. There was a question, do you have practice questions for people not in the community quite yet. So I'll answer the first part that wasn't answered or wasn't asked. There are lots and lots of practice questions in the membership community in our dose calc course. For those not in the community right now we do have a physical box, a dose calc box that has a booklet with even More practice questions.

Two booklets, actually.

Two booklets. One for tablets, specifically workbook. So two workbooks. So we do have a physical box that is available for people not in the community. People in the community can still get that and they get their community discount with that. So if you need even more practice beyond the practice questions in the community, you can go ahead and check that out too. Nursing or nursing sos.comshop will get you there. To all our physical items.

And I think that that link is in my bio as well. You might have to scroll down a little bit. But yes, we do have a whole dose calc box. If you are not in our community, we do have a dose calc box that you can purchase. And there's two workbooks in there. One that is practice problems and then the other one, like a bunch of practice problems. And then the other one is medication labels. So reading the actual medication labels, getting used to that.

Yeah.

Hi. I just graduated this past Saturday. Big shout out to the nursing SOS community and especially to you and Matthew. Yay. I'm so glad your tips and tricks helped me so much, Christiana. Woo.

Hooray.

So, yes, you guys, before you start nursing school, before you start a new term, you have to understand those Cal. It's huge. There is no two ways around it. Now the next one that you want to really focus on is getting a solid, I want to say, like habits down as far as your schedule, as far as how you work, how you sleep, how you, you know, make sure that you are as healthy as possible in all different areas, okay? Because we don't want to get to nursing school and have our life be a mess and then compound it with nursing school being a mess. That's not what you want to happen. Okay? So before nursing school, you know, read your Bible every day, okay? Pray every day, right? Talk to your spouse, get a plan together. When are you going to study? Who's going to do the dishes? Who's going to do the laundry, who's going to cook dinner? Like, get all of these things straightened out ahead of time so that you are not trying to play catch up when you get to nursing school. Basically the idea is, you guys, whether you're starting nursing school or whether you are continuing nursing school and just have a new term, doesn't matter. You really. The whole point is, is that you really want to make sure that whatever you can get done ahead of time, you do. All right? So that is dose calc. That is making getting a solid study plan, getting a solid time management Plan making sure that everyone in your family understands expectations of what is actually happening. What, like what your schedule is going to look like when your clinicals are, you know, what life is going to look like as you go through nursing school. Because it will change. All right? The fact of the matter is you are not going to be around as much. Right. All of us who've been in nursing school, we know this. Okay. It does take a lot of time. And so you do have to really make sure that you are setting those expectations with your family, making sure that everyone's on the same page and no one's going to freak out when it just gets to be a lot, you know? So DoSCALC time management study plan, which just happens to be our steps inside the nursing SOS membership community. We walk you through. So if you're a member, make sure that you download the study plan we have for you. Make sure you download your time management plan that we have for you. We call it your nursing life map. Okay? So download your study plan, download your nursing life map and watch through those videos so you can make it. Okay. Like, get yourself that solid study plan down. Get yourself that solid time management plan down so that you can really set yourself up for success. So these are all the things we walk you through inside the community.

Okay, awesome. Yep. We have a very defined step process on how to. How we can help you through nursing school.

Yes.

And those are definitely really critical steps that you can get into. And that's why it's also beneficial to join the community even before you actually start, so that you can get a jump start. You can really plan these things out. We have these milestone PDF documents that you fill out and you go through. So that's, that's helpful to do before starting nursing school as well.

Yep. Make sure that you do your study plan. Make sure you do your nursing life map. That's what Matthew's talking about, those milestones. So, study plan, time management plan, we walk you through that inside the community. Okay. I want to move to pharmacology. Oh, well, okay. First off, I need to finish what I was saying first. If you are returning to nursing school, here's my advice for you. Find an upperclassman and ask them what your next term looks like, what papers do you have to write, what the clinical days are, what the clinical sites are, what days clinicals are on, what day skills lab is on, and lecture class. Like, I want you to ask all of the questions. I want you to know as much as possible possible about what is coming up for you next term. Okay. So find an upperclassman, talk to them, ask them everything that you can possibly think of about what is going to happen. Even if you could get their class calendar from their previous term, your next term, get the class calendar, get the syllabus early, Find those things. Okay. Get as prepared as possible. So this is what I did when I was in nursing school. Got a hold of the syllabus early, got a hold of the calendar early, and there were terms, there were terms where I knocked out an entire research paper before starting the term. Because you can, if that is a possibility for you, I highly recommend it. Like, just take a weekend, right. Like, if you have, if you know that you have a whole research paper to do the next, like next term, I highly recommend getting a head start on that. If you have already done a term or two of nursing school, okay. If you haven't, then you don't know what you don't know. Like, if this is your first term, don't do that because you don't know how to write research papers. Like, you don't know what you don't know. Right. This is only for students who have been in nursing classes already. So let's say you already did a term in Med Surg and now you're in Med Surg 2. This is a. This would be a perfect for you. Okay. Okay. If you were already taking Med Surg 1, now you're in Med Surg 2. So find out what Med Surg 2 looks like, what papers you have to write, what care plans you have to write, what the clinical days are. Get as ahead as possible as you can, get as much done up front as you can, and then that will release that you're up for success because you do not. You'll have less to do during the term. Does that make sense? Same thing with dose calc. Make sure that you understand dose calc for whatever term you were going into.

So, yeah, I think I remember just another part about that. Right. Is that you even found out with some upperclassmen that, like, they never opened one of the books that they said that you had to have.

Yeah, right. Yeah. That you don't even need to buy some of the books.

Yeah, some of the books, like you talk to the upperclassmen and said, yeah, they said that this is required. So I got it. Never looked at it once.

So that's good information to know. Yes. Yeah. Like listen to them. Listen to them. Right.

That is also another bonus too, with, with upperclassmen that do have the books and especially if they don't mind you having the latest edition, sometimes it's really easy to get secondhand books for a lot cheaper that way as well.

100% used books. That is the way to go.

Yeah.

Yeah. Unless there's two books that you absolutely need the updated versions for, and that is a care plan book and your drug guide, because those change constantly. So you do need to make sure that you have the updated versions of those two. Those are the only two books that we recommend that you have the updated versions of.

Yeah.

Care plans, drug guide.

So definitely talking to upper class peoples.

Is helpful to know what's going on.

Yes.

Okay, now, pharmacology, I want to talk about pharmacology. I also want to talk about psychiatric. Okay. Because pharmacology is like, like I said, Sarah, that you're going to be so surprised. Like if you are in mental health, in psych nursing, it's so heavy on medications, it's so heavy on pharmacology. So just make sure that you, you understand your medications, that you are learning them faster. So what I want to talk about before I say this, actually, we have a whole pharmacology cheat sheet for you. Go to the link in my bio. If you're on Instagram, on YouTube, maybe Matthew can put it in the chat.

Sure.

It's nursing schoolofsuccess.com pharmacology, I think if you are on Instagram, do the link in my bio and that should, that should take you there. So make sure that you download that. Okay. Because that'll walk you through how to study pharmacology. Now the specific question that we got is side effects. Like how do you understand what is happening with this medication? So you guys at the biggest pharmacology tip I have for you for understanding how the side effects, understanding what assessments you have to do, understanding the interventions, it all starts with the mechanism of action. You have to understand how the medication acts in the body. Okay? If you do not understand how the medication acts in the body, you are in deep trouble, my friend. You need to understand this or, or else if you don't, you are just memorizing things and then you're going to get to your exams and all of the medications are going to get jumbled in your mind. You're going to try to be pulling like lists out of your brain and it does not work that way. You have to understand how the medications act in the body. It's called the mechanism of action. And then you will be able to critically think through the side effects critically think through the nursing assessments and what, what you need to assess for before, during and after giving it interventions. You have to do all of that. This is very, very important. It all starts with that mechanism of action.

Okay.

How does the med act in the body? Once you know that, you will be able to critically think through everything else. Now, I walk you through how to do that on that cheat sheet. So it's a free cheat sheet. Just go to that link. Nursing schoolofsuccess.com Pharmacology Matthew put it in the YouTube chat. It is in the bio as well on Instagram.

Yeah. So that is really key for learning your meds. That is key for learning about mental health. So Sarah, concerning mental health, do you have any tips on how to prepare? So like we said, a big part of mental health is, is understanding the meds. So understanding your meds is the specific info to really understand. Because a lot of times some of the mental health disorders and things, we don't know exactly what's going on, but what we do know is how the meds that we're giving them, how the mechanism, action again.

Yeah. So that is, you'll notice psychiatric nursing is very fuzzy. Very, very fuzzy. And Sarah, we do have the entire psychiatric mental health course inside the community. Yes. So we have all in there. It's all there for you, all the videos and everything. So. So make sure that you check that out. Okay.

Now, Gwendolyn was asking about best way to learn medications. Again, mechanism, action, very first step. And then with side effects to them is more specifically what her question was.

Yep. And so that's what I was saying. Side effects go back to the mechanism of action. You have to understand how the medication acts in the body before you can understand the side effects. Okay. And then when you think about side effects, make sure that you are thinking about this. This is the best type you guys are ever going to hear for pharmacology side effects. You ready? When you are learning medication side effects, connect it back to the mechanism of action and consider what would happen if the med worked too well. If the med worked like totally bananas, went totally crazy in the body and worked way better than how we wanted it to, those are going to be your side effects. I always use diuretics as an example because it's a great example. If you give a diuretic to a patient, it's going to kick out a ton of fluids and electrolytes from the body. That's the mechanism of action. It's just going to get rid of fluids and electrolytes. Now, if that medication went totally bananas in the body, those are going to be your side effects. So what would you see? Dehydration. Right. I call it all the hypos. Hypokalemia, hyponatremia, hypomagnesemia, hypocalcemia. All of the decreased electrolytes. So when you consider side effects for medications, consider what would it look like if the medication worked too well? Okay. If it just went totally bananas, went way crazier than we ever wanted it to. Those are going to be your side effects. Connect it back to the mechanism of action.

Always connect everything back to the mechanism. Action. 100 men's.

Yep.

All right, cool.

Okay. Pediatrics and community health nursing. I think we're going to talk about that next time. Oh, and the nclex.

Yes.

In med surg.

Yes.

All of those things.

Those are those things.

Monday.

That fundamentals are running out of time. So definitely fundamentals. Addie, be sure to subscribe and hit that bell because on Monday we will talk about. About studying pediatrics and community health nursing.

Let's do it.

So we will be doing that. We are running out of time right now. It always seems to happen that way.

Happens.

Don't worry. We will get that. Let's see. And then. Yes. NCLEX Med surge fundies.

Yep. Cool.

Comorbidities.

All right, friends, we will talk about that on Monday. Thank you so much for joining us. And yeah, snag that pharmacology tissue because you don't want to miss it. The link is in my bio on Instagram and then Matthew put it in the chat on YouTube. Bye, guys. Thank you. You guys have a fabulous rest of your day and we will see you Monday.

Take care, guys.

Bye.

Bye.

Ta ta.