Nursing School - ASK ME ANYTHING

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1, 2, 3.

Live in all the places.

1, 2, 3, or no live. All right.

Live in all places.

Hi, guys. Welcome.

The door.

Oh, get the door. All right, cool.

Hello, everyone.

Welcome to the nursing school show. Ask Christina anything. Thanks for joining, everyone.

Yeah. Good morning.

Good morning. Happy Wednesday. Hey, Polly.

You'Re the second Kendolin I know. Hey, that's a great name.

I love that name. All right, so let's see. We have YouTube up, check. We have Instagram up, check. And again, second day in a row, Facebook, we have you guys up and running.

Facebook. If you can see me and hear me, please let me know in the comments, because Facebook and me, we have a special relationship. Facebook likes to hide the comments from me. So what we do, we used to do. I remember tutoring calls on Facebook Live and it would not work out because couldn't see the comments. Can't have a tutoring call without comments. Right. So I would, like, pull it up on my phone and get the comments on my phone and then on desktop. So comment. If you're on Facebook, please tell us. We can see the comments down here.

All right, I can see it there. Hi, everyone on YouTube. Hi, Tenaria. Tanaria.

I think this is great.

All right.

Hi, Brittany.

Thanks for the questions. We will be going through some questions. This is an Ask Me Anything where we try and ask Christina as many questions as possible, and she will answer as many questions. As many questions as possible.

So oftentimes they don't know the answer.

Awesome.

That's fine.

All right, should we get going?

Dive in.

Let's do it. All right, let's go. So we do have a question from our members of the nursing SOS membership community. And for them, we have a form that's up on the membership site that you guys. They can fill out questions at any time, and we want to get to those first, and then we'll dive into any other questions that we have in any of the comments anywhere. So go ahead and keep so many.

Comments everywhere, and we will be good. Yes. Oh, Facebook, we've got.

Facebook has some.

Hey, what's up, Gwen? Gwen. Hello. I can't that far away, apparently. Good morning, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

So question from our members. A little bit background on it first. One of the baseline tips and tricks that you have when going through nursing school is Christina says, do not class. All together now.

Read everything in the book. Raise your hand if you've heard me say that a thousand times. Oh, man. Okay, so preface the question.

Yes.

There you go.

So that.

That is The. That's the background.

That is the background. So question from member. What if my instructor recommends page pages reading pages reading? My instructor does. And I still feel like it is a lot to read.

This happens all the time. Here's the thing. This is why I always say this. You guys, listen up. It's Wednesday. We may or may not have a couple sentences. Christina's caffeinated. Let's go. Your instructors will tell you absolutely to read everything in the book. That is exactly why I tell you not to is because your instructors will all tell you to, and I tell you not to. I know, I know. It seems like, whoa, Christina. They tell me that I have to do all of these things, and now I'm overwhelmed and confused and can't do it. That's the problem, my friend. When you get your syllabus, your calendar, what have you from your instructors, you will see. Did they literally. Oh, I need. Okay, this is an old edition. Want you to read every single thing in the textbook. Literally. This is only one part of that textbook. So there's only half. Are you really gonna read this in 10 weeks if you're a quarter school, 16 weeks if you're a semester school? No. This is, again, only half of the fundamentals book. It doubles. You are not going to read the whole thing. You are not going to remember the whole thing. That would be crazy land. Crazy land. It's just not possible. So instead, we do something that actually works. We tell students to study. Focus on reading the sections of the book that your professors talk about in class. And why is this? Here's why. What your professors talk about in class and teach in class is what they believe are the most important things for you to know and therefore are the things that are most likely to show up on your exams. They've either seen your exams, they wrote your exams, or at least they know what is on your exams. Tangentially, if you're in an ATI or HUSI program, this advice still stands. Focus on reading the sections of the book that your professors talk about in class. Everyone cool with that? That's the rationale. Why? Mm. Every time I say this, someone's like, no, Christina, you're wrong. And then I'm like, okay, here you go. Read it. Have fun. It's not. I mean, really, you're gonna read the whole thing? You are just gonna get overwhelmed and stressed and confused. That's not what we do here. We do not want to get overwhelmed. We do not want to get stressed. We do not want to get confused. That is not an effective way to study. So there you go. There it is. For a Wednesday first soapbox of the day. Welcome.

I do have a follow up question to that because the way I read that question is a little different. So what you're saying I think totally applies. Do not read the entire book cover to cover.

Yep.

The way I read this question, what if the instructor recommends certain pages to read and they're just recommending too many pages?

They're just recommending too many pages. Same thing. Focus on reading the sections of the book that you're professor talked about in class. They didn't talk about in class. If it's not in like their study modules or like things that they give you, you most likely don't need to know it. So. Okay, say the same thing.

All right, so same thing, same thing. So if they do talk about it in class, then definitely read it.

Definitely read those sections.

Yeah. But if they're recommending extracurricular reading just for the fun of it.

Just for the fun of it. You like literally. No, I don't. Have you seen my syllabus? Do I have like a syllabus from school? Because it's literally the entire textbook. Literally the entire textbook. And then that makes me wonder if it's like an accreditation thing if they have to like, you know, say that, you know, we make our students read everything in the book. I could totally see that being a thing. Like, yes, our students learn all of this and yeah, I mean, in some way, shape or form. We do, but we don't have to read it all. Friends, man, could you believe, like how long would it take you to read that entire book? And that is literally only half, so.

Oh yeah. Volume two.

Volume two. There are two parts. All right, two parts.

Very interesting.

Yeah. My school was quarters. It was 10 weeks. I am not reading that in 10 weeks times two. It's just not gonna happen. That's just not gonna happen.

All right, great.

Happy Wednesday.

Happy Wednesday, everyone.

Wednesday. Take that for your Wednesday. I'm waving at people on Instagram. I wish Facebook gave me the option to wave at you. Hello. I guess I can do it the old fashioned way. Hello, Facebook.

Hello. Hello, YouTube. Hello, YouTube. So that kind of goes along with. Actually we just posted a new YouTube video this morning. You did actually mention that exact tip again in the video this morning.

So go ahead and check that out.

If you have not checked that out also. Next question. That is a follow up and also applies to the YouTube that we just posted. I have applied to a school and the RN program is only one year of nursing courses. They told me all the courses and clinicals are fully online and it might be that way for the rest of the program. Do you think doing only virtual sims and no in person hands on clinicals can still prepare a student for to be a safe practicing nurse when they graduate?

This is the world we live in now. No, I really like, you know, okay, let's just. Here's how I answer questions like this. If I was the patient, which I am, if you guys know, if you've been around for a while, you know that I was a patient before I became a nurse, which is why I became a nurse, because I was a patient. I'm a cardiac patient. I have a pacemaker. My heart. Just a cyborg. I'm a cyborg. I'm bionic. My heart just decides to stop randomly. I don't know, it's kind of posh like that, right? Like my heart's like, meh. No, I'd rather.

I just don't want to work today.

I just don't want to work today. I'm going to be lazy. So that's my heart. So I have a pacemaker to help fix that. So you know, I don't faint and pass out like I did for the first 20 years of my life. So that is that background. I was a patient before. If you are my nurse, I would much, much rather you have done things on a real person, preferably. Personally, I think we, most of us can agree, however, this is the world we live in now and we just need to adapt to that. So here's what I will say. Always ask a thousand questions. Weren't we just talking about this?

We were just this past Monday.

Just talking about this Monday. Ask a thousand questions at school when you. Here's my assumption. I am making an assumption. My assumption is that someone's like totally gonna like read me for this. Someone's gonna get super angry out there in the Internet land when all this passes. Because it will pass, friends. It will. I wonder if it will pass next spring, next winter. I don't know. Don't get mad at me. I'm just assuming eventually this is gonna pass and clinicals in real life are going to be a thing again, right? So I kind of doubt. I kind of just personally, I kind of doubt. Now don't get mad. I kind of doubt that you're going to go an entire year with just some online clinicals. Like, wouldn't you doubt that? I don't know. I don't know. I cannot predict the future. I'm just saying that's kind of a lot like I would, you know, as the school, I would be doing everything in my power to get you into a clinical site. And I believe that your schools are doing that. So I have high hopes for you that you will be able to actually get some in person. In person practice for clinicals before you graduate would be ideal. Of course. Does it mean that you're going to be a terrible nurse when you graduate? No, that's up to you. There are terrible nurses who did all in person clinicals. Let's remember, let's remember not to get like negative or anything, but it's up to you to be a good nurse, to be an amazing nurse. You know, that's what I have to say about that.

I don't know.

Yeah, what do you have to say?

No, I think that that is, that is spot on. I think that having virtual is better than not. So I think that it goes back to what we've always been talking about. It is all about mindset.

Hi, Amy.

And mindset is important in how you think about it and what your mindset is. While you're going through, however you're learning, whether it is in person or virtual or nothing. I don't know. I don't think there's nothing. I think they'll give you some sort of training to get through nursing school.

I hope so.

But mindset goes a long way. So just think about that. What's the best way, how can I prepare myself? And what is the best way that I know myself so that I can learn the material and actually feel confident in myself? Will you always feel 100% confident? No, and I don't think that's a good thing to feel 100% confident. We were talking about this on Monday too, and that amount of, I think fear might be a little strong, but just that kind of intrepidation, awareness is good for you as well. So definitely keep that in mind as well. But yeah, we are going through this season where we have to look for different ways of learning and it's up to you to determine, okay, will this work or how can I supplement it or whatnot to. To get the most and also to become the, the best nurse that I can be. So I, I think that, that, that is my two cents on it or more than two cents, two and a half cents on that.

Jenny, I'm so glad to see you on Facebook, my friend. She says, take all Christina's suggestions. They are spot on. I'm an RN because of the nursing SOS group.

Hooray.

Thanks to Jenny.

Hi.

We're best friends.

Hello. Kelly from YouTube.

Hi, Kelly. Yeah, sugar.

Yeah, sugar.

That's great.

Hi, guys. How's Leslie? Hello, everyone in virtual land.

Yes. So if you are just joining us, my name is Christina Rafano.

I am Matthew Rafano.

We are married.

Oh.

We got a question on Instagram. Are you a nurse?

Oh, they ask me that a lot.

You have very good advice or a non nurse?

I am not a nurse. I am not in the medical field at all. The rest of my family. You and the rest of my family are in the medical field in some capacity. I am medical field adjacent by marriage. By marriage. Twice removed.

Twice. Is that like twice removed from the healthcare field?

No, I am not a nurse. But thank you for joining and listening to me. Anyway. I'd like to think that I can give some good advice even though it's not nursing related necessarily.

So, you know, I was actually thinking while you were talking, I'm like, wow, this is really good advice for like nursing students from someone who is like, not a nurse.

That's me.

Didn't go to nursing school. That's solid advice.

Yes.

Yeah.

Giving advice and stuff that I know nothing about and acting like I do know what I'm talking about.

You. You have a lot of good things to say about coaching and motivation and all the. All the things who doesn't love. We. We call it. If you. If you've been around for a while, you know, we call it storytime with Matthew. Hashtag. Storytime with Matthew. Time.

All right, well, we have. Jessica, we have a pretty big question here and from Instagram. We have talked about this before, so maybe we won't go in too much detail. If you want more detail, then definitely go back and look at some other AMAs because we do talk about this a lot. This is a big topic in nursing school, so I'm sure we'll talk about multiple times. I have really bad test anxiety. Oh, we talked about anxiety in general. So this is specifically test anxiety. I literally feel it in my fingertips and stomach. Any tips? I'm a great student. Worst test taker. I. I tried all the things. Try not to second guess. Take deep breaths no matter what. Nothing helps. Any tips for test taking anxiety specifically?

I like that question. Who is this from?

Let's go 21.

Okay. Yeah. Instagram, huh?

Yes.

Hey, Instagram. So, test anxiety. The second part of that question is. I know. Don't second guess deep breaths. But no matter what, nothing Helps. And this is actually kind of what I was thinking. If you were here, raise your hand. If you were here for our conversation on anxiety, was it last week? On Monday or Wednesday? Do you remember that?

I was here.

I was here. Raise your hand. YouTube and Instagram, Facebook. Sorry, we were not live on Facebook last week.

But we're here now. That's all that matters. Oh, now Sugar says that they deal with this too.

Okay, well, good. I'm glad we talk a lot about anxiety here. What we talked about last week was that anxiety and stress are two very different things. So if you really deal with actual anxiety, like, is what it sounds like from this question. It's like actual anxiety. If you try to tell someone with true anxiety to, like, take deep breaths, don't second guess yourself. Like, we're gonna be like, come on. Like, you really don't understand. Like, you just don't understand when you have anxiety, it's like it's. It consumes you. It consumes your thoughts, it consumes your brain. And so that's really where it starts. I know because I have it. We talked about that. You don't know really what that's.

I do not know. I do not have, like, true anxiety. True what? I feel like, true anxiety.

Yeah. Because for me, it's like what I was talking about last week on our AMA was that for me, anxiety, I feel it physically and I know how it feels in my body. And it's like a fight or flight for me. It's like literally my brain is telling me I'm going to die. And even if it's something so benign, it's not a big deal, but still my brain tells my body that I am going to die and I need to run away right now or, you know, doom, basically. Like, that is anxiety for me. Is that anxiety for you? Tell me in the comments. That is anxiety for me. So coming at it that way, like sitting down to take a test, like, before you walk into the testing room, right? Or wherever you take a test now, online, your house, whatever, before you sit down to take your exam, if you have true anxiety, your brain is like freaking out, man. It's like going bananas. So the best. The only thing, two things, the only things that I know how to fix this and how I have fixed it myself, because I have had anxiety my entire life and I have only gotten it under control the past. What would you say? Two years?

Yeah, it's been like two years. So you've been working on it for. For a long time and.

Yeah, yeah.

You've been very intentional about working it, so I think that that's a big part.

But yeah, yeah, very, very intentional. Working on it for about two years now. I went to therapy and now I'm in a life which we also talked about two very different things. I think it was last week, so check it out. Last week, I think it was either Monday or Wednesday last week and it was like the first question. So check that out on YouTube or I think it's on our IGTV.

A little bit of a tangent here. When you do check out our other AMAs, it takes a while to post up on YouTube but I usually try and go back and put timestamps in for each of the questions that we addressed on YouTube. So go ahead. If you go in AMAs and just look at the description, you can actually see what questions you asked and you can just jump straight to whatever question we're talking about. So yeah, if you don't have the time to sit here and watch all of it. Yeah, those timestamps, I try and put them in most of the big topics, I try and throw them in there. So you can definitely go back and look at those.

Perfect. That's on YouTube, not on Instagram TV. So go to YouTube for any of our AMAs. You'll be able to see the timestamps and the questions that were asked in our answer system. So find it easily. So for anxiety, when you, you know, when you walk into take your exam, sit down to your desk at home to take your exam, your brain is going to be freaking out. So two things that I, the only two things that I know how to fix this is God, of course. And secondly, controlling your mind. But here's the thing with controlling your mind, that work has to start before you have like this full on anxiety attack, like before you take your exam. Right. We're not going to, we don't want to. We don't want to be in a situation like put ourselves in a position in a situation that we could like. I don't want to say like put your set yourself up for failure because I think failure is very important. It's so, is so important to like just utterly fail and make mistakes in life. But that's not really what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that you won't gain traction with decreasing your anxiety if you are only working on it when you are anxious in a full fledged anxiety attack. Does that make sense? So when I deal with my anxiety, I know what it feels like in my body. I am very aware of it in my body and so I can catch it a lot quicker. Now. This was a very long process to learn exactly how it feels, but now that I feel it in my body, I know earlier and then I can catch the thoughts that are causing it and I can change them. And so, you know, that is kind of the process that I have gone through. Not waiting until I'm on a full fledged anxiety attack to try to control it. Because to be honest, it's kind of hard to do if you don't have the training for it. So then, you know, learning how anxiety feels, low level baseline anxiety, learning what thoughts are causing that low level baseline anxiety, and then you can level up from there. Does that make sense? Can you guys like give me comments on Instagram, Tell me if that makes sense.

Watching from outside to watching me, watching you. I think that that is very true. And I know one of my favorite quotes that I do like is, when's the best time to build? Build a well or something. Build a well before you're thirsty. You want to.

Yeah, yeah.

Dig a well before you're thirsty. Because when you're thirsty, it's too late. Right, Right. So, and that's a really big thing, is that you need to work on it constantly and before it hits you. Not only that, but yeah, really knowing yourself, know thyself and really understand all those feelings in your body before I think you said it really well, a baseline. So you know what your baseline is. You can put it into words. This is good for everyone, not just people with anxiety. It's stuff that I need to work on. Sometimes I'm thinking, am I hungry? I do not know. I do not know. So that's just me not being aware.

Of myself, being aware of my body.

Am I hungry? I do not know. I'm going to eat anyway, just in case. But yeah, so understanding the feelings, understanding your body so that you can know what's my baseline and when am I getting off of baseline so that I can, I can capture those thoughts, catch those thoughts and then work through them in your mind. But yeah, if you don't put in the work when you're at baseline, then you won't know what to do when you're not in baseline. So yeah, I do agree with that. You mentioned it before. Therapy, life coaching. The stigma is going away for therapy, which is great, but definitely therapy is so helpful.

At least it was super helpful for me. That was kind of the first step. So therapy and life coaching are two very different things. Therapy focuses on your past, whereas life coaching focuses on your future. And so I think that they work very well in tandem to each other. I did. We talked about this last week again. I forgot the name of someone, I don't remember who told me someone on an Instagram land and YouTube land told me it's EMDR therapy. Eye Movement desensitization and Reprograming. I think that's what it stands for. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprograming. Emdr. That was the kind of therapy that I did two years ago to reprogram. And now I have been in a life coaching program for the past year really, really, really working on my anxiety. When you have anxiety, you feel it, you, like, wake up with it. You know, you said it makes sense. I haven't mastered that skill yet. Try to give myself a pep talk before. But yeah, I mean, when you have anxiety, giving yourself a pep talk can be very hard. So that's why you need to get it under control. When you're at baseline and then move up from there is what I think is very important.

Yeah, it needs to become automatic. Now we're saying this knowing that, yeah, it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. And it might not seem like it's going to help you now when you have a test tomorrow, because, yeah, you can't learn all of that right now, but that's the beginning, steps to take in order to move towards that direction. This is the work as far as immediately, what can you do? It is really the mindsets. And I know that it can only help as long as you're doing it a lot. But, yeah, you can start taking the steps now. I think the biggest thing, again, we've mentioned this before, Rory Vaden's quote. It's hard to be nervous when your heart's on service. You just need to put your mind beyond where you're at. What is your goal? What is your why?

Why are you doing this?

That might not help entirely with anxiety, but else. But at least it will help put your mind on something higher than just yourself and help you reach for really what your. What your goal is.

Right. So right on. Absolutely. I think it's always what also really helps me. I think it's important to, like, talk. I think it's really important for you to know that I am with you, you know, because anxiety for me is lifelong. I mean, this is not something that is new to me. This is not something benign for me. This is like literal two Years ago. And I, I, I can name other times that this has happened. Literal, like, anxiety attack. I feel like I'm literally going to die on the floor. Cannot move, Full on panic attack. Like, that is the anxiety that I have dealt with my entire life. Like, full on panic attack to where I just, I'm just paralyzed, completely paralyzed. So I think it's really important for you to know, like, where I'm coming from and like all of these things I do not say as like a, oh, we'll try this, try this. It's like, no, like this takes work. And I know because I have walked through this for decades now. So, you know, it's not something that can change overnight. It's not an overnight fix. It's not, we're not trying to put a band aid on anything. This is like serious work that I hope you will do with me because this has now been an intentional two year process so far and will continue throughout the rest of my life. So when you have anxiety, yes, you can, you know, focus on, you know, serving other people. Focus on things, you know, that are outside of yourself. Focus on God, focus on other people. I also think it's very, it was very helpful to me to think of my past and where, how far I've come. So when I did things a little bit differently than a traditional like, nursing program, I did prereqs at a different school, school and then I went to nursing school. So when I did my prereqs, it was like a couple of years of, oh, I hope I get into nursing school. Oh, I hope I get into nursing school. Oh, I hope I get in a nursing school. Then when I was in nursing school, it was like, oh, my, my brain is telling me I'm going to die, I'm going to fail. Everything is wrong. So when that happened, I had to think back to where I was a year ago, two years ago, before nursing school and say, wow, like, I did it. I came this far.

You've gotten so far.

Exactly, like, so far. Think about where you are right now. You have come so far from where you were two years ago, three years ago, five years ago, a decade ago, a decade ago, you were wanting to be right here where you are. Right. And so when we're stuck in this and we have exams next week and care plans due and online clinicals and everything's a disaster in the world, world is ending. It's very easy to get caught up in that.

Yeah.

Whereas think back like 10 years ago, I wanted to be here and to be so grateful for that. And I also. This is just. This was from my dad, and I talk about it all the time. I've always had this, like, perfectionist mentality. So I always wanted to get straight A's. Always wanted to, you know, ace my exams. Anything less than an A, waste, the worst. And so I've always had, like, this perfectionist mentality. And growing up, my dad always told me that it's like. Well, he would literally say, it's not the end of the world. Like, one bad test grade does not define you. One bad test grade doesn't mean that you're a failure. So I say that all the time. And so literally, you guys, when you walk into an exam, your brain, if you have true anxiety, your brain is going to tell you that it is life or death. That it is literally life or death. But I want to challenge you. I want to challenge you. Think about what it actually is. What is that? It's an exam. It's a school exam. Yes, you have worked really hard to get here, but it is just a school exam. It's a nursing school exam. That's all it is. It is not like you are running from a bear or trying to, you know, survive or whatever. It's literally like a nerd. It's just a school exam. My goodness. And so also, I tell students sometimes. Sometimes we get students to email us and say that they failed out of their program. And I'm like, great, now what do you guys know? That if you fail out of nursing school, that's not the end? Because that's what we get. We get oftentimes like, oh, if I fail this one exam, if I fail this one class, if I fail out of nursing school, I'm done. I'm out. No, that's not the case. If you live in the United States, which most of us do, if you live in the United States, you know how many nursing schools there are in the U.S. do you know how many nursing schools there are in Australia, in the uk, In Canada? There are tons and tons and tons. If you fail out of one school, that does not mean that you will not become a nurse. You will not become a nurse only if you quit on yourself. There are tons of other schools that you can go to, tons of other programs you can apply for. Keep going no matter what. The only reason that you will not become a nurse is if you quit. That's it. That's the only reason. So even if you fail an exam, even if you fail a class, even if you fail out of Your program. Do not stop. Do not quit on yourself. Keep going no matter what. There's another soapbox for your.

I noticed this quote coming up, especially I think, because of the environment we're in now, but I don't even know where it came from. But did you know that you've conquered 100% of the tough times that you've been through till now?

Michael Hyatt.

Is that Michael Hyatt?

Okay. Yeah. Yep.

So, yep. Just put things in perspective. You know what? We're here. You've come a long way.

We're all here on the other side of 2020. You did it, friend. You made it the other side. So welcome. Yeah, it's only up from here.

Up. Great one. All right, good job. Good job, Christina.

Thanks, friend.

For those just joining, welcome to the nursing school show. Ask Christina anything.

Ask him anything.

Thank you for joining. Where we answer questions mostly nursing school related, sometimes non nursing school related.

Sarah. YouTube. I failed out of an RN program in nursing at one school and was accepted into a different school. That has worked out better for me. Boom. Be a Sarah.

Be a Sarah.

Be a Sarah. Thank you, Sarah, for not quitting on yourself. You are awesome. Thank you. Love it. You guys are the best. Seriously. I was just telling Matthew, was this yesterday or two days ago? I just. I don't see online a lot of communities like this for nursing students. What I see online is a lot of nursing Facebook groups, a lot of, like, nursing forums, nursing things online that are seriously negative and, like, it's just weird. Like, it's a weird vibe. I feel like you get in these nursing school Facebook groups kind of a weird vibe. Whereas here it's like, man, all you guys, all your comments, everything. A private Facebook group for our nursing SOS members is insane to me. How supportive everybody is, how positive everyone is, how, like, heart for Jesus everybody is. It's amazing. I love it. So thank you guys for that. You're awesome.

Yeah, we do appreciate you and you're what makes this community great. Every one of you guys that are positive, that are lifting each other up, everyone's saying, go, Sarah. We are a positive place to be. And we enjoy your positivity.

We're a positive place to be.

On that note, just a quick question from YouTube.

Let's do it.

I don't think you need to go too much detail unless you want to, but that's like Christina toning down.

That's his nice waves saying, what did.

You struggle with most in nursing school?

What did I struggle with most in nursing school? Skills. Because I stink at them. Nursing skills literally failed every single one the first time.

There you go, talking about failure and.

Keeping on going, talking about failure. So, hello, lifting queen one. Does that mean, like, weights at the gym? That's what I'm thinking. I don't do that, so I wouldn't know. I don't do that.

So you. You say that Skills is your. Skills is your weakness.

Skills is my. Is my kryptonite. Hey, I used, like, a Superman quote. That's funny. I know something about superheroes.

Awesome. Yes, you do. We.

We watch. Oh, yes. I got it. Right. Yeah, yeah. Sweet. Yeah. Skills. Not my. Not my jam.

Okay.

Not my jam.

All right. Question from Facebook.

Sorry. Facebook. The. The color balance. It, like, keeps changing.

Yeah.

Every time I take a drink of coffee, it's like, whoa, white out.

And this is a question. I think we're getting a lot. Because people are starting up nursing school. Right? So, hello, I would like to know how not to get. How not to confuse myself with the different ways of doing dosage calc. I love your way of doing dosage calc, but there are other resources that do different equations, and I'm panicking. So what do you do?

Okay, let's talk about it. All right.

There you go.

Christina. I'm gonna have to control myself. So box. Here we go. All right. Dosage calculations. With anything in nursing school and anything in life. We are in an era of information overload. Absolute information overload. You have your phone, you have your laptop. You have your. Maybe a desktop computer. You have your tablet. You have all these things. You have so much access to everything in the world, all the information in the world at your fingertips. This is amazing because you have all that information. However, it creates another problem, constraint, and that information overload. So we need to focus on constraint, constraining ourselves to one source, a couple of sources that you trust. So when. Here's my recommendation for nursing school. Just in general, when you have. When you go to nursing school. You guys see all these books behind me?

Are they.

Oh, yeah, I moved them all.

Okay.

You guys see all these books behind me? That is probably, what, a quarter of the books that I had in nursing school? A quarter. Literally, like, there are tons. So when you get into nursing school and you get all those books over, like, what, 10, 20. 20 bucks? Maybe you need to practice constraining yourself, or else you will just get stressed and overwhelmed. There's too much. There is just too much. You need to constrain yourself to one Source, 2 Source, 3 Sources, max max 3 Sources. Pick sources you trust and that work for you and stick with those. You know, don't look in a whole bunch of places for information because those three sources will most likely have all the answers you need. Focus on constraints. So when we teach doscalc and the question this is why I say this is because the question specifically said I feel like there are so many other ways to do it out there, that's fine. If there's another way to do it out there that we don't teach, but that works better for you, that's totally fine. I teach how I have seen students be successful the most, how I have been successful the most. So that is what we teach because I know that it works. So that's why we teach dose calc that way. Dimensional analysis. That's why I say it's the only way to do it because it's the only way that works a hundred percent foolproof. But for you, if you find a way to do it differently that works better for you, then do that. Focus on constraint. So same thing with that. We said for the textbooks, this is an issue in our nursing SOS membership community. People get in the community, they're like, Christina, there are so many videos, what do I do? Like, how do I handle all this? All these videos and my friend, they're all there for you when you need them. You do not get into the nursing SOS membership community and watch all of the videos. That would be crazy. Do not do that. Here's what you'll do though. You will go to school, go to school online, what have you. Whatever you're learning about in school, school, in class, online, at clinical, clinical, online simulations, whatever you're learning, if you need help, if your instructor is not, you know, helping to explain it as much, if you're just not learning it and you don't want to read a textbook, come home, watch the nursing SOS membership community videos that we have on that topic. On that topic. But if you're studying, you know, renal disorders, don't focus on like GI disorders unless they're connected, which a lot of them are hard pressed about. Neurodisorder, still connected. So you know, whatever what have you. So if you are focusing on something in school, come home, watch the videos inside the membership community on that specific topic. Like don't try to watch everything all at once. Same thing with your textbooks. Don't try to read everything in your textbooks. Don't do it. Constraint, my friends. So if you trust the way we teach, if you trust me if you trust us, if you trust the videos that we put out online, use those, use those. If you don't, that's fine. Go, you know, go find another source, another resource that works better for you, totally fine. But if you, you know, find 1, 2, 3 sources that work well for you. And so for us, we always teach dimensional analysis because we have found that that is the most, the best way for nursing students to learn dose calc. And it's foolproof, so that's why we teach it that way. But for you, you might have something different. Yeah, so what do you.

No, I think, I think that's right. So find what works for you and focus on that. If it's dimensional analysis, then dimensional analysis. If it is the formulas, then do that. But yeah, just because there's multiple ways doesn't mean you need to learn all the ways. So just find, find what works for you and stick with that. And yeah, it can be confusing because sometimes there are multiple ways to do things, but you don't need to learn them all. You just need to learn one and learn one well enough that whatever they throw at you, you can figure it these. You help me out a lot with the other one. So, yeah, we do do a lot of dosage Calc resources, both YouTube and.

In our, in the membership community, we're talking about it constantly. Hey, you guys though on YouTube. YouTube, well, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. I've joined late, but what is dimensional analysis? I'll go over in a minute. If you have dose calc problems that you want me to go over, can you please post them in the chat? Because what I think we're going to do is we're going to do a bunch. We're just getting questions like right and left about dose calc now because everyone's starting school again. So I do want to do a lot more dose calc videos for you to post on YouTube. So if you have a topic for like dose calculate, some on my list are like pediatric dosage calculations. That's a big one. What else did I say? I think I said milligrams per kilogram per hour. Questions? Iv. I mean, I can do like IV pumps, you know, I, you know, what do you want? Tell me what you want post in the, in the comments. What kind of dose topics, dose count videos you want? I can do a video covering dimensional analysis. I can totally do that. Just let me know. Give me what you need. Tell me what you need, my friends. Tell me what you need. I just finished a dimensional analysis workshop that's why I'm late joining. Hello all. Hello. Is that elder? I can't, you guys, I'm like blind. I need like new glasses because anything, like even, even the cameras being there, I'm like, what's the thing? What's it say? I just, I don't. Yeah, I'm blind.

Yeah.

My glasses, so funny. I'm like an 80 year old grandma. That's me.

And on that note, welcome, welcome for all those late. This is the nursing school show.

Hello.

Ask blind Christina anything. She'll. We're trying to answer nursing questions for you guys. So yeah, we'll get to it. Did you want to define dimensional analysis.

Before we move on? Yeah, that's good. Yeah, that's good. Okay. Dimensional analysis, dosage, calc. Yeah, I'll let you know how it goes. Perfect. Alicia. Thank you. So Alicia, Alicia, Alicia. One of the two. Okay, you guys, I can't read. Oh man. Dimensional analysis is just one way of solving dose calc problems. So it's kind of, we call it a railroad track method because it's where you have, you know, bar times bar times bar. And it can just like keep going, keep going, keep going. Wish I had my whiteboard something. I should like get like a whiteboard here and like, you know, Matthew could be a whiteboard or something. So that's kind of how it's set up. And then all you have to do is put in the numbers and units and the units just have to cross off. So whatever you put on the top has to cross off on the bottom. Top, bottom, top, bottom. And then you're left with whatever you need. So really there's no math involved. Which is kind of nice, really. Kind of no math involved. All you have to do is make sure that the units cross off. That's it. Then you're left with the answer at the end. Multiply across the top, multiply across the bottom, divide the two. Boom, There you go. So Matthew, can you Post in the YouTube chat the dose Calc I can try. Video stuff playlist.

Look at that.

We have a whole video series for you on dose calc problems. Example problems. So on YouTube, click that link. Dose Calc Playlist. I walk you through a six step process for answering dose cal questions. So helpful. So check that out.

All right.

It'll help a lot.

Cool.

We also have a cheat sheet on it if you go to nursingschoolofsuccess.com doscalc one word. D O S E C A L C nursingschoolofsuccess.com Doscalc check it out. That is there.

All right. Quick question from Instagram that I just saw pop up. Do you recommend buying or renting textbooks?

To be honest, I pretty much always recommend that you buy them because it's, it's usually gonna be cheaper. Nursing school is a long term thing. You don't usually use your textbooks just one term. You usually use them for multiple. So like renting, I've seen like renting prices on Amazon. They're like what, a quarter? Maybe a quarter.

I've never rented my books when I never did either. Obviously not nurse, but still.

Same thing. I mean renting or buying, it's just, it's going to be cheaper for you to buy them I think in the long term because you're going to want to keep them is the thing. So you want to keep them throughout your whole program and then also when you're studying for the nclex most likely. So I would recommend buying them. What I see a lot happening is that nursing students will have all their books and, and then they will sell them to another nursing student after you graduate. So that's, that could be a thing. If your school has like a private Facebook group or what have you, you know, if you, if you can afford it, I would totally recommend buying them. Yeah, yeah. But do your budgets, do your family budget and don't go over budget.

All right. Okay. Question from Facebook.

All right, Facebook. What you got multiple questions.

I know it depends but how long do you think I should spend on study on studying each day in order to be successful? We answered this question already but I think online simulations will still prepare you as a student. Oh, there was a lot of questions here. Tip for pharmacology, tips for med surg. So we talked about those things in previous AMAs as well. So go ahead and check those out on YouTube. Again, all the topics are in the description.

Facebook question.

So yes, it's Facebook question. This is great. Where can I find any collect style questions to practice on? So I think the, the main ones I want to hit here is how long should you study?

Oh, that's a good one.

And there was another person that asked this. They're starting farming a couple of. So those are two questions. So okay, how long should you study? And then tips for pharmacology.

Sweet. Let's do it first. Jam on it friends. So I always recommend that you study for two hours for every hour you are in class. So now that we are moving to online classes, the advice still stands. A lot of schools. Can you guys tell me in the chat. Tell me in the chat how you are doing your schools. How are your instructors doing it? Do you have an online, like, Zoom. Zoom. Do your instructors have PowerPoints that they have just that they post? Do they have, like, documents that they post? Like, how. How is this happening? Tell me in the chat, how is this happening?

This.

This term for you, with everything being online, what are your instructors doing? But here's my recommendation. However long you are in class, either online or in class physically, because online classes, what I've heard is a lot of instructors still having, like zero Zoom meetings, or they have like a PowerPoint online and then they are recording over, like, their audio, which I think is so cool. Like their voice. They're doing a voiceover on the PowerPoint. Super cool. We're doing Zoom. And they will also post videos. Sweet. Zoom meetings and office hours are on Zoom. That's right.

Online Zoom with PowerPoints and documents. Perfect. Man. Zoom must be really killing it right now.

They are really killing it right now. Lecture is online and clinical labs in person. Clinical lab. They're posting videos, lectures on Moodle. I've heard of that one.

Moodle.

That's kind of a fun name.

Moodle.

Hey, Nia. Through zoom, perfect, PowerPoint and audio. Okay, so no one so far has said that they are just like, no instructor online, basically. So none of you guys have said that there's like, no instructor. I've heard that a couple of times. Or like some. Some instructors are just posting their stuff online, but are not, like, active.

There was a question on. I don't know where, but if you guys are still here and you want to clarify, there is a question out there that I was confused about. So I was going to ask you actually when we were off, but I'm going to ask it now. They're saying that they don't have lecture and the teacher isn't telling them what to read in their book.

They don't have lecture and the teacher isn't telling them what to read. What do I do? And it makes sense that the teacher's not telling you what to read in your book because that's for you to figure out. But then the teacher isn't there. I've heard this. I mean, I've heard this a lot. Like, it's probably online. Like if that would be that situation. Right. If your nursing instructor is just not even there anymore. Yeah, they're just like, I have heard that a couple of Times.

Here's the PowerPoints and have fun.

Here's the PowerPoint has that happened to anyone?

I again clarification, but sounds like for the most part there are still teachers out there.

So yeah. Neil. Lectures online, labs in person, clinical still on site. Boom. Is your school rocking it? Mia, by the way, I meant to message you on Instagram. Hope you're doing good. Sweet friend. There you go. So for overall it sounds like a lot of schools are doing like a zoom on site skills lab. Still on site. Clinical. Super cool. But most likely I would say that your school is probably still sim online for clinicals. We talked about that earlier. So for that for sure, for however long you are in a zoom class. A Zoom class, PowerPoint lecture, whatever. Online or in class. If your school is in class, what have you two hours study for two hours outside of class for every hour you are in class. So it's double. So if you are sitting on a zoom online lecture for two hours on a Monday, you will study for four hours for that class, for that content. Does that make sense? So it's just doubles.

Maybe not all at once. Not you can break it up. That's okay.

Yeah.

But yeah, that's the general rule. One to two.

Always with the clarification.

Yes.

Love it.

Yeah.

Yeah. So yeah, because when I talk to people often they're like Christina, what do you. What do you mean? Because I like go off and things. You really, you help me turn around. Where's Jessica? We need Jessica. Jessica was here like the first day.

She can keep track of the number of points that we're on.

Yep, she's great. So miss you, Jessica.

All right, and then the follow up to that, a couple people asking, they're starting farm in a few weeks. So what to do.

See with the on track stuff. I love it. I love it. Okay, I have two answers for you. If you are not a nursing SS member. Actually, let's start. If you are a nursing SS member. If you are a nursing SOS member, we are now posting a medication database for you. All the medications, not all the medications in the world, that would be insane. But the most common medications you're going to see that you're going to give clinical things like that. So there's like what, 130 something plus the ones we already had which is like 150. So like 150 medication videos with most likely more coming. 150 medication videos that we are currently posting for you. So you don't have to learn your meds by yourself. So if you are ever confused about your medications, all you have to do is pull up a video of me teaching it to you, and I will teach it to you. So interesting.

As this member I posted in YouTube.

Perfect.

Join if you haven't joined the wait list. So it is closed right now, but it's opening soon. But it is opening.

Incoming, friends. Everyone keeps asking us.

Yes.

So you get, like, a week of warning. Incoming, incoming. The nursing SOS membership community is opening very soon. I want to be super clear about that, because every time, like, people. Every time we get here on the ama, people are like, when is it opening? Let me in. When is it opening? It's opening soon.

So go to that link, join the wait list. You will be the first to know. Also, to make it crystal, crystal clear, it is opening for six. Six.

Six days.

Six days.

Only six days.

And after that, it will close again.

We do not do work on Saturdays. We will never sell anything on Saturdays. So six days. It closes Friday. Next Friday, it'll close.

So it's gonna open. You can do the math this weekend and figure out when it's opening, because Christina just said when it's closing.

So there you go.

There you go. All right.

Closes on Friday at 5. You have to join before that. And I just say that because every single time we close it Friday at 5, people email us at, like, 502. No, let me in, you guys. Okay.

All right. Sorry.

It breaks my heart.

So members, get on the wait list. Farm is incoming to you guys.

Yes.

Lots of videos as we get them done. Yep.

Non members, Non members. We need the pharmacology playlist, please.

Pharmacology playlist. All right, we'll get that. Pharmacology. How do you spell pharmacology?

That's a nice song. Pharmacology. How do you spell. So when you are studying pharmacology, do we not have it on there? Wait a minute. We absolutely should have that on there. There you go. Med cards and pharm playlist. That one. When you are studying pharmacology, you want to focus on studying the mechanism of action of the drug class. And I feel like I do this every time.

There you go.

Where is my. Oh, that was loud. Okay, for the record, best care plan book ever. Screenshot. Screenshot it.

There we go.

Screenshot it. Okay. Best care plan book ever. Screenshot it.

Yeah. Sugar. You have class for eight hours today.

There you go.

Thanks for joining us here.

Davis's drug guide class for eight hours today. Good luck. You'll do great. Yes, thanks for joining. Yeah, thanks for joining us.

Are you in class right now?

That's the question. That's the question. Davis's drug guide. Dava's drug. Okay, in the first section here. So this is the book that I always recommend. The first section here is the red tabbed section. These are your drug classes. Pharmacology, pharmacologic class and therapeutic class. The therapeutic class is like by body, system or disorder. How is the drug groups like what. What problem does it solve? Whereas the pharmacologic class is the class of medications. Their medications are divided into pharmacologic class based on its chemical structure. How is the medication chemically structured? Does that make sense? Whereas the therapeutic class is more like high level. So this is your classifications here. So what you will want to do is go to this drug classification section first. Look at whatever this is. Antifungals, general action and information. That's the mechanism of action. What does it typically do? You need to know that that is the first thing you should do. What is the mechanism of action of the drug class? And then go into all these white pages here. Find the medications you know, that you're learning about. Oh, an. There you go. There you go. Good old Zofran. Action. Action here is the mechanism of action of that specific drug. So that those. The mechanism of action is what you will want to learn about because the mechanism of action is going to be very, very, very connected to the side effects, the nursing assessment, and then the nursing considerations. So make sure to learn the mechanism of action of the drug class first. Mechanism of action of the drug first. And then you can go on to learn the side effects, nursing assessment, nursing considerations, how you give it all of those things, because they're all very connected. So if you have any questions about farm and the steps for how to study it, go to that YouTube playlist that Matthew, did you post it on there?

I did post it on there, yeah.

Maybe we should. Can we add like a. A, like here's your farm playlist.

Oh, you want to. Me. Okay, maybe. All right.

There's so many.

Let me try again.

Oh, Instagram. I'm so sorry. We have 20 seconds remaining because Instagram cuts us off after an hour. So if you are on Instagram and want to continue this discussion. Discussion. Probably go to YouTube. Go to YouTube. Maybe Facebook, because we're on Facebook now too, which is kind of fun. So goodbye, Instagram. I hope you have a fantastic rest of your.

Bye, Instagram. All right.

Ta ta. Instagram.

Let's try that again.

All right, Pharmacology. All right, there you go. So I got a lot of people on Instagram. Damn.

All right, Crazy.

Should we do, like, one last question?

Well, we can do a couple more. This one's fun. Is it normal to feel like I know nothing after my first year?

I love it. Is it normal to feel like I know nothing?

That's what I normally feel every day.

Yeah. That's awesome.

Me too. I do not know anything about anything about anything. And that's normal.

It is totally normal to not know anything after your first year. Here's the problem. We get into nursing school, nursing students get into nursing school, and you feel like you are expected to know everything about everything. Friend, let me just tell you. You are not expected to be a critical thinking rock star, to know all of the content, to know every single thing in those textbooks back there. You are not expected to do that. Not expected to know how to critically think. Think like a nurse, understand all the content, put concepts together when you get your acceptance letter. Why do we treat it that way? Students ask me all the time. They're like, christina, I'm in fundamentals and I don't know how to critically think. I'm like, of course you don't. Of course you don't. You just started, my friend. You are just starting your nursing school journey. Give yourself grace. You are not expected to know everything about everything right now. That will come. That will come. So if you are in your first year of nursing school, what you're doing now is you are getting baseline knowledge. You are establishing your foundation of knowledge. And then here's what's going to happen the more you progress through your program when you get into it. Med search. Advanced med search. Take a lot of those classes that are going to bring the concepts together for you. Your mind is going to explode with how much information you. You actually know. So right now, in your first year, you are establishing the foundation of knowledge for you to then go on to your advanced nursing courses and apply it. But please, please do not expect yourself to know everything right now. Do not expect yourself to be able to critically think to the highest level immediately. It takes time.

I. Yeah, no, no, I agree with that. And to go back to what I was saying, it's actually kind of interesting because sometimes you feel like you don't know anything, but it's actually really surprising. Once you get along in your nursing program or whatever, whenever you're learning something new you're going through, and you know what? You're gonna surprise yourself. Oh, guess what? I actually do know that I'm actually pulling it out of my brain and I don't know where it's coming from, but I know it.

That's kind of cool. Yeah.

So feeling and reality sometimes doesn't align. A lot of times doesn't align. So just trust the process. Trust what you're going through and you're gonna surprise yourself. So.

Okay. I have a question for you, Matthew. Do we have people posting the same question on all three platforms? The same person? It's possible. Or is it like three different people on Facebook?

It is possible. It is also possible that everyone's having the same question.

Yeah, I think that's kind of funny.

But yeah, it is possible. So thank you guys that are watching us on multiple channels. That is amazing. That is way too much, Matthew, for me. But you know what? Whatever.

Meow, sugar. I'm on my lunch break. Thank you for joining us on your lunch break, my friend. Good luck in your eight hour day of nursing school. Hey, can I answer that question?

Definitely. I believe.

Yeah. Clear. She's a member. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Please tell me, what did you do with this book? You have a bunch of tabs. What did you do to the book?

What did I do to do to it? What did I do to the book? So it's nothing fancy. This is the Davis Drug Guide, 14th edition. Davis Drug Guide, 16th edition. And there's a new one, I believe. There's a new one of these that just came out in June. You should get the newest edition. Don't get this one. This is the green one. This is. This is the one I used in nursing school. Hey, I went to nursing school. Three editions ago. Five editions ago. Three editions ago. Something like that. All right, so it's nothing fancy. Literally all I did was tab it with the drug names. Can you see that?

I don't know. It's probably hard to see.

I don't know. So metoprolol, it is not color coded.

It is just.

Hydromorphone on Dansetron, Oxycona.

So are those just like the common ones?

These are just the common ones that I gave. Yeah. These are just the common ones that I gave. The colors do not mean a thing. Colors don't mean a thing.

They're just so I think if I remember correctly, it was a while ago, so maybe it would be hard to find. But if you are in the membership community, in the Facebook group, I think someone, when they saw your drug guide, went through and did that to their drug guide and they actually color coded it for each drug class.

Really?

Yeah, I think they did that. So if you want more ideas, then that's it.

But yeah, yeah. So do you still use the drug book every single day? I use this all the time. What I'm teaching every single day. I want to know if I should rent or buy it. See, I think that, yeah, that's, that's the question of the, of the day. Apparently we've had multiple people ask if they should rent or buy their textbooks today. I don't think that's ever come up before. Highly recommend buying them like we talked about earlier, because you're just going to use them constantly. There you go. Okay. That's how to tab it. I want to talk to that member then. I don't.

I know it's been a while, I need to search for it, but yeah.

Nursing ancestors, membership community, friends. Oh, on that note, do you remember there was. We had a member who couldn't find something in the membership community. I posted about this on Instagram and I literally. It was like 51 comments. Literally 51 comments helping her find the thing in the membership community. I do not know where in the, in the Internet universe you can go for such a supportive community other than the nursing SOS membership community. I'm like, literally, there are so many people helping you to find where something is in the membership community. It's crazy. 51 comments.

Nice.

It was beautiful. Love it.

All right, well, thank you guys for joining. A whole bunch of questions just popped in, so I will capture those.

It's the ten o' clock round. Everyone's like, joining. Hello. If you're just joining us, my name is Christina Rafano. Matthew.

This is Matthew.

This is Matthew.

I am Matthew.

Welcome, welcome to the Ask me anything. Show me anything. I ask him questions. You can ask him questions.

Yeah, sure. Take care. Have fun.

It's great. Bye. Yeah, good luck on your eight hour, eight hour lecture day. That's exciting. Sweet.

All right. All right, so I'm gonna be capturing those questions and we have our next AMA on Monday. Monday. So Mondays and Wednesdays ama, I capture as many questions as we can. If we can't go through them now, I will capture them and hopefully we'll keep going through them. So hope you guys join us next time. Yep.

Monday. All right, if you are a nursing SOS member, make sure that you submit your questions via the member form for the AMAs, because we answer yours first. So nursing SOS members, you guys get priority. If you have any questions you want us to answer on these AMAs, just submit that member form. Submit your question on that member form, you know where it is, and then we will get to that first thing.

There you go. First thing. Next time. All right, Take care, guys.

Sweet.

Have fun.

Have a fantastic rest of your Wednesday and a great week, and we'll see you on Monday.

All right, Take care, guys.

Bye.

Bye. Bye.