🔴 Nursing School Questions and Answers (FAQ)

Hello. Hello. My name is Christina Rafano with NurseSchoolOfSuccess.com and welcome to another YouTube live video. You guys, I had so much fun on Tuesday with going live on YouTube. Haven't really done much of this before, so definitely expect to see more of this in the future because I think it's just so great to be able to hang out in real time, in real life, basically. Right? So I just think this is so much fun. So I'm definitely going to be doing this more often. So today in this, this video, we are going to dive into some of the most common questions that I hear from nursing students. So I get emails all the time from nursing SOS members, from our email subscribers, on Instagram, on Facebook, on all the things. So I know you guys are reaching out to me all the time. Thank you so much for that. I'm always here to help you out. So I wanted to kind of just snag some of the top questions, questions that I hear from students and talk about them today in this video. So we're going to talk about study tips, my best study tips for nursing school that so many students have had so much success with. So I'm super stoked to share those with you. I'm going to talk about pharmacology tips too. We have a few pharmacology videos on this channel already that will super duper help you out. Same thing with study tips. So be sure to check those out. I will link to them after this whole video is on the replay, after it's done, so you can check those out on the replay. And then we'll also talk about test taking tips and time management. So those are kind of the four categories that so many nursing students struggle with. So let's dive in and talk about study tips. So my first term in nursing school, I was kind of a hot mess. Not even a hot mess. You guys like those scrubs? Let's be honest, you're not hot and sexy by any means, right? You're like, I was just a mess. I was just a mess all over the place. So I walked into nursing school thinking I could just totally rock it. I was going to dominate everything. Like, that's just my personality. Like, when I'm all in, I am all in. So I like, like both feet first. If I set my mind to something, I am going to do it. So when I started nursing school, I told myself, I'm going to read every single word on every single page of every single textbook that was assigned to us. So all My nursing textbooks, you know, I got them all out, everything that was assigned to us. Like that first week of nursing school, I don't think I even slept. I was so stressed. You know, there's so much to read and so much to know and so much to do. I just wore myself out super fast on that first week. And I talked to some of the. Thank you. Mission impossible. Awesome. The first week, I talked to some upperclassmen. So that's always a good thing to do. Talk to your upper classmen to kind of check in with them to see what they recommend for study tips. Obviously, they've been where you are before at your school, so it's a really great way to kind of figure out kind of the lay of the land for your school, what kind of works best for your school. So I did that with. I talked to some of the upperclassmen that, you know, were a quarter or two ahead of me. They weren't like, so far removed that they were like one foot out the door. They were still in it. So they were really good resources. And they told me, get this. Not to read everything that was assigned to us. Ah, da da da da. So I'm sure you've heard this before. Several times. If you've been following me for a while, you know, you know that I preach this all the time. And I hear this so often from nursing students. I have tried to read every single word and every single page. It's just impossible. Mission impossible. Thank you for that. So I did reach out to those upperclassmen, and that's what they told me to do. And I brushed it off. Honestly, I brushed it off. And I kept doing the same thing. I kept trying to read every single thing. And I just burned myself out so hard, so fast. And what I realized, it didn't take me too long to realize this because you really can't keep up that pace for too long or else you're just gonna crash. So, thankfully, I didn't reach that point. But I did realize that the best way to study was for me to look at my notes and read sections of the book that the professors talked about in class. So that's what I did. That is, here's my biggest mind blown moment was when I realized that the professors, they either. There's kind of two options for this. They either wrote the test themselves or they got the test from a test bank somewhere based on the book or somewhere else, but they picked the question. So they're familiar with the questions that are on the test. If either way Your nursing professors know what is on their exams. So with this, they kind of structure their nursing lecture class based on that. Sometimes not, but most of the time they do. So this is what I found for not only my experience, but other students as well that I've worked with. So I, what I have found is best to do is to study based on what your professors teach in class. So I would look at the notes I took in class, you know, the PowerPoints that they gave us, or you know, any of the other supplemental materials like modules or study aids. You know, we didn't, we didn't have study guides or anything. I know some, some schools do do study guides. I've heard that from students, you know, so whatever you get, go through your stuff and read those sections of the book that your professors talk about in class or highlight as important, because that is what it is important to them. And what's important to them is what's going to show up on the exam. You follow me? So if you focus your study time on what your professors think is important, which is what they talk about in class, that's gonna show up on the test more often than not, in my opinion. That is what I have found personally for myself and for so many other nursing students. That is what I have found to be just gold right there. So that's my first study tip for you for how to study in nursing school is to take a step back, you know, kind of reel yourself in like I had to do. Listen to those wise upperclassmen. Because let's be honest, like when we're like first year nursing students, we just think they're the coolest. I thought they were the coolest people in the whole wide world. Oh man. I was a little dweeble in nursing school, you guys. I was, I was, I was so such a weirdo. I'm still such a weirdo. So there you go. Listen to them. I hope that that helps. Do not read every single word on every single page in every single textbook. It will just stress you out. So that's my first study tip. Now my second study tip that I thought was really, really helpful was to when you're in class, write your notes, your in class notes in one color. And then when you get home and when you're reading those sections of the textbook, take notes on the same page, like your same class notes page in a second color. So you'll have two different colors. One color you'll use to write your notes in class and then the second color you'll use to Take notes out of the book. So now that this is why this is important is when you're going back to study for your exams, especially. Especially your final exam, because kind of once you get to your final exam, you kind of forget where you heard what you know. So this is why this is really important. If you're studying for your finals, then you can go back to your notes and you can kind of see, okay, this color. I used to, you know, consistently write down what I learned in class and what the professor said in class. So those are really the things that are the most important and are more likely to show up on the exam on. On your final exam or your exams, because that's what the professor highlighted as important. Thank you, Brandy. I'm glad that that helped you. So then. Then you can also compare that to the notes that you took in the book. So then you kind of know which came from what. So you can almost kind of prioritize. I, in my opinion, I would definitely prioritize what the teacher professor said in class over your kind of textbook, if that is what they highlighted as important. Now, now that I said that, a key thing about this, though, that I have had kind of students ask about is that if there is something that's contradictory, if your professor said something in class that is contradictory to what the book says, in my opinion, I would go with what the book says because you have hard evidence. It's in the book, you know, to kind of go back and say, hey, this is what the book said. So I went with that because that's like hard evidence rather than it's kind of like he said, she said. Did you say that in class? Did you not? Did I hear it wrong? You know, things like that. You see what I'm saying? So if there is something that conflicts, definitely go with what the book says. If you're out of time, if you do have time before and you find something that contradicted itself, like what your professor said versus what the book said, to talk to your professor and go back to them and say, okay, so you said. I think you said this, and I see that the book says this. Can you just explain this to me? So that's how I would go about that. If you do find something that's kind of conflicting or contradictory. So those are my two main study tips. Do not read every single thing, every single word in every single chapter, every single page of every single book. It's just not possible. It's not possible. Girlfriend, you save yourself time. Don't do it. Don't do it. Focus on what is most important. And in my opinion, that is what the professor talks about in class. And now then my second study tip is to use two different colors. So when you take notes in your textbook, when you get home, use a separate color ink, you know, separate color pen. When you take notes in the book, then when you take notes in class. So take one. Take notes in class in one color, and then use a different color for notes in the book now. So those are my study tips. Just general study tips. Now let's talk about some pharmacology study tips, because I know this is a really big one for nursing students too. So I have a huge, huge, huge pharmacology hack. Am I stressing this enough? Am I stressing this enough? Huge, guys. Huge. So please listen to this. I haven't heard many people talk about it, and I honestly, I didn't realize this until I was studying to take my nclex. So with pharmacology, you have pharmacology classes. So a pharmacology class is a class of drugs where there can be just a ton. Really. I mean, there could be a whole ton of drugs that belong to just one class. So that class of drug will have a particular mechanism of action. So pretty much all of the drugs in that class will have the same or a similar mechanism of action. Bam. Mic drop. I'm just gonna stop this right here because that was just awesome. I hope you realize the significance of this. So instead of memorizing every single drug that you're. That you need to know, because there are about a gazillion of. You can just memorize the classes. So the mechanism of action for the class of drugs. So you've got a whole bunch of ACE inhibitors, right? To learn. I mean, all of them. Enalapril, acinopril, they go on and on and on. So those all belong to the class of ACE inhibitors. And ACE inhibitors have a very specific mechanism of action. And all those drugs that belong to that class follow. Follow that similar mechanism of action. So don't waste your time, you guys, studying the mechanism of action of all of those individual drugs. When you can just learn the mechanism of action of the class and then just learn that all those drugs fall into that class. And I actually do have a really nice cheat sheet for you to help you. There's like, particular endings to medications, like ACE inhibitors is a really good example because it's pril. Most of them end in pril. You know, enalapril, lisinopril, Those are the ones I mentioned. So they end in pril. So if you see a medication that ends in pril, P, R, I, L, ACE inhibitor, you'll know that's an ACE inhibitor. So I do have a cheat sheet to help you out with common medication endings. After this live video, I will make sure that I link to that on the replay. So you will have that. So make sure to check that out if you want to have that in the future. It's super helpful. So you can just kind of look at those medication lists like the endings, and you can see what drug class those belong to. So that's a huge, huge time saver for studying pharmacology if you can just focus on the mechanism of action of the class of drugs rather than trying to memorize the mechanism of action for all the individual drugs. Because it's all going to be the same. So instead of stressing about memorizing all the individual ones, you could just, you know, like seven birds, one stone. So, you know, all the drugs in the class will, will have the same mechanism or similar mechanism of action and then flowing through that. Actually, not only the mechanism of action, but the classes of drugs, the signs and symptoms, the nursing assessment, the nursing interventions, what you'll do for a patient taking those medications will all be similar as well. So you can just memorize those parts, those pieces. So the mechanism of action, the signs and symptoms, the nursing assessment, the nursing interventions, and the patient education kind of those five main categories. If you can memorize those five main categories of just the drug class, then you've already learned those five main categories for every single drug in that class. It will just save you so, so many hours studying that stuff. So now that is my main pharmacology tip, is to just memorize the mechanism of action for the drug class. Now that we're talking about saving a ton of time in nursing school, let's move into some time management tips for, for you. And my biggest time management tip for nursing school, what worked best for me, and I know what works best for a lot of other students is an hour by hour schedule. And I think, I think they call this calendar blocking. Am I right? I think it's like calendar blocking or like time blocking. I think I've heard this term before, I could be wrong, but I don't know, maybe you can look that up and tell me if I'm wrong or right. I'm not sure. So it's kind of this idea that if you have an hour by hour schedule, you can block out Your time. Study blocks. Thank you. You can kind of categorize your time. So let's say you, you know, just need to time block out like between the hours of, you know, 1 and 1 and 3pm or something for class. And then 3 to 3:30 you're commuting, and then 3:30 to 4 you're at home, you know, having. It's a little early for dinner, but like a snack or something. And then, you know, four to six you're studying, and then six to seven you're having dinner. That would be calendar blocking. So hour by hour schedule, and then block out your time, and every single hour of your day needs to have something in it. Now I think this is what they call, you know, study blocking or calendar blocking or something else blocking. So as long as you have an hour by hour schedule, this makes it super easy because you now have an exact schedule of what your classes are, what when your commuting time is, when your study time is, when your sleep time is, when your snack time is, and dinner time is, and playing with kids time is, and all of that, it is written in your schedule. And then once you kind of have all that laid out, especially when after you get your schedule, you have written out, you know, all the kind of hard times, your work time, you know, when you at your work schedule, your lecture schedule, your clinical schedule, all those like hard set time schedules, once you have that, then you can really take a look and see hour by hour, when those kind of pockets of time are that you have free time for playing with your kids, for taking care of yourself, for going for a walk or for reading your Bible or, you know, go. I don't know. I already said taking a walk, that's, I love taking walks. So that's my time, that's my personal time. So once you kind of have the hour by hour schedule laid out, it's so, so easy to be able to see. Okay, I actually do have a little bit of free time right here or right here or right here. So once you kind of have that hour by hour schedule laid out, it just, it will make your life so much easier to get more into a routine, make sure that you have enough time for things that you're scheduling in your sleep, that you're scheduling in your personal time. It'll, you know, I cannot stress this enough. It's so, so important to make time for yourself in nursing school. You know this. You're burned out already, I'm sure. So you need that space, you need that time. So this hour by hour schedule is really your key to making that happen because you can see super clearly this is the time I have for myself. So this is actually, this whole idea is why I actually created the nursing school planner. And that's available for you if you want it. Nursing schoolofsuccess.com planner. So that's there for you. We created it based on this hour by hour schedule idea. So this planner is super comprehensive. It has yearly schedule, monthly schedule, weekly schedule, and yes, daily hour by hour schedule. So it's massive. I honestly I haven't seen a nursing school planner that's like this, that's this comprehensive. So this is why I created it because there was this hole for it. You know, like students need this. So this is why I created this. It helped me so much in nursing school to have that hour by hour schedule. And that's what I saw that was missing. So that's why I created this for you so that you can actually go and see. This is, these are the pockets of time that I have time for myself, free time. Yay. So, so that will, that is there for you if you need it. If you have any questions, let me know. I'm always here for you. And also with that planner, it will really, really help you, you know, walk, walk you step by step through creating a schedule in your planner. Also with the planner that we have now, this, this first edition of that nursing school planner, it has Bible scripture all throughout it. So if you need an uplifting Bible verse during the day. Oh man, girlfriend, we've got you covered. I went through and picked out a lot of my favorite verses and then also I used a lot of our nursing students, our whole community, their favorite verses as well. So this just didn't come out of, you know, just anywhere. Like these are actually the, the verses that our students picked out and that I picked out too. So I hope that's helpful for you and I hope you love it. We've had so many of our students have loved it so much. So I'm glad that we have it for you. Now the last thing that I want to talk to you about is test taking tips. Dun dun dun. And this is actually super exciting because next week, starting next week we. Excuse me. I'm starting a four part video series, actual four part video series on test taking strategies in nursing school. This is something else that I don't see talked about a lot of is kind of these nursing school test taking hacks because there are actually several nclex style question or test taking hacks. For nursing school that make answering these questions so much easier. Like so much easier. So next week we're going to start a four part video series. Tuesday, Thursday, next week and then the Tuesday, Thursday after that I'll be releasing these videos and. And so each day you'll get a new test taking strategy plus an example question from the NCLEX RN Mastery app. I am an affiliate for them. They are fantastic. That is the app that I used in nursing school to totally rock exams. I love, I love you guys. I love that app and that program. It's amazing. So, so I actually reached out to them to see if I could promote it for them because I love them so much and I love that app so much and I know how helpful it will be for you. So like they didn't reach out to me, I reached out to them because I just, I love, love, love them so much. So that is available for you. I actually do have a link for 20% off discount for that program for you. I don't think I put it in the description below. I will add it later on the replay. I do have an affiliate link there for you. Just a little disclaimer here. I will receive a small commission for that if you decide to purchase through that link. You know I of course will never, like I said, never ever tell you about anything that I don't love and just am super in love with. So that app is there for you, 20% off discount. I will add the link down below in the description to that replay uh, on the replay video. So check that out if you're interested. So that four part video series will start next week for that. Right now though I'm going to run through a couple test taking strategies that I think will be helpful for you in Very cool. That app is really good. I'm glad that you, I'm glad that you approve because I love it so much too. So let's walk through a couple test taking strategies that I think would be really helpful for you this week and then next week even before those videos come out starting next week. So the first test taking strategy that I want to talk about comes up a lot in nursing school exams and this is when you get a question where in the answers it will say never or always or all or must or you know it's kind of the. Or none. Those global words or those finite words like always do this, never do that, all you know, all of these things or you know you must or you know all those global words. All those really finite words. How do you feel, you guys, this is how I always help students remember this. How do you feel if someone says, oh, you always do that or you never do that? Like, doesn't make you feel very good when someone like points out to you, like, oh, you, she always does that, or like she never does that. I don't know. Usually those words just, they're never true, right? They, they don't completely like encompass who you are, you know, you never, you never can. I'm going to use one. You don't always do something or you don't never do something, you know, so those answers, if there is an NCLEX style question, a nursing school question with one of those words in the answer, that answer is most likely wrong because most of the time always doesn't exist or never doesn't exist. You catch my drift? You see what I'm saying? So those, any of those answers that you see in nursing school test questions that have one of those global words or those kind of finite words where they say always do this or the patient always does that or, or you know, muster, you must, or none or all. I think those are the ones that I can think of. Let me see. So must. Yeah. None. None is another good one. Always. Yep. So I think always. I hear always a lot. So that is, I see that a lot in nursing school questions is that word always. So if you see one of those global words or those finite words, that answer is most likely incorrect. So there's that. Now the next test taking strategy that I want to talk about, and so I have two more, is always work within your scope of practice. Sometimes in nursing school questions, one of the answers will be, let's see, let's see an example. So we'll say like if you're giving a medication to a patient and it's not working, if that's kind of your case scenario question, you're giving medications to a patient and it's not quite working, can you change the order or can you give them more or can you give them less? You know, so if you see any of those answers in for that question, like change the order or you know, give, give them more medication or you know, something along those lines, you can't do that. That is not within a general RN scope of practice. Yes, I know that. Oftentimes you can titrate things, you know, ICU nurses, you can titrate things. But this is not what we're talking about. This is an NCLEX question. NCLEX world, you cannot change a patient's order. So always with NCLEX style questions and nursing school questions work within your scope of practice. So if you see a question, a lot of times this is around pharmacology, there probably are some more examples. I just can't think of them off the top of my head right now. So if you get a question like this, where there's an answer that's asking you, this answer is just saying to work outside of your scope of practice or a general RN scope of practice, that answer is most likely incorrect because you can't work out your scope of practice. You see what I'm saying? So I hope that clarifies that. And the last one that I want to talk about, the last test taking strategy, is super good, I don't think. I haven't heard very many people talk about this, which is why I want to talk about it here on this video. Is pain is pain a priority? And the answer is no. So on nursing school questions, oftentimes there will be a distractor. And this is actually how they write test questions. They actually kind of want to throw you off. They want to make sure that you are thinking that you know what you're doing, that you're critically thinking through this test question, through this case scenario that you've got in front of you. So oftentimes there will be a distractor answer, and that distractor answer will be something like alleviate the patient's pain. So if you're faced with a case scenario question that's asking you what is your priority nursing intervention in this moment, or what would be your first response? Or what would be your first action? That's a really common question in nursing school, in nursing school exams, oftentimes not, I wouldn't say oftentimes, but sometimes one of the answers could be something like alleviate their pain. Now, I'm going to say that most of the time that would be an incorrect response because there is probably another answer that is better than that. Even though pain is a big, big deal for patients, it is. I mean, obviously we want to alleviate their pain, right? Nobody wants to be in pain, but pain is not going to kill that patient. Something else is going to kill that patient that you can solve. So make sure to look at the other answers before you choose the one about pain. Make sure you look at the other answers to see if something else is a better action to do first or, you know, your priority intervention or something before you choose pain. You see what I'm saying? So even though, you know, as wholehearted nursing students with just hearts that are Bursting out of the seams with compassion and just empathy. And we want to solve our patients pain. Pain, Right, because nobody wants to be in pain. That would be your first, you know, your gut response, your initial response. We want to solve their pain. But oftentimes that is a distracting answer on nursing school questions is solving pain is alleviating pain. So make sure that before you answer with I'm going to solve their pain or I'm going to fix their pain and, you know, do whatever to get that pain taken care of, that you check to make sure that there's no other better answer there for that question. That's more of a priority that could actually kill the patient. So that's what you're looking for. You're looking for an answer that would actually help solve the problem that will keep them either, you know, keep their airway open, keep them breathing, and keep their blood circulating. The ABCs. Right? So airway, breathing, circulation. So that was a lot of information for one video. I'm so, so happy that we were able to do this kind of FAQ frequently asked questions live YouTube video today. So let's see if I can recap. I can remember everything we talked about. So let's do a quick little recap. Study tips. Make sure that you do not read every single word in every single page in every single book that's assigned to you. You don't have time, my friend. I tried to do it. I thought my brain was gonna explode. And I don't want that to happen to you. I want you to have a life, and I want you to enjoy nursing school. Yes, it's possible to actually enjoy nursing school. That's what I'm here for, to help you have a good time with it, make it a little bit more fun. Because who wants boring nursing stuff, right? Nobody. So that's why I'm here. So tip number one, have a life. Don't read every single word on every single page in your textbooks. Tip number two, write in two different colors when you're in class, write in one color for your lecture notes. And then when you go home, write in a different color in your book. Not in your book, on your notes, from your book. So the textbook notes that you take, write it in a separate color than the color you used in class. Now, what did we talk about next? We talked about pharmacology. Pharmacology was Dorothy. Yes, I know. Reading every single word, every single page does not work. I'm with you, with you, with you. So pharmacology, when you're studying pharmacology, make sure that you focus on the mechanism of action for the drug class. So the class of drugs that you're learning about, memorizing those, memorizing the mechanism of action for that drug class is so, so much easier than memorizing the mechanism of action for each individual drug because it's the same thing. So why would you memorize the mechanism of action of 10 different drugs or seven different drugs, or three different drugs when you can just memorize the mechanism of action for the entire drug class? And boom, you've already memorized the mechanism of action for all the drugs in that class. That's how that works. So all those drugs in that class that belong to that drug class will have similar or the same mechanism of action. So just focus on that, Just focus on the mechanism of action for that drug class. And then let's see, what else do we talk about? Time management, hour by hour schedule and calendar blocking. I think it was study blocking, am I right? So study blocking, I think was the phrase that came up on this discussion. Study blocking. So when you are doing your hour by hour schedule, make sure that you fill in all your gaps, that you fill in, fill in literally hour by hour. So every single hour time slot of your, of your schedule, of your calendar has something in it. Now it doesn't have to be something stressful like studying or taking a test or going to clinical or going to school. It can be things like sleep, please schedule in your sleep, or guess what, you won't do it. Schedule in your sleep time, schedule in your nap time, schedule in your snacks time, schedule in your playing with your kiddos time, schedule in meals. So all the things, schedule them in your calendar, schedule them in your calendar or they won't happen. And then let's see, we talked about test taking tips, so test taking tips, let's see, let's run through the ones that we talked about. So, pain. Make sure that when you are answering a nursing school question that asks you what is your first priority or what, what will you do first? What's your first intervention, your first action? Oftentimes there'll be a distractor question like pain. Solve their pain. Most often that's not the correct answer. Also, what's not a correct answer is any answer that says that uses global words or finite words like always, must, all, or none. So you don't like, as you know, you don't always do something or you don't never do something. So, so if those words are used in an answer, most Often they're not the right ones. And then the last test taking tip we talked about was scope of practice. So make sure that you're choosing an answer in your for that question that is within your general RN's scope of practice. Now of course nurse practitioners can do different things. You know, nurse midwives can do different things. All different kind of nurses can do different things. But for your general nclex, this is, this is nclex world. We're talking about nursing school world. You cannot work outside your scope of practice. So yes, I'm not talking about titrating medications in the icu. I'm not talking about those things. I'm talking about nursing school exam questions. That's a perfect world. A this is nclex life here guys. This is nursing school world. So make sure that you're operating within a general RN's scope of practice. So I hope all of these tips helped you out. These are really the most common things that I hear about from nursing students via email or social media or all the, all the places we hang out together. So I know you guys are asking me questions every single day and we're just chatting it up all the time. So if you have any questions, feel free to reach out anytime. I'm always here via email, social and I'm, I'm everywhere, everywhere. So great hanging out with you guys today. I hope that I did get several emails from students in the Carolinas saying ah, hurricane, we are praying for you guys. If you are in one of the Carolinas or anywhere on the east coast affected by the hurricane, please know that you have my prayers and our whole community's prayers I'm sure as well. And so I know that I did receive several emails from you guys saying that you wouldn't be able to make it because of the hurricane. So totally understandable. But I hope that works out. So yes, you guys have our prayers. I hope that you have a great week. And like I said, reach out if you have any questions and make sure if you're not subscribed to this channel yet, hit that subscribe button and share this video with a friend if you can. If you know somebody that this video would be helpful for, I will post the replay so this replay video will be on our public YouTube page. So I hope that that is helpful for your nursing school BFFs. So I hope you guys have a great week and I hope you can bless someone else with this video. I hope that it's helpful for you guys and will help you succeed in nursing school and become rock star nurses. So thanks. You guys have a great week. We'll chat soon. Take care. Bye.