Study THIS Before Nursing Fundamentals

So many nursing students prep all summer long for nursing school, but they still end up struggling to pass the first week or two because they focus on all the wrong things. So in this video, I'm going to walk you through the 4 things that you actually want to study before nursing school starts, including the one thing that can literally get you kicked out of the nursing program. Week 2 if you ignore it. Now, one of the biggest lies that we hear over and over and over again is that when you get to nursing school, you need to read everything in your textbook to learn all the material and become a great nurse. Well, my friend, I am here to tell you that that is absolutely not the case, because the reality is half of what is in your textbook will not even show up on your exam. So at best, it's a ginormous waste of time. And at worst, it actually hurts your grade because you're spending so much time reading just for the sake of reading that you're not actually spending the time on the things that actually matter and will help you answer the questions correctly on your exams. And we're going to talk about the strategies for that in just a minute. So this really is trap number 1. Do not try to pre-read the entire textbook. They're ginormous. You are not going to be tested on everything in there. It is just not possible. Okay, now trap number 2 is to talk to everyone you know about how hard nursing school is or what to expect. Now don't get me wrong here, okay? I totally want you to talk to people, especially people who are already in the nursing program that you're going into, and so they can give you some inside information and advice on how everything goes in that program. But that's very different than talking to your friends or your family who have never been through nursing school, but they've just heard rumors about nursing school. So that is a great way to get your stress levels way up, your anxiety way up, and just make you freaked out about everything. All right, that is not the headspace and the mindset that you want to go into nursing school with. And trap number 3, my personal favorite, is watching every single YouTube video on nursing school. And yes, I know I am here on YouTube telling you not to binge YouTube, but here's the thing, okay? And this is so important, it goes back to what we just talked about, okay? Two things: focus and mindset. All right, if you can spend your summer focused on the right things and not getting freaked out about it, you are going to go into nursing school, my friend, way, way more prepared than everyone else in your program. But if you are watching a gazillion YouTube videos telling you to do random things and making your anxiety just go up and up and up, making it so much worse, that's going to make it harder for you when you start school. Preparing for nursing school is not about how much you can do, but it's about focusing on the right things. So let's start with the one that can actually get you kicked out of your program. This is dose calc, and I am so, so serious about this, my friend. If you've been around here for any amount of time, you knew that I was going to say that, right? Tell me in the comments if you knew that that was coming. I have talked about dose calc a gazillion times here on my channel. Here, here, here, here. I'll put all of those videos in the description below for you. It is so important. And if you're new here, then welcome, my friend. My name is Christina Rafano and I'm from nursingsos.com, and I have helped thousands of nursing students pass nursing school. And our dose calc system is something that students rave about. Now, here are the 4 types of main dose calc problems that you're going to see on your test, and here's why this is such a huge deal, okay? Within the first 2 weeks of your program, you are gonna have a math test, and it's called the dose calc exam, or the dosage calculations exam, or the med math test, whatever. And yes, it's a math test. This is where they test you on how well you calculate medication doses to give to your patients. So obviously it matters because you want to give medications safely to your patient. But here's the kicker— most most schools require that you get a 100% on this exam. And I am not kidding you, my friend. Maybe your school is nicer than most and maybe lets you get a 90%, but do not count on that. If your school does that, you are so blessed, okay? Just be blessed. But you still want to practice as if you need a perfect score, because a lot of nursing programs, if you don't pass this exam, you cannot continue in the program. That is just how it is. Now, there are 2 reasons you should not freak out about this, okay? Number 1, the vast majority of nursing students do pass this exam, and most schools allow for at least one retake, even sometimes more. So you will very likely get multiple chances. And then number 2, you have me, and I have a free cheat sheet helping you to walk through how to pass the dose calc exam with flying colors the first time. Okay, so just comment dose calc, I'm gonna send that cheat sheet right over to you. You are going to love it. And thankfully, dose calc is the one thing that you can absolutely study on your own before before nursing school without wasting a single second. Because DosCalc is all about the practice. The more practice you get answering those DosCalc questions, then the more confident you are going to be. It really is that simple. So practice, practice, practice, and then do more practice. And here's how I teach it so it actually clicks for you. It's my DosCalc system, and it's a simple, repeatable, 6-step process built on something called dimensional analysis. Now do not let that fancy term scare you, okay? It's very, very simple because it is not about memorizing a bunch of different formulas for a bunch of different situations or problems. It's just one process that you follow to get the correct answer every single time. So when you trust the process, you can stop second-guessing yourself on the test. So there are 4 main types of dose-calc problems that you're gonna see. The first is your basic tablet medication or liquid dose calc problem, like figuring out how many milligrams or how many tablets you're going to give a patient. Then the second is your weight-based dosing, and this is where the dose that you give the patient depends on the patient's weight. And then the third is IV drip rates, where you calculate how fast a fluid or a medication should run through an IV or drip chamber. And the fourth is reconstitution problems, where you're mixing a powdered medication with a fluid. And honestly, this is often one that most students don't see coming on the exam. So when it shows up, we're gonna make sure you're ready. And once you have dose calc locked in, and I mean really locked in, here's what you want to tackle next, okay? This is the nursing process, and this is so important because it's the foundation for every care plan you're gonna write in nursing school, every clinical decision you're gonna make, and a lot of the exam questions that you're going to see are based on the nursing process, so you definitely want to master this one. Besides dose calc, this is hands down the first thing that you're going to learn in nursing school, so getting a solid head start here will be genuinely helpful for you. So what is the nursing process? Well, the nursing process is the step-by-step system that you're going to follow as a nursing student and then as a nurse. It's really the, the foundation of everything that we do, and it spells out the word ADPIE. Super fun. ADPIE. Now let me walk you through each letter. This is really simple. A is for assessment. So this is where you gather your patient data, everything you know about them. And there are two kinds. You've got subjective data, which is what the patient tells you, like my chest hurts. And then you have objective data, and that is what you can actually measure or observe, like a blood pressure reading or the patient's temperature. So assessment always comes first, okay? Because you cannot make a good decision about the patient and what you need to do without that good information. And then D is for diagnosis. And here is where almost every brand new student gets tripped up, okay? So write this one down, remember this. This is a nursing diagnosis, not a medical diagnosis, okay? The doctor or the provider makes the medical diagnosis. That would be things like pneumonia or asthma. Then the nurse identifies how the patient is responding to that problem. So this is going to be something like decreased activity tolerance. Do you see the difference there? One names the disease, then the other names that patient or human response to that disease. So the nurse, that's what you're going to treat. Now, this confuses everyone at first, I know, so don't worry if it feels fuzzy right now. We're just doing a high-level overview for you, getting the basics down here. But I have a whole video right here walking you through the nursing process. Then P is for planning. This is where you set goals for your patient, okay? And good nursing goals are specific, measurable, and patient-centered, so you can actually tell whether your patient achieved them or not. Now, saying something like, "The patient will walk 20 feet by 11 AM," that's a good goal that you can measure. But saying, "The patient will feel better," that's not a good goal. You can't measure that, right? I is for implementation. This is where you actually do the things to help your patient, specifically your nursing interventions. Okay, so some of these you can do on your own as a nurse, and some you're going to do in collaboration with a provider or the rest of the healthcare team. So you're going to learn which is which as you go through your program. And then E is for evaluation. Now this is where you look back and ask, Did it work? Did we meet the goal we set in that planning step? If yes, then wonderful. If not, then you have to go back and adjust. So the whole thing is really a cycle. Now here's your key point here: the nursing process and your nursing care are all about critical thinking. Now this is exactly why I built my DRC Critical Thinking Model, to take this kind of thinking and turn it into something that you can actually do under pressure on an exam. Critical thinking is everything in nursing school, and this is something that nursing students ask me all the time about. As you are learning the nursing process, you are going to really bump into this little phrase called critical thinking, right? Or thinking like a nurse. Maybe you've heard about it already. And students message me all the time, they're panicked, saying, Christina, I am in fundamentals and I just don't know how to critically think. And my answer is always the same: Of course you don't. Of course you don't. You just started nursing school, my friend. You are not expected to know how to critically think right away. It's not like you just walked out to your mailbox one day, opened your acceptance letter to nursing school, and suddenly just got showered with critical thinking fairy dust or confetti. Although, like, how cool would that be if that happened, right? But that's just not how it works. So as you go through the nursing process, do not beat yourself up that you can't see how all those puzzle pieces fit together yet. That is completely normal. It's completely okay. Okay, it comes with time. Right now, your only job is to learn what the nursing process is and the basics of how it works. That's the goal. But again, only after you've mastered dose calc. Now, the third thing to study and focus on that will not be a total waste of time is medical terminology. Now, I am not telling you to go read a terminology textbook cover to cover. We're talking 10 minutes here, okay? Not 10 hours. Because medical terminology is basically kind of like a code, right? Once you crack the code, you can understand hundreds of words that you've really never seen before. So here's how this code works. Most Medical terms are built from 3 parts. You've got the prefix at the front, a root in the middle, and the suffix at the end. Okay, so you can learn the common pieces and you can take a word apart like a puzzle. It's super cool. So let me give you some must-know ones. Okay, brady means slow and tachy means fast. So bradycardia is a slow heart rate, tachycardia is a fast one. Okay, hypo means low or under and hyper means high or over. So hypotension is low blood pressure and hypertension is high blood pressure. So you see how the ending and the beginning can match and be opposites of each other. Once you know a few of those endings or the prefixes or the roots, they show up everywhere. Okay. And you can kind of piece things together. So you see how that works. You didn't memorize a whole bunch of words. You just decoded them. So that's the skill that I want you to build. Now, the next one, anatomy and physiology. Now, here's the deal with this, okay? I am not telling you to do a deep dive into A&P, but there are 4 really specific systems that nursing school is going to test you on from day 1 of your program. And these are the ones that you're gonna wanna review before you start nursing school, or you will be behind. Now, I just wanna be super clear about this, okay? Cramming your whole A&P textbook, that's the trap, okay? We are not doing that, okay? This is just a quick review for after you have dose calc totally down and if you have some mental capacity to spare, okay? But this is optional, all right? Are we all clear on this? This is optional. If you're already feeling behind and overwhelmed, skip this completely. Just focus on dose calc, okay? I mean it, okay? Do not let this part stress you out. But if you took A&P a while ago and it feels a little rusty, here are some systems that are worth a quick review before you start school. First one is the cardiac system, and you'll want to just review you the basics of how the heart works and what blood pressure actually is, because the cardiac content in nursing school tends to show up early. And then number 2 is respiratory. So this is things like how the lungs work, oxygenation and carbon dioxide exchange, because that directly ties into your very first assessments that you're going to practice in nursing school. And then you have renal, or the urinary system. Now this is how the kidneys work and the basics of fluids and electrolytes, because that connects to IV fluids, which is something that you're going to learn right at the start of your nursing program. And then you'll want to brush up on just the basics of the neurological system, like the difference between sensory and motor neurons, and just the terms for level of consciousness, because neuro assessments come up early too. There's a lot of signs and symptoms that relate to the neurological system. Now, please do not go down the rabbit hole on everything. This is just a review, and it's just like a bonus if you have extra time or mental capacity, but this is not the priority, okay? Just want to make sure we're on the same page. Now, for all of this, the key thing that you've got to know is that nursing school is different from your prerequisites. In your prereqs, you could often just memorize your way through and get an A, right? Nursing school does not work that way. Nursing school tests your actual understanding and application of a concept, so it asks you to take what you know and then use it in a situation that you've never seen before. So that's the kind of thinking that the NCLEX is built on, and they start building it into you early in your program. So this means your old study habits have got to go, okay? And here's what works instead: active recall. So instead of rereading your textbook, you close the book and you make your brain pull the information back out. Okay, flashcards, practice questions, and my personal favorite, teaching it out loud to yourself or to someone else. Now, if you can teach it, you know, you know it so well. But if you can't, then you know what you need to focus on. Okay, that's the whole secret to active recall right there. But in all honesty, nursing school exams are tricky, and you've got to be prepared for them. So click on this video right here, and I'm going to walk you through the 5 reasons nursing students fail their exams, and the simple fixes to make sure it doesn't happen to you. And be sure to comment "dosecalc" or click the link in the description below, and I'll send you over the free dose calc cheat sheet. And as always, my friend, go become the nurse that God created only you to be. And I'll see you over there in that next video.