In this instructional video, Christina Rano shares her top study strategies for nursing students, emphasizing efficiency over exhaustive textbook reading. She argues that students should focus on material covered by instructors rather than trying to read every page, then adopt a structured learning sequence: first master the pathophysiology of a disorder, followed by its signs and symptoms, nursing assessments, and interventions. Rano explains that exams test critical thinking more than rote memorization, and she breaks critical thinking into two components—planning ahead and connecting the dots—illustrating how to anticipate patient needs and integrate knowledge across the four categories. Throughout, she promotes her Nursing SOS membership, a study checklist, and nursing school resource boxes as supplemental tools, and ends with standard YouTube calls to action.
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In this video, I am giving you some of my favorite tips to help you study better in nursing school. Friend, listen, here's the thing. I know nursing school can be tough and it can feel like there is an endless amount to learn all the time. So don't waste any more time figuring out how to study by yourself, having to figure it out alone. Let's walk through some awesome tips to help make studying for nursing school a whole lot easier for you. Let's dive in. Hey there friend. My name is Christina Rano and I am the creator of the nursing school show here on this YouTube channel where we help you get better grades and have more free time to spend with your family and to have a life in nursing school. Now, one of the most popular questions I get asked is how do you find time to read the textbook and have time to study? So I'm going to walk you through my best studying tips to help you learn things faster and get better grades at the same time. So tip number one, you cannot read the whole textbook. That's the thing. And it's where a lot of nursing students really get stuck. Now, most nursing students go into nursing school thinking that they will read every page of the text but book and do all of the assigned reading before the exam and that that will be enough to pass the exam. If that's you and you're feeling that way right now, don't worry. I thought the same thing when I started nursing school as well. It's really, really common to think that way. But unfortunately, that is a recipe for disaster, my friend. Because here's what will happen. You will end up spending all of your time learning a little bit about a whole lot things. But you won't learn enough about the things that you will actually be tested on. You'll end up spending all of your time just reading the textbook just for the sake of reading the textbook. And you won't actually learn what you need to learn for your exam. So when exam time comes around, you'll know a little bit about a lot of things, but you won't know enough about what they will actually test you on. You are not going to know enough about all of the topics to really be able to critically think through all of it. And you won't be able to take it that one step further and apply that critical thinking to your nursing school exam. And if you've taken a nursing school exam before, you know it's all about how well you critically think. So please don't waste your time just reading just for the sake of reading the textbook. Focus your reading on the topics that your instructor covers in class. That way you can use that extra time time to then actually understand the information and be able to critically think about those topics. Because like we said, nursing school is all about that critical thinking. Now. We'll talk more about critical thinking in just a minute later on in this video. So stay with me. I'm going to give you all of my best tips for that in a second. And if you're struggling to learn all of the info that you need to know and you're tired from having to just teach yourself everything from a textbook and figure it all out yourself, make sure to join the Nursing SOS membership community. Now. I'm going to put a link to the details for that in the description below. You'll get a whole database of nursing school videos, step by step videos, tons of study guides, and a super supportive community of nursing students just like you who are waiting to welcome you and encourage you through nursing school and to come alongside you and hold your hand through it. It's your step by step guide to raising your grades and having more free time in nursing. You are going to love it. Now, tip number two is all about exactly what you need to study. You have to learn what to study so that you are building critical thinking skills as you go throughout your program. You're not just memorizing a list of signs and symptoms or assessments or interventions, but you're taking it one step further and you're applying that and understanding the why behind it all. So here's what you'll do. Learn the pathophysiology of everything first. Then, after you understand the pathophysiology for whatever disorder you're studying, you'll be able to move on to learning the signs and symptoms and the nursing assessment for that disorder and the nursing interventions that that you'll need to do for that particular disorder. Now, you're not often tested on the actual pathophysiology of the disorder. You're mostly tested on the other three categories, those sign and symptoms, the nursing assessment that you'll need to perform, and the nursing interventions that you might need to do. But here's the thing. Learning the pathophysiology first before learning the others is crucial to understanding the other three components. Because if you don't know what's actually happening inside the body with that disorder, how can you expect to know what to assess for and how to fix it and what signs and symptoms to look for? Your nursing exams are also going to heavily Focus on those three things so you've got to know them. And it all starts, it all goes back to that pathophysiology. And that's actually how we break our video series down into those four main categories inside of our nursing SOS membership community. That's exactly why we do it that way. It's like having me as your personal nursing school tutor. You know, that's exactly what I'm here to do. I walk you through all of the med surg disorders that you need to know about in nursing school. So step by step, and of course, the critical thinking behind it all. Now, of course, you can't stop there. You can't just memorize the pathophysiology, signs and symptoms, the nursing assessment, and the nursing interventions for every disorder. Right? Because when was the last time your nursing school exam asked you to list out signs and symptoms of a disorder? Never. Right. So exactly. Your nursing school exams are testing you on your critical thinking skills. You have to actually apply that information and be able to really critically think about it. So this is the next tip. Are you ready? Of course. Learn how to critically think. Because as you know, nursing school is all about critical thinking, but the problem is really that no one tells you exactly what that means. I know it's super frustrating. I know it was super frustrating for me. They just expect you to figure it all out on your own, which is a real bummer. But don't freak out. Critical thinking is a lot easier than you're thinking right now. There's really only two parts to it. Number one, planning ahead. Number two, connecting the dots. Now, fully understanding the pathophysiology of a disorder and then being able to connect the dots, connect that to the signs and symptoms as well as connect that to the nursing assessment and the nursing interventions that will help you connect the dots with everything else that you're learning. So that's what we mean by that. So as you study, you should always be thinking about those four main categories that we talked about and you should be thinking about how all fits together. And planning ahead means that you're always thinking about what you will do next or what could happen next. So when you are working on the floor, say you're at clinical, try to anticipate your patient's needs before they ask or before they need it. So do you think they'll need more pain medication in an hour? You'll want to ask them what their pain level level is the next time you're in their room. Or maybe you start educating them now on what they'll need to do at home in order to stay healthy and recover. So you don't need to wait for that until they're signing all their discharge paperwork to do all of that patient education. So be sure you're always trying to connect the dots for all the concepts to come together and that you're learning. And always try to be thinking one step ahead. That's what critical thinking means in nursing school. Now, of course, there's three ways that I can help you more through nursing school. Number one, be sure to download the Nursing School Study checklist that I have for you now. This is amazing. It walks you through how to study in nursing school step by step. And number two, be sure to check out the nursing school boxes that we have available for you. They are packed with resources to help you succeed in nursing school. And of course, if you want me to come alongside your nursing school journey and hold your hand throughout nursing school, you know I'm 100% here for that. Do not miss out on joining the Nursing SOS Membership community. It is filled with step by step nursing lectures to help you understand everything faster for Med Surg and your other classes so that you will be more prepared for your exams and can actually have a life in the process. The links to all of those things are down below in the description and if you like this video, be sure to hit that like button. Leave a comment below of course, to let me know that you loved it and share it with a friend who might also need these study tips as well. And then of course hit that subscribe button and click the notification bell so you never miss a video. And click on one of these videos right over here so you can keep rocking Nursing school. And as always my friend, go become the nurse that God created only you to be. And I'll catch you in the next time on the Nursing School show. Take care. Bye bye.
