Nursing School Study Tips & Hacks: How to Study Efficiently

Nursing school study tips and hacks for nursing students! Nurse Sarah gives 5 simple study hacks to help nursing students succeed in nursing school and survive nursing classes. One of the most important things nursing students should learn is how to study in nursing school efficiently. Nursing school is tough, but by implementing these simple study hacks, it can make things go a bit more smoothly. Fluid & electrolyte notes ebook: https://registerednursern.creator-spr...

Nurse Sarah explains these 5 study tips: 1. How to read in nursing school 2. Efficient study methods 3. Study guides 4. Best study strategy for the long term 5. Organization More nursing school tips:    • Next Generation NCLEX (NGN) Questions...   Website: https://www.registerednursern.com/ More Videos:    • Dopamine IV Drip Calculation & Nursing...   Nursing Gear: https://teespring.com/stores/register... Instagram:   / registerednursern_com   Facebook:   / registerednurserns   Twitter:   / nursesrn 

  Popular Playlists NCLEX Reviews:    • NCLEX Study Strategies   Fluid & Electrolytes:    • Fluid and Electrolytes Nursing   Nursing Skills:    • Nursing Skills Videos  

Source Link-https://youtu.be/k_QDX660bgg?si=QAhPcprL81L55mR6

#NursingSchool #StudyTips #NursingStudents #NursingHacks #FutureNurse #NursingLife #StudySmart #NursingSuccess #NursingStudentTips #NursingEducation #HealthcareHeroes #NursingJourney #NursingExamPrep #StudentNurse #NursingCommunity

Tips For Passing The ACLS Certification Exam

101 Things We Should Teach Every New Nurse ....Click Here

101 Things We Should Teach Every New Nurse

Nursing Tribute: Why Is It So Difficult? ......

This article is dedicated to those nurses around the world working in the trenches; working tirelessly for the good of our friends, neighbors, and loved ones who are entrusted to your tender, loving and skillful care.
Why is it so difficult... this being a nurse? I mean, in what other profession do you:

• Make life-and-death decisions for 7 people based on a 5-minute shift report?
   
• Get get berated by a physician for forgetting one thing when you have remembered 100 other things?  
• Think about what you are going to have for lunch while cleaning an emesis basis or a bedpan?
• 
   
• Have to know the etiology, classification, dosage, side effects, contraindications, and compatibility for 18,000 different medications?
• 
   
• Need to know the significance of obscure lab results and whether the doctor should be awakened at 3am because of them?
   
• Have to obtain a physician's order to give a patient a Tylenol but have the authority to float a Swan-Ganz catheter through a patient's heart to measure central venous pressure and pulmonary artery pressure?
• 
   
• Coordinate respiratory therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, radiology, dietary, social services, consulting specialists, and wound care nurses for 7 patients but somehow forget where you put your car keys?
   
• Spend 12 hours on your feet only to be told by your personal physician that you need to get more excercise
• 
   
• Own 20 sets of scrubs and own zero sets of scrubs without a stain on them?
• 
   
• Have to learn a new corporate computer system when you are 55 years old, and you don't even own a computer?
   
•  

• Find yourself choosing a personal physician based on how nice he or she is to the nurses?
   
• Go to work when it's still dark outside and leave work when it is again dark outside?
   
• Get floated to some random area of the hospital where you have received zero training and be expected to carry the load of a nurse who has worked the unit for 20 years?
   
• Consider a chair at the nurses station as something worth fighting for?
   
• Learn about research findings because the administration taped them on the wall of the ladies' room across from the toilet?
  
• Know your patients by their diagnoses and/or their room numbers rather than their names?
   
• Feel naked without a stethoscope and a pen hanging around your neck?
   
• Learn how to take a manual blood pressure in 15 seconds flat?
   
• Remember your worst nightmare was when you dreamt that the doctor called and you couldn't find the patient's chart?
   
• Feel guilty when you leave your patients for 30 minutes to have lunch?
   
• Learn to read physicians' handwriting that resembles the graffiti on the dumpster behind the local Wal-Mart?

Why is it so difficult? And why is it so difficult imagining myself ever doing anything else? And why is it so difficult to explain why I love it so much...this being a nurse?






About the Author: Susan Kieffer, RN, MSN/Ed., is a fulltime faculty member with the Kaplan University School of Nursing online.  Her current position involves orienting and training new faculty members in their transition to online education.  She is a busy pastor’s wife, worship leader, a mother of two, a grandmother of six, and pet owner of a Great Dane, Pomeranian, a Himalayan cat, a snake, and other multiple critters.  She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in E-Commerce.

.

Adherence to Post MI Medications

Top 5 Ways Nurses Can Promote Well-being for Themselves and Others.....

 

Nursing can be a stressful profession as we all know. Nurses must deal with different personalities of patients and colleagues, patients’ significant others, difficult situations, emergencies, life and death, and disease processes. Just reading this sentence made me feel stressed and overwhelmed. So why would someone choose to go into the nursing profession?
Nurses are those people who feel confident knowing how to work with different personality types. They want to help others and assist in overcoming challenges. They make a positive impact on someone’s life and feel excited having made a huge difference, which is extremely rewarding. Of course we have heard the saying that the most treasured thing we have in life is our health. When people are sick, they can only think of the value and significance of health and nurses are there to assist them in regaining their health, making them more comfortable by being there.
So how do nurses cope? I know that there have been times when I have felt stressed and overwhelmed, wanting to be able to do more, wanting to have more time, wanting to have more assistance and wanting to reverse the circumstances and make it ‘all better’ for someone. I am sure there are a myriad of reasons why people go into the nursing profession. As nurses, we have seen things that some people never see in their lifetime. So how do we cope? I have learned that a very important point is to be “selfish”! Now please look at this word in a positive way. I want to say that we must take care of ourselves and then we are able to care for others. So what things can we do for ourselves to promote our own well-being?

1. Have Fun! Take the time to enjoy yourself on your time off. What do you enjoy doing? Do you enjoy hiking, skiing, biking, walking  your dog, working out, reading, movies, plays, playing with your children or grandchildren, swimming, dancing, art, jewelry making or other hobbies or activities?
   
   Schedule activities for yourself just like you do your work. You deserve it!
    
2. Practice positive communication in your thoughts and in your verbal and written correspondence. When you frame sentences in a positive way, it will have amazing results in how you feel and even in outcomes. A client of mine says that whenever she is running late to an appointment, she now says to herself that she is going to be there on time, safely, and even have a few minutes to spare. She tells me she is early most of the time.
    
3. Laugh on purpose. Find the funny things in life. Just last night a friend of mine started laughing because I had a piece of popcorn in my hair. I laughed along with her.
   
   Watch funny programs and do fun activities that promote laughter. We can make our own circus.
    
4. Enjoy every moment and live in the present. This means focusing on the here and now and forgetting about worrying about the future, because worrying is actually focusing on what you don’t want to have happen. Focus on what you do want to have happen. You can talk about what you want, visualize what you want, make a collage of what you want in your life, write in your journal and read books about people who have done what you want in your life. This makes it more real for you. When you know that it can happen for someone else then you know that it is possible.
    
5. Tell yourself that amazing things happen every day and they can happen for you as well.
   
   Celebrate little things. I received a free cup of coffee, a free doggie wash, a free lunch and a free 2 hour CEU class just last week. I am abundant I say to myself and I know more will continue to happen. We must celebrate for ourselves. It is fun. It brings laughter and a smile. Keep a journal of all the wonderful things that are happening in your life and then when you need to, you can go back and read and remember all the fun things that happened and will continue to happen.
   
   You can have a new motto, I am Abundant! I Celebrate every day. People around you will notice how much fun you are to be around and they will tell you that they like being around you.
   
   HAVE FUN! SMILE! When you smile more, others will smile more also.

About the Author: Joyce Hyam, RN, BSN, PHN, MPA/HSA, is a certified trainer/speaker/coach/consultant/author who teaches Positive Mindset-Positive Communication-Positive Culture-Positive Rapport Building-Happiness strategies to promote wellbeing. Joyce uses accelerated learning techniques so all communication styles will relate to the material and can begin to use it immediately. She has a BSN from the City University of New York and a Masters in Public Administration with a specialty in Organizational Development from the University of San Francisco. She founded a successful organization which was sold to a venture capital firm.

Steps to Better Nurse-Patient Communication

 

Nurses are busier than ever with both the routine tasks and the increasing roles of facilitating medical teams and fostering better communications. Coordinating tasks and relationships is a challenge, so to that point, what are three best practices for making your life easier and your service more satisfying?

 

I like to find easy ways to remember tools that work. When I think of communications, remembering the tools as the “3 C’s” is a great way to be mindful of what works. The “3 C’s” are:

• Confirm feelings and thoughts.
   
• Clarify information.
   
• Collaborate to evaluate healing.

What is so profound about the “3 C’s” is that, when one “C” is missing, effectiveness diminishes. For example, if I forget to confirm a patient’s current state (feelings and thoughts), and jump to the clarifying of information, I may come across as unfeeling or disinterested to that person. If I skip clarify, the person may find me a great, collaborative person but may have the wrong information. And if I skip collaborate, then I won’t have the ongoing picture of how the patient is doing and how to best improve our medical practice and treatment.

 

All of us intuitively know when communication has gone well or when it hasn’t. The “3 C’s” are an assessment for what was left out.

 

So what are some tips for each of the “3 C's”?  Many examples of the “3 C’s” are best formulated as questions.

 

Confirm

 

“How are you feeling today?”
 

“So your pain has diminished by using the daily _____?”

“You seem concerned about _____.”

 

Note: Depending on the response, you may confirm more about their feelings and thoughts, OR the response will demand the next “C”, clarify.

 

Clarify

 

“Discharge from the hospital will be on Friday if three things happen, _____, ______, and ______.”
 

“You will be taking one more medication when you go home.”

“The reasons for this additional medication are ________.”

 

Note: When clarifying and providing information, always try to explain WHAT will happen and WHY it is important for the patient. When I talk with caregivers and their patients, this is one area where all of us as professionals can improve our communication.

 

Collaborate

 

“How can we do better?”
 

“How is the treatment working?”

“What concerns do you have when you’ve left our care?”

 

Note: The collaboration piece often involves the caregiver as your partner.  Encouraging both patient and caregiver to think and anticipate what is to come is a key role for the nurse who wants to achieve long term health outcomes.

 

Use the above examples to encourage your own thinking and action on ways to confirm, clarify, and collaborate.

  Think about the times that your communication was not effective. What went wrong as you:

 

Talked with your child?
 

Discussed finances with your spouse?
 

Discussed treatment with your medical peers?

Formulated a strategy at your church?

 

As you consider these issues, ask yourself, “Did I leave out one of the “C’s?” The “3 C’s” are a toolkit for your life and for building satisfying relationships. 

The Non-Compliant Patient 

 

“You’re such a non-compliant patient.”

Words I heard again at yet another medical appointment. I really should be fired sometimes.

The words were said with affection, from a nurse who has become a friend.

Nonetheless, though, she’s right. I am non-compliant. I comply when it suits me, and so often it doesn’t.

I recently saw my neurosurgeon for an annual re-check of a surgery he performed eight years ago. The symptoms that originally brought me to their office were similar to symptoms I once again found myself experiencing.

Numbness and weakness in my right hand were becoming all too constant.

Back then, the numbness was caused by a bone spur stealthily growing into my spinal cord. So the nasty little bugger was cut away and the numbness largely disappeared. Until this year.

I weighed my options: Do I bring this symptom to my medical team’s attention and potentially deal with another surgery? I’m really not in the mood for an operation at this time. My calendar is full of plans; surgery is not one of them.

Or do I act the responsible patient and mention this numbness, knowing I might not like the answer I hear?

It seems to be a no-brainer, but it’s not so clear cut when your brain is the one involved.

After some deliberation with myself, the ‘responsible patient’ won the battle.

I hesitantly brought up my symptoms to one of my favorite doc/nurse teams.

We did an in-office exam, we did EMG/NCS testing, we did a follow up appointment.

My nerves were shot, but not from physical causes.

My nurse, Vicki, made the appointments as quickly as she could. And because of her seniority, connections and reputation, when she made requests, things got done. I was humbled and grateful.

Finally, at the follow up, my neurosurgeon shared the great news. My nerves were fine!

The likely culprit is four decades of arthritis, causing musculoskeletal issues. Whew! Is that all? I can live with that, especially since my recently increased chiropractor appointments seemed to be lessening the symptoms.

I understand that hand surgery would probably make life easier, as my neurosurgeon suggested. But these old gnarled hands get me through normal daily activities just fine, thank you very much. If and when they no longer do, I’ll consider surgery.

At present, I have no desire to add to my eight-count and growing collection of surgeries. Some operations are non-negotiable: For example, spinal cord bone spurs and orthopedic surgeries needed for walking. Ones that are designed merely to make life easier? Pfft, they’ll have to take a number and wait.

Vicki asked if I planned to contact either of the referrals given to me. No, I’ve got my own calendar to get back to right now.

“You are so non-compliant, Kris. But it’s good. You know how all this works, and you think for yourself.”

Maybe so, maybe to my own detriment sometimes. But hey, as long as there are options to weigh, I will.

Click title link for the source page....

5 Tips for Working with a Difficult Physician

 

 

Working with a difficult colleague is tough enough – but when the colleague is a physician, it can be all that much harder.  For the most part, doctors are great colleagues, and when doctors and nurses work well as a team, the best of care can result.  But, as much as some doctors are fantastic both personally and professionally, others, well, they can leave a lot to be desired.

First, we need to define what we mean by “difficult.”  If we’re talking about a physician with a rough bedside manner, but who is still doing his or her job and isn’t causing too much uproar in the nursing station or on the floor, I don’t think I’d call that difficult.  If the patients are happy with the care, and you’re getting what you need in terms of orders and support when you need it, I’d probably let that pass.

Second, we need to separate “difficult” from difficult for us as colleagues or difficult with the patients.  When a physician is difficult with the patients, then we have an obligation to step in; we are the patients’ advocates, and we can’t allow less than professional behavior from the physicians towards our patients.  When we have a physician who is difficult to work with, we have to decide how and when to deal with the situation.

5 Tips for working with a difficult physician:

1.  Own your reaction:  How you react to the physician is your own action. You can choose to react calmly or angrily; you can choose to walk away or confront. Which ever you do choose, it is your choice.

2.  Examine why the actions of the physician are difficult for you:  Is it because he or she reminds you of something; is he or she being difficult to just you or to the whole floor?

3.  Refuse to accept bad treatment:  You can choose to do this in a few different ways:

   •  Say calmly, “I don’t appreciate you speaking to me like that."

   •  Walk away without saying a word.

   •  Walk away while saying, “Please come speak to me when you can speak to me respectfully.”

   •  Stand there and don’t say a word.

4.  Document:  You have to document bad behavior.  If you have a paper trail of the behavior, you can back up your claims if you choose to go on to the next step.

5.  Report the behavior:  Often, a physician with a bad attitude or who behaves badly gets away with it because he or she is not reported.  When someone does get fed up and does report it, the administration says that they can’t do anything because there haven’t been any previous complaints.

None of the above tips may be easy; there are lot of work dynamics that differ from institution to institution, and even from floor to floor.  But a work environment has to be comfortable for everyone, and if you work with a bully, be it a fellow nurse or a physician, it must be dealt with before it goes too far.....

Tools of the Trade....

Simplify your study time. Use drug dosage calculators, medical mnemonics, clinical drug databases, ABG and EKG tutorials, among other tools and resources to help you better understand what you've learned in lecture and read about in your textbooks.

Drug Dosage Calculators

Though most professors and teaching faculty will likely expect you to figure out drug conversions and dosage calculations the old fashioned way-using a pencil and paper-these calculators can be helpful for checking your work. Keep in mind that all calculations must be confirmed before using them and that suggested doses should not override clinical judgment:
Nursing calculators

Medical Mnemonics

Mnemonics, which simply means "memory aid" in Greek, is a quick and significant means to enhance your memorization skills. Unlike acronyms and other means of learning by association, using mnemonics is an effective way to remember hard-to-retain lists of facts. Check out these mnemonic aids:
World's Database of Medical Mnemonics

Clinical Drug Databases

Not familiar with what prescriptive drugs are available? Use a clinical drug database. Though they vary in their offerings, you are likely to find that they provide information on up-to-date pharmaceuticals on the market, as well as off-label uses and dosages, herbal supplements and nutritional products. Some clinical drug databases also list new drugs on the market and drugs being tested. Here are a few databases to explore:
Infectious disease clinical drug downloads
Rx List

Arterial Blood Gases (ABGs)

Evaluating arterial blood gases (ABGs) means determining the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood, as well as the acidity of the blood shortly after it leaves the heart. Use these ABG online tutorial tools to help you assess the oxygen capacity of the lungs, the oxygen pressure in the blood, respiratory adequacy and acid-base balance:
General Information about ABGs

EKGs

With so many different types of cardia arrhythmias, learning what the electrocardiogram (ECG/EKG) rhythms mean can be confusing. Use the following links to help you interpret, study and improve your ability to recognize EKGs:
The EKG Tutorial
Normal and Abnormal EKGs and Heart Sounds

Virtual Stethoscopes

Use these virtual stethoscope sites to help you decipher normal and abnormal cardiac and respiratory sounds:
Habits of the Heart
McGill University Virtual Stethoscope

Other References

Want to know more? Check out these general references for all of your study needs:
Free Health Care Data
MedicalMatrix
National Library of Medicine: Visible Human Project
Loyola University Medical Center: Structure of the Human
University of Washington Muscle Atlas

18 Rules for Living ......

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

3. Follow the three Rs: Respect for self, Respect for others, Responsibility for all your actions.

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

8. Spend some time alone every day.

9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.

10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.

12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.

14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.

15. Be gentle with the earth.

16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.

17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

Top 10 Qualities of Allied Health Professionals....

Allied health professionals, from medical coders and billers to physician's assistants and doctors, all play a vital role in the field of health care. The best of those professionals display a number of qualities that make them valuable in the profession. Such qualities are:

1. Excellent Communication Skills: Strong communicative skills are important so that complex terminology can be explained to patients in plain language; also it is important that healthcare professionals be excellent listeners.
2. Good Bedside Manner: "Good bedside manner" pertains to more than a doctor visiting his patient in the hospital. Having a "good bedside manner" applies to any health care professional who comes in contact with patients; it means making patients feel as comfortable as possible at any stage of exams and treatment, even as early as sitting in a waiting room.
3. Good Problem Solver: Medical personnel must be problem solvers that quickly come up with solutions to problems, be it involving the human body or insurance paper work.
4. Empathetic: Health care personnel must have a sense of empathy towards patients; they must understand that people have feelings and they must be supportive to patients.
5. Complete and Thorough: The most minor mistakes can create a ripple effect in consequence. For this reason, medical personnel must be thorough in all that they do.
6. Commits Time to Patients: Medical professionals must always be patient and ensure that adequate time is given to patients, whether to properly fill out medical paper work or to diagnose and treat medical problems. For this reason, they always must commit adequate time to patients.
7. Continues Education: As technology and techniques are constantly evolving, health care professionals must always continue their education, be it via reading medical journals or going back to school for remedial classes involving computers.
8. Strong Medical Knowledge: Medical professionals should have at least some medical knowledge. When they are unsure of the facts, they are always ready to admit that they are unsure and refer the patient to someone that is better informed.
9. Supports Patients Wishes: Decisions regarding health must always remain under the control of the patient. This is their right, and health care professionals must respect that, regardless of their personal opinion.
10. Possesses Strong Sense of Ethics: Individuals working in healthcare must be ethical; they always hold true to a value system that thoroughly respects patients dignity and privacy.

Nurses, Who Says You Have to Smile? 

 

I do not think of myself as a smiler.  It’s not that I am unhappy all the time, or that I dislike smiling, I just don’t make a conscious effort to do so.  I have other things which I consider to be a priority, but I do laugh easily and quickly. Even at work.  Apparently the fact that I don’t have a smile or any variation thereof plastered on my face all of the time earned me the nickname “Nurse Frowny Face” from one of my patients, who was offended by my lack of smiling.  Well, that wasn’t the only problem, as I had asked her to please keep her voice down in a hallway that has acoustics better suited for a concert hall than a psychiatric unit, when she wanted to know if everyone had gone out to smoke without her.  Sigh.  This earned me a meeting with a supervisor about being rude…

I am all for maintaining a professional demeanor but I absolutely refuse to put a smile on constantly for anyone, including the patients.  I believe that if you maintain such a demeanor all the time and without variation, you come across as superficial, annoying and insensitive to patients, among others.  It is ok to cry with them, to feel anger and annoyance for (and even with) them, and definitely ok to laugh with them.  However, to insist that a nurse be smiling and sweet all the time to “cheer up” the patients, especially depressed ones, is asinine.  We are not robots who are programmed by those around us to function at what they perceive to be an optimal level; we are only human.  Having been a patient, I would not want a bubbly nurse when I am in physical or emotional agony.  I want one who can introduce him or herself, look into my eyes, and empathize with me without being swallowed up by my pain.  If he or she can “mirror” my emotions, I am convinced that he or she is following how I feel without taking on my problem.  I believe that, above all, being genuine and kind facilitates the healing process, not the expression on my face.

Being a good nurse requires excellent psychosocial skills, in particular mastery of your interpersonal skills.  “Enhancing your calm” is essential.  It is also important to not be a doormat, as you are an individual just as worthy of kindness and respect as the next person.  You have the right to ask to be treated as such.  But, there are also going to be times when you slip, times when you let ‘er rip and say something which you may regret later.  All you can really do then is apologize and acknowledge that you were out of line.  In the meantime, and hopefully prolonging this event until your very last working day before retirement, I believe it is important to spend some time reflecting on what or who pushes your buttons.  Come up with some strategies for coping with these.  It might be a matter of taking a course in assertiveness to help you communicate in a way that is both pleasant toward others and protective of your feelings.  It might also be a matter of knowing when to stop trying to be Super Nurse on the Unit, asking for help, and/or taking a break when things are particularly rough.  Sometimes you should just let things slide, as we have a lot to worry about as it is.  Either way, setting limits with patients, co-workers, physicians, and families is important.  I find that when I can strike a balance with this, the expression on my face doesn’t matter.  My eyes sparkle, my voice is warm and pleasant, and I am able to remain totally enthralled with the growth I witness within my patients because I can help nurture it.

About this Author: Rachel E. Clements is one of those "second winders" who began training in one career field and chose nursing instead; she has been a nurse for 5 years in May.  Rachel lives and works in Boise, Idaho, and is currently enrolled in Montana State University's online Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program.  In her spare time, Rachel enjoys hiking, savoring the sunshine with her two kitties, and tending to the yard of her relatively new house!

Source Page borrowed from.... nursetogether.com:

Happy Nurse..........

Exercise regularly.......


Study......


Be financially prudent.......


Don’t sweat the little things......


Enjoy every moment, it may be your last.........