Success Strategies for Nursing Students

1. Success Strategies for Nursing Students Prepared by: N. Gail Yearick, RN, BSN 11/12

2. WELCOME This slide presentation touches upon several elements that will help you to be successful in nursing school. It is intended to offer some assistance for identifying some of the challenges in nursing school and some ideas for overcoming them. Best wishes to you on your journey into the nursing profession!

3. Nursing School – What to expect … • Lots of studying • Variety of experiences • Classroom • Laboratory • Clinical

4. Care Planning Process • Assessment • Plan • Nursing Diagnoses • Outcomes • Interventions • Implementation • Evaluation

5. Professional Nursing Associations • National Student Nurses Association We want you!

6. Time Management • Schedule your time wisely! • Review your time schedule routinely. • Don’t wait until the last minute!

7. Stress Management • Recognize stress and its sources. • Have a plan for accomplishing tasks. • Plan for relaxation.

8. Motivation • Identify your goals. • Have a plan to accomplish your goals. • Stick with the plan. • Don’t proscrastinate!

9. Confidence • Identify reasons to feel good about yourself. • Work to strengthen your weaknesses. • Recognize that you are a student and that learning takes time.

10. Personal Health Management • Balance work and play! • Manage any health conditions that you have. • Eat, exercise and sleep properly.

11. Concentration • Set aside a place and time to study. • Know your goals and the plan for accomplishing them. • Divide work into short term goals that can be accomplished quickly.

12. Reading Strategies • Have a reading system. • SQRW – Survey, Question, Read, Write • REDW – Read, Examine, Decide, Write

13. Note-taking • Cornell Note-taking System • Divide note page into two columns. • Write key word/concept in first column. • List pertinent information in second column.

14. Study Skills • Mnemonics • Grouping • Alphabetizing • Rhymes, songs, poems • Study cards • Outlining • RCRC (read, cover, recite, check) • Rehearsal • Visual aids • Chaining • Color coding

15. Study Groups • Functions • Exam prep • Homework completion • Note-taking • Learning strategies • Reading • How to get started … • Identify 3-5 classmates to work with. • Decide when and where to meet. • Identify goals and set agenda. • Divide work evenly.

16. Test Anxiety • Everyone has some level of test anxiety. • Strategies to combat this … • Study and over-learn material • Positive attitude • Eat, sleep, and relax • Follow plan for test-taking • Analyze graded test for strategies to help with future testing Test Time

17. Test Preparation • Start studying early – like the first day of class! • Research what to expect on the test. • Practice test questions. • Maintain your self-confidence! Study Study Study

18. Test-taking • Have a strategy, such as DETER … • Directions (Read carefully). • Examine the entire test to decide how to complete. • Time (Be aware of how much time there is to complete each item). • Easiest (Answer the easiest items first). • Review the test when finished to assure correct responses.

19. Test-taking • Multiple Choice Tests • Note important words. • Read all answers. • Cross out wrong answers. • Look for opposite answers. • Look for language used by teacher or in your texts. • Change answer only if certain about the change. • Choose “all the above” or “none of the above” only if certain.

20. Need Help??? • Nursing Student Association (NSA) • College Success Center

21. Professional Nursing Associations • Nursing Student Association We want you!