We’re sharing eight major takeaways on successful study habits every nursing student should adopt. Read on to get prepared for academic success in your nursing program!
As you’re about to enter into this amazing field, you’re probably wondering about how to study in nursing school so you won’t get overwhelmed. Building smart study habits early on in your education will set you up to be a successful learner, test-taker, and practicing nurse. Why not get them from a team of nurse educators?
Why Getting Into Nursing is a Big Deal
Did you know that, according to AACN Fact Sheets, nursing is the largest healthcare profession in the United States, with three times as many RNs as physicians? That number really speaks volumes about the big role nurses play in healthcare, but also about the challenging road to becoming one. Nurses work in so many different settings and are in charge of a lot of things. They collaborate as a team, but they operate independently of medicine or other fields.
No wonder there’s tons of information on how to succeed in nursing school!
All of this experience can be overwhelming and confusing. Maybe it feels like there’s too much to learn in too short of time, or maybe you’re not sure where to start. Perhaps you feel like things aren’t sticking in your memory, or you don’t know what learning tools to use with so many resources available.
To help clear things up, here are 8 key tips on how to study for nursing school.
1. Get a Head Start on Your Course Material
Try to stay ahead of the game before you even have a lecture. Read the chapters or watch videos and get familiar with the content. Whatever the preparation looks like, it’s important to do it ahead of time.
The reason is that it’s really hard to catch up on studying in nursing school is that there’s a lot of ground to cover, and it goes by fast. Some of the material you’ll learn is easier to understand than others, and that’s OK. Taking the time to put in the work ahead of the lecture is the most important part, as that creates a foundation for learning. So even if you don’t understand everything, you can build on what you do know and let the lecture or next piece of learning help fill in the gaps.
2. Try Creating Concept Maps
Instead of going with the classic way of taking notes by highlighting text and rewriting pages of notes, creating concept maps makes studying for nursing school a little more fun.
A concept map is a visual representation of knowledge on a subject that helps you organize your thoughts on it. Besides being much easier, it’s also an efficient way to understand the information (rather than memorizing it).
Start with the topic you want to learn about and, first, build on what you’ve learned during your studies. Then use your notes, videos, or other resources to fill in the map and get the “big picture” for that topic.
3. Meet Your Learning Objectives
When you discover your program and course learning objectives (LOs), paying attention! They’re an especially smart way to study in nursing school. And while it may just seems to be a list, LOs outline exactly what you should be able to do or competently discuss. They’re an excellent guide to follow, especially when you have a lot of content to learn and don’t know what you should focus on.
4. Make a Schedule (and Stick to It)
Make a study schedule that sets you up for success. It should be realistic and adjusted to your daily life, your calendar, and your responsibilities. There’s no standard timeframe for learning, so the key is to focus on quality rather than quantity. If your daily schedule allows you to study for nursing school two hours in the morning or three hours in the evening, both are fine as long as it’s realistically aligned to your attention span.
Do your best to stay committed to your study schedule. Don’t let it get deprioritized when you commit to other obligations. Creating a schedule will help to keep you accountable as well.
5. Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
Speaking of accountability, another tip on how to study for nursing school the better way is to find a study partner: a friend, a tutor, or joining a study group to keep you connected.
The best thing about study groups is that you can listen to different perspectives while discussing a topic. Actively listening to how other people think and apply knowledge helps you hone your critical thinking skills. This is one important skill to have in nursing school, as you’re taking different tests and answering different types of questions.
6. Find Your Learning Style
Everybody learns differently: some students are visual learners — and Osmosis makes that easy with thousands of animated videos for you — while others learn better by listening to lectures or doing hands-on activities.
Try to practice a bit of self-reflection to discover your learning style and find resources that represent it as primary learning tools. The earlier you discover how you learn best, the easier it becomes to study and not waste your time the wrong way.
7. Practice, Practice, Practice
Of course, it is also about practicing NCLEX®-style questions during nursing school. Not only does it challenge you to apply all the knowledge you gain, but also your ability to think at a high level and analyze data in different ways.
NCLEX®-style questions are unlike any other type of questions you’re used to seeing, which is why practicing them helps to reinforce your understanding of a concept and prepares you for the final exam: the licensure examination.
Join Osmosis and get access to thousands of nursing questions to understand, retain, and study more efficiently!
8. Don’t Forget the Basics
Understanding the basics is the biggest starting point in your studying. You need to have a solid understanding of foundational sciences first, such as anatomy and physiology, because all the knowledge you learn in nursing school is based on these, and it’s also what makes learning more complex concepts along the way much easier.
And finally… you’ve got this!
And we got your back. Check out what we have going on at Osmosis to help you do well in nursing school and get the best learning experience possible, with our comprehensive video library and study tools. To get more tips, watch Study for Success: Habits Every Nursing Student Should Adopt.
Get your free trial today to find out why millions of students love learning by Osmosis!
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