Study for Success: Habits Every Nursing Student Should Adopt

Uh So we're gonna go ahead and get started. Uh Before we do, I just wanna introduce myself, I'm Janna Amiel and I'm the nursing contact manager here at osmosis.

So as far as all things, nursing and all things that are exciting, nursing coming our way, I'm in charge of that. And I'm also, so the founder and educator of TR and, and CCL prep.

So I saw that some of you are getting ready to test and that's exciting and I'm happy to hear that. So as far as all things nursing education, um you know, ii live and breathe and eat that.

So I'm really excited about today's webinar as we talk about tips on studying. So we're gonna go ahead and get started and let me just click on my screen.

Perfect. So before we dive into studying, I really wanted to talk about just nursing, right?

And a little bit about what a big deal it is, what you're about to do. So if you don't know, as far as the US is concerned, nursing is the largest health care profession.

So we're 3.8 million strong in the US. And in fact, there's three times as many R Ns as there are physicians.

So that just really speaks volumes about our, our presence in the healthcare field. And as far as you know, different centers and different places of where we deliver care, nurses are often the primary providers of that.

So we're not just in hospitals, we're in clinics, we're in long term care facilities, skilled nursing facilities, urgent care facilities, primary care facilities, we play a big role in a lot of different settings.

Most health care involves some type or some form of nursing. So we are ever present and we collaborate with lots of different members of the healthcare team.

So one big misconception that we hear a lot or the feelings that we get a lot is that nurses assist, right? We're kind of the handmaidens in some way, but we collaborate and nursing is independent, operates independently at these different fields and we just work together as a team, right?

And I say that to say this, that nursing is a big deal, right? And it explains why there's so much stuff that you have to learn and so much content that you're gonna, you know, feel like you might be bombarded with or drowning it.

But it just speaks to, you know, why you about to enter into a really awesome field, a really powerful field and be dealing with and in charge of a lot of different things.

So let's talk about studying the dreaded studying. Sometimes it's really hard to get going.

Right. Sometimes it's really hard to even figure out where to start.

And there's definitely a lot of reasons for that. Right.

Content overload. There's just so much to learn and sometimes it feels like you have a small amount of time to do that and saying that you might not be sure where to start.

Right. So you can have a lecture today and you're, they're gonna be in charge, excuse me, they're gonna be in charge of, you know, maybe five different chapters or 10 different chapters or just tons and tons of content that you have to learn for the day or for the week and you don't know where to begin.

Right? Do I start by reading this chapter just from beginning to end?

Do I start with the powerpoints? Do I start with lecture notes?

Do I start with questions? You know, where do I begin there?

Maybe you feel like things are not sticking, right? And that happens to a lot of us.

It's that you're, you know, you read it, you've watched it, you've gone through the powerpoints, you've talked about it but you feel like things just aren't sticking and that can be a symptom of, you know, am I studying the right way?

Right. Studying even like worth it.

Uh You don't know what to use to study, right. We have a lot of different resources that are available to us in a lot of different ways and sometimes it can feel really overwhelming or confusing about, you know, what should I use and how much should I use?

Right. There's a saying that I often say to my students and that I say to any nursing students is that more is not better, right?

More is just more. And sometimes when we have too many resources available to us that can really start to feel cloudy and like we don't know exactly what's going on and the other piece is not enough time, right?

So these are all the things, all the barriers to studying and barriers to getting started. All of us have life outside of nursing school and as much as it would be ideal to not work and not have any obligations and to be able to dedicate every single hour of every single day to just your studies would be the perfect scenario.

But unfortunately, you know that it's just not the reality, right? So it's trying to figure out what that time looks like and is an hour enough?

Should it be before I can't look at this every day? Right.

So we're gonna talk about some of these different barriers and some of these different headaches that we feel when we're studying and hopefully we can clear that up by the end of this.

So I wanna start off with my tip number one. So I should say this, this is in no particular order, right?

Every tip that we're gonna look at these eight tips, no particular order, but definitely my top eight that I recommend to make sure that you're staying ahead of the game and that you're doing your very best.

So the first thing is to get a head start, right? Be ahead of the curve.

So what is a head start look like? And what does that mean before you even have lecture?

You should absolutely prepare for that. And that preparation might look like reading, right?

So let's say, for example, today, you have a lecture on chapter 10 and chapter 11 and chapter 12, right? That's your lecture for today before stepping into that one lecture today, read those chapters, right?

Get familiar with that content. We'll talk a little bit in just a second about other ways of, of learning, right?

Like watching videos. So whatever that preparation looks like, whatever that material looks like to you, you wanna make sure that you're doing that ahead of time.

And the reason why is that it's really hard to catch up, right? It's hard to catch up when you're overloaded with content and you have a lot of different things that you're gonna be responsible for.

One thing that I hear really often is, you know, I read these chapters before I look at the powerpoints, I look at the notes and I go over these things ahead of time, but I don't get them like, II don't get it, I don't get what it is that I'm looking at and that's ok.

Right. So, I want you to imagine it in this way that as you are preparing, right, as you're filling your brain, as you are gaining knowledge, that is your foundation to build on.

So it's totally ok that you're reading chapters or you're reading notes or you're watching videos and not everything that you come across, you understand.

Exactly. That's all right.

Let that lecture piece, right. That next piece of learning help fill in the gaps.

But one really important thing that you wanna make sure that you're doing is ensuring that you are setting up that foundation right away to build on.

Right. So get a head start in doing that first.

The next thing here I wanna talk about is concept maps. Some of you, uh probably have heard of this and are familiar with it and have even perhaps used it in nursing school or other places.

But concept maps is my favorite way of, uh note taking to be quite honest. So above opening a book and highlighting and, you know, rewriting pages and pages and pages on note cards and in a notebook, concept maps or something that I have personally come to really love through my education and something that I recommend really, really often.

So as far as what concept maps look like, if you haven't heard of this before, this really is kind of a graphic representation of knowledge and putting that together, right?

So I'm using this example here in this image and in the notes about heart failure. So let's imagine that what you're trying to learn is heart failure.

That's what your lecture is today. A concept map helps to organize all of your thoughts, right?

All of your knowledge and bits of information that you have about it in a visual manner as if you're putting the whole entire picture together.

So the easiest way to start to do that is just to focus in on the concept. So if that concept is heart failure, that's what we're looking at.

So we should start to think about, OK, so what are the types of heart failure? What does it look like in the patient?

Right. So what are manifestations?

What are risk factors? What are treatments?

What are all the things that I have to know as a nurse? What's the education that I have to give my patient?

What are, you know, all the nursing diagnoses that might be associated with this? And I always recommend that when you're starting to put this together, one really important piece is first you do it, right?

And when I say you do it, use all the information that you have in your head and that's a really good way to assess what you already understand about this and start to flesh out that map based off of what you understand and then what you can do after that point is fill in the gaps, right?

So let's say that you're missing something because you don't quite remember, it didn't quite get that one piece, use things like your lecture notes or videos or you know, textbook reading, any resources that you have to fill in those gaps to make sure that you're making a complete picture.

And there really is a huge benefit in doing concept maps in this way, right? So it's challenging you to take all the data that you have all the information that you have in your head and put it out there to create this big picture and see how everything is relating.

You're talking about manifestations. And let's say that you're talking about the backup of fluid, right?

And you're talking about fluid in the lungs or fluid uh you know, in the body and the tissue building back up. And one of the treatments for that is Lasix, right?

You're able to put the concepts together saying that, oh OK. So this is what the issue is, this is what that looks like, how it presents in my patient.

This is what we do for it for this reason. So it's like you're building a bridge of knowledge, definitely a big big plus that you wanna do because as we know in nursing practice and as you uh will definitely get to know as far as NCLEX is concerned, your ability to take knowledge, right?

To take all the information that you have in your head and apply it to different scenarios and see how it connects and inner, you know, interp plays with each other is really important.

And with that said, one thing that I love to, you know, just remind everybody about is that there's a big difference between knowing and understanding, right?

So I'm using this quote here that Albert Einstein is credited for saying he says any fool can know the point is to understand and all too often it's really tempting to just wanna memorize things, right?

Just to know things, to memorize all the signs and symptoms of something, to memorize all the treatment options for something to memorize all the things you have to tell a patient.

But when we memorize things, right? Like we just know it, that doesn't help us to apply, right?

That doesn't help us to take that information, plug it into a scenario and figure out where that fits in and what to do next.

So your focus really should be on understanding the information and you know that you understand something when you really can explain it and paint it from, you know, head to tail that this thing happens because of this and because of that, I'm gonna see this and if I see this, I need to do this and when I do this, I should follow up in this way.

So it really is your ability to say, hey, like I know this thing from head to tail, I can explain the pathway I can talk about why things are happening and the things that I need to do as a result of it versus just trying to memorize something, let's say for the sake of a test, right?

Or an upcoming quiz and you might know it in that moment, but long term, it's not very helpful for you. So the third tip here is meet your learning objectives.

This is something that when I was a student way back when I definitely ignored these uh you know, often, but I've come to learn how important they really are.

So if you crack open your textbook or even your lecture notes that you might have or if your instructor is using powerpoint slides, things like that, one of the first things that you're gonna see is learning objectives and it's just a list, right?

It could be a list of 1 to 10 or 1 to 5 or one to however many that really outline what the objective is. So after you've read this chapter, after you've engaged in this lecture, after you complete the skills lab, these are the things you should be able to do after that.

This is actually a really good guide, especially if you feel that I don't really know what it is that I'm supposed to be learning here.

I don't know what to focus on. Right.

There's so much in this chapter, what is it that I'm supposed to focus on those learning objectives almost act as a map, right?

So looking at those really helps to say, all right, if the objective, like in this example that I'm using on the slide is to summarize the pathological process of celiac disease, then that means after reading this, I should at least be able to summarize that process.

Right. After reading this, I should be able to clearly explain what the disease is and how it happens.

That's an objective and you have very specific objectives that are outlined for you with all the different content that you're reading.

So absolutely use that as a map in that way, use it to guide you to say that OK, these are the five things or the 10 things that I should be able to competently discuss when I'm done with this.

If you're done with that studying piece, right? Whether it's you're done with reading and lecture and notes and you're done with that section completely, but you're not able to meet the objectives.

Then that does say that that understanding piece that we're talking about wasn't met, right? So you wanna at least be able to say that here are the objectives.

Can I successfully meet each one of those if I can, if I can meet these and I can have the, the a the answer to each of these L Os, I've done my part.

There T four is making a schedule and sticking to it now, really big things about creating a schedule. It's important that we always set ourselves up for success.

Right. So, make something that's realistic and that's custom for you and your life and, and who you are and what your responsibilities are.

So, someone might say I study eight hours a day or I study 10 hours a day or I study four hours a day, but that time frame may not be realistic for you at all.

Right. I get it that we work and we have lives outside of nursing school and we have all ligations.

So you wanna make sure that you're setting yourself up for success. So, if your daily schedule uh allows you to have two hours a day of study time, that's fine.

If it allows you to have an hour in the morning and two hours at night for study time, that's ok too. Right.

Everybody is gonna be different and this brings me back to quality, not quantity. And that means that it doesn't matter if you're spending 12 hours a day studying, if in fact that 12 hours a day that you're spending studying isn't really quality.

Right? So think about even what your attention span is, right?

If you sit down, you say I'm gonna sit here and I'm gonna study for the next six hours. But after hour two, you're thinking about lunch or dinner, right?

Is that really quality study? Not really right.

So focus on the quality, not the quantity and make sure that you set yourself up for success, things that are achievable and things that are realistic and practical to you.

The big thing is that you wanna make sure that you are committed to that schedule. So just like we have to wake up every morning and go to work if that's our obligation or we have to, you know, do these set tasks every day.

That's something we're obligated to studying should do the same thing for you. You should feel that this is something that I'm obligated to do in order to be successful at the end of this.

Right? And it helps to keep us accountable.

So I personally like to write out schedules, use a planner, you know, use my phone and the calendar to remind myself to do things because it keeps me accountable to make sure that I'm doing it.

And above all consistency, consistency is key. So making sure that we stick to it, right.

So putting ourselves on a daily schedule, putting ourselves on a schedule that says, you know, four days out of the week for these times.

This is what I'm doing. Getting into the habit of being consistent with it and that will help you to of course, stay ahead of the all air.

All right, tip five teamwork makes the dream work. So there is a lot of benefits to studying with a friend or studying with a group or even connecting with different resources.

So, if you have a buddy or a partner that you can study with, that's a great tool to use. It helps to keep you accountable, right?

Because then you have somebody who can also say, hey, you know, we're gonna meet today at six to study, right? And maybe you really weren't feeling it or you're hoping you can skip out on it that day.

It really helps to keep us accountable to what the plan is. Another thing that you can consider is joining a study group, right?

And maybe it's something that you form yourself or that you join something that's already existing. And this helps because one really, you know, kind of powerful benefit is seeing the different points of view that come across.

Perhaps it's something that you hadn't thought about before, right? You guys are discussing a concept or you're discussing some topic and listening to each other's thought process and how you work through that and perhaps what you know, or don't know about that gives you different perspectives and in see those different perspectives and the way that different people apply knowledge really does help to fine tune your critical thinking skills.

And that's super important for nursing school as you're taking tests and answering NCLEX questions, right? And really important when you get to the end and you're taking the exam.

So it gives you different perspectives and those things really help to build our ability to think and to process on a high level and then of course your school's resources, right.

So you might go to a school now. Uh that has an instructor who offers tutoring, right?

Take advantage of that or you have a student support center that offers tutoring in that way, take advantage of those things, anything that's available to you as a resource to help you succeed and to ensure that you really have everything you need to be successful and knowledgeable, take advantage of those things.

So reach out and connect, don't be shy in that way. Now tip six, finding your groove, everybody learns differently, right?

So we all have different learning styles. Some people are visual learners.

So you might love videos, right? And osmosis has a ton of those or you might like to read or you might learn better through listening to somebody lecture to you, right?

Or maybe you learn best by doing something that's hands-on. So really paying attention to that, right?

Paying attention and doing a bit of a gut check of how do I learn best, right. Do I do really well after I watch a video and I and I really capture and and digest and understand those concepts or do I do better when somebody explain something to me verbally?

So, really understanding and really doing a bit of self reflection to determine how it is that you learn best and really owning that is so important, the earlier that you can do that the better, right?

Because then that means if reading chapters is not your thing. Ok, cool.

Then let's not waste all of our time doing that. We wanna make sure that you're doing things that are going to help you succeed the most.

And let's go to the next one. Practice, practice, practice one of my favorite things.

N so if you don't have a resource, now, I would say absolutely get one for those of you that are actively, you know, in school and engaged in education, you probably already have one of these.

But practicing nclex style questions is an important part of studying, right? Because what that does is it's challenging you to say, all right, well, you've got all this knowledge, show me, you know what to do with it.

So that prepares you to apply the things that you understand and it prepares you to analyze data in different ways. So we've all definitely at this point have come to know that NCL style questions are unlike any other type of question that we're used to seeing.

And these questions really do push our ability to think at high levels. So practicing these questions, they not only help to reinforce your knowledge and reinforce how well and how strongly you understand a concept, but it's also gonna prepare you for the end game, right?

Taking the N class and successfully passing that. So you can now enter practice.

So you wanna make sure that your setting isn't just comprised of, you know, setting a concept in a way of, I'm only reading, I'm only looking at notes, I'm only watching videos, but you're also incorporating that question piece.

So you can carry it over and say, all right, I've gained all this awesome knowledge. I understand these concepts.

Now, let's, let's see how it plays in the wild really important piece there. And then number eight, don't forget the basics, right?

So remember we talked a little bit about that foundation and building on that, it's really important. So what do I mean by saying that don't forget the basics, make sure that something as simple as anatomy and physiology, right?

Kind of like the birthplace of where all this knowledge and all this content is coming from, make sure that we understand that.

So as an example, we talked about concept mapping and we talked about uh using heart failure as an as an example there, anatomy and physiology.

Having the basics of that, that means that OK, do I know the anatomy of the heart? Do I know what the heart does?

Mm What's the function there? How does blood travel through it?

That's an example of the basics. And that's something that we learn even before we get into core nursing classes, that's super important because that is that first strong building block that we wanna be able to use.

And it makes learning more complex ideas, more complex concepts much easier when we feel comfortable with the basics. So as an example, if we know basics of heart anatomy, right?

And we know the physiology, I know how the blood flow is. I know what it does.

I know what's going on there. Then building on concepts like heart failure and understanding why things back up in certain ways.

Or if we're using another scenario of another cardiac disorder, maybe a structural disorder, it helps us to really clearly think and understand.

Oh yeah, this is why I would see those things because I know that the anatomy of the heart is this and I know that the blood flow and the pressures are this.

And so now that it's not working in that way, I can clearly see what's going on there. So the basics is really important, make sure that we don't skip that.

And I know that for, you know, some of us, we learn that well beyond um you know, before we get to nursing school, it was five years ago or even less, we wanna make sure that we're on par with that.

And finally, just some encouragement you got this. I know um you know, from my experience as students that sometimes it felt really overwhelming all the tons of content that we have to learn.

But definitely you can do this exercise, these different uh habits and tips to help you to really get into the groove and make sure that you're successful.

So I have some questions that have come in and so I wanna take some time to uh answer some of these. So one of the questions that we had is talking about these tips, what would we apply for studying for the NCLEX?

Probably all of it. To be completely honest, I think that one thing that you wanna make sure that you're doing the study for the N Cox, of course is having a resource, right?

So having a good resource that's um gonna prepare you in the way of giving you high quality questions, good rationales, all of those things.

Uh Consistency is absolutely key. So making sure that you have yourself on some type of schedule.

So you're not dropping the ball, right? That's a really big idea and bringing it back the basics I would say is another important bit there.

Sometimes we get very lost in the weeds, right? We get lost in the sauce of all these different specific complex topics, but we're having such a hard time to apply it and that's what the n challenges you to do.

So making sure that you've got that full, you know, spectrum of, do I understand this from a essential basic level? Am I able to build on these concepts is really important?

And then let's answer another question here. Um A recommendation for a nurse practitioner.

Yeah. So really similar.

Now, I know that as uh NP, as far as you know, comparison to R NNP is a little bit different, the level of education that you are learning.

But I would absolutely recommend uh you, you know, these type of studying tips and tools as well. Um You know, NP only gets much more advanced and much more complex than uh you know, RN.

And so really making sure that as you're engaging and studying, always keep your focus on. Am I understanding these concepts?

Right? Am I able to bridge all of these things together?

That's gonna be a big important piece? All right.

Let's see if we have any others. OK.

So great questions, everybody. Thank you for joining.

I wish you all much success. Don't let studying be your, your headache.

You totally got this, utilize some of these tips, see how it feels for you, see how it works for you. You know, reach out to your peers, reach out to your instructors, uh utilize every resource that's available to you and set yourself up for success.

There's a lot of help here for you. And if you love videos, right?

If you love learning videos, absolutely, check out what we have going on at a osmosis here and some cool new nursing stuff that's coming your way.

Thanks for joining everybody. Have an awesome night.