Tag: aid

Posted in LiFe, Nursing School, organizing, Stress Prevention

Well… Graduation happened. I’ve definitely been feeling the post graduation anxiety👩🏼‍🎓😓

Posted on by mylifeexperienesinnursing

It feels so crazy that it finally happened!! but I did it. I graduated from nursing school. So, now I’ve started the next step, the NCLEX. I’ve started the application process and the studying process. I bought, downloaded, printed, and page protected a wonderful nurses study guide for the NCLEX:

NurseIQ

I’ve also purchased UWorld for 60 days. My goal is to study and to take the NCLEX in a month and a half I have a busy summer with 6 total weddings, one being my own.

One thing at a time, the NCLEX is the next item on my list.

Let’s see how this goes…🤞🏻

Well, evidentially things in life change. I ended up not taking my NCLEX until September instead on in June. I was so stressed and so overwhelmed with trying to celebrate graduation, turning 30, and planning weddings. I burnt myself out trying to complete the 75 questions a day on top of all those things listed above, looking for nursing jobs, all while still working as a bartender.

I BEAT MYSELF UP!! I made myself feel awful for not taking my exam when I originally planned. All my friends were doing it so who couldn’t I?! What was wrong with me why didn’t I have a nursing job lined up right out of school, why couldn’t I complete all the questions from UWorld that I had planned on doing, why did I feel so far behind?

If you’re feeling like this…STOP IT!!!

I was so stuck in my head about all of the things I felt like I wasn’t doing, I completely neglected giving myself credit for all the things I had done. Such as, going back to college at a later age (which was terrifying) and graduating with my BSN which is said to be one of the most difficult under grad programs one can get. I was forgetting to celebrate and enjoy the planning of my own wedding and being thankful so many people wanted me to stand up with them at theirs. None of my nursing friends were experiencing the same events in their lives so how could I compare myself to them.

Unfortunately, that is easier said than done. And that is true about everything in life. I am awful about comparing myself to other people around me. I have to constantly remind myself that we are all our own people, going through our own issues and experiences. No two people are expected live their lives the same way. So why do we do it? Why do we make ourselves feel small or less capable compared to other people? Is it societal pressures, parental pressures, community pressures? I believe it’s all of those aspects, it’s all of the aspects that help shape us into the humans we are today and that’s why we compare, we care. I personally never want to let anyone down or want anyone to think less of me. However, I CAN ONLY BE THE PERSON I AM. I will only be able to do what I can.

One thing that helps me remember this is reminding myself,

I can’t give 100%, 100% of the time. It’s not realistically feasible.

If that is what is expected of my then those are unrealistic expectations. I write these words to remind myself and to hopefully help others that may be feeling the same way.

The pressures after graduation are no different than the pressures people feel on a daily basis. The pressure of “I’m supposed to have this all figured out,” unfortunately for those thoughts, the reality is no one has it all figured out at least not 100% of the time.

So, I remind myself and others feeling this way (as my husband continuously reminds me); take it day by day, do what you can each day and don’t expect yourself to do it all in that one day. As the very true and valid cliché says, “Rome was not built in a day.”

Therefore, today I took a little self care and hung out with my best friend while getting our nails done, I’m writing this blog posts to remind myself of the aspects above, I’m going to do some yoga because I can feel my body needs it, I’m going to go to work and do my best that I can despite the dreams I had last night of feeling overwhelmed and insufficient, and maybe tomorrow I’ll work more on nursing sheets. One day at a time.

Med/Surg Cheat Sheet

Check out the nursing sheets that are completed, more to come.

I CAN DO THIS!

And so can others that may be feeling the same way.

You got this!

Posted in Nursing School, organizing, Stress Prevention

Studying Tips

Posted on by mylifeexperienesinnursing
THE BEST STUDY AID
Saunders Comprehensive Review for the NCLEX-RN (Saunders Comprehensive Review for Nclex-Rn)

This book is going to be my best friend throughout nursing school (I love colors so I thought it was a must to have my hair match the book in the picture). Every time I’ve needed clarification on anything thus far this book as been able to answer it in the most simplistic forms. I’ve used it for my Intro to Med Surg class (first exam is tomorrow, I’ll write how that went and how this helped me). I’ve used it for my first Patho exam and received an A and felt very confident. Side note, about feeling confident. A fellow student came up to me today and told me why she didn’t do very well on our first Patho exam even though she studied her butt off. This has happened to me and multiple fellow students of mine. A little advice, don’t go in over confident. I have made more mistakes on exams when I go in overly confident. I tend to skim the questions instead of thoroughly reading them; therefore, missing what the question is actually asking. This is exactly what my friend did. So, slow down, ESPECIALLY when you know the information.

Studying Techniques

Fluid & Electrolytes

This is the beginning of my Fluid and Electrolyte notes for my Intro to Med Surg. This lecture was over 100 slides, it was a lot of very necessary information but I had to condense it. It ended up being 5 pages. Yes, this is still pretty long but like I said, it’s a lot of necessary information. This is one of my longer sets of notes (it’s also covering almost half of my exam, so it makes sense).

I have gotten asked a few times this week at school what I do to study so I thought I’d post this blog to help anyone else who may be confused out there. I must say this is how I study and I do not guarantee good grades or anything along those line. I am giving recommendations, everyone learns differently and I recommend molding this however anyone might need.

For this particular chapter I made sure to make my main topics the different diagnoses and made sure to describe signs/symptoms, clinical manifestations, and nursing considerations. If there were any tid bits that my teacher said I would write that in a different color on the side of the paper because those are usually pretty important details. IMPORTANT: MAKE IT COLORFUL!! My eyes are drawn to my notes (I’m a huge nerd, I know) nevertheless, my brain likes looking at my notes, it helps me learn. I use the same colors or color palate according to each class. Purple for Med Surg, pink for Health Assessment, blue for Patho, and green for Pharm. This helps when I’m looking at my agenda and what I need to get done. For things like Normal Ranges I usually put in another color and outline it with a highlighter. I usually refer back to these multiple times throughout the semester and sometimes even in later semesters. If I have any acronyms for diagnoses I will also put those in a stand out color in the margin next to the term.

Use whatever resources possible. There’s a lot of information and there is not one perfect way to understand it. So try different things, this one helped me.