Nursing School: 3 Tricks for Good Grades

Posted by nurse on December 26, 2010 under Nursing Schools, Study Helps | Read the First Comment

Before student nurses join the labor pool, they must start and complete nursing school first. The challenging course material, the stressful nature of clinical trials, and the full breadth of the knowledge nurses need to know can snap even the patience of the best academic student. But careful planning can sneak up on the enormous scope of detail nurses must call to mind, every day, for the rest of their careers. In nursing, preparation is more than half the battle.

Nursing Diagnosis Handbook: A Guide to Planning Care

Qualifying as a nurse is a sensitive ballet, a dance between daily nursing performance, treating the presenting patients’ conditions, and intelligent administration of nursing
procedures. The science of nursing is the experiential facility of applying treatment, medications, and other therapies to physical trauma, ongoing illnesses, and expected recovery conditions. Mastery of three basic components of the practice of medicine will always be required of nurses with  these duties.

1. Anatomy

The common thread in every medical examination is physical anatomy. For some students anatomy is boring and complex, uninteresting and something to be crammed in at the last minute. But a thorough understanding of the body and its systems will simplify every detail or gestalt of medical knowledge that comes after. Pathology traveling through the body must resonate in the nurse’s mind from this foundation.

But physical anatomy is the root of biology and body chemistry. High school students can begin studying anatomy in the summer after graduation or even before, to get an edge on their peers. The work they do every day of their nursing careers will relate to anatomical detail. Many nurses agree that unless a sound knowledge of anatomy is present, most lessons about treatment become irrelevant in practice.

2. Latin

Hardly a “dead” language, physicians and nurses speak Latin every day. But certain grammatical norms and basic root words and verbs can sink in and become a nursing student’s best friend when analyzing hundreds of career making tough multiple choice questions. A knowledge of Latin helps every nurse. Independent study, CD or DVD instruction, online courses or workbooks can groom a growing knowledge of “doctor speak”.

Medical terminology accurately recognized and phrased will let professors know who is prepared and who is not. Most anatomy terms are in Latin or from the earlier Greek language. The root words form the body of medical terminology used since the beginning of medicine. And when the most important test is a written test involving complex medical terms, a sound knowledge of Latin and Greek root words will elevate test scores as high as possible.

3. Vascular Systems

Even more than respiratory or nerve systems, the vascular system is the most critical engine of health the human body has. Even when the brain stops working properly, the heart can keep the human body alive. The chemistry of the human brain and the pressure system of the lungs takes as its drumbeat the human heart. There is no room for misunderstanding the working of the heartbeat, heart disease, heart attack and medical treatment of heart afflictions in medical nursing.

How the heart works in the body is so much more than a sum of the anatomical parts. Pressure affects the heart, and so does salinity and acidosis. Blood gases affect the heart, and so does ingoing and outgoing pressure from the tissues and the rest of the body. Cardiac conditions resulting from injury, illness organ failure, and postoperative complications are a huge body of study for nurses. A nurse cannot know too much about the heart, related cardiac systems, and myocardial threats to life expectancy.