What's up my friend?!
Wow I am so excited to be back with you on another video, and today is actually VERY
special because I asked our email subscribers what questions they wanted me to answer here
on YouTube.
How fun is this?!
So I am going to go through a list of questions that you guys asked.
And of course, if you're not on our email list, you really gotta get on it.
I'm not sure about you but I never email anyone back telling them that I love their emails,
and yet for some reason every single time I email our subscribers, I get a whole bunch
of emails back saying, "HOW DID YOU KNOW?!?
That was exactly what I needed!"
So for real, friend, I send some amazing stuff out to you.
I've got years of nursing school tips in my brain, that I want to give to you.
You are going to wonder how you ever lived without it.
So you can go to nursingschoolofsuccess.com/ signup, and you can enter your email there
and you'll also get instant access to a bunch of free cheat sheets that I have for you.
So I hope you enjoy them!
:)
Now, let's dive into the first question.
The first question is actually a 2 part-er, and it comes from Barbara.
And Barbara wants to know "How to deal with test anxiety and drug calculation problems?
Math is not my strong subject"
So, those 2 are very closely related, right?
Anxiety and math.
For many of us, we have this kind of phobia of math, we think we're bad at it, so we avoid
it like the plague.
But then we get into nursing school, and all of a sudden you need to take your dose calc
exam and get 100% on it.
So that can be really scary.
So let's talk about it.
The first issue here is anxiety - how to overcome test anxiety in nursing school.
Now, this is something I've talked about a little bit here on this channel, but I've
actually talked about it even more inside our NursingSOS Membership Community.
So I'm going to give you my best tips for overcoming test anxiety, but I'd love to hear
from you, too!
What's your best advice for other students to help beat test anxiety in nursing school?
Let's help each other out and support each other, because I know this is something that
many of us struggle with.
So let me know in the comments, your best tips.
So, my first tip, and this is the one that NO ONE tells you: is to show up LATE to your
exams.
But not like, late late.
But just late enough that most of the class is already sitting at their computers waiting
for the test to start.
That way, you're not sitting out in the hall with your classmates stressing out before
the exam.
We've all had that moment where 10 minutes before your exam you second guess everything
you studied because of something that someone else said.
Don't do that to yourself.
I want you to walk into your exam as cool as a cucumber, ready to conquer the day!
So I really recommending showing up slightly late or right on time for your exam.
The second tip I have for you is to prepare ahead of time.
This is something I see a LOT!
Students tell me that they procrastinate because they feel like they'll just fail anyway, they
don't see the point.
It's like it's better to not study and fail than to study super hard and still fail.
But here's the thing: do you really think you have the same chances of failing if you
study every day for 2 weeks, or if you only study for 2 days before the exam?
This is a form of self-sabotage.
You are unconsciously sabotaging your success because believe you will fail anyway.
So here's what I want you to consider: consider changing that thought of "I'm going to fail
anyway," to "I have a better chance of passing if I study."
If you believed that new thought, you would study more for your exam right?
So you need to focus on actually preparing for the exam, rather than procrastinating
because you feel like you're just going to fail anyway.
That is no productive and it won't help your test anxiety, it will only make it worse.
Now the 3rd tip I have for you is to plan for your brain to freak out.
Here's what's going to happen: you're going to prepare for your exam, feel super confident,
and then you're going to walk in there and your brain is going to tell you that you can
do it, and you should just quit now.
DO NOT LISTEN.
Your brain will for sure bring some drama and some anxiety to into your exam, but don't
worry, that's totally normal.
Let your brain make it's drama, have it's moment, and then quietly remind it that you're
in charge and you are going to give this exam everything you've got.
If you are a NursingSOS Member, make sure to log-into your dashboard, click on BONUSES,
and you'll see an audio recording that I created for you as this month's bonus, and in that
recording I dive deeper into this subject on how to control your anxiety in nursing
school.
So make sure to check that out, it will be SUPER helpful for you.
So, Barbara, those are my 3 best tips for you to help you reduce test anxiety.
They were game changing for me and I hope they help you as well.
Now let's talk about part 2 of your question because I know we have a lot of students asking
the same thing: how to get through drug calculation problems.
I actually have a 6 step process for getting dosage calculation problems right every single
time.
And I've written them all out on a free cheat sheet that you can download.
You can just go to nursingschoolofsuccess.com/ signup and you'll get instant access to a
library of cheat sheets, which include the dosage calculation 6 step process.
It's super easy!
If you follow those steps, you will get them right every single time.
So other than following that 6 step process from that cheat sheet, I HIGHLY recommend
that you always use dimensional analysis to solve dose calc questions.
There are a bunch of ways to solve these, like using formulas and such.
But I ALWAYS tell students to learn dimensional analysis and stick with it, because it's full
proof, the math doesn't lie, and you will get it right every single time.
Dimensional analysis is sometimes called the Railroad Tracks Method or the Factor-label
method.
It's where you line all of your units up properly, then multiply straight across and divide at
the end.
It's super duper easy, and like I said, the math doesn't lie.
So you'll get it right every time as long as you set it up correctly.
So that's my number 1 suggestion for solving dose calc problems, always use dimensional
analysis.
And don't worry, if you're struggling with how to do it, I walk you through it in that
cheat sheet I told you about.
I'll put the link to that in the description.
Okay, now the next question comes from Jane, and Jane asks, "Do you have nursing fundamentals
practice questions."
And the answer is no.
At this time, we don't have any practice questions for you to quiz yourself.
So here are my top 2 recommendations: I always recommend students purchase the NCLEX-RN Mastery
App and the Saunders NCLEX-RN Examination Comprehensive Review book.
These are the 2 resources that I used when studying for the NCLEX and so they are the
one's I ALWAYS recommend.
The Saunders book is a super good overview of all the info you need to know, plus they
have practice questions as well for you to quiz yourself.
And the NCLEX-RN Mastery App is pretty much all practice questions.
Those are divided up into the subjects that you'll study in school, like pharmacology,
fundamentals, lab values, med-surg, all the good stuff.
So it makes it super easy to find and answer the questions you need.
So Jane, if you're taking fundamentals right now and just want to focus on that, then you
can just click on that category and answer those fundamentals questions.
They make it really easy.
So those are my top 2 resources for where to find practice questions.
I'll link to both of those in the description, those will be affiliate links so I will receive
a small commission if you decide to purchase something through one of those links, of course,
there won't be any additional cost to you.
So thanks for your support!
Now, we'll take one last question.
I know this video is running a lot longer than usual, thanks for sticking around with
me through this, friend!
I hope these tips have been really helpful for you!
This next question comes from Isabella, and Isabella asks, "What's the best way to remain
focused in nursing school?"
Oh this is sooo good!
I'm so glad you asked this question Isabella, because I know this is a serious struggle
for so many nursing students!
Really, it starts with making sure you are staying healthy.
If you aren't eating, drinking enough water, and getting enough sleep, you can basically
throw productivity out the window.
You MUST take care of yourself, or it's going to take you twice as long to get stuff done.
That is not efficient, so don't do that to yourself.
So that's my first tip.
My second tip is to break your goals down into what I like to call "fun-sized" goals.
So this is a concept that I talk a lot about in our Study Success Course inside the NursingSOS
Membership Community.
So if you're a member, make sure to check that out if you haven't already, it's so fun.
But basically, I want to encourage you to break down your huge tasks or goals into bite-sized
pieces so it seems more manageable, and you can achieve them faster, which will help you
stay motivated and focused.
So let's say you have a 10 page research paper that's due in 2 weeks.
If you make a goal of researching, writing, and editing the whole thing, your brain will
freeze up on you and you won't do anything.
So I want you to break it up into smaller tasks for you to focus on, so make a goal
of getting all the researching done in the next 2 hours.
Check that off.
Now that you have that part done, you can move into writing the intro or the first section.
And then the next, and the next, until you have gotten through all of your tasks.
It's just breaking it all down into smaller tasks for you to focus on one at a time, rather
than focusing on the whole big project and getting super overwhelmed.
Let's just take it one step at a time.
And my third and arguably the best tip I have is to completely eliminate distractions.
When I was in full on study mode in nursing school, I would put my phone in another room
and close all other browser tabs on my computer.
I would completely eliminate those distractions, because let's be real, it is SUPER tempting
to just scroll through Instagram all day.
That is not productive.
So I really encourage you to put all distractions out of sight and out of mind, so that you
can actually ALLOW your brain to focus.
So often we're trying to multi-task and do 50 things at once, and we wonder why we never
get as much done as we want!
We never gave our brain a chance in the first place!
So eliminate as many distractions as possible so you CAN actually get things done.
So friend, wow, I know this was a much longer video than normal.
Thanks so much for hanging out with me, and especially thank you to everyone who submitted
a question for me to answer.
I really appreciate all of you and your support for everything we do here!
If you thought this was super fun and you want me to answer your question in a future
video, write your question in the comments and I just might answer your question in a
future video.
How fun would that be?!
Thank you so much for watching, now go become the nursing that God created only YOU to be!
And I'll catch you in the next video! :)