Nursing Education

Studying for Nursing Exams

Nursing exams can be challenging, but with proper preparation and study techniques, you can improve your chances of success. Here are some tips that may help you in your nursing exam preparation:

  1. Create a study plan: Plan out your study sessions well in advance of the exam. This will help you stay organized and ensure that you cover all the necessary material.
  2. Use multiple resources: Don’t rely on just one resource for your exam preparation. Use textbooks, online resources, practice tests, and other study aids to get a well-rounded understanding of the material.
  3. Take breaks: It’s important to take breaks during your study sessions to avoid burnout. Take short breaks every hour or so to stretch, walk around, and clear your mind.
  4. Practice questions: Practice questions are an excellent way to prepare for nursing exams. They help you identify areas where you need more work and reinforce concepts you already understand.
  5. Review regularly: Don’t wait until the day before the exam to review the material. Review regularly throughout your study period to keep the information fresh in your mind.
  6. Get support: Studying can be challenging, but you don’t have to do it alone. Reach out to friends, classmates, or a tutor for support and help when needed.

Remember, nursing exams test your knowledge, critical thinking, and clinical judgment. So, focus on understanding the concepts and applying them to real-world scenarios. Good luck with your exam preparation!

Facing Criminal Charges?

When a nurse is facing criminal charges, it can be a very challenging and stressful time. It’s important for nurses to understand their legal rights and responsibilities, as well as the potential consequences of their actions.

First and foremost, it’s important for nurses to seek legal counsel as soon as possible. A criminal defense attorney can help the nurse understand the charges against them and develop a defense strategy. Nurses should also inform their employer and professional licensing board about the charges, as they may have reporting obligations.

Depending on the severity of the charges, the nurse may face suspension or revocation of their nursing license. In some cases, they may be able to continue working while the case is pending, but in others, they may be required to stop practicing until the case is resolved.

It’s important for nurses to be transparent and honest with their employer and licensing board throughout the process. Failing to disclose the charges or lying about them can result in further disciplinary action.

Finally, nurses should take care of their mental and emotional health during this challenging time. Seeking support from friends, family, or a mental health professional can help them cope with the stress and anxiety of facing criminal charges.

Resources for Nurse Educators

Nursing is a highly sought-after career choice today. Nurses are in very high demand and the nursing shortage makes that demand even higher. Students, practicing nurses, and educators may find the following resources useful. Check them out.

Health Resources and Services Administration

The Health Resources and Services Administration, or HRSA, is working to ensure that everyone has access to a broad spectrum of public health services. HRSA programs provide equitable health care to people who are geographically isolated and economically or medically vulnerable. This includes programs that deliver health services to people with HIV, pregnant people, mothers, and their families, those with low incomes, residents of rural areas, American Indians, Alaska Natives, and those otherwise unable to access high-quality health care. HRSA programs also support health infrastructure, including training health professionals and distributing them to areas where they are needed most, providing financial support to health care providers, and advancing telehealth. In addition, HRSA oversees programs for providing discounts on prescription drugs to safety net providers, facilitating organ, bone marrow, and cord blood transplantation, compensating individuals injured by a vaccination, and maintaining data on healthcare malpractice payments.

NurseTim

Nurse Tim is an online platform for nursing educators. Nurse Tim offers webinars, conferences, consultations, and a blog for answering common questions. Nurse Tim has created NurseThink which provides resources for testing, simulations, and NextGen NCLEX writing, among other resources. Educational resources on teaching clinical judgment and reasoning are of high priority. Many institutions use Nurse Tim’s resources to help them frame their courses.

Learning Nurse Resources Network

The Learning Nurse Resources Network is an online professional development center for nurses. This is a great website that provides independent, safe, free resources. To maintain and continue education for nurses, the website is divided into three main sections: an assessment section, an e-learning section, and a library.

The assessment portion of the website is filled with apps, quizzes, and nursing games for students. Helping students to locate the gaps in their knowledge allows them to study more effectively.

American Nurses Association

The Educational Resource Center of the American Nurses Association (ANA) is a portal focused on providing continuing nursing learning resources. This organization provides numerous fact sheets and tips covering topics relevant to the nursing profession. The ANA is working to make the Education Resource Center a go-to repository for information regarding nursing education.

The Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section

This website provides links to a multitude of resources for nurses including lists of e-books, other nursing websites, dissertations, anatomy resources, and much more. The site itself is a great jumping-off point for nurses looking to build up online nursing resources. Furthermore, the Nursing and Allied Health Resources section has links to style and plagiarism guides, powerful tools for those that have not written papers. 

The anatomy resources page provides connections to online activities and nursing games, compiling some of the most interesting videos and studies from a wide range of universities and higher education institutions. There is also a compilation of medical databases. 

Nurse.com

The Nurse.com website includes educational and professional advice and career resources. Nurse.com is consistently an innovative space for nurses to develop professionally, learn field-relevant skills and read compelling news.

Resources include several financial aid links and resources. The student news section allows you to hear from students, their experiences, and best practices. For anyone who is currently working as a nurse, or for those who are looking to go back to school and continue their nursing education, these online professional resources can be extremely important to help you continue your learning and growth opportunities.

KeithRN

Keith, a Ph.D.-prepared nursing educator, is driven by a passion to help educators and students in learning clinical judgment. He has developed a series of textbooks, and case studies to help develop these clinical reasoning skills. Keith offers resources in both free and paid versions. These case studies and other materials are key to advancing the clinical judgment of our students.

Resources for Student Nurses

Resources to make the job of a student nurse easier and more effective. Check out these great resources.

  • Learning Nurse. This site is full of helpful resources like videos, modules, tests, apps, and even a library. The assessment section of the website has games, puzzles, and other interactive learning assessments to help you determine what you know. The e-learning section has information on documentation, how to study, code of ethics, and microlearning parts and pieces. Then the library contains professional development, presentations, and references.
  • Nurse.com. From nursing CEs to a job board for job seekers, these resources help current and new nurses find their best career. The site also features a nursing news board and community networking platform.
  • NurseZone. Nurse Zone is a blog for travel nurses to join. Travel nursing jobs are posted on the job board including seasonal jobs. Guides for applying for your next travel position are included plus resume helpers.
  • All Nurses – Nursing Students. Descriptions of nursing schools, local and international topics important to nursing, and nursing scholarship information. There are also eBooks, journals, and student deals that you should find helpful.
  • RNCareers.org. RN program rankings, NCLEX Exams with rationales, scholarships, career guides, and career advice from veteran nurses at RNCareers.org.
  • Nursingworld.org. Nursing world is the go-to site for all nurses. The official site of the American Nurses Association (ANA) provides support for students and nurses throughout their education and careers. Resources such as CEs, literature, and conference information are provided. ANA also collaborates with legislators to create laws that are beneficial to both patients and nurses in America.
  • Straight A Nursing. Everything you need in one site. Master concepts, study for specific classes, improve your grades. This site was created by a nurse who understands how stressful nursing school can be.

Smart Phone Apps

  • Davis Mobile NCLEX-RN Med-Surg. Evaluate yourself on your understanding of med-surg content using this app that provides practice questions for the Med-Surg NCLEX exam. Practicing questions and then figuring out why you missed questions is an excellent way to study for the NCLEX exam.
  • Pill Identifier by Drugs.com. Your patient has brought you their medications and some are loose in the bag, who knows what medication it is. Drugs.com can help you figure it out. You can search for pills by color, shape or by the imprint on the pill itself. An excellent resource especially for ER nurses.
  • Pocket Body. This app will assist you in learning musculoskeletal anatomy. This medical software features comprehensive human musculoskeletal anatomy content by means of a multi-layered sequence of high-definition photo-realistic illustrations of the human body and is a breakthrough in human anatomy education.
  • Human Anatomy Atlas. Packed full of thousands of three-dimensional images of the human body, anatomy, and structures. This app is a perfect study tool and has built-in quizzes to help you assess yourself.
  • NCLEX-RN Mastery. Another NCLEX practice site. But did you know that these apps can also help you study for your nursing course exams too. Practice questions, mnemonics, terminology, quizzes, and more help you to learn all that you can.
  • Epocrates. This app is particularly useful to check for adverse effects/interactions between medications, herbs, and supplements.
  • Picmonic Nursing app. So many mnemonics all in one location. Do you learn best using mnemonics? Then the Picmonic app is for you. Thousands of visual mnemonics that help you learn anatomy, biologic systems, pathophysiology, and dosage calculations.