Ask for advice or information on anything and you’ll find no shortage of “experts” who have sourced their knowledge from Google or YouTube. Well, I’ve had a few days to reflect on my experience with nursing school thus far, and I want to share my valuable “expertise”, as well. 😁

So, I’ll see those prestigious Google degrees in the impressive fields of YouTube Sciences and Conspiracy Theorem Engineering and I’ll raise them my first semester of pandemic nursing school. 🤓

I mean, since literally no one asked, here’s what I learned from my first semester in nursing school. You’re welcome. 😌

First, your learning style, Don’t get me wrong, your learning style is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s not the ‘end all be all’ of your college career, but it can make or break your study habits. You need to know how you learn best. No, not like, “I took this Facebook quiz…” 😝 Like really take some time to ACTUALLY figure out your learning style and what it could mean for your study methods. VARK is a great {FREE} resource.

There’s nothing more frustrating than implementing all the study strategies of every successful student you can find, and still not seeing results. “Why is Suzy getting great grades by just listening to her lectures on repeat, but I’m not?” 😭 Because Suzy is an auditory learner and you’re a kinesthetic learner. You might as well place your textbook under your pillow and hope for the best. {Yes, people actually do that. No it doesn’t help. Yes, I’m sure. No, not even a little bit. The only “advantage” you’ll gain over people who actually study is a neck cramp and crankiness. And you can also get those by studying in weird positions, if you’re into that.} 🙄

A couple more things about learning styles. There is no law that says you can only have one. You know how people can speak more than one language? They can also learn with more than one style. So, don’t think something is wrong with you if you don’t fit in a single box. That just means you are more likely to learn with more than one way, which is the opposite of a problem. 😉

Conversely, being identified as as a certain type of learner is not a license to give up on something being taught a different way. It just means you might need to be creative and put in a little more effort. Believe me, I know it can feel like it’s broken or working against us. 🤪 But the human brain is an amazing thing. {Yes, I mean everyone’s.} Don’t underestimate its abilities. 🧠

Beyond learning style issues, can we talk about how no one prepared me for the amount of discussion there would be surrounding the appropriate delegation of tasks to unlicensed personnel? 😳 As uncomfortable as imagining entrusting some of my work to another person makes the control-freak perfectionist in me, I knew it was something that would come up. Still, I had no idea there was so much involved in the topic. And it absolutely never occurred to me how many variations of delegation questions would present themselves on tests. 🤯

There are 5 rights of delegation (task, circumstances, person, communication, and supervision). I have to admit, that was really overwhelming for someone whose inner voice maintains that asking for help is equivalent to being weak and/or lazy. To make this make sense, I had simplify. 🤐

First, you have to get it through your head that delegation is a crucial part of nursing. If you have a hard time allowing others to do things, here’s how I had to break it down for my stubborn self. 😛 Do you want to handle everything in mediocre fashion or a selection of crucial things in stellar fashion? Because if you try to do EVERYTHING yourself, one {or both} of these two things will happen. a.) Quality will suffer across the board. b.) Mistakes will be made. In health care, neither of these is acceptable. 👎🏻

As for test questions, for the most part, those 5 rights really come down to a couple of fundamental concepts. 🖊

1. You (the RN) will retain full responsibility for EVERYTHING you delegate. Because you are licensed, the patient’s care is your responsibility.

3. NEVER delegate M.E.A.T. 🥩 (Medications, Evaluations, Assessments, or Teaching). These are duties that legally require licensure. 🩺

So, shake your brain into submission 🧠 and remember those things and the rest will pretty much take care of itself. 😌

Now, onto another HESI/NCLEX biggie: Prioritization. We all know priorities are ABCDE (Airway, Breathing, Circulation, Disability, and Exposure.) But if you’re not careful, that can trip you up. Remember to focus on ALL the details provided, without adding any from your own imagination. 🦄 A stable asthma, COPD, or AFib patient is not a priority over a patient at immediate risk for injury or postop infection. 😉

Which brings me to my next point. Read 👏🏻 each 👏🏻 question. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Now, read it again. Then, rephrase it in your own words. Rewrite it on your scratch paper, if you need to. Seriously. 🤪 I cannot tell you how many questions I’ve missed because I didn’t read the questions well enough and ThOuGhT I knew what they were asking. {Spoiler: I did not} Going through test reviews, I have felt like such an idiot. How could I have missed that? Ugh. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Another common challenge for nursing students comes in the form of medication calculations. If you’re a person who has never struggled with math, you’ll be fine. Also, I hate you. 🧐 Okay, not really, but I’m super jelly, because I tend to be very imaginative, thinking in fanciful abstract concepts. Great for creative pursuits, but for math, not so much. 🙃 But we all have our talents and it takes a combination of all of our wondrous gifts to make this world work, right? 🥰

All that to say, if you aren’t so mathematically inclined, congratulations! Your new hobby is dimensional analysis. 😂 I’m kidding, sort of. 😬 If you’re like me, and math isn’t your strongest subject, don’t let it freak you out. You don’t have to be a math prodigy to be successful. But you WILL need to put in some extra effort. Use every single resource at your disposal. We had optional math workshops and the instructor of said workshops was incredibly helpful, during and outside of the workshops, IF people reached out to her. Additionally, there are numerous really useful tutorials all over the interwebs, like this one.

You’re also certain to have some of those glorious math-minded people in your cohort and chances are, they will be more than willing to offer tips and advice. 👩🏻‍🏫

You’re not a dummy for realizing you’re in over your head and need to ask for help; knowing you’re drowning and allowing yourself to fail because you’re too proud to ask or accept available help… that’s another story. #NotSorry 🤷🏻‍♀️

My final piece of advice is that for individual assignments, a rubric is your bible. Do things EXACTLY as your rubric explicitly states. If it doesn’t specify or if it seems unclear, for the love of all that is good in this world, ASK FOR CLARIFICATION. Otherwise, you could, hypothetically speaking, spend countless weeks putting together a gorgeous presentation with perfectly attributed images, a flawless bibliography, and just the right verbiage, 😁 only to be told that your language was too sophisticated for the average layperson, even though you were presenting to fellow nursing students {whom, you would have hoped were at or above your level of comprehension}. 🤨 So, you’ll be assessed what feels like an extremely hefty 20% penalty for the assignment and you’ll be salty about it for a long time. 🧂 How long? The jury’s still out. 😒 Years, months, a few more days. We’ll just have to wait and see. 😑 I mean, we would have to wait and see. You know, if this wasn’t a completely mythical scenario I made up for emphasis. 🙃

So there you have it. Advice you never asked for from a self-proclaimed expert with no credentials and limited experience. Just like everywhere else online. Isn’t the internet wonderful? 🤣

I’m done! Well, with this semester, at least. I took my exit HESI this morning. I didn’t exactly kill it, but it didn’t kill me either. So, that’s good, right? 🤷🏻‍♀️ As things stood, I needed to achieve 29% or like a 319 on the HESI to pass the course. I did no other calculations. 😬 I just needed to know the minimum necessary to pass. I had that super fixated tunnel vision you guys know and love about me. 👀 It never even occurred to me that I could or should score much above 320 or so. #AimHighKids 😝

I actually pleasantly surprised myself. I didn’t ace it, but I made a decent 889, which equated to a 79, making my final grade for Basic Care of the Adult a solid B. 🥳 So, if you just wanted to know how I did, there you go. 🤗 If you’re craving a few more details about my experience, have a seat and read on.

It’s 2020, so of course, things at the test site started off a little sketchy and intense. 🙈 There were issues with internet connectivity, the testing password presented its own unique set of challenges, and tensions ran high for student and instructor alike, as we tried to figure out how to access the clandestine program that cloaked the key to our future. #NoPressure 🥺

We finally got in and began our assessments. And that’s when I {and a lot of my friends} suddenly realized that none of the practice exams or adaptive quizzes had been any 👏🏻 help 👏🏻 whatsoever. 👏🏻 There I was again. Taking another exam, for which I had worked incredibly hard to prepare, yet the questions and my review were on totally different planets. 😱

Other people had mentioned when we got there that the room was a little warm. I couldn’t relate. 👎🏻 My whole body suddenly felt cold and numb. I immediately KNEW I was doomed to repeat this course next semester. My goal of 29% had seemed so effortlessly attainable yesterday. But now, I was wondering if I would get a single answer right. 😢 I was deep in my own head, {a dark, dangerous place} desperately trying to decide how I would explain to everyone that, despite their support and belief in me, I was an utter failure. 😢

But then, I told myself to snap out of it and get my 💩 together. {I really need to hire someone to follow me around and smack me when I start spiraling like this. Like an emotional support slapper. I wonder if that would be covered by my insurance. 🤔} Anyhoo, I stopped panicking and reminded myself that even though this test did not cover the things I had recently reviewed, it DID cover things I had learned this semester. The questions were new and unusual, but if I took my time reading them, there was a strong possibility that I might be able to choose the correct answers and live happily ever after. 😌

My little internal pep talk helped, but I still have so many questions. How does this keep happening? How can they ALWAYS find so many new and unusual questions I never consider? Where do they come up with this stuff? Who are these writers? How might one become one of these writers? Could an amateur blog dripping with sarcasm and emojis be considered a portfolio? Are they hiring? 😂

On a loosely related note, I’d like to file a complaint.☝🏻 Because on some of these questions, ALL of the answers are obviously correct. 🤓 I’m fairly certain there must be a ‘D.) All of the Above’ answer hidden from me somewhere on my screen. 🤨 So, if someone could get me a computer programmer to address that before next semester, that’d be great. 😒

In any event, I passed my first semester of nursing school with a B in BCA, a B in Fundamentals, and an A in Pharmacology.🎉🎈🎊 Level 1 ✅ On to level 2. 👩🏻‍⚕️

I’ve been doing really well in pharmacology. I mean, I’m not like the Bobby Fischer of pharmacology, creating new medications as a hobby or anything. But with a little effort, it hasn’t been that bad. Ok, that may have been an understatement. Or a tiny inaccuracy. FINE! I’m lying out of my face hole! Happy? 😫

It has taken me a WHOLE LOT of effort. I’ve got Khan Academy and YouTube videos favorited; binders filled with printed PowerPoints, notes, and the quintessential handwritten drug cards; I’ve even stashed flash cards around the house like a squirrel storing nuts for winter. 👀

But once I got into a rhythm of how and what to study, things started to click. Which made exam days so much nicer.

Still, this exam was not my best. Have I ever told you guys how I feel about comprehensive exams? They are the devil. Don’t come at me. I said what I said. 😤 Here’s the thing. Learning the material and then doing a brain dump before moving on to the next unit is the worst thing anyone can do. You know it. I know it. The American people know it. Unfortunately, my brain has its own agenda. It retains — and purges what it wants, when it wants and I’m just along for the ride. 🙃

It remains to be seen if my brain actually retained anything this year unrelated COVID, politics, or toilet paper. 😝 But I’m doing my best.

As expected, the questions I struggled with were from earlier this semester. This raises some significant concerns for me about taking the NCLEX in what feels like a decade from now. 🙈 But I’m not going to think about that right now. 🤐

Today I made an 88. If I’ve calculated correctly, that should give me a 92 for the class, once the remaining outstanding assignments {that have been graded, but not reflected in the final calculations} are updated.

As with any award show, I’d like to close my speech by thanking God, Elsevier, and my extraordinary support system of family, friends, and fellow students for helping me make an ‘A’ in pharmacology so I can move on with life. 🙌🏻