The Solution to your Nursing School Worries…

Jun 02

NicoleUncategorized No Comments

Nursing school is tough.  I see a lot of frustrated students who work hard and study hard, but still struggle through their classes, can’t pass HESI, or are terrified of NCLEX.  I know what you’re going through, I’ve been through it myself!  But now I have the answer to your nursing school problems.

Before I went to nursing school, I had always been a straight-A student.  Soon after starting the pre-requisites for nursing school, though, I quickly realized that I was going to have to change the way I studied if I wanted to be successful.  I began nursing school feeling stressed out and frustrated…until I figured out some secrets about how to study for nursing school.  Soon after that, I became the person everyone wanted to study with.  I was even asked to tutor nursing students who were ahead of me in the program!

Now you have the opportunity to learn those same study secrets.  The Your Nursing Tutor PASS Program is an 8-week, online program where I personally walk you through how to use each of my proven study techniques, as well as guide you on how to get the most out of your study time.  I will teach you how to easily identify the most important information in the textbook, and show you how to remember the specific information you absolutely need to become the AWESOME nurse that I know you can be!

Does it really work?  Well, students who have already been through this course have told me that they wish the PASS Program had been available in their first year of nursing school!  I know it would have saved ME a lot of stress and frustration if someone would have just told me this stuff when I was in nursing school.  It’s that important!

Do your yourself a favor and check it out for yourself today.  Registration is open, and the class is filling up fast.  Head on over to http://www.yournursingtutor.com/?p=passpeek right now!

Newsletter Update (Issue 36)

Apr 17

NicoleNewsletter No Comments

In this week’s issue:

• Quick Poll Results
• Nicole’s Notes

Quick Poll Results
66% of you think that Care Plans are “pointless” or that they take you waaaay too long to write!  Only 34% of Your Nursing Tutor students see how Care Plans are helpful in understanding what’s going on with the patient.  This is why I have a lesson in the P.A.S.S. Program called “How to Write a Quick and Dirty Care Plan.”  Care Plans can be a great learning tool for teaching you how to THINK LIKE A NURSE.  But it’s important not to spend too much time on them either because you have plenty of other things to do in nursing school!  Now for this week’s Quick Poll:

Be honest…have you ever wished you had kids just so you could practice your clinical skills more at home?

1. Yes, after all kids would be an easy way to practice listening to lung sounds…
2. I already have kids…and I have practiced nursing skills on them!
3. Isn’t that against child labor laws or something?

If you want to participate in the poll, you have to subscribe to the newsletter and click on the link through there.  But make sure to check out the next edition of YNT Update to see the poll results!

Make sure to check out the next newsletter to see the poll results!

Nicole’s Notes
I’m happy to announce that Lydia Joy finally entered the world on April 7th at 6:35am.  She was one-week late, but worth the wait.  We’re both doing well, and having fun getting to know each other.

As things around the house are settling down again, I’m starting to look ahead with Your Nursing Tutor and make plans for the summer.  I’ll be picking a start date for the next P.A.S.S. Program sometime this week, so watch your email for a special announcement about that.  I have gotten such great feedback from the current students enrolled in the P.A.S.S. Program that I can’t wait to share it again with the rest of you.  Stay tuned!

And send me an email sometime, I love hearing from everyone.  Whether it’s a question, a comment, or you just want to tell me what your nursing school experience has been like, I’d love to hear from you!  You can always reach me anytime at Nicole@YouRNursingTutor.com .

Well, that’s all for this week, see you around the website!

Take care,
Nicole

Newsletter Update (Issue 34)

Mar 20

NicoleUncategorized No Comments

I’ve been keeping all my email newsletter readers up-to-date on the happenings in my life, but I realized I’ve been neglecting my blog readers!!  So sorry!

I’m currently pregnant, and due any day (seriously…my belly’s so big I feel like I’m going to fall over), so I’m taking a short break from some aspects of Your Nursing Tutor, including the Live Review Sessions, study guides, and even from the Nicole’s Notes blog.  I’m still very active with the P.A.S.S. Program and responding to your questions and emails, though.  I also decided that I want to be adding new info on the blog.  So until I have this baby and get back into the swing of things, I am going to start posting the info from my newsletter onto the blog, too.

Enjoy!

In this week’s issue:

• Nicole’s Notes
• What are your nursing school classmates like?

Nicole’s Notes
Thanks for all the great feedback I got from last week’s new style of newsletter!  I’m glad that you all seem to be enjoying the more “personal touch.”

As I mentioned in the last newsletter, I am pregnant and due to have a little girl on March 31st…which pretty much means it could be any day now!  I feel as big as a house, and am moving a little slower than usual.  But that doesn’t mean I’m not available to help.  Just because I’m taking a break from the Live Review Sessions (and yes, even from my blog), doesn’t mean that I’m not available to help you.

I’ve been having an awesome time working with the students who are currently enrolled in my P.A.S.S. Program, and am excited to see the progress that they are making in applying their new study skills to nursing school.  I’m really looking forward to the next P.A.S.S. class as well (start date TBA, but will probably be around late April or early May).

So send me an email sometime, I love hearing from everyone.  Whether it’s a question, a comment, or you just want to tell me what your nursing school experience has been like, I’d love to hear from you!  You can always reach me anytime at Nicole@YouRNursingTutor.com .

What are your nursing school classmates like?

1. We’re pretty close knit, we really help each other out.
2. Everyone’s kind of competitive and keeps to themselves.

If you want to participate in the poll, you have to subscribe to the newsletter and click on the link through there.  But make sure to check out the next edition of YNT Update to see the poll results!

Well, that’s all for this week, see you around the website!

Take care,
Nicole

The P.A.S.S. Program is Back!! (but space is limited…)

Jan 10

NicoleHESI, Tutoring, Your Nursing Tutor Vision 7 Comments

√ Do you feel like you have to work harder than everyone else in your class?

√ Does your mind go blank when you take an exam, even though you swear you know the information?

√ Do you wonder how your classmate gets better grades than you even though they study less?

√ Do you always get tested on the stuff you didn’t study, while the information you read (and reread) from the textbook never shows up on exams?

√ Do you struggle to keep up with your reading and homework, but still end up cramming?

√ Do your Nursing Care Plans take FOREVER to write?

√ Can you narrow down multiple choice answers to two options…but then always pick the wrong one?

You are not alone!

When I started nursing school, I had successfully attended several different colleges over the course of about nine years.  I had earned two degrees, including my Masters in Clinical Psychology.  I’d been a Teaching Assistant, private tutor, and mentor to numerous undergraduate students studying all kinds of subjects.  So when I decided to go back and pursue nursing, I naturally assumed that with my experience, nursing school would be a breeze.

I could not have been more wrong!

Nursing school was like nothing I had ever experienced before.  I felt like I studied harder than I had ever studied before.  I no longer had time to hang out with my friends, and I even had to cancel date nights with my husband.  The worst part was that despite all my effort and sacrifice, I still wasn’t getting the grades that I wanted!  I would read the textbook and highlight what I thought was important, but come test time, it would seem like I had highlighted all the wrong stuff.  So I studied harder, re-read the text book, practiced extra NCLEX questions, and bought more review books.  None of it helped; no matter how hard I worked, I always felt a step behind.  I was frustrated and miserable.  I even started to wonder if I just wasn’t cut out to be a nurse!

Then one day I suddenly realized…maybe the problem wasn’t that I needed to study harder.  After all, I had tried that over and over and it wasn’t working.  The problem wasn’t how much I was studying, it was HOW I was studying.

Suddenly there was HOPE!

So I set out on a mission to find the best ways to study nursing.  I’ll be honest, at the beginning, it was mostly trial and error…and that was not always good for my grades!  But once I discovered the secrets to how to best study nursing material, there was no stopping me.  I was happier, more relaxed in school, and (gasp) even well-rested!  My grades improved, I found I was better at predicting the nursing knowledge that would end up on the exams, and I even started getting better at correctly answering NCLEX practice questions.  In fact, I started doing so well that my nursing department asked me to become a peer tutor for the other students at my school!

I made it through nursing school, but there are still nursing students just like you all across the country having the same negative experiences that I initially had.  You feel frustrated and miserable, just like I did.  But it doesn’t have to be that way!

I’ve been sharing my methods for nursing school success ever since I first discovered them, and I’ve helped countless other students overcome their nursing school challenges.  That’s why I decided to develop the P.A.S.S. program.  In the P.A.S.S. program, you’ll spend 8-weeks working with highly experienced nursing tutors like myself getting the guidance and encouragement you need to succeed in nursing school.  You’ll also be joined by a small group of other nursing students from around the country who are dealing with the same struggles as you.

During the eight weeks we work together,  we will tackle important nursing school challenges like critical thinking, test anxiety, test-taking strategies, and (of course) how to best study nursing material!  We know that every nursing student is different, so we make sure that every student also gets personalized attention from our tutors so that you can improve in the areas YOU need the most!  Our goal is to make nursing school easier and more fun for YOU…yes, it IS possible!

So whether you’re starting school, about to graduate, preparing for HESI or NCLEX, or just trying to survive, the P.A.S.S. program could be what you are looking for!

So, put down your text book and highlighter, and come learn the true secrets to nursing school success!

Want to know more?  Submit this form right now and I’ll contact you to discuss the program!

THE P.A.S.S. PROGRAM IS NOW AVAILABLE!  REGISTER TODAY AT http://www.yournursingtutor.com/?p=passpeek

OR IF YOU JUST WANT SOME MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE ENTER YOUR NAME AND EMAIL ADDRESS BELOW.

Behind the Scenes at Your Nursing Tutor

Dec 13

NicoleUncategorized 3 Comments

So….obviously I’ve been slow in adding new study guides, blog posts, and videos to the website this semester.  I wanted to give you an explanation, and let you know what the plans are for Your Nursing Tutor in 2011.

First of all, I was hoping to have a lot more resources posted by now, but life rarely goes as planned!  When I don’t have my “Your Nursing Tutor” hat on, I’m a stay-at-home Mom with a (very active) 20-month old son and a daughter on the way.  Pile that on top of my volunteer activities, spending time with friends, my husband, and (oh yeah) a little bit of time to myself and it makes for a wonderful, but busy, life.

The main challenge has been time.  Ever since we started Your Nursing Tutor last spring, I have been looking for a babysitter to watch my son for a few hours a week so that I could spend more dedicated time growing Your Nursing Tutor.  Unfortunately, we have been through at least 3 babysitters now…which is why I am still waiting for that dedicated time!  I find someone we like, they start (or almost start), then their schedule changes unexpectedly and I have to start looking for someone new.  I swear it’s not my son’s fault, he’s actually a very happy and pleasant child

So I’m going through the interview process again, and hopefully will have a permanent sitter in place in January so that I can do even more with Your Nursing Tutor.  In the meantime, though, we’ve got lots of great study guides available, I’m still doing weekly Live Review Sessions on the topics that YOU get to pick, on-demand video recordings of previous Review Sessions, and the weekly newsletter.

In addition, I’m excited to announce that my first P.A.S.S. Program class has “graduated.”  It was a great semester with them, and I think we all learned a lot.  It was the first time that I have offered the P.A.S.S. program, but it won’t be the last.  We have plans to start another class in February, so definitely be on the look-out for that.  In the P.A.S.S. Program, we talk about things that will help you get through nursing school (or study for HESI/NCLEX after nursing school).  Usually we cover topics like test anxiety, study strategies, setting goals, and test-taking strategies.  But the P.A.S.S. program is all about YOU, so the topics depend a lot on what the students in the program most want help with.  Over the Christmas break, I’ll start putting out more information about the new P.A.S.S. class starting in February.

So anyway, that’s where we’re at right now.  I’m still working on things behind the scenes, but it will continue be a little bit slow in coming until I can find a good babysitter to help me out.  Then watch out…we’ll be doing even more P.A.S.S. classes, videos, blog posts, and study guides to help you get through nursing school with as little stress as possible!

Tactile Learning Style

Oct 11

NicoleLearning Theory No Comments

Although exact numbers a difficult to find, many websites seem to suggest that Tactile Learners are in the minority.  When I started tutoring nursing students, however, I was surprised to find that most of my students considered themselves tactile learners.  And when I conducted a survey of Your Nursing Tutor members a few week ago, that survey supported my observations.  54% of members who responded said that they thought they were tactile learners!

Now, my little survey is far from scientific, but I think it illustrates a potential problem with nursing education.  Follow along with me.  First, many nursing students are tactile learners.  Second, nursing has traditionally been a “hands-on” profession.  Thirdly, we test our students with…written exams?

Now, there are very good reasons for using written exams to test nurses-to-be.  Even though nursing is still in many ways a hands-on profession, there is a growing number of nursing areas that are less hands-on and even more knowledge-intensive than ever before.  In addition, it’s just not possible to try and administer a one-on-one clinical demonstration exam to every single nursing student who takes the NCLEX each year…that would have been over 200,000 students in 2009 alone!  Even if they administered a hands-on exam every day of the year, that would be about 550 exams every single day…can you imagine the wait-list to get tested?

So as a Tactile learner, you’re stuck being tested primarily with written material, so you  might as well make the best of it!  But how?

The best thing to do are to make sure your study habits help your learning style.  Do you primarily learn by listening and taking notes during lecture?  Reading and highlighting the textbook?  Because these are not the best way for you to learn (or for anyone to learn, for that matter).  You need to find ways to get yourself more involved in the material.

It’s not as difficult as you might think.  Here’s some ideas to try:

• If you’re trying to memorize something, pace around the room as you speak the information out loud.  The movement from your body will help you remember.
• If you study with a group, consider doing a role play!  Assign one student to be the patient, and another to be the nurse.  The patient has to pretend to have all the basic signs and symptoms of a particular disease, and the nurse has to do a proper assessment, ask questions, figure out what is going on with the patient, and what interventions should be done.
• Build a model of a body part or organ to help you learn the A&P.  For example, I built a set of “lungs” out of a couple balloons and an old flour canister.  Now it’s easy to see how movement from the diaphragm makes the lungs expand and contract!
• Take frequent breaks when studying, but don’t get sidetracked!  Try setting a timer for 15-20 minutes…no email, facebook, or any other distractions during that time!  Just study.  When the timer goes off, reset it for 3-5 minutes and do something active during your break!  Then start again.
• When reading your text, stop after each section and try to explain (in your own words!) what you just read.  Give your explanation out loud, if possible, and make sure you “talk” with your hands while you do it!

These are just some of the many ideas you can use to make your tactile learning style an asset instead of a challenge.  Let me know if you have any other good ideas that work for you!

Does Your Learning Style Matter?

Sep 17

NicoleLearning Theory No Comments

Does your Learning Style matter?  Short answer:  Yes!  Longer answer:   Yes, but…

But there are other things that matter, too.  A lot of students already know that learning style makes a difference in how well they learn information.  They might even have a pretty good idea about what their own learning style is (Auditory?  Visual?  Tactile/Kinesthetic?).  But what you might NOT know is how to incorporate your learning style into your study time.  And how to study and learn information deeply enough that it actually becomes a part of you, not just a random fact that disappears after the exam.

Over the next week I am going to highlight each of the three primary learning styles, and discuss how to identify your learning style, how to adjust your study strategies to compliment your learning style, and some of the common studying challenges that people with that learning style face (they might surprise you!).

New Review Session Software

Aug 20

NicoleUncategorized No Comments

One big piece of feedback that we got from our survey was that it is sometimes rather difficult to hear the review session recordings when watching them online.  Unfortunately, the sound quality was limited by the software we were using, so we’ve decided to go back to the drawing board and test out some new software.  So far, so good!  The new recordings seem to be a much higher quality video, and definitely easier to hear.  So check out our recent Review Session recordings on the “Video” tab and let us know if you like them better.  The downside is that it will take a little bit longer to load than the old video format, but I think it’s worth the wait!

Or, better yet, join us at our next Live Review Session and let us know how you like actually USING the new Review Session Software!  See you soon!

How to Stay Motivated

Aug 11

NicoleUncategorized No Comments

One of the toughest things in nursing school is staying motivated to do the hard work and studying that needs to be done in order to succeed.  It gets even harder when you encounter a challenge like failing a class, an exit HESI, or NCLEX.  How do you hang on to that fresh, excited, energetic feeling you had on the first day of nursing school?

Zig Ziglar, a well-known motivational speaker and successful salesman, says, “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing—that’s why we recommend it daily.”  How true!  We can’t expect that the motivation we have on Day One of nursing school will stay strong unless we are frequently (constantly?) renewing it.

With the new Fall semester getting ready to begin, I challenge you to find some ways to motivate yourself daily.  For me, that usually means I find time to read the Bible, pray, watch a movie, or make time for a nice, long nap.  It doesn’t have to take long (in fact, since you’re in nursing school, many days you’ll only have time for a short dose of motivation!).  Maybe you spend a minute daydreaming about what a great nurse you’re going to be.  Or maybe you spend a few extra minutes playing with your kids to remind you of why you’re going back to school.  Whatever you do, motivate yourself daily!

Survey Reminder

Aug 05

NicoleUncategorized No Comments

Just wanted to remind everyone that tomorrow (Friday) is the LAST day to complete the Your Nursing Tutor survey.  The Fall semester is preparing to start, and Your Nursing Tutor wants to be there with you…complete with whatever it is you need most to succeed!  Please just take 10 minutes of your time to let us know what you think of Your Nursing Tutor, and what you think of some of the additional ideas and services we are considering for the future.  Just log-in to the website and click on the link under the “To-Do” list on the right hand side of the webpage.  Thanks!