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Studying with Picmonic

I’ve written about the different learning styles before: auditory, visual, and tactile. Some students learn better getting their hands dirty and physically acting out a lesson. Others do better by listening to a lecture or watching a skill performed. In this post we’ll take a deeper dive into an app geared towards visual learners, and how it can really help students master those hard-to-hone skills.

Picmonic is the app I wish I’d had when I was in nursing school. It encompasses two of the greatest tools nursing students need to master complex topics: visuals, and repetition. Its platform epitomizes one of my favorite adages: Study smarter, not harder. I found Picmonic as a nurse educator, after I’d already graduated from nursing school, when searching for tools to help nursing students with challenging topics.

How It Works

Once you’ve downloaded the Picmonic app and created a profile, you can search for just about any nursing topic you need help with. For example, let’s say you’re learning about Electrolyte Imbalances in your Med Surg lecture, and you are having a hard time grasping some of the concepts. Searching for “electrolyte imbalances” in the app brings up a plethora of content aimed at helping you understand these topics.

The topic itself is broken down into all the different types of imbalances (hyperkalemia, hypokalemia, hypercalcemia, etc) and the app organizes the lesson by the nursing process, beginning with assessment. Each lesson also provides the approximate amount of time it will take you to complete the lesson.

Once you’ve selected a topic, you can choose whether you want to quiz yourself to assess your current knowledge, or go straight to the interactive lesson.

Now for the fun part. Once you start playing the Picmonic, an animated demonstration of the process of hypokalemia begins, with a voiceover explaining it in clinical terms. The visual aspect of the lesson, combined with word association strategies, aims to commit to memory clinical processes and things to look out for as a nurse.

The Best Study Buddy

Having the Picmonic app at your disposal is like having a study buddy with you wherever you go. The time stamps of each lesson help you map out how much time you want to spend studying a certain topic. Because every student’s learning needs are different, Picmonic lets you create a playlist of the topics you need to spend time on, and you can make those playlists as long or short as you need. You can make playlists for 30 min, 45 min, an hour, or 2 hours: However long you need to fit in studying, whether you’re driving to clinicals or studying at home. 

Quizzing

When I was in nursing school, it seemed like every assignment and exam had an element of preparation for the NCLEX. Picmonic is no different. NCLEX in its current form is an adaptive test, meaning that once you’ve answered a certain number of questions about a topic correctly, the test moves on to a new topic. With smart quizzing through Picmonic, you’ll be asked the questions on things that need to be reviewed and worked on without having to remember what you need to study. The app keeps track of what you got right, wrong, and how long it’s been since you studied something. This takes remembering what areas you’re lacking in off your plate, letting the app do that for you.

Wrapping It Up

Picmonic is an app that I recommend any nursing student use as a supplement to their current study strategies. The lessons break down intimidating topics into simple, easy-to-understand illustrations that are easy to commit to memory. Even if you’re not primarily a visual learner, the quizzes provided through the app will prepare you for the adaptive style of the NCLEX that you will sit for one day.

You can download the Picmonic app by going here. Readers of the Teachable Nurse Blog get 20% off their purchase!

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Memorizing Medications

Going into my sophomore year of nursing school, I felt a dread unlike any I had experienced the previous semester. This was because I would be taking Pharmacology, and the horror stories passed down from former Pharmacology veterans were enough to make anyone rethink their career choice. . Not only had I heard of the daunting hours of memorizing medications and their classes, but I had seen the Overwhelmed Pharm Student in all her sleep-deprived glory. I would watch my peers who were further along in the nursing program burn the midnight oil as I would leave the student center at night, me off to bed and them chugging their fourth cup of coffee going on hour four of studying pharmacokinetics.

This is what I knew about taking Pharmacology before I even stepped foot into the lecture hall: 1) it was considered one of the most difficult nursing courses, 2) I would spend most of my “free time” memorizing drug classes and side effects, and 3) “Pharm party” was not nearly as fun as it sounded: just another name for the study groups who met to learn meds. 

What I didn’t know, but would soon learn, was this: the foundations I laid in this course would serve me in every nursing class going forward, including how to categorize medication classes to make memorizing each med less daunting, and that “beta-blockers make me LOL” (if that last one doesn’t make sense, give it time and keep on reading!). 

Here are some strategies for making med management a little more, well, manageable:

Start broad, then go narrow

There are over 20,000 FDA-approved drugs currently in circulation. Your goal is not to memorize each individual medication and their interactions, side effects, and uses. Each drug falls under a broader category known as a drug class. Start with memorizing the different drug classes, and you will find that once you’ve gained a foundational understanding of the classes, memorizing individual drugs will come easier.

Make notecards

You’ve heard this one before; probably more times than you can count. But you’d be surprised how many people never learned how to make notecards in a way that actually helps the learning stick. Making notecards to help you memorize medications goes beyond writing a med on one side and a short description on the back. In Pharmacology, you need to memorize both drug classes and individual medications. The easiest way to do this is to create two sets of notecards: the 1st set with all the drug classes, and the 2nd set with the individual drugs. Here is an example of what each type of notecard should look like:

Record yourself

My nursing school was a three-hour drive from my hometown. I didn’t go home often during the school year, but when I did, I used that time to study. I took advantage of the three hours without screen distractions to listen to pre-recorded voice memos of me reading my notecards. This not only allowed me to hear the material repetitively, but I could pause the voice memo when the recording said the front of the notecard, allowing me to quiz myself even though I couldn’t read my notecards. Even if you don’t have a three-hour car drive in your future, you can apply this technique anytime you’re driving to the store, walking to class, or even lying in bed, dreading your next Pharma lecture.

Get colorful

Categorization is a useful technique that helps your brain quickly retrieve information later. Choose a different color pen or marker when writing out the different classes of drugs. Then, when writing out each medication that falls under that class, use the corresponding-colored pen. Matching concepts with visual cues is a way to increase your memory capacity by giving your brain a map back to the original concept. 

Generic vs. Trade

As if it weren’t enough that there are thousands of drugs to know as a nurse, nearly all drugs have two names: a generic name and a trade name. Memorize the generic names first. The generic name will give hints as to which drug class it falls under and will be seen and used more commonly in clinical practice. For example: There are several different drugs that fall into the beta-blocker class. However, a common theme of these drugs is that most generic names end in “lol.” If you already know the mechanism of action of the beta-blocker class, then each time you see a drug ending in -lol, you already know everything about that drug!

Wrapping it up

Studying pharmacology is a challenging and imperative part of becoming a nurse. You will need to be able to commit drugs to memory in courses after you finish Pharmacology, and if you form healthy studying habits now, you will be thanking yourself in the future. 

References

Logue, Grainne. How Color-Coding Your Work Improves Your Memory. 2018. https://blog.buckets.co/how-color-coding-your-work-improves-your-memory-f2094a8817ce

https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-basics/fact-sheet-fda-glance#:~:text=There%20are%20over%2020%2C000%20prescription,300%20FDA%2Dlicensed%20biologics%20products.

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Communicating with Nursing Instructors

Whether nursing is a second career for you, or you are entering nursing school straight out of high school, learning to communicate with, seek help from, and build relationships with your nursing instructors is an important skill. Your nursing instructors will be your biggest supporters and your biggest critics throughout nursing school. Their job is to adequately equip you with the skills needed to safely care for patients, while correcting any behaviors that might threaten patient safety. Here are some examples of situations in which you’ll need to be able to converse with your nursing instructor to be sure you are getting everything you can out of your nursing program:

You don’t understand an assignment.

Understanding what is expected of you as a nursing student is crucial for success. Asking for clarification from your peers is always an option, but sometimes you need to go directly to the source. Admitting you are confused about something shows your instructor that you care about doing things the right way, and it’s a skill you will use as a nurse when asking for clarification about patients’ orders. Emailing your instructor is probably the most convenient way to go about this issue, especially because you will then have explicit written instructions you can refer back to multiple times.

Bonus: You can then be a resource to your classmates when they have questions about the same topic, because you’ll know you have the most reliable info straight from the source!

You failed a test.

When I failed my first nursing exam, I thought my career was over before it even started. That might sound dramatic, but if you’re a nursing student, I’m sure you can relate! Nursing school is tough, and exams are meant to challenge you in ways you’re probably not used to. If you perform poorly on a nursing exam, it’s probably because you need extra help understanding the content. Demonstrating to your nursing instructors that you want to do better and are willing to reach out and understand where you went wrong will make your professors want to help you even more. This conversation should be had in person and should be done as soon as possible after you get your grade back. Email your professor ahead of time (don’t just drop by unannounced) and ask if you can set up a meeting to discuss your recent test grade. Before going to your meeting, write a list of questions or talking points you want to address during your meeting. This will help keep you on track during your conversation, since it can be a little nerve-wracking speaking one on one with your instructor in what probably feels like such a high-stress situation. Remember that they are there to help you, not make you feel worse, and having planned talking points will serve you well.

You need to ask for an extension on an assignment.

More than likely, nursing school is not the only thing taking up time in your life. Whether you are a parent, an athlete, or working a part-time job while taking your nursing classes, the time may come when it is necessary to ask for an extension on an assignment. Instructors will usually give you information about how to go about asking for an extension during the first week of classes, but there are some basic guidelines to follow when this is needed:

-Don’t make it a regular thing. Instructors should be on your side and want you to succeed. Therefore, they may be willing to grant you an extension occasionally, but they will know if you begin taking advantage of their generosity.

-Be diplomatic when asking for an extension. Be factual and simple with your explanation unless they ask for you to expand.

-Be prepared to offer any documentation your instructor may ask for. This could include a doctor’s note, a note from a coach, etc.

Summing it up

When you establish an open line of communication with your nursing instructors, it empowers you to continue to seek clarification and understanding when you enter the hospital. You will constantly be interacting with doctors, nurses, and administrators as a nurse. Nursing school is where you can master these interaction skills while guaranteeing you are getting everything you can out of your program. 

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Studying in Nursing School

Discovering how you learn best is one of the most fundamental things a nursing student can do. Studying is a skill you develop in nursing school and take with you to your clinical and eventually on to your career as a nurse. Once you graduate, you will take the skills learned and use them to study for the NCLEX, and even on the job when your patients have conditions with which you are unfamiliar.

Learning

Not all students learn the same, and therefore there is no “right way.” The important thing is to figure out which way works for YOU. Some people are tactile learners (you learn best by physically acting out concepts); others are auditory learners (you learn best by listening); and others are visual learners (you learn best by seeing a concept demonstrated). I will go into greater detail about these differences in a later blog post. However you learn best, you should have a basic routine for absorbing new information. This is where the “Read One, Watch One, Do One” process comes into play. For example, you’re learning how to insert an IV for the first time. You read the procedure as it is outlined in your textbook, you watch your professor perform one on the simulation manikin, and finally, you perform one yourself on a patient.

Note-taking

When it comes to note-taking, there is no one-size-fits-all. While there is no “right way” to take notes in nursing school, there is absolutely a “wrong way.” Good note taking is not writing everything down you hear your professor say verbatim, nor is it highlighting every single line of your textbook. In nursing school, I had two different methods for note taking in the classroom and at home. In the classroom, I printed off the PowerPoint slides from the lecture ahead of time so I would have the handout in front of me. I would print it out in “Notes” format, with three slides to a page and lines next to each slide for me to take notes.

The best strategy for note taking while reading textbooks I have found is the Cornell Method. The basic idea of this method is to separate the paper you are using to take notes into three sections: notes, key words, and summary. This method can be used in lectures as well. Try different methods of note taking to find out what best works for you. Once you figure this out, stick with that method. Sticking with a consistent note-taking routine will help solidify the knowledge you gain. This is a simple adaptation from the Cornell note taking method that you can copy and alter to fit your note taking needs.

Studying

In nursing school, you are expected to retain huge amounts of information about multiple topics at a time, and this can get overwhelming. The best way to keep up? After each lecture, review your notes immediately. If you have back-to-back classes, do it the next time you have a break. Reviewing the information as you learn it will come in handy when it comes time for the exam. After each class, read your notes. Then, close your eyes and try to recall everything you can from what you just read. If you want to take it one step further, write down on a blank piece of paper everything you remember from what you read. It takes reviewing a fact at least three times for it to really stick.

Summing it up

Nursing school is intense. Studying for tests and quizzes can be daunting, and sometimes you will feel like you did everything you could, and it still may not be enough. But your commitment to mastering the material WILL make the process easier, and you will succeed. Because all the time and effort you invest into your schooling will pay off when you become a nurse. Developing these skills will be invaluable in the real world of nursing, regardless of where your career takes you.

References:

Cornell Note Taking. 2017. https://medium.goodnotes.com/study-with-ease-the-best-way-to-take-notes-2749a3e8297b

There’s no finish line because it’s not a race

This past January I began my first nursing instructor position. I was appointed as Adjunct Instructor for a BSN program, teaching Adult Health Lab. I’m only 4 weeks in and I’ve never felt so fulfilled so early on in a new job! Last week I taught my students how to give injections. For some, it was their first time handling a needle and syringe. I had a simulation med cart with practice injection pads, medications, and scenarios for each student. They were to go one by one and follow the scenario on each card. Before we began, I could feel each student’s uneasyness eminating from them, making the air thick with tension. As each student came forward and the others huddled around the simulation med cart, I reminded everyone that we were there to observe and support the student performing the injection, and offer suggestions if that student got stuck (no pun intended). Knowing the other students were there to learn alongside, rather than simply watch them or judge them as they drew up meds for the first time, calmed the students’ nerves. The air became lighter and my students’ body language immediately relaxed.

The classroom should be a safe space to make mistakes. It can be intimidating performing tasks in front of people, especially when it is something you’ve never done before. But the moment a student’s hesitancy turns to confidence, I know that not only have I done my job as their instructor, but their “inner nurse” is coming out. It’s such an exciting moment for me to get to share with them!

This moment with my students reminded me that, as nurses, we all begin at the same starting line. None of us are born knowing how to draw blood, start IVs, and give injections. And honestly, there is no finish line. Nursing is a career, not a race. We will never be “finished” learning and growing. Nursing has so many specialties and avenues to choose from, it is physically impossible to become an expert in each area in one lifetime.

My goal as an instructor is to bridge the gap between uncertain and scared student to self-assured and competent nurse. So whether you are a student, novice, or experienced nurse, remember that you once were new to all the information and skills that come with nursing, and try to be a resource to those who are still learning.   

Happy Nursing!
Morgan

Non-traditional Jobs for Nursing Students

Nursing externships are a fantastic way to build skills over the months you have off nursing school, or even during the school year. Some hospitals offer programs that hire nursing students as techs or aides. However, many students don’t live near hospitals that offer these, or they go home during the summer and can’t find a program that will take them. That was my situation in nursing school, so I had to think outside the box to get experience I could put on my resume during the summer. Here are some viable options for student nurses looking for job opporunities that don’t require a license:

Camp Counselor

Many summer camps are catered to children with specific health conditions such as diabetes and kidney disease. As a camp counselor you would have opportunities to use the nursing skills you’ve learned so far and put them to use in a supervised setting. You could also work alongside the camp nurse and help with first-aid. Pro tip: This is an especially good opportunity for student nurses wanting to go into pediatrics.

Internship at a Healthcare Non-profit

Non-profits related to health care usually have a need for summer interns, and many times there are grant-funded positions, for paid opportunities. Research non-profits in your area that have openings. I worked as a summer intern at the Tennessee Kidney Foundation the summer after my sophomore year of nursing school. I had my assessment and vitals skills under my belt, so I was able to plan and implement health screenings in my city through my internship. These let me utilize skills like blood pressure readings, urine tests, finger sticks, and BMI screenings. This also opened doors for me to shadow at a Dialysis Clinic, something I would never have considered before. This can widen your search when you begin looking for full-time jobs in the future.

Ambulatory Clinic Assistant

Working as a medical assistant or clinic secretary at an ambulatory clinic is a great way to shadow multiple disciplines and network within a healthcare system. There is an abundance of specialty clinics, and even if you’re not performing typical nursing tasks, it can give you a unique opportunity to develop professional connections within the field you’re pursuing. Some examples include fertility clinics, pediatric clinics, outpatient surgery clinics, and dermatology.

Medical Scribe

Providers are constantly in need of medical scribes. You don’t have to be licensed to be a scribe, and they are popular in the hospital setting. If you’re a newer nursing student who hasn’t mastered technical skills yet, getting a job as a medical scribe can get your foot in the door to a hospital or area of medicine that interests you. Medical scribes follow providers while they round to record notes for them, collecting information to record in the Electronic Health Record (EHR).

Personal Caregiver

Many families need caregivers for their loved ones. Care.com is an excellent site to visit if you want to look for positions, or even advertise yourself as a nursing student looking for caregiving opportunities. One of my favorite jobs throughout nursing school was caregiving for a family I found on Care.com. Whether your passion is with the older generations or kiddos, people of all ages need someone to help with activities of daily living and companionship. Student nurses are perfect for these roles, and the experience you gain will translate well to a resume.

What jobs are missing from this list? Comment below!