Tips & Strategies for Year 2

• In my opinion, 2^nd year is one of the busiest years in this program. It is the year where you will really start to grow in terms of your nursing knowledge and skills. So again, staying organized is one of the keys to your success.
• Remember to use your daily planner and schedule in all of your midterms, quizzes, exams, and all of the important assignments that are due. 

• TIP – Start making a data collection of all the medications you come across when doing your weekly patient research.
• Next, create a chart in ‘Word’ and save all of your drug information in there. As the semester goes on, you will find that you will start to come across the same medications a lot of the times. Now all you have to do is copy and paste the information when you’re doing your client research. This will save you time and energy.
• For example,

Name of Drug	Classification	Mechanism of Action	Indication: why does THIS patient take this med	Main side effects, Nursing considerations & Client teaching
Morphine 5-10MG IV/SC Q3HR PRN	Opioid analgesic	Depresses pain impulses	Mod-severe pain	CNS: dizziness, drowsiness, H/A CV: bradycardia GI: N/V, constipation

• TEAMWORK – next to being organized, you must learn how to collaborate between all members of the healthcare team (i.e. your fellow classmates, RNs, care-aides, physicians, etc.) and foster a team nursing environment.
• Be the first person to offer help to another nurse
• Be PROACTIVE with your communication…ask for help if you need it.

• Complete your second non-nursing elective…This is a must! 2^nd year is a busy year so you’ll most likely have to take this during your summer break. Remember, our goal here is for you to maximize your time and reach your full potential.
• The big rationale for you to have your second non-nursing elective done is that, you need to make room during 3^rd year so that you can take your first Critical Care course which will also count as your nursing elective.

• As mentioned earlier, this is the year where you will start to accumulate a large body of nursing knowledge. In order for you to keep growing, you need to start educating your patients during your medical/surgical clinical rotations.
• Make client teaching a part of your daily routine during your clinical.
• I found the best time to educate patients were during medication administration
• For example, you can start by asking them, “do you know what this medication is for?” Many times, your patients won’t have a clue…so this a great time to teach them about their medications.
• By educating your patients, this allows them to make ‘Informed Decisions’  

• NCLEX study guide book – as mentioned before, bring this with you to every class, whatever you’re learning that day, go to that section of the book and make notes, answer some questions, skim the information, etc...
• Then at the end of the year, review the sections that you touched upon during the school year.

• Start committing specific Lab values by memory. For example, what are normal lab values for Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, Phosphate, and Magnesium?
• More importantly, start learning what the signs and symptoms are if these lab values are abnormal…for instance, how would a patient present who is hyperkalemic? What would be your nursing interventions?
• If you want to maximize your time and ace your NCLEX, commit to these by memory.