Hi everyone! I’m a first year adult nursing student, and I was wondering if anyone has any advice on how to build my nursing knowledge outside of university.
So far, we’ve mainly covered things like personal hygiene and how to put on PPE, and I feel like there’s so much more I need to learn. I’ve only had 2 clinical skills sessions, and then just lectures about academic writing, referencing, talking about our assessment etc. My second clinical skills session was on Thursday, which was about personal care, honestly, I came away feeling like I barely knew anything. Throughout the session, my module lead was asking us questions (it kinda was giving the impression she expected us to know stuff e.g. “Why do we lay the beds flat?” “What are bed sores?” “What’s cardiac arrest?”), I kind of struggled to answer most questions she was asking, I’ve never had any healthcare experience or general caring responsibilities ever.
I know I’m only in my first year and that I’m not expected to know everything yet, but I’d really like to start building my knowledge and confidence rather than just relying on what we cover in lectures and practical sessions. They do give us materials from clinicalskills.net and we use it for the clinical sessions, but it’s just picture diagrams and a bunch of writing? When I look at them I feel like I’m not actually learning anything, I haven’t tried to take notes so maybe that could also be why?
For those who are student nurses or qualified nurses, what resources would you recommend for learning outside of uni? Are there any good books, YouTube channels, websites, podcasts, or other resources that helped you when you were starting out? I’d also love to know what topics you’d recommend focusing on as a first year student, especially when it comes to basic nursing knowledge and clinical skills.
I don’t actually start learning anatomy and physiology etc. Until November when the module starts. I sometimes feel a bit overwhelmed because I don’t know what I should be learning first or where to start, so any advice, tips, or recommendations would be really appreciated!
Thank youuuu