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Sienna
Student
Farmington, Utah
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What are the best study tips for Nurse practitioner school?
What are the best study tips for nurse practitioner school? #Spring25
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2 answers
Theresa Granger, PhD, MN, ARNP, FNP-C
College Nursing Professor, Nurse Practitioner
8
Answers
Seattle, Washington
Updated
Theresa’s Answer
As a nurse practitioner and educator, here's what I recommend you do: Follow these steps.
Have a realistic work-life-school balance. Don't try to do too much or you will burn yourself out. Make time to have fun, which is something that many students do not do.
Get involved in a small study group - even if you are in an online program! Don't try to do school alone. You will need people who can support you and understand what it is you are going through. Often friends and family do not understand what school is like, but your student peers will!
Remind yourself, friends, and family that school is only a temporary commitment. It is not a forever thing. This will help to keep you motivated when things get difficult.
Set a realistic study schedule. It is better to study in small amounts more often, then large amounts less often. Don't rely on artificial intelligence or other mechanisms to study - they only get smarter with repeated use, you do not!
Seek out professional mentoring from a faculty member or working nurse practitioner. You will need someone who can give you professional guidance.
Theresa recommends the following next steps:
Evangeline Watkins
Diagnostic Medical Sonographer
36
Answers
Santa Ana, California
Updated
Evangeline’s Answer
Hi, I'm not a nurse practitioner, but I am getting my degree in the medical/healthcare field. Here are some tips that have helped me the most in passing my registry exams.
Build a routine:
Develop good study habits! Make sure to block off time for just studying and work it into your day. You may find that this looks different for you compared to other students. Maybe you want you wake up early to study, or maybe you work best at night. It's good to have a dedicated study spot. (Trust me, your bed will not work.) If you have a desk, that's great, but you can also use a kitchen table. If studying at home is not an option, find a good coffee shop or library near you. You don't have to go to the same spot every time, but have a few spots and experiment with what works best for you.
Don't sleep on textbooks:
I know most of us going into this field maybe didn't have to put in as much effort into studying as before, and I know for me I never read any textbooks in high school. In college, this will change. Textbooks are so rich in knowledge that it's amazing. If the ones provided by the school aren't clicking or don't make sense, look online to see what textbooks other nurse practitioners are using for their exams. There are also study packets put together by people that are sold on Etsy that have PDFs or flashcards; these can be good supplement material, but it is not a complete replacement.
Track your tasks:
With so much going on (multiple classes, self-care, social life), it is important to use a calendar or planner to track what you are doing each day. To-do lists can also help. When I sit down at the start of each day, I write down appointments, classes, and major things I need to get done and set aside time to do them. This can help you reach your study goals and turn in assignments on time. Plus it's really satisfying to check something off your to-do list; this can give you the motivation to keep going.
Use AI responsibly:
I say this very cautiously because some people use AI in a way that isn't helpful. Don't use it to do assignments or cheat, but use it as a study tool. If a passage in a textbook isn't making sense, you can copy and paste the paragraph into an algorithm and ask it to explain it to you in a different way. Some prompts I've seen are "explain this to me like I'm 5" or "explain this to me using girl talk". AI can also be great for generating practice questions or tests. If you have a rubric or know what topics will be on the test, paste it into your AI system and ask for practice questions. Make sure to double-check your notes or textbook as AI can sometimes make mistakes.
Study methods that work best:
If you've done any research into study methods, you've probably heard of passive studying vs active studying. Passive studying is just observing knowledge without altering it. Examples include reading or taking verbatim notes. Active studying is something that requires you to think or change the knowledge into a different format. Examples include practice questions, the blurt method (wring down everything you remember about a topic and going back to notes and adding to it), and the Feynman technique (explaining the topic to someone who knows nothing about the topic, you can use a pet, family member, plant, stuffed animal, etc). Active study methods are typically best, but a good combination is what I've been using.
Medicine specific:
Make sure to learn your prefixes and suffixes. Medical terminology is just the same parts of words repeated over and over. Ex: "hepat-o"= liver. Learn these and learn them well as they will come up again. Make sure to learn the vasculature of an organ really well. You will find that everything in the body is connected, and things that affect one organ may have an effect on another due to the vasculature system. Ex: spleen enlargement with liver cirrhosis. Also, look at diagrams for these things as it will help you visualize them better. Try drawing them out yourself. Do a light review before class. Often, these topics are so complex that if you go into them without any foundational knowledge, it will be hard to grasp. Even if it's just glancing at the slide presentation an hour before class it will open you up to doing other things in class, such as adding to any notes you took before or creating flash cards during lecture. (Flashcards are so helpful.)
If you have any other questions or need any other tips feel free to reach out. Hope this helps, and good luck during your program!
Build a routine:
Develop good study habits! Make sure to block off time for just studying and work it into your day. You may find that this looks different for you compared to other students. Maybe you want you wake up early to study, or maybe you work best at night. It's good to have a dedicated study spot. (Trust me, your bed will not work.) If you have a desk, that's great, but you can also use a kitchen table. If studying at home is not an option, find a good coffee shop or library near you. You don't have to go to the same spot every time, but have a few spots and experiment with what works best for you.
Don't sleep on textbooks:
I know most of us going into this field maybe didn't have to put in as much effort into studying as before, and I know for me I never read any textbooks in high school. In college, this will change. Textbooks are so rich in knowledge that it's amazing. If the ones provided by the school aren't clicking or don't make sense, look online to see what textbooks other nurse practitioners are using for their exams. There are also study packets put together by people that are sold on Etsy that have PDFs or flashcards; these can be good supplement material, but it is not a complete replacement.
Track your tasks:
With so much going on (multiple classes, self-care, social life), it is important to use a calendar or planner to track what you are doing each day. To-do lists can also help. When I sit down at the start of each day, I write down appointments, classes, and major things I need to get done and set aside time to do them. This can help you reach your study goals and turn in assignments on time. Plus it's really satisfying to check something off your to-do list; this can give you the motivation to keep going.
Use AI responsibly:
I say this very cautiously because some people use AI in a way that isn't helpful. Don't use it to do assignments or cheat, but use it as a study tool. If a passage in a textbook isn't making sense, you can copy and paste the paragraph into an algorithm and ask it to explain it to you in a different way. Some prompts I've seen are "explain this to me like I'm 5" or "explain this to me using girl talk". AI can also be great for generating practice questions or tests. If you have a rubric or know what topics will be on the test, paste it into your AI system and ask for practice questions. Make sure to double-check your notes or textbook as AI can sometimes make mistakes.
Study methods that work best:
If you've done any research into study methods, you've probably heard of passive studying vs active studying. Passive studying is just observing knowledge without altering it. Examples include reading or taking verbatim notes. Active studying is something that requires you to think or change the knowledge into a different format. Examples include practice questions, the blurt method (wring down everything you remember about a topic and going back to notes and adding to it), and the Feynman technique (explaining the topic to someone who knows nothing about the topic, you can use a pet, family member, plant, stuffed animal, etc). Active study methods are typically best, but a good combination is what I've been using.
Medicine specific:
Make sure to learn your prefixes and suffixes. Medical terminology is just the same parts of words repeated over and over. Ex: "hepat-o"= liver. Learn these and learn them well as they will come up again. Make sure to learn the vasculature of an organ really well. You will find that everything in the body is connected, and things that affect one organ may have an effect on another due to the vasculature system. Ex: spleen enlargement with liver cirrhosis. Also, look at diagrams for these things as it will help you visualize them better. Try drawing them out yourself. Do a light review before class. Often, these topics are so complex that if you go into them without any foundational knowledge, it will be hard to grasp. Even if it's just glancing at the slide presentation an hour before class it will open you up to doing other things in class, such as adding to any notes you took before or creating flash cards during lecture. (Flashcards are so helpful.)
If you have any other questions or need any other tips feel free to reach out. Hope this helps, and good luck during your program!