Learning to Learn - How to improve the way you study in nursing or medical school

Once accepted into an accredited nursing or medical school program, you will be expected to complete a rigorous curriculum heavy on the basic sciences: anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, microbiology, pathology, and pharmacology.

Getting in tune with your own personal learning strengths is key to developing and improving successful study habits that can spell the difference between success and frustration in a highly competitive environment.

Over the past 20 years voluminous research has been devoted to better understanding how we learn. Learning approaches that cater to individual learning strengths are helping teachers adopt more effective teaching practices and students learn more effective study skills.

From a learning standpoint, the more diverse and varied the ways we acquire and study information, the better the chance new learning will root and be retained, allowing the students to apply concepts divergently, or in a number of situations, and under different circumstances.

Mind/Body Studying Techniques

Whether or not your chosen field is in nursing or medical school, modern learning research has laid to rest a time honored assumption among educators, no matter the subject.

The idea that learning is essentially a mental exercise has been the source of frustration for students and teachers for millennia. Modern research primarily in the field of special education has shown this idea is essentially false.

Learning is not all in your head. Studies on brain activity of students whose primary study approach depends primarily on rote memorization without relevant application, were shown to make fewer neurological connections. The result: weaker retention rates, frustration and low self-esteem.

Memory and mnemonic techniques:

Memory and mneumonic techniques are simple memorization strategies that access or que, prior knowledge and mental associations. These techniques are an especially helpful studying aid for nursing and medical school students who are expected to learn and master specific process and procedure oriented information.

The idea is to assign a memorable word beginning with the first letter of each step of the process or content to be memorized. The middle school nonsense statement: "Please excuse my dear aunt sally" is an example of a mneumonic device used to help pre-algebra students remember the order of operations for solving multi-step algebraic equations.

Test Taking Skills

Simple strategies to improve test taking skills begin the night before. Learning research experts recommend the following preparation tips for the night before the test:

- Get a good-night-sleep (as opposed to pulling "all nighters")
- Drink water. Avoid caffeinated beverages such as coffee and soda. Caffeine is a diuretic that dehydrates the brain and robs it of essential vitamins, like vitamin C that are essential for good thinking.
- Load up on high protein foods. Avoid carb and sugar heavy snacks, foods that give you a burst of energy and increased concentration in the short term, but will leave you fatigued and lazy after they are processed by the body. The brain loves protein: beef jerky, nuts, fish, eggs and soy products are high in protein and help maximize brain activity.

Finally, get up an move around while reviewing your notes. Studying on your feet not only helps keep you awake but integrates fine and gross motor synapses in the brain. Remember, the more areas of the brain activated during the studying process, the more information is retained.

School Resources

Finally, nursing and medical school students who want to learn the best ways to study and learn should investigate the resources available through their university student services center. Tutoring, both computer assisted, peer and professor led, as well as access to study group meeting rooms are some of the most basic amenities afforded by most nursing and medical school colleges and universities.

Consult the following list of recommended reading for additional information on learning to capitalize on your individual study and learning strengths

Additional Resources:

Nurse's Guide to Successful Test-Taking, Marian B. Sides, Nancy B. Cailles: J. B. Lippincott, Pub.
Test-Taking Techniques for Beginning Nursing Students, Patricia M. Nugent, Barbara A. Vitale: F. A. Davis, Pub.
Successful Problem-Solving & Test-Taking for the Beginning Nursing Student, Patricia Hoefler: Meds, Inc., Pub.
Math for Meds, Curren and Munday, W.I. Publications; Mathematics for Health Careers, Castellon, Baker, Stone: Delmar Pub.
Programmed Mathematics for Nurses, George Sackheim, Lewis Robins: McGraw Hill, Pub.
Math for Nurses, a Problem-Solving Approach, Sally Lipsey, Donna D. Ignatavicius: W. B. Saunders, Pub.

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