Are you a nursing student or pre-nursing student looking for information about nursing school or help with studying? Maybe you're an RN who enjoys the constant and continuous learning that comes with the job. Straight A Nursing Student is your online resource for all things nursing. Here you'll find study aids, lecture notes and tons of great information you can use to succeed in nursing school, in your prerequisite courses, and on the job. Good luck and congratulations on starting your journey toward a rewarding and demanding career!
About Me
I am an experienced critical care RN with about 8 years of titrating vasopressors under my belt. I absolutely love learning new things and have found that the best way to do that is to teach it to someone else. I am currently pursuing my Master's in nursing education and dream one day of teaching nursing students or becoming a clinical educator in the ICU. I've worked medical ICU and PACU, and love that I learn something new every single day I show up for work. When I'm not at the hospital, I am usually hanging out with my adorable husband, spoiling the cat I stole from my neighbors, enjoying the beautiful area we live in, sewing and repeatedly starting and stopping jogging. I hope you enjoy this site as much as I'm enjoying creating it. Best of luck to you!
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Thank you so much for your site. I agree the best way to learn is to teach the material to another person. Congratulations on all your accomplishments and I wish you the best on the CCRN.
Thank you for all your help God bless you
THANK YOU!!!!!!! This is so awesome! I start Med/Surg I tomorrow morning! One semester of nursing school down, plenty more to go! This is going to be such an awesome study help!
Good luck! You’ll love it 🙂
stumbled across your site… I am about to enter nursing school in less than a month and I have to tell you how amazing & informative you have been. Stylish writing & details regarding student nursing has been a pleasure to read. Thank you x a million!
Good luck with school!!!
I stumbled across this blog and I am enjoying reading the material posted. I am contemplating entering the nursing profession and I am sure the material presented will be helpful to me. Thanks so much. Your hard work is appreciated.
So glad you’re finding it helpful!
I love reading fellow nursing blogs and this one is great! Congratulations on all of your accomplishments and hope the CCRN program is going well!
I have recently started my own blog and I would love for you to check it out!
https://perfectlyimperfectnurse.wordpress.com
Will do! Thanks for visiting!!
I will be starting nursing school this Fall and I am so glad to find your website. I will read your nursing notes while I’m not yet busy. Thanks so much for sharing. You are a blessing!
Yay! Congrats! You’ll have so much fun 🙂
I found your website months back and I have to say, I am SO grateful for people (Nurses) like you. I just completed my first semester and going into second semester in about 3 weeks. I am so nervous but ready to get on that emotional roller coaster once again. Your positive vibe and outlook on nursing school is so reassuring and I thank you for that. Your notes are helpful and I like the fact that I can refer to them in a quick manner rather than having to sift through so much to get what I need. Thank you!!!!! =D
That’s great, Christine….glad it’s helping you! Have fun in 2nd semester…it was my favorite!
Just wanted to say thanks for sharing your knowledge through this site and resources. You would make a great Nurse Educator!
Thanks! I’d love to do that but decided I didn’t really feel like getting my MSN at this time…I started to, but it took me away from YOU GUYS!
Hi! Thank you so much for creating a wonderful blog!!! I am almost done with my 1st semester of nursing school, and wished I stumbled across this sooner! Im still trying to figure out how to study and what works best for me, so its great to see other people’s persoectives on it. Will be sharing this. 🙂
Glad you found us, too! Best of luck in school…you got this!
Nurse Mo, thank you for being my sister/bestie/sensai through this! I have always thought I chose the wrong career and I was just hoping to guide my own kiddos into healthcare. Until I saw other moms around me making the change, and now – now – it’s MY time. I have no history in healthcare, I have 4 kids, I’ve recently moved away from all family/friend support systems, and yet my husband and I both knew that it was now or never, and HERE I AM so ready and eager and excited to start!!!!! I have the a&p prereqs to knock out this fall and begin the ASN in January. I would love to have done the accelerated BSN but I need my family and myself to thrive through this transition.
That said, I had NO IDEA where to start once I was accepted in the school, but my husband loves podcasts so much that I figured there had to be one out there in the nursing world. You were the first one my finger landed on, I pressed play, and I’ve never looked back. You’re it. All of my eggs are in your basket, initially bc I don’t have anyone else, and more importantly bc you have everything I was hoping for and more! You answered every single question I had and didn’t know I had! My whole family listens with me bc Ive taken out the airpods and decided we’re all in this together. So if you’re in my car, its Mo. You want to snuggle in bed? It’s Mo. You want to help me fold laundry for cash? It’s Mo. I discussed DVTs with my 12yo today.
I’ve ordered the book and I plan to do your bootcamp this fall between my prereqs and the Jan cohort.
I can’t thank you enough for your help and guidance!!! Keep it coming!
Lauren….this made my day! Ok…who am I kidding…it made my week 🙂
I can’t wait for you to join me in Bootcamp! I am putting the finishing touches on it in the next two weeks…so there will be an email announcing its launch soon! To make sure you get notified, sign up for the email list 🙂
P.S. I also had NO history in healthcare…you got this!
Hey Nurse Mo
Love the podcast. You’re a lifesaver. It seems overnight that all of your podcast episodes have been taken off Spotify and Apple podcasts. As someone who listens to your podcast, can this be fixed ASAP? Your podcasts are so good and are a great resource. I’ve recommended them to all my nursing school friends. Please please please fix this
We’re having some glitches but hoping to get it fixed soon!
I just listened to the podcast episode on compassion fatigue. This topic is lightly covered in nursing school and I am grateful you chose to delve in a little deeper and be so open about your experience with this . I have committed to practicing self care and have noticed a huge difference in my ability to study and retain information. I have also had to make a change in my work environment due to compassion fatigue and wish I had known the importance of self care and had been able to recognize the signs earlier. Thank you for another amazing episode! I’m so happy to have you in my village of support as I start my journey into my nursing practice.
So happy it spoke to you, Angela!
Hi Nurse Mo! Thank you for being the best mentor around – I couldn’t image stumbling upon a better nursing resource! I am an adamant listener of your podcast and feel like I have even learned more practical information from it than from my nursing prerequisite courses!
I am planning to complete your crucial concepts bootcamp prior to starting my nursing program, however the current struggle is getting into a nursing program…. I have already completed a bachelors degree in an outside field and am pursuing accelerated second degree nursing programs. I believe my application weakness is lack of healthcare experience. I have tried contacting numerous hospitals and nursing home facilities for volunteer exposure, however have been sent away due to covid concerns. I am trying to avoid pursuing CNA/other certifications in order to save $$ for school.
Do you have recommendations for gaining healthcare exposure for pre-nursing students? Do you offer any shadowing or volunteer programs? Your wisdom has continued to encourage me to pursue this amazing career, but unfortunately at the same time I have continued to be discouraged by the competitiveness of California nursing schools. Again, thank you for all you (and your team) does!!
Hi Kelsey,
I’m sorry to hear you’re struggling to get into school. Yes, California is very impacted and the struggle is REAL! We don’t have any shadowing or volunteer programs…sorry. Probably one the fastest ways to get in (and through) nursing school in California is through a private school such as Samuel Merritt (be warned, it’s VERY expensive!).
Most schools utilize a points system for their applicants. If you can’t bump up your points with healthcare experience, is there anything else you can do? Improve your TEAS or HESI score or re-take a class to improve your GPA?
Are you flexible on where you live? There may be some programs in less populated areas that aren’t quite as impacted…but I realize that’s not always a viable option.
Another pathway that students don’t often explore is the LPN route, which involves getting your LPN and then getting into a bridge LPN-to-RN program. The great thing about this pathway is that you still reach your end goal, but many students do it with a lot less debt AND work while in the bridge program.
I wish I had more help to offer you and wish you the very best of luck!
Good Afternoon,
My name is Sara Shippy and I am the Project Coordinator for the California Nursing Students’ Association. I am reaching out to see if you would be interested in a Sponsorship for the 2021 CNSA Annual Convention this October. We currently have over 5,000 members and anticipate a great turnout this year. I am happy to provide more information or feel free to visit our website at https://cnsa1.memberclicks.net/convention.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Warm Regards,
Sara Shippy
Hi Sara,
Please send an email to hello@straightanursingstudent.com
Thanks so much!
Hi Nurse Mo!
I am getting ready for 2nd semester/Med Surge and i’m slowly dying inside with anxiety. I listened to your Med Surge success episode and have been trying to put some of your advice into action. I was looking online for an NCLEX book that separates the questions by body system and I couldn’t find one that I was confident in. Do you have any advice on which books are best? I was having a hard time because the online store don’t usually show preview. It’s hard to know if there will be rationales for right and wrong answers and for it to be divided by body systems.
Any advice would be wonderful whenever you have a chance.
Thank you for being the little cheerleader in my ear!
Happy Wednesday,
Selena Villegas
The Saunders books are categorized this way 🙂
I’d love a mentor I want the help to understand this face pace medical world but truth is some stuff just need to be broken down to its lowest level for it go its farthest! I want to make it and I will. I just need a mentor. Thanks so much!
Hi Marlene, there are a lot of free resources here for you on the website and I hope they help!
Hi Nurse Mo! I just started listening to your podcast (an awesome classmate recommended you) and I have to say, you are saving me in my med surg class. I’m a second semester nursing student, and man is it brutal! You have such an eloquent and clear way of explaining very difficult concepts and I am oh, so grateful for you for taking the time to share your knowledge and expertise. I am studying my butt off and part of my routine is listening to your podcasts and reading the blogs. I’m so happy I’m part of the Straight A Nursing community now, and I’ve told my entire class about you. My mom has been a nurse for 20 years and I raved about you to her as well, she was delighted to listen to you and get refreshed on some important concepts. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all that you do!!!!
I’m so glad to har this, Bridget! Thank you for sharing the podcast with your mom and your class 🙂 Best of luck to you!
Hi Nurse Mo!
I have been a nurse for 19 years. I spent 16 of those years on a very specialized surgical floor in the hospital. 3 years ago, I took a job in an Internal Medicine doctor’s office and found myself needing a brush up on certain topics. I came across your podcast at that time, and just wanted to tell you what a godsend it was! It allowed me to refresh my memory and helped with my transition between jobs. I know this is primarily for nursing students but wanted to tell you how much this seasoned nurse found it useful as well! I precept many nursing students and tell them all about this site and your podcast. Thank you for doing all this!
Thank you for sharing that Amanda…I am so glad the podcast has been helpful for you! We are forever students 🙂
Thank you so much for all your help. This is just amazing ! I cannon believe how much i remember after listening to your podcasts, it all makes sense. It changes the way of my thinking, i feel like im getting better at critical thinking.
That’s so wonderful to hear, Kaz! Thank you for sharing 🙂
Hi Nurse Mo,
I am a retired RN and stumbled upon your podcast last year. I listen now and then to keep fresh in all things nursing and have recommended your podcast to several nursing students in my life. I think this is an extremely valuable resource that I wish I had had when I was in school! I just finished listening to the show on Alzheimer’s Disease, which, sadly, has been so prevalent in patients throughout my career. There is so little that we can do for treatment of this terrible disease. But this got me thinking about a possible future episode that discusses our lifestyle choices and food choices that ultimately plays a major factor in helping to prevent these terrible diseases like Alzheimer’s, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, etc. We didn’t get much nutrition education when I was in school. And patients thank nurses by giving us candy and sweets…which is the opposite of a health preserving choice. If we can get the future nurses on board with the benefits of making great lifestyle choices maybe we can begin to reverse some of the decline in the overall health of our patients. Thanks for all that you do to help teach the next generation of nurses!!
Thanks so much, Virginia…and thank you for your years of dedicated service as an RN. I agree that prevention is definitely the best medicine. There is some interesting research being done looking at Alzheimer’s as “Type 3 diabetes” which was really eye-opening to me. Thank you for this great reminder that as caregivers we must take care of ourselves and promote healthy living in our patients 🙂
I have Loved your your content so far! It has been so Helpful!. I am wondering if you have covered anything with Nursing school moving into the Computer age. My school has all our books ONLINE and I am going crazy. I cannot afford the extra money to order the physical books as well as the online. So reading online has been a huuge struggle. Any tips for someone who prefers the physical copy but the program has the books online.?!
Hey Mo!
Your podcasts are the cherry on top to my endless studying. I love your breakdown of ACS, STEMI and NSTEMI. Totally agree that MONA is misleading and misguides students into thinking MONA are actions listed in order. You inspired me to create my own phrase to help me remember the right actions in the right order: “Oh No, A MI!” (Oxygen, Nitro., ASA, Morphine). Thank you for all you do!
I love this! Totally borrowing this 🙂
Hello
I am trying to contact you but the link above to send a question is not working. Can you send me your contact info? Thanks!
Hi Lisa,
Sorry about that and thanks for letting me know the form wasn’t working! Email sent.
Maureen
Hi Noire Mo-
Thank you so much for sharing your wealth of knowledge! Not only did you help me get through nursing school, but as a new grad you have helped me really dive into topics I need to know! Thanks so much <3 You are truly a God Send and a blessing! I am so happy that I stumbled upon your podcast. I am quick to recommend you to nursing students as well as co-workers that need refreshing.
I would love to know if you are going to do any more Cardiac Podcast or bootcamp in the future as I will be the first in line to sign up!
<3 Blessings and peace!
Brittany
Hi Brittany,
I will be talking about LVAD and Tetrology of Fallot coming up on the podcast. I am also working on an ECG Bootcamp, but I have a couple other projects to finish first. I’m glad you find the pod so useful!
Hi there,
I’ve recently listened to your survival guide book and absolutely love it! I’ve come to the website to find the list of recommended supplemental books and school supplies, but I’m having a hard time finding those. Could someone please point me in the right direction? Thank you!
Here you go!
https://straightanursingstudent.com/thrive-guide/thrive-guide-resources/
hello, current pre nursing student about to take her teas exam. I wanted to know if the math part of the TEAS, do they provide a conversion and formula sheet?
I don’t believe they provide any materials except perhaps scratch paper and a pencil. Good luck to you!!!
I am wondering if you have transcripts of your podcasts and/or youtube videos.
Thank you!
Most podcast episodes have a blog post associated with them 🙂 I do not have any transcripts of YT though…thanks for reaching out!
I am just recently finding you! I have sent a request for you facebook group as well. I am currently in 2nd semester of nursing school. Med-Surg and Psych are my 2 classes. It definitely takes all of my time to study for both, plus getting all the assignments completed on time. Let’s not even discuss clinical paperwork! My med-surg instructors are amazing and supportive. My psych nursing instructor is, well, not. She is a 1st year instructor, who only just graduated 6 years ago herself. She very often says, “Well this is how it was when I was in school..” as if she is still angry that her schooling was hard. Unfortunately this has but me into a major burnout for the first time ever in my life and I am 36 years old! I am finding it hard to get out of this funk and get motivated without the thoughts of “she’s going to make it impossible to pass her class anyways so why even try”. (PS I am not alone. It is the entire class of 35 students with this issue which we are discussing with admin). But for now, how is it possible to get my mind out of this burnout funk? I am so fatigued that I just want to sleep.
Hi Dawn…the good news is, everything is temporary! And that includes nursing school 🙂 You might find my podcast episode on burnout helpful. It’s episode 144!