I’m a nurse thinking about expanding my job options and knowledge, maybe studying something. I don’t want to work bedside till I’m old enough to cash in my 401k because then I’ll have a broken back and I don’t want to become one of those old angry nurses constantly on edge because she’s angry at life.
To me, the way to achieve this is to learn a lot of things systematically: medicines (not the brand names, but the active components, because doctors where I work use components extensively), diagnoses that are often abbreviated, right anatomical names for bones, muscles and blood vessels…, right ranges for arterial and venous blood gas parameters and clinical chemistry…
It’s tedious and repetitive and I don’t want to take any drugs to study better, but I believe it fits me because I was always an introverted bookworm.
Is there any better way to learn this than the way I just described? It means 3 hours of reading and repeating concepts and ranges after my shift.
Knowing medical affixes and suffixes will go a long way. Even medications will have some naming conventions. https://www.mometrix.com/academy/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Drug-Suffixes-Cheat-Sheet-Sorted-by-Drug-Type.pdf
Focusing on anatomy and physiology will help you understand not just what things are, but why they work. Technically you can use a stethoscope on someone’s neck to diagnose the cause of a sudden blind eye, but only if you understand the branches of the coratid artery.
“I don’t want to take any drugs to study better” Why is this even a thought? Why read for 3 hours after your shift? If you want to expand your nursing skills start there. Look into topics that you deal with everyday. Learn more about the commonly prescribed medications. Don’t worry about the more uncommon ones for now. Build on the stuff you already know, that will make learning easier, more interesting and more applicable in practice. Leave the rote memorization to overworked residents.
Look up nursing groups on-line or in your area, see what they have to say. Probly more skilled advice and experience to let you know what to focus on and what not.
I’m lucky enough to work in an academic care setting where initiative is appreciated, but your mileage may vary.
Some affixes and suffixes also say the category of a medication or effect, they are very useful, but they are not based in the brand name, but the drug name.
It seems OP is aware of this.