How to Study for Mental Health Nursing in Nursing School

Hey everyone, it's Sarah with RegisteredNurseRN.com and in this video I'm going to go over how

to study for mental health nursing.

Now we are doing a series on how to study for your nursing school classes, so be sure

to check that out to learn how to study for your other classes.

But in this video I'm going to concentrate on the mental health nursing course.

Almost every nursing student has to take this.

This is also known as psychiatric nursing.

Now this class tends to give people some frustration.

And the reason is because it's a little bit different than the other classes you've had

to take before.

Like OB, Med Surge, Fundamentals.

Because this class focuses on the psychological and emotional well-being of the patient rather

than the physical well-being.

So it's a little bit different in its test questions and they can trip you up.

Because usually the response that you want to pick for a communication technique is usually

the wrong one because the book or the test or the exam or NCLEX is looking for something

different.

So in this video I'm going to go over reasons that students struggle and I'm going to go

over the areas that you really need to concentrate on whenever you're studying for exams.

Because depending on your professor they're going to split up sections by maybe mental

illnesses or by other things.

So you'll want to make sure that you're honing in on these specific topics while you're studying

because this is usually where test questions come from are these topics.

And next I'm going to go over how to study those topics.

Why do students struggle in this class?

Well one thing it depends on your professor.

I had a great professor for mental health and she expected us to be in class.

We would take notes and while we were taking notes she would always stop and make a point

to tell us hey you probably want to underline this or highlight it because this is a test

question.

So whenever I was studying for my test I would just go and look at my highlighted and

underlined areas and I had the test question.

So I had a great professor but the thing about it is every mental health exam is set up practically

the same.

They're focusing on certain areas which I'm going to go over here in a second because

whenever you're studying for mental health you'll have this chapter and that chapter

and the chapters are broken up usually by mental illnesses.

So one chapter you may be covering anorexia, bulimia, those type of disorders and then

in the next chapter you may be covering bipolar and depression but they all try to focus on

these areas.

So whenever you're preparing for your exams always look at these special areas because

these are usually going to be test questions.

So first let's look at communication techniques and in psychiatric nursing it is so big about

how you communicate with the patient because think about it.

Whenever they're coming to you to the mental health facility usually they've been discharged

from the hospital so they're good physically but now they're coming to you to be prepared

mentally and how you take care of that is through communication so it's a big thing

in psych nursing.

So there are different communication techniques.

There's therapeutic and non-therapeutic and usually what happens is that on an exam you'll

be given a scenario with a patient that may have a certain illness.

If they have a certain illness you'll have to know how to properly communicate with that

type of person.

A person who's going through a manic phase and bipolar you're going to communicate with

them differently.

You're probably going to have to refocus them a lot because they tend to be scattered brain

compared to someone who has anorexia.

So you need to know what each mental illness struggles with and some therapeutic techniques

that have technical terms so you'll want to memorize these are restating, focusing, reflecting

and then on the test they may throw some non-therapeutic which would be the wrong answer.

Like in mental health nursing you never ask a patient why and you don't make judgments.

So you want to focus on that.

Next another thing is that mental health has special health terms and illnesses that you

probably haven't seen in your previous classes so you really want to study those and watch

out for those.

For instance like bulimia and anorexia patients you're going to provide nursing interventions

and treatment differently based on their case scenarios.

So let me show you an example of like an NCLEX style question that is hitting on these different

mental health terms and show you what I'm talking about.

Okay let's look at this example.

This is like a classic NCLEX style question that you would probably encounter on a lecture

exam in your class and in this specific question like I said we're going to focus on defense

mechanisms.

So that's a big thing in mental health are defense mechanisms.

For instance you're going to get a scenario and you have to know is the patient using

the conversion mechanism, denial, projection, repression, what are they doing?

So let's look at this example together.

Okay it says a 23 year old female witnessed the death of her one month old daughter one

month ago.

The patient has slowly started to decline in health by presenting with paralysis from

an unknown source, double vision, and inability to speak.

All diagnostic tests rule out any known cause of the symptoms.

The patient may be presenting with A conversion, B denial, C projection, D repression.

So you would have to look back and remember how you've memorized these definitions.

What is this patient going through?

Okay well the answer would be A she's going through conversion.

And the definition of conversion is expression of emotions through physical symptoms.

Now the patient's not going through the denial because she's not disowning conscious intolerable

thoughts or impulses.

She's not denying it.

She's not projecting because she's not transferring one's internal feelings, thoughts, or ideas

to someone else.

And she's not repressing it which is an unconscious process in which a patient blocks out undesirable

unacceptable thoughts from conscious expression.

So if you studied your definitions maybe through flashcards or whatever you would know that

it's A. So notice how these are a little bit different than other exams.

Okay so in that question they were asking you about the mental health term which are

defense mechanisms and it was covering conversion which was what that patient was experiencing.

There was repression as an option, denial, things like that.

So you really want to memorize those definitions because I remember on my mental health class

my teacher throughout the semester would always throw those questions out there and ask you

well what's this patient exhibiting?

Next the coping mechanisms you also need to know those as well because different people

who are going through different things like schizophrenia maybe have a different coping

mechanism compared to a patient going through manic depression.

So you want to make sure you watch those.

Next mental health drugs.

Mental health really likes to hit on this.

Now in pharmacology you'll be exposed to some of this but it's usually the groups and mental

health nursing it really likes to target certain drugs and so you'll need to know what are

therapeutic levels for those drugs because a lot of times whenever patients are taking

these mental health drugs like lithium, depakote, they have to come in regularly, get their

blood levels checked to make sure they're therapeutic and there's diet teaching with

a lot of those, the monoxidase inhibitors, they can't have tyramine diet so you have

to know that and teaching with that.

So let me show you an example of maybe an exam question that you could look to get on

an exam dealing with this.

A patient who is bipolar is ordered by the doctor to start taking lithium 900 milligrams

by mouth daily.

What will you include in your diet teaching with this patient?

A, limiting salt intake, B, a low tyramine diet, C, importance of consuming sufficient

amounts of sodium, or D, limiting consumption of aged cheeses.

Okay, you have to think back, what is so important about lithium and this is where you've looked

through your study guide because most study guides are going to hit on the big things

with lithium and the big thing with lithium is that you have to make sure that the patient

is taking in enough salt because if they're not, the kidneys will start to conserve the

lithium which will increase the serum levels of lithium causing toxicity.

So you would know that from memorization and just knowing, hey, this is what lithium

does.

B and D are diet restrictions for patients taking monoamine oxidase inhibitors for depression

and A is just wrong.

So that is that question.

Okay, now let's go over how to study.

As we have talked about through all of our study series, before you target or study any

subject you have to know what type of learner you are.

For an audio, if you're an auditory learner, what you'll want to do is that you'll want

to take good notes, probably record your teacher's lecture if they let you do that, and make

flashcards and write what you wrote, write it and then recite it, reciting and hearing

and hearing yourself say things like these coping mechanisms, these different therapeutic

techniques, defense mechanisms really are going to help you.

If you're a visual learner, the best thing you'll want to do is find illustrations.

Now online like Pinterest and other websites, if you just Google, there are some really

great free illustrations.

It'll have like a picture of a person who maybe has depression and it'll have the visual

of them slumped over, a real sad look on their face and then it'll have words written out

from it and that may help give you a visual of how to remember how nursing intervention

should go along for this patient.

So I really recommend you do that when you study tactile.

These people, if you're a tactile learner, you learn best in study groups.

So I really suggest you form a study group and you role play, especially whenever you're

doing these communication techniques, everyone can pick a certain technique like restating

or focusing and quiz each other and role play because that's going to help you understand

if you're tactile.

And read, write, they do best by going to class, taking notes, so take very detailed

notes and then go home that same day and rewrite those notes out that your professor

gave you.

Then go to your textbook, read that material that your teacher covered in class, write

out notes and just read and write.

You learn best that way.

Okay, now the key to mental health nursing, if you have heard from other students that

this class is going to be hard, I highly recommend that you go with a study guide.

This is how the majority of people who have trouble with mental health nursing, they pass.

And the top study guides to go with, number one I recommend, you can get one or the other,

you do not need both, is the Davis Success Mental Health Nursing.

Go to Amazon, wherever, just type in Davis Success Mental Health Nursing, it will bring

it up, usually the newest edition.

And this is great because it reviews course material, so it reviews certain subjects.

So I'll give you a method of how you use a study guide here in a second.

And it also comes with 900 practice questions with rationales, which is so important and

I'll talk about that here in a second.

And another one I recommend is the Hogan Mental Health Nursing, I love the Hogan books.

I think Pearson maybe makes this now, but it's still under Hogan, you can search that

as well on Amazon.

And what this does, it has practice questions at the end of the chapter.

I don't think it has as many as the Davis, but it just breaks down each course material

and pretty much is telling you, hey, if anything's gonna be on the test about this subject, here's

the bullet points of what's probably gonna be on.

So I really recommend.

So how do you use a study guide along with everything else?

Because it's supposed to be a supplement, it's not supposed to be the whole thing.

So what you're gonna do with your study guide, whichever one you get, you're going to read

the section in the book, look at your teacher's PowerPoints, look at your notes that you took

in class, and then look in your study guide at that specific question.

So let's take lithium, for example, it's a drug.

Okay, read it in your textbook about lithium, then go to your PowerPoints, if your teacher

prints out PowerPoints, and read everything that he or she has put about lithium.

Then read everything that you wrote about lithium in your notes, and then compare it

to your study guide.

And if you see a pattern of repetition, hey, this keeps being repeated over and over and

over, that is probably like a huge thing that it's going to be on the test.

So make a mental note of that and remember that and base that on how you learn best.

Are you auditory, visual, tactile, read, write?

If you're visual, make a drawing.

If you're read, write, write it down in your own words.

If you're auditory, recite it over and over.

So that's how you want to do that.

Another way that people pass mental health is they practice NCLEX-style questions of

mental health nursing over and over.

And the reason this is really important is because these communication techniques is

what really trips people up, and these coping mechanisms and defense mechanisms.

So if you keep exposing yourself to all these questions, you're going to get in a routine,

and you're going to get in a rhythm of understanding what this question's asking and what the correct

answer is.

So I recommend, you know, in my previous videos, I've talked about getting like a comprehensive

NCLEX guide because you're going to need that anyways to pass NCLEX.

So I recommend, because most come with big CDs that come with thousands of questions

and you can select what type of questions you want and just go in there and select mental

health and do that and just practice questions over and over in that specific content area

that you're going to be having a test over.

Very important.

Okay, next, flashcards.

Flashcards are great, especially for writing the illnesses and mechanisms over because

mental health nursing has a lot of just memorization in it because in our other nursing classes,

it's a lot of critical thinking.

So you've got to memorize a lot of terms, drugs, sort of like pharmacology in that regard.

So get some flashcards if you like flashcards and study that way.

So that is some tips on how to study for mental health nursing.

Thank you so much for watching and please subscribe to my YouTube channel.