Well, hi there! You’re here because you’ve discovered Brainscape’s awesome nursing school flashcards, which break down the entire curriculum covered in class into neatly-organized collections of adaptive flashcards. This is a powerful study tool you can use to understand and memorize the essential content TWICE as efficiently as any learning technique.
The thing is, Brainscape packs even more firepower than just nursing school flashcards, and since we don’t want you to miss out, we put together this guide to show you all the wonderful ways you can leverage our adaptive learning platform to ace nursing school!
Are you ready? Let’s go!
# 1 Find the RIGHT pre-made flashcards for your nursing school classes and program
You already know that Brainscape has flashcards for nursing students like you. But do you have the right certified flashcards for your particular class or program? Brainscape has brought together some of the most experienced healthcare experts and educators to compile complete digital flashcard sets for the following nursing license exams:
- NCLEX PN (Practical Nurse)
- NCLEX RN (Registered Nurse)
- FNP Certification Review (Family Nurse Practitioner)
We also have expert-curated flashcard sets for each topic covered in nursing school…
- Nursing Fundamentals: 17 decks, 726 flashcards
- Management of Care: 3 decks, 156 flashcards
- Safety & Infection Control: 3 decks, 129 flashcards
- Pharmacology: 12 decks, 468 flashcards
- Adult Health: 13 decks, 827 flashcards
- Pediatrics: 14 decks, 295 flashcards
- Maternity: 5 decks, 293 flashcards
- Mental Health: 5 decks, 217 flashcards
So, make sure you’re studying the right ones for your program. For example, if you’re studying to take the NCLEX RN, make sure you sign up for Brainscape’s certified NCLEX RN flashcards and not PN. It may sound obvious, but many nursing students come to us not knowing that we offer a great variety of nursing school flashcards.
Learn more about them in this video…
Also, consider learning medical Spanish, for which Brainscape has a complete set of flashcards! Being able to confidently speak with Spanish-speaking patients (and doctors) will definitely set you apart as a candidate for jobs in hospitals and clinics throughout the United States and abroad! Read: 'What’s the best way to learn medical Spanish?’ to learn more.
Pro Tip: If you have Brainscape Pro, you can access ALL of these collections without limitation.
Important tip: Use the flashcard decks that are relevant to what you're learning in class
Another super important piece of advice is to use the topics you're currently studying in class to guide which of Brainscape's nursing flashcard decks you study.
While we've aligned our flashcards to the most current and widely-used nursing school curricula, not all nursing schools progress through that curriculum in the same order.
So, let's say you're currently studying Hematology in class. To really learn and memorize that content, all you have to do is go into our flashcard collection for 'Adult Health', select the deck 'Hematology' and study those flashcards.
Or, you might be learning about the types of medications used for the treatment of mental illness, in which case you can go to Brainscape's 'Mental Health' flashcard collection and study our deck on 'Psych Meds'.
In other words: while our flashcards do cover everything you need to learn in nursing school, they don't necessarily follow the same order as the one taught by your school.
It's an easy fix, though: simply cherry-pick the flashcard decks that align with what you're learning in class so that you can memorize the content as you progress!
# 2 Make your own flashcards in Brainscape
Sure, we’ve got tons of pre-made flashcards ready and waiting to go. But a significant (and fun) part of your learning journey with Brainscape will be making your own flashcards, particularly for the concepts that you struggle with the most!
And so we encourage you to sit down with your textbooks and study notes after class and consolidate what you’ve learned that day by making flashcards for the most crucial or complex nuggets of information you’re afraid of forgetting.
This is a really powerful way to distill down the great volume of content you’re receiving in class while targeting your weaknesses using Brainscape’s spaced repetition algorithm. (Just make sure you follow our best practices for making really effective flashcards.)
Once again, you don’t have to do this for ALL the content you cover—that’s what our pre-made nursing school flashcards are for—but definitely, for the concepts, you struggle with the most or even for questions you get wrong in your practice tests.
By creating flashcards for the hardest concepts you come across in your nursing school education, you’ll have a study asset that’ll attack those weaknesses, turning them into strengths over time!
# 3 Find flashcards by other top nursing students, tutors, and teachers
Another rich source of pre-made flashcards is other top students, tutors, and instructors who have used Brainscape to make their own collections of flashcards for nursing school. The best of these rise to the top of our ranking algorithm, so the higher up on the list they are, the more frequently they’re used (and loved) by other nursing students like you!
Now, why would you use other creators’ flashcards when you can make your own? Because not everyone wants to make their own flashcards… and not everyone has the time to! This is an easy way to leverage the work done by other top students and nursing school educators.
Combined with Brainscape’s certified flashcard collections, these will equip you with the perfect, comprehensive study assets you need to ace your exams and overcome that final hurdle: the NCLEX.
# 4 Collaborate with your fellow nursing students
Another popular and fun way to integrate Brainscape into your nursing education is to collaborate with your fellow nursing students or study group to create flashcards.
So, for example, you could assign each group member a topic, chapter, or a certain number of textbook pages every week. They are then responsible for distilling that information into a collection of flashcards, which they share with the group by a certain deadline. (Here’s how to invite other students to become collaborators on a class you have created.)
This “divides and conquers” the task of creating flashcards, but you can also (and should also) collaborate by suggesting edits, improvements, or card additions. This process of vetting what others have done deepens everyone’s learning since you’ll be debating with each other on how to make the flashcard decks more complete and helpful.
# 5 Study your nursing school flashcards alongside your classes
Many nursing students mistakenly use Brainscape primarily for cramming for tests, only studying their flashcards a few weeks or days (hopefully not) before their test date.
A far more efficient way to study for exams—and prepare yourself for a healthcare career—is to study a little every day with Brainscape. In other words, use it daily to capture and consolidate the day’s learnings and consistently refresh and review older content covered in previous lectures. Even as little as 5 to 10 minutes’ daily review will ensure that those new concepts you’re learning remain familiar and comfortable as the tidal wave of content continues coming at you.
If you do this, you will arrive at your nursing school exams with 90% of the content already memorized. And while the rest of your classmates desperately study everything from scratch, you’ll need a few weeks of light review and questions practice, and you’ll be ready to kick butt.
Remember that: little studying every day is exponentially better than cramming all at once.
(Pssssst, did you know that Brainscape has these totally free NCLEX study planners and exam countdown sheets just for you? You can customize these however you want to stay hyper focused, and on track to crush your study goals!)
# 6 Go to Brainscape’s Nurse Academy and YouTube channel for free, expert advice
In addition to flashcards, the team here at Brainscape has prioritized providing nursing students and grads with a comprehensive library of study guides and videos offering free advice on a myriad of topics and questions. For example:
- How to study in nursing school (and pass with flying colors)
- How to study for the NCLEX more efficiently
- The #1 habit of successful students in medical and nursing school
- Common NCLEX mistakes & how to course-correct
- How to deal with nursing school stress
You’ll find the answers to these questions and dozens more in our Nurse Academy and Nursing YouTube channel, so please lean on those resources!
# 7 Earn some money by becoming a campus rep for Brainscape!
To encourage you to spread the word about Brainscape to your fellow nursing students and nurse friends, we’ve set up a campus rep rewards program that could earn you a little side-hustlin’ income!
How this works is simple. Fill out our campus rep form, and we’ll generate you a custom discount code that you can share with your peers. For every one of them who upgrades to Brainscape Pro to access our full content and features, you’ll earn a percentage royalty.
Imagine that? By simply spreading the word about Brainscape, you can genuinely help your peers AND make a little money on the side, which can make a huge difference for time-strapped nursing students!
Getting the most out of Brainscape in nursing school
Brainscape is truly a game-changing study tool for nursing students that—once experienced in all its glory—will make you wonder how on Earth you coped without it beforehand. Now that you’ve made it through this guide, you should have all the intel you need to get the very most out of Brainscape… but just to recap:
- Find the RIGHT pre-made flashcards for your nursing school classes and programs;
- Make your own flashcards for the concepts you struggle the most with;
- Find flashcards by other top nursing students, tutors, and instructors in Brainscape’s Knowledge Genome;
- Collaborate with your fellow nursing students to make awesome flashcards for your classes, saving you time and deepening your learning;
- Study your flashcards alongside your nursing school classes so that you memorize the content as you progress, rather than cramming it all at the end;
- Lean on Brainscape’s Nurse Academy and Nursing YouTube channel for free study guides and advice; and
- Become a campus rep for Brainscape, helping your fellow nursing students to learn more efficiently while earning a little money on the side.
Finally, we’d like to applaud your ambitions to become a nurse and wish you the very best on your quest —may you rise to the challenge!