Successful Studying for Nursing Students

Melanie Hayward’s (editor) ‘Successful studying for nursing students’ book forms part of a series of nursing student support books and online tools, designed to be user friendly, and guide student’s from the beginning of their nursing programme with the focus on key issues that student’s will be faced with during their studies. ‘Successful studying for nursing students’ is the second book in a series of ‘New Notes on Nursing’ and contributions within it come not only from nurse academic authors, but also former student nurses’. It focuses specifically on ‘study skills’, with an emphasis on students getting started with their study skills and critical thinking in their first year of University. It appears to be aimed at any nursing student who will register with the NMC, not only BSc nursing students. What I particularly liked about this book is the immediate accessible characteristics of the book itself. It seems to have been written to match the wider participation characteristics of the nursing programmes and students themselves. Pages are colour coded, with the colour key available within the contents page to enable readers to access the sections they need easily. Other useful colour keys include: Case studies which are contained in pink clearly marked sections, which add a realistic clinical feature to the information contained in the book. Helpful tips are also provided and contained within yellow sections, and reflections are contained in green sections. The use of colour within the book, I feel, provides the reader with a sense of enjoyment in engaging with the different sections, whilst also aiding accessibility. Some student text books can feel onerous to use, but this book is as it states ‘different’, and this is clearly it’s advantage. The content of the book is far more than just study skill support. It contains so many different elements that a nursing student needs to know, that it could become the new go-to nursing text. Nursing programmes are never linear courses, they contain several different genres and new skills to be learnt before a student can competently become a registrant with the NMC. This book contains elements which will benefit students throughout every stage of their nursing programme. It includes information about interprofessional working, digital literacy, and evidence-based practice to name just a few of the topics covered, and will even support them when they come to write their third year dissertation. Whilst this book was written by many different author’s it is abundantly clear how well the information was brought together during editing to give the overall content a seamless, and fluent structure throughout. Overall this book delivers a comprehensive outline of the important study skills required by student nurses, alongside other important elements needed to become a well rounded registered nurse or nursing associate. I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to all nursing programmes as core text, and look forward to introducing it to my own modules. Tracey Hayes - Senior Lecturer in Nursing