Practice nursing skills in the lab at your nursing school. Continue to practice the skills until you do them perfectly every time. Some skills, such as starting an IV, drawing blood, performing wound care, and inserting a Foley catheter, are common to struggle with and require a great deal of practice.
Ask for assistance from your instructors as soon as you feel that you need help. Do not wait until the end of the semester or when you feel that you may be failing the class. Asking for help early allows your instructors to adequately assist you and allows you to have time to master medical surgical nursing concepts.
Study with questions from the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) relating to medical surgical nursing. These types of questions can be found in any NCLEX review book. This will assist you in learning important medical surgical nursing theories and rationales, as well as prepare you to pass the NCLEX.
Be an active participant throughout your medical surgical clinicals. Clinicals are when nursing students have the opportunity to apply in real life what they have been taught and practiced in the classroom. Remaining an active participant will allow you to gain the knowledge and real life experience that you need to master medical surgical nursing.
Avoid cramming for exams. Instead, study your medical surgical nursing material on a consistent basis. Medical surgical nursing requires that each piece of knowledge be used as a building block. Therefore, it is nearly impossible to master medical surgical nursing without mastering each lesson one at a time.