05/19/2026
📚MEDICAL-SURGICAL NCLEX Tips 🩺📚
🔥 Med-Surg NCLEX is all about priorities, safety, and critical thinking! Save these tips before your next exam! 🩺📚
❤️ CARDIAC🫀
🫁 Chest pain = think ABC + ECG first
💊 Remember: MONA (Morphine, Oxygen, Nitroglycerin, Aspirin)
🫀 Heart failure:
⚡️ Left-sided → lung problems/crackles
⚡️ Right-sided → edema/JVD
🫁 RESPIRATORY
🫁 COPD clients need LOW oxygen flow
📍 Sudden restlessness = early sign of hypoxia
📍 Pulmonary embolism signs:
⚡️ Sudden SOB
⚡️ Chest pain
⚡️ Tachycardia
🧠 NEURO
🎯 Increased ICP:
⚡️ Early = restlessness/confusion
⚡️ Late = unequal pupils/Cushing triad
🎯 Stroke:
⚡️ “Time is brain”
⚡️ Know FAST:
🥴 Face drooping
🤷 Arm weakness
🗣️ Speech difficulty
🚨 Time to call emergency
💉 DIABETES
🤔 Hypoglycemia = cold, clammy, confused
😓 Hyperglycemia = warm, dry, thirsty
🎯 Rule:
⬇️ Low sugar = give sugar
⬆️ High sugar = insulin/fluids
⚡ ELECTROLYTES
📍Low potassium (Hypokalemia):
* Muscle weakness
* Leg cramps
* Dysrhythmias
📍 High potassium (Hyperkalemia):
* Peaked T waves
* Dangerous arrhythmias
⚡ ELECTROLYTES
📍Low potassium (Hypokalemia):
* Muscle weakness
* Leg cramps
* Dysrhythmias
📍 High potassium (Hyperkalemia):
* Peaked T waves
* Dangerous arrhythmias
🦠 INFECTION CONTROL
😷 Airborne:
* TB, measles, chickenpox
* N95 needed
😷 Droplet:
* Influenza, meningitis
😷 Contact:
* MRSA, C. diff
💊 PHARMACOLOGY
* Heparin → monitor aPTT
* Warfarin → monitor INR
* Digoxin toxicity:
* Nausea
* Yellow vision
* Bradycardia
🚨 NCLEX PRIORITY TRICKS
Always ask:
1. Airway?
2. Breathing?
3. Circulation?
4. Acute vs chronic?
5. Stable vs unstable?
EASY MEMORY Tricks 💡
“Low & Slow”
Potassium low = muscles slow/weak
“COPD = CO₂ Retainer”
“Red, Hot, Swollen = DVT possible”
“Wet lungs? Sit up & oxygen!”
