BADDIE RNBaddie RN All semesters

Semester 1

🧼Nursing Fundamentals

The semester everyone underestimates — then fails.

Fundamentals looks like hand-washing and bed baths until the exam asks you to prioritize four patients who are all 'stable.' This course isn't easy content, it's easy-sounding content with NCLEX-level thinking bolted on. Learn to think like the test now and every semester after this one gets cheaper.

Real talk about this course

  • •Every question is a priority question in disguise. 'What does the nurse do FIRST' is the whole course.
  • •You will lose points on delegation and scope before you ever lose points on skills.
  • •Vitals aren't trivia — they're the answer to about a third of your exam.
  • •Care plans feel like busywork. They're actually teaching you the nursing process, which is how the NCLEX is written.

Grade savers 👑

  • Read the LAST line of the question first. It tells you what's actually being asked.
  • Assessment before intervention — unless the patient is dying, then act.
  • If two answers do the same thing, neither is right.
  • Never pick an answer that leaves the patient, calls the provider first, or makes you leave the room, unless nothing else is safe.

The nursing process (ADPIE) is the answer key

Exams are written in ADPIE order. If you can name where the question sits, you can eliminate half the options instantly.

Memory trick

ADPIE = Assess, Diagnose, Plan, Implement, Evaluate. Say it as 'A Dumb Person Is Extra' — rude, but you'll never forget the order.

Baddie rule 👑: you cannot fix what you haven't assessed. Ever.

Maslow, but for test questions

When every option is 'safe,' Maslow breaks the tie. Physiological beats safety beats psychosocial.

Memory trick

Airway → Breathing → Circulation → Safety → Feelings. If the option is about feelings and someone can't breathe, it's a distractor.

Nobody's processing their divorce at 82% on room air, bestie.

Delegation: RN keeps the thinking

The NCLEX and your fundamentals final both live here. UAPs do stable, predictable, routine.

Memory trick

RN = assess, teach, evaluate, first-time anything, unstable anyone. LPN = stable, expected, ongoing. UAP = ADLs, vitals on stable patients, I&O, ambulation.

If it requires a brain cell of judgment, it stays with you. Sorry, boo.

Vitals that should make you stand up

You need instant pattern recognition, not a chart lookup.

Memory trick

Adult danger zones: HR <50 or >120, RR <10 or >28, SBP <90, SpO₂ <90%, temp >38.3°C. Narrowing pulse pressure = trouble brewing.

A 'slightly off' set of vitals on an exam is never slightly off. It's the whole question.

Infection control tiers

Isolation questions are free points if you memorize the bugs, and guaranteed losses if you don't.

Memory trick

Airborne = My Chicken Hez TB (Measles, Chickenpox/varicella, Herpes zoster disseminated, TB) → N95 + negative pressure. Droplet = private room + surgical mask. Contact = gown + gloves (C. diff needs soap and water, not gel).

Alcohol gel does nothing to C. diff spores. Wash your hands like your license depends on it — it does.

Positioning saves lives (and points)

Half of fundamentals interventions are 'put the patient in ___.'

Memory trick

Aspirating? High Fowler's. Shock? Supine with legs up. Post-lumbar puncture? Flat. Air embolism? Left side, head down. Unresponsive but breathing? Recovery position.

Sterile vs clean vs medical asepsis

Skills check-off and exam both punish sloppy definitions.

Memory trick

Sterile field rules: 1 inch border is contaminated, below waist is contaminated, out of sight is contaminated, wet is contaminated. Four ways to fail — memorize all four.

Pain is what the patient says it is

Faculty will bait you with a smiling patient rating 8/10.

Memory trick

Believe the number. Assess with OPQRST, medicate, reassess in 30–60 min (IV: 15–30 min).

Your personal opinion on their pain is not a nursing intervention.

Keep going

💊

Pharmacology

Semester 2

🫀

Med-Surg I

Semester 2

🧠

Med-Surg II

Semester 3

🧸

Pediatrics

Semester 3

🤰

OB / Labor & Delivery

Semester 4

Boards coming up? Open the NCLEX hub