NUR 198 Study Resources

Clinical judgment practice based on course objectives and instructor-provided teaching materials

Purpose of these resources

These pages are designed to help connect the content taught in NUR 198 with the type of clinical reasoning required on nursing exams and at the bedside. The goal is not to memorize isolated facts or memorize a particular question. The goal is to recognize important cues, decide what matters most, choose the safest nursing action, and determine whether the intervention worked.

Important: These are study and practice resources. They are not copies of course examinations and are not intended to predict exact exam questions.

Weeks 1–3

Early course concepts and clinical judgment practice

Review material developed from the early NUR 198 course objectives, instructor lecture materials, course examples, and case-based content. Questions emphasize application, prioritization, safety, and evaluation rather than simple recall.

Open Weeks 1–3 Practice

Respiratory: Weeks 4–6

Respiratory I, II, and III

Respiratory practice developed from all three instructor respiratory slide decks. Topics include gas exchange, upper and lower respiratory disorders, oxygen therapy, tracheostomy care, mechanical ventilation, chest tubes, COPD, asthma, pulmonary embolism, lung cancer, and related clinical judgment.

Open Respiratory Practice

Where the content comes from

The content on these pages is grounded first in the materials students are actually given in NUR 198. The main sources are:

The practice questions are newly written study questions. They use the concepts, terminology, emphasis, and level of detail present in the course materials without reproducing course exam questions.

How priorities are approached

A single rule does not answer every nursing question. Read the entire scenario and decide what the patient needs now. These resources use a consistent clinical judgment approach:

Recognize cues What changed? Which findings are important, unexpected, or unsafe?
Analyze cues What do the findings mean when considered together?
Prioritize Which problem is most time-sensitive or creates the greatest immediate risk?
Take action What can or should the nurse do first?
Evaluate What finding would show that the intervention worked or that the patient is worsening?

Common priority cues used throughout the practice include airway, breathing, circulation, safety, acute change from baseline, unstable versus stable findings, actual physiologic threats, and signs of deterioration. These are guides for interpreting the whole patient, not shortcuts that replace clinical judgment.

How to use the practice pages

  1. Review the key learning points first. Use them to identify what the course expects you to understand, not simply what facts to memorize.
  2. Answer before opening the rationale. Commit to an answer even when you are uncertain.
  3. Name the cue that changed your priority. Ask yourself which finding made one answer stronger than the others.
  4. Read every rationale. Pay attention to why the incorrect options are weaker, not only why the correct answer is correct.
  5. Look for repeated concepts. The same clinical idea may appear in several different scenarios. This is intentional.
  6. Use NGN items to practice sorting information. Bow-ties, matrix questions, trends, cue selection, ordered response, and dropdown questions require you to organize the patient's data before acting.
  7. Revisit missed concepts rather than memorizing the question. Ask what you misunderstood about the physiology, priority, nursing action, or expected outcome.

A useful question to ask yourself

What is happening, what matters most right now, what should the nurse do first, and what will tell me whether it worked?

This same reasoning can be used in clinical, simulation, post-conference, and exam questions.