Do you think you could pass now?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

After reading through a good number of anxious posts but our current NCLEX takers, I wonder how old timers like me would fair on the NCLEX exam. I almost wish I could take it to find out- but I wouldn't want my licence to depend on the result!

As the poster just before me said, I suspect you'd pass it & even think it was easy. I took it jaut last November so, obviously, it is a recent memory but I know that I have learned so much in this short time that I didn't know then. I thought it was hard when I took it & I was an A student but I think it would be so much easier now.

It would be a kick to take out my old NCLEX book & see how easy the questions appear now.

Dixie

Specializes in OB, Telephone Triage, Chart Review/Code.

When I sat for Boards in 1989, it was the paper and pencil type. I don't know if I would do well taking it on the computer.

Specializes in Post Anesthesia.

My concern isn't just that I don't have the knowledge base to pass but rather I have a very different perspective as a veteran nurse from that of new grads. How I would deligate assignments may differ from textbook protocals from times when I was burned by support staff not following through or saved by exceptional support staff who went above and beyond and saved my bacon as a team member.

They have added a good number of "Nursing Diagnoses" since my school years and I haven't used one in 20 years- never did know them as well as I could have.

My field of practice has narrowed quite a bit since school- I'm a CVSICU nurse for 20+ yrs. For example, from what I remember of my NCLEX, there were quite a few peripartum questions- The closest I've been to a new birth in the grandfather's waiting room ( even that was too close). I am no longer the nurse generalist I was when I first took boards- there have been losses and gains but the NCLEX tests for a nurse generalist as it's goal. It would be an interesting project to take 100 nurses with 20+ years of at least Semi FT practice and at least 10 years in one area of specialty and run them through the exam--AT NO COST OR RISK TO THE TAKERS.[/b]and see how we do. NCLEX may get a different perspective on nursing for future takers.

Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

I don't know what to say...I suspect that I would do decently, since I have a bit of life experience under my belt at this point, but the thought of NCLEX, or ANY nursing test at this point gives me the jitters. I remember saying to myself outloud days before that exam that win, lose or draw, I will NEVER sit for that exam again, and I meant it.

I even avoid signing for agencies that want a test...PLEASE...I don't want to be bothered. I got really uptight when I took a continuing education EKG interpetation class and discovered that we had to take an exam and earn an 85 or we would not obtain our certificate. I was so ****** off I could have screamed. I did get an 86, got my certificate and again, I don't want to be bothered with boggling my brain with NCLEX-style questions!!! I remember choosing answers for that blasted exam using insane rationale like: This answer looks to stupid to be real...this is what they must want to hear, so, I'll choose YOU. Passed the first time with minimal questions in 40 minutes. Now, if that is what they call a safe practitioner, then, God help them.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Home Health.
Actually, you can take it. Simply get an NCLEX study book that has sample tests... and take one.

Any veteran nurse should be able to pass it--it is the very definition of competent BASIC nursing. Frankly, if you're an experienced nurse, I'd be very worried if you couldn't.

I am an experienced nurse, but I dont think I could pass it. Alot of us were talking about this just the other night. We all agreed that we have lost alot of the knowledge that we had as a new graduate. We all have gained the clinical skills that a new grad doesnt posess yet. But there are alot of disease processes that you just dont encounter very often. If you dont use it, you lose it. I dont deal with cardiac monitors on the floor I work on now and therefore I can not reliably interpret EKG's now, but I could when I first graduated school. I dont deal with ART lines and Groshongs, but I knew all about them (theoretically) when in school. I may be wrong, I may be able to pass it now, but I dont want to think about it! lol

Specializes in med/surg.
Actually, you can take it. Simply get an NCLEX study book that has sample tests... and take one.

Any veteran nurse should be able to pass it--it is the very definition of competent BASIC nursing. Frankly, if you're an experienced nurse, I'd be very worried if you couldn't.

Agree! I got the book and CDs and studied. I do think my previous med/surg helped.

Red

Specializes in med/surg.
I am an experienced nurse, but I dont think I could pass it. Alot of us were talking about this just the other night. We all agreed that we have lost alot of the knowledge that we had as a new graduate. We all have gained the clinical skills that a new grad doesnt posess yet. But there are alot of disease processes that you just dont encounter very often. If you dont use it, you lose it. I dont deal with cardiac monitors on the floor I work on now and therefore I can not reliably interpret EKG's now, but I could when I first graduated school. I dont deal with ART lines and Groshongs, but I knew all about them (theoretically) when in school. I may be wrong, I may be able to pass it now, but I dont want to think about it! lol

I think you could. It comes back to you pretty well, if you have been previously experienced. New drugs, new procedures, but if you learned them before you can learn the new "upgrades."

Red

Specializes in Med/Surg, Home Health.

omg I went to this link and tested myself. I KNEW ALL this stuff in school! But dang it. Some of the tests, I aced, some I dont even want to think about. Im off to study, I feel stupid now! Check this out! Scroll down and choose a system and take the test. http://www.testprepreview.com/nclex_practice.htm

Don't know if I would pass NCLEX but took med surg certifying exam after being out of school for 27 years and passed with a decent score. It is a similar type exam but not as extensive as it is just med surg.

+ Add a Comment