foreign nurse, last studied 8 years ago

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hi,

I'm an immigrant in Baltimore (married a local boy) and starting a prep course for studying the NCLEX-Rn hopefully in the next 2-3 months. I've enrolled in a kaplan course but am still confused as to how to study and how much time I should dedicate to study daily. I've been an RN at home for 7 years and last studied about 7-8 years ago so it's been a while.

Right now I'm working part time in a restaurant which uses up about half of my week. Is it worthwhile studying the NCLEX like a full time job so I can pass quicker? Are there other people who haven't studied for a while and am now sitting the NCLEX and working? Wandering if I should quit my restaurant job (or try get a job in a hospital and be in a 'nursing' environment) so I have more time/energy to study.

Feeling kind of lonely without having friends or family here and not knowing any other nurses in my position.

Thankyou.

Specializes in mental health, military nursing.

I'd recommend getting your hands on a set of ATI books - they are excellent prep books, with not a speck of "extra" information, just the things you need to pass the NCLEX. They're helpful to unlearn the bad habits we sometimes pick up as real nurses :D

I wouldn't work in the hospital - it's a stressful place to be anyways, but it's worse when your coworkers know your trying to pass the NCLEX! If you do quit work to study full time, I wouldn't plan on doing it for more than a month or two - it's nice to just get the NCLEX out of the way, and after awhile, studying doesn't really help :)

Good luck!

Does the BON require proof of 1,000 hours of practice within the past 5 years?

dishes

Hi there,

Yes, I've got more than enough hours of practice to be eligible to register. The maryland board of nursing has given me approval to test, so going to register with Pearson Vue when I can predict a date I'll be ready to sit the NCLEX.

Does 3-4 hours of study per day sound acceptable for a nurse long out of school to be ready for the exam?

Thanks

I am sure there are far more experienced here to give you advice however i recently passed the NCLEX with Kaplan in april and this is what worked for me. I bought the international package and i followed it to the T. I got the books in the post and i read the entire book of basics making sure i understood it. Then i read the other books and did the nursing calculations. Basically i followed the Kaplan format.

I started at the end of January and sat middle of April. i did my nursing about six years ago. I was working full time.

The key is to keep focused on what you want. I will be the first to tell you when you are sat at that computer even whith the tv off and no one around you will find distraction, especially if you have not studied for a while. But keep focused and think of how much the Kaplan package cost and how much it will cost to re examine. You can do it.

jessie'sgirl

there is a nclex discussion forum that you might find helpful, suggest you read the stickies at the top of it, also you can use the search tool at the top of allnurses to browse previous thread and find topics you are interested in https://allnurses.com/nclex-discussion-forum/

good luck with your studies

dishes

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