Need words of encouragement!

Nursing Students General Students

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Specializes in Obstetrics & Gynecology,Medical/Surgical.

I just got the score back for my first exam in OB. I barely passed!! Anything below a 75% in my program is failing...and I got a 76% on the exam, and ONLY because I got the three "bonus" questions she put on there; otherwise my original score was 73%.

This is my worst test score ever, throughout my entire nursing school career (I'm graduating in December - hopefully!). OB is the area I want to be in as an RN, I love clinicals and I find the material so interesting, and so I just can't believe I did so badly. I didn't care much for Med/Surg but I still never received a test score that low in those courses!

I have heard that have children of their own do really well in OB/Peds. I, of course, have no children.

I'm super bummed. I'm going to class this afternoon with my tail between my legs.

:o

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you still did the 76% - whether you think those 3 bonus questions mattered or not

I remember doing univeristy courses in psychology and they gave 1 extra point for each research study that we participated in (I think we could only do 2 of them). This is the way it is.

Maybe do more practice questions

or a bit more independent research while studying the material

All the best to you

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Specializes in anything that I had my clinicals in.

Nursing school is hard....period!!!!!! I just graduated in May and let me tell you, I have never done something so hard in my entire life. When I started college I always wanted to be a nurse but never thought I was smart enough to do it. I tolk an advanced bio class and got a B in it so I thought that "well if I could do this...". I am now a true believer that if you want something bad enough you will be able to do whatever you want. So if you want to be an OB nurse that's awesome, go for it! Anything that you want the most in life always seems you need to work the hardest for; but in the end we appreciate it that much more!:) Good luck with the rest of nursing school, you'll be just fine.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

whoa! pandora780! i know you are bummed, but don't let this throw you into the depths of despair. having children and doing well in ob nursing is a myth, an old wife's tale. so, get that out of your head right now. having a baby or two doesn't qualify anyone for being better at ob than anyone else! this was told to us by an ob physician instructor when i was in nursing school year ago. ob is just a much more difficult subject. you really have to know the normal progression of pregnancy, labor and birth. the fact is that most labor and birth does not go normally. ob is full of complications. this is why birthing is done in hospitals. when things go wrong, they can go wrong in great big ways. women died all the time in childbirth before modern medicine. birthing is a critical experience. patients can come in feeling absolutely normal and end up in a critical state or even dying in a matter of a few hours. this is by no means an easy subject to study.

what you need to do is look at where you went wrong in answering the questions on this test. was it because you didn't know all the underlying ob information? was it because you didn't apply the nursing process correctly? was it because you failed to consider or just didn't know other kinds of scientific information or medical treatment information to consider in making your answer because you didn't know it or didn't think of it? it is important to determine the answers to these questions because they are going to help you to study and do better on your next tests no matter what subject they are about. you need to do some damage control here on your study and test preparation practices.

i have to tell you in all honesty that i didn't fully understand this critical thinking business until i was graduated and out of school a couple of years. at some point as i got a couple of very interesting gi patients and i was going back into my old textbooks to read up on their disease process something started to click in my brain and a light bulb turned on. i've been like a wrecking ball of critical thinking since then. this critical thinking business is not as easy to do as it is for the words to slide off the tip of people's tongues! believe me! if it were, we'd all be making 100% on these tests.

and, let's not forget instructor error in the formulation of test questions. instructors are people just like you and i. we all make errors and so do instructors. no test is perfect in it's intent to test our knowledge and ability to think.

a new sticky thread was opened up on this forum and i posted the links i had on how to answer nursing school test questions. it is a relatively short thread. please take some time to review the immensely helpful information that is posted there. in particular, chapter 5 of saunders comprehensive review for the nclex-rn examination, 3rd edition, by linda anne silvestri has all the strategy for answering test questions on the nclex and on nursing school application type (critical thinking)questions. you don't have to buy the book if you don't have it or want it, but get someone to xerox those 7 pages from their book for you. use them as a study guideline and it will make an immense difference in how you approach your studying and preparation for your next nursing tests.

hang in there! nursing school is a life-changing experience. change is never an easy thing. the rewards, however, will pay off later. i promise.

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Specializes in ICU, SDU, OR, RR, Ortho, Hospice RN.

Great post Daytonite...:)

Hang in there and don't be so hard on yourself. You will do just fine I am sure. :icon_hug:

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

I agree, don't be too hard on yourself. If you have been a successful test taker for all the other semesters I would just chalk this up as one of the "oh crap" moments in life and move on.

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Specializes in Med/Surg <1; Epic Certified <1.

I've heard many times over -- just get through school and pass the NCLEX; the majority of what you will learn will be on-the-job.

The important thing here is to move on and make sure you don't let stressing over this one test hold you back from continued success -- you are SO close!! It happens; it sucks; now it's time for the next test.

Best wishes!!!

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Specializes in Travel Nursing, ICU, tele, etc.

Don't forget the very most important thing...YOU PASSED that test. Who cares what the score was. That does not diminish anything!! If you know in your heart that OB is where you want to be a nurse then go forth and accomplish that dream!! An exam only tests one sliver of knowledge, it cannot measure your commitment, compassion and caring for your patients. Maybe you already know some, but I promise that you WILL meet Doctors and Nurses and all sorts in health care who you would never want to touch you are your family because there is no warm, caring person there. They may "know" the information, but where is the human being? Please do not take the score on one test to predict your affinity or aptitude for OB, trust your heart!! The heart never lies!!

OB is a hard area!! We sometimes get OB patients in the ICU where I work and most of us are like " I don't know nothin bout birthin no babies!!!!!"

:yeah::yeah::yeah: you can do it!!!

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