Everything is a mess right now!

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Specializes in Neurology.

everything is such a mess right now. i am currently an lpn. i graduate from my rn program on may 9th. for that i am excited!! i have an excellent gpa and i have always gotten really good grades on the tests. now here's the bad part..... i failed my exit hesi. almost everyone in my program failed it. there are 40 of us and only two people passed. i got an 817. the ffirst time that i took it..(which was 8 months ago) i got an 881. you would think that i would have done better this time. but no!!!!! we are all furious! we had our exit interview with the director of the program and i complained about the whole program. i told her that in my opinion....our instructors did nothing but confuse us and give us the wrong information. i'm not kidding when i say that we all get multiple questions wrong because we answer with the knowledge that our professors drilled into our heads but it never seems to be the right answers. i wasn't going to take a review course because i didn't think that i needed it but i am now!! i told my program director that i need to erase this entire past year from my memory and start fresh with a review course for the nclex. she didn't look happy but i dont care.... i paid for this program and i am entitled to my opinion.

next is.... i got a scholarship from the cleveland clinic. so i signed a contract that i would work for them for two years after i graduated and passed my boards. well, i applied for a position in the hospital and had my interview. i didn"t get the job!!!! i called the education department there and i asked them what was my next step because i was under the impression that i was guaranteed a job considering i signed a contract. they told me that i had to apply for another position in the hospital. i said... what happens if i don't get hired for this position either?? they told me that if i don't get hired for this position either then they will intervene to get me a position in the hospital. i said.... i want to get hired for my ability instead of because someone else says that i have to be hired.... i am furious! i did not know that this was how it was going to be. i know that i don't interview well. i need to work on my interview technique. i get very quiet. i dont like talking about myself during an interview..... anyways.... i am quite upset about everything that has been going on..... any advice would be great!!!

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Your program obviously has a problem if only two people passed the exit HESI - in mine, usually less than 5 fail it the first time each semester (we have three tries). I would focus on that for now - if you're worrying about the HESI, your anxiety might be coming across in interviews. Do you have the HESI review book? I would go get that now and start reading. They also have a website with another 6-700 practice questions that's available on the evolve website - I don't know the name of the product, but I'm sure someone on here does. How many NCLEX review books do you have? I would pop in the CDs and do at least a few hundred questions every day. One of my instructors recommends keeping a notebook with you and writing something down about each question that you miss, then going over it after your question session is over. If you can afford it, consider signing up for Kaplan or one of the other review course classes - our school forces us to take Kaplan, but not until summer for me so I can't tell you how helpful it is.

Once you've passed the HESI, you can call the hospital again about interviewing for another position. You'll feel much better about yourself and your abilities to pass the NCLEX and be a competent nurse, and it should come across. Tons of people have posted interview techniques here on allnurses, Daytonite's posts usually have great tips in them. Do a quick search here, and on the net in general to get an idea of what questions they commonly ask. Then have a friend/spouse/whoever practice interviewing you. Also, make sure you dress really well - not only will you make a better impression, you'll feel more confident while you're there. Good luck! What's passing on your HESI? For us it's 850, so you'd be really close already. I'm sure you'll be fine with a little more studying.

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Specializes in Neurology.

passing on our hesi is 850. i can't take it again cause they don't offer it again. i am definitely not going to pay to take it again either. i think it would be a waste of money for me. i have no choice about the job. i have to interview asap. i need to have a job cause in my contract it states that i have to sit for boards within 8 weeks of graduation. so...i am on a time line! aaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! make it all end soon!!! :)

thanks for the advice! how much longer do you have to go???

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So will your school even allow you to take the NCLEX since you failed the exit Hesi? At my school if you don't pass the exit Hesi the school makes you pay for an NCLEX review course before they will allow you to sit for the boards. They really protect their NCLEX pass rate.

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Specializes in Neurology.

this is the final year that they are allowing us to graduate. starting with the next class...if you dont pass the hesi then you fail the whole program and you don't graduate. i guess that their scores have not been too great over the past few years..... i am taking a review class on my own. i dont have to according to my school but i want to. i wanna pass!!! :)

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

What a nightmare!! Thank heavens our passing and graduating isn't tied to the HESI!! That just doesn't sound RIGHT!! Have you called your state BON to see if that's okay? Maybe I'm out in a cornfield somewhere, but I just don't see how that can be....

As for the scholarship....this is a good eye-opening experience for others...hopefully you will find a job you like and will get hired for in this hospital, but this is one reason I stayed away from scholarship or tuition reimbursement that involved any kind of strings. I didn't want to be tied to one institution at graduation. But it's not an all-bad thing if they're willing to "intervene" and get you a job; there's some people that would die for that opportunity after graduation.

If there are other facilities in the area that you may be interested in working, then see if you can buy out the scholarship 'contract'. That's often an option and maybe you can even find another employer who will do that for you.

Lastly, if you're interviewing for jobs, you obviously are aware of a few shortcomings you have in this process. I'd suggest you shake off this "talking about myself" problem sooner rather than later. It's what the employers are looking for; it helps them determine who you are in that very short time frame they get to meet and talk with you. If you don't sell yourself, I can guarantee you that the competition won't be stepping up to do it for you. Start doing searches on allnurses for interview questions so you can be somewhat prepared with answers. Start thinking about your strengths and weaknesses. Did you have any good instructors at your school? Can you go talk to them to get some interviewing tips and tricks?!?!

Hang in there and best of luck....wow, just when you thought it was almost over, lol....

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Specializes in Neurology.

thank you for the advice. i have definitely learned alot with this whole experience. i received an email from them stating that the other position that i applied for was ready to interview me. hoepfully i get it. i have got lots of interviewing skills to perfect before i go!! wish me luck!!!

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

Just remember that not every job is a sure fit or will work out. I applied for two specialty areas and found out recently I didn't get them. I thought the interviews went well, but what are you going to do?

I now have my sites set on med/surg and am getting ready to look in to three different positions. Competition isn't quite so stiff for these jobs, so I'm fairly confident that I will land one of those as there are plenty of openings in this area. Will I get the exact one I am hoping for? Possibly not. Is it going to be the end of my quest for the perfect job? Heck no....I'll go get and take whatever experience I can get, then plan to move on.

Somehow life has a funny way of working out the way it's supposed to despite all our efforts to goof it up!! :banghead: :roll

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Sorry, I misunderstood - at our school, you get 3 tries to take it but if you don't pass you don't graduate. They make you retake preceptorship and try again next semester. After that, I guess you'd be out - not sure if it's ever happened. If it's not a factor in graduating, don't sweat it. Maybe look into prepping a little extra hard before you take the NCLEX though. Passing the HESI is a big predictor of passing the NCLEX, but that doesn't mean it works the other way around. My school requires an 850 on the HESI to preserve their 95-100% first-time NCLEX passage numbers - for an 817, probably something like 87% pass on their first try. Get your job lined up, then get back to studying.

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Specializes in Neurology.

i didn't realize just how crazy the last couple months were going to be. i cannot wait for nursing school to be done.

there is no way that i am going to give up on getting the position that i truly want. overall goal is to work for a level 1 trauma unit. then after a few years of that i want to be a sexual assault nurse examiner. if i have to start out in something that i dont want then i guess that i have to.

on monday, we have to take this new nclex predictor test. all i know is that the nln has a new nclex predictor test that they are trying out and our school was one of the ones chosen. it's a $150 test but we are getting it for free. i am anxious to see how i do on that one.

i'll never give up. :)

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