I PASSED NCLEX-RN---3rd Attepmt----What REALLY helped me this time!!

Published Mar 28, 2009

ER-RN2009

15 Posts

Specializes in ER.

Well I finally passed boards on my 3rd attempt! PRAISE GOD!! Needless to say, I'm on cloud nine. I feel it is only right that I give some credit to ALLNURSES.COM. After failing twice, I really found comfort in this amazing site. For me this site was a place to go where I knew people understood and felt the heartache that I was experiencing, as well as, offering words of encouragement. My family was so encouraging, loving and supportive, but they didn't really understand the hurt, disappointment and humility that I felt. They just didn't know and how could they!! So THANK YOU to this site and to all the amazing people that write in with advice & encouragement!! Now to give something back for all that I received from everyone....

After graduation we put our home on the market and planned to build when it sold. Well little did we know that it would sell the first week ! So, we moved into a small home and started our search for land to build on. When I say small I mean 900 sq. ft SMALL with myself, my husband two daughters ages 16 yrs & 7 yrs old. This was not a good idea, but we thought it would be fine, it's only for a short time...WE THOUGHT!! So I landed my dream job, ER! I was working full time with my preceptor and looking everywhere for land but nothing was turning up. Lord, I was getting stressed. Trying to work full time, raising 2 kiddos in a house to small, searching for land and last but not least...studying for boards! My mind was all over the place. I finally just thought, "go take them, if my friends could pass, then so could I." I even had better grades in school than them. WRONG!! I took all 265 questions...FAIL. I was devastated! So now I had to go back to work and let them know the bad news. They were great...allowed me to remain with my preceptor and continue my job with a few exceptions..No RN assessments and so forth. But that was fine with me. So, I continue working full time, but now we find land and start building!! WOW, I just had know idea what that meant!! After asking around about review courses I decided to attent the Hurst Review. Started looking online for a live Hurst Review in my area, but there weren't any even remotely near me. After locating one in the time frame that I was looking for, I went in to work and spoke with them about taking a couple weeks off to fly from Texas to Virginia to attend a live review..again, they were great! I was very fortunate that my husband and I were in a position financially that allowed me to do this. So many of my friends from school were really struggling financially after graduation. "Sure, we are 100% behind you and helping to insure your success", is what they told me!! How AWESOME!! Went to the review, it was everything I had been told and more!! Came back, went back to work, studied and had started building.. So about 2 months later I scheduled boards. The week before I was scheduled to test my oldest daughter, now 17 yrs. old moved out of my house! OMG!! In Tx. a 17 yr. old CHILD has the legal right to move out of their parents home, my hands were tied!! My husband & I never saw this coming...turned out to be over a 21 yr old man, if you will that she had been sneeking around with. "What do I do", I thought. Really hadn't studied as much as I should have, again I let myself think!! I thought, "hey, I can do this, I'm actually pretty smart, I took the Hurst Review and they have a 99% pass rate, I know what to expect this time, yeah, go take it." WRONG AGAIN!! This time I only had 95 questions! What the heck, did I lose information, did I actually get DUMBER??!! No, I didn't!! But I sure felt like it! "WHAT WAS I DOING WRONG," AND HOW DO I MOVE ON FROM HERE??", I thought. I've never felt lower in all my life, I took a couple of days and felt sorry for myself, did the whole crying, self-pity thing! Then a friend of mine that had failed twice just like me said, "It's time to quit crying and feeling sorry for yourself." Kinda hard to do!! The difference in her and me was the fact that her department let her go. She applied as a PCT in the ER where I was working. Her and I had went to school together and I always admired her outlook. No matter how bad it got, she just got right back in there and did what she had to do!! And she was right, feeling sorry for myself wasn't solving or helping anything. I went back to work, again everyone was great, the only difference this time was that my preceptorship time was over, so all I could do is tech. I did that for a few weeks before really trying to figure out what I needed to do to pass boards. After speaking with my boss, I decided to go PRN as a tech, that way I kept my foot in the door. Besides, they have been so great to me and have invested time and money in me. WHat I did different this time is, basically, sorted my life out and got where I needed to be mentally. Now that I was working, I had a lot more time. Time that I spent finishing my house, working things out with my daughter and spending a GREAT deal of time on ALLNURSES.COM!! Other than unloading a ton of stressors in my life, which put me in a better mental state of mind, I did a lot of note taking from the "RANDOM FACT THROWING" thread. OMG it was amazing what I gained from everyone. I really am pretty smart, but there was so much information that others had found that I had never seen in all my reading. So I really started concentrating on what I already knew and adding these random facts to it. There was so much information, as well as, good testing suggestions!! Other than getting my life settled, I basically used this site exclusively to prepare for boards my 3rd and last time. I probably took about 20 pages of notes, 50% being meds and the rest was random information. Wednesday March 25th I went and took boards, scared to death, but mentally more prepared. The next 2 days were the longest!! This morning I logged in to get my quick results, nearly wetting my pants, crying and expecting the worst, but what do ya know, "I PASSED!" So THANK YOU ALLNURSES.COM and everyone that contributed to the Random Fact Throwing!! God Bless You!!