NCLEX priotity questions - how do you know?

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Specializes in CVICU.

Hey everyone,

2nd semester ADN student here. I'm taking Health Promotions this summer and we are studying maternity right now. I've taken 2 exams - barely passed the first one, failed the second one. I read every chapter, know every definition, do the practice questions, exam reviews - all that.

After viewing my exams, it seems it's the prioritizing questions that get me - the questions that ask, "What's the nurses first action?" or "What's the nurses priority?"

All of the answers are appropriate but one of them is the priority and I can't seem to nail it down. I know physiology, I know the normal data ranges, but not prioritizing. I do know the ABC's but for something that isn't life threatening how do I know what the priority is? How did you all learn? What advice do you have?

Thanks!!

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Specializes in Nursing Education.

It sounds like you might be focusing a lot of your study time on memorizing, but not on understanding how all the pieces fit together. It is necessary to know definitions and read the chapters, but you need to find some study techniques that help you go deeper into the material. Maybe it's noticing how certain aspects of maternity can be related to Med-Surg (for example, gestational diabetes, or similarities between epidurals and lumbar punctures). Or just being able to explain/reteach the material to a classmate, non-nursing friend, or even the lamp...no, the lamp won't learn much, but you will just by going over the material out loud a couple times.

And then on test day, one question that always helped me when determining priorities was...if I'm only going to do ONE thing and then go home, which of the following will help me sleep at night? And then I pick the answer choice that is most urgent based on the options and scenario presented. ABC's and Maslow's hierarchy help me decide.

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If it's not a life threatening situation, start focusing on Maslow's. I saw a chart somewhere that will tell you what types of situations fit into which category, I'm sure if you google it, you can pull it up. For instance, if you are thinking about Maslow's, a safety need would come before a self-actualization need, for example.

Also, check out test success for the nursing student. There are a TON of great tips in there about how to take tests. It helped a classmate of mine go from an F to passing the class last semester and I'm sure it would give you tips as well.

Finally, I agree with RNTutor...you are going to have to piece all of the information together, if you aren't already. Good luck! You can do this!

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I read every chapter, know every definition, do the practice questions, exam reviews - all that.

The thing I learned about nursing early on is you cannot just memorize information and facts. That's why we had quite a few exams in our very first nursing class, Fundamentals. Nursing is completely different than your history or chemistry class. You can rely on memorization to get through. But with nursing, you have to KNOW the content and information and more importantly (especially on the NCLEX) be able to critically think, use the knowledge you have, apply it to many different situations and be able to analyze different actions. Hope this helps! (: You can do it. It's all a learning process!

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Here is a link that may help:

https://allnurses.com/nursing-blogs/writing-multiple-choice-367059.html

Also consider purchasing this book by the author Linda LaCharity:

Prioritization, Delegation and Assignment...it will reinforce your understanding on answering priority/higher level of difficulty questions.

ISBN: 0323065708 (newer edition)

ISBN: 0323044077 (older edition)

Hope this helps! :)

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