nclex ?

Just practice, practice. Know the subject matters inside and out because the answers are very close. A lot is common sense. Will you harm the patient?

I found the practice nclex exams we did in school were not much like the real thing. And everyone gets very different tests.

If you search various forums on this website you can find a lot of useful information.

Good luck!

I personally thought that nclex-pn questions were not harder but trickier than practice questions, but of course this is my perception. If you are doing well as far as understanding what the questions are asking you and if you passed your mock nclex exam at the end of the course you should be fine. I passed my mock nclex and then passed the real one so keep studying. Good luck!

One thing i'd suggest, the more questions you expose yourself to, the better off you'll be... think of it, they can only ask you so many questions, if you've seen or had contact with 90% of the questions in one format or another that they can/will ask, your ahead of the game. However like the other poster has pointed out, knowing your content and being a "prudent" nurse, and having some common sense truely helps out. My boards shut off at 80 something, can't remember exactly how many but I passed and I thought for sure i'd failed when I took it. Have confidence in the answers you choose, if you know your stuff and have common sense you can figure any question that the board can throw out at you.

Wayne.

Have confidence in the answers you choose, if you know your stuff and have common sense you can figure any question that the board can throw out at you.

Wayne.

That's exactly it I think. Some students would complain why we had to learn it so indepth but if you know it top to bottom you'll have a much easier time figuring out the questions like you said. Some think you should be able to just pick up a study guide with exact examples of the questions. State Exam...don't think they'd allow that!

Know your topics and you can figure it out, along with common sense because some of the answer's are pretty "out there."

Yeah but the only problem with that school of thought, is that you'd be memorizing answers, not being able to think on yer feet, and that's what nursing is, being presented a situation and being able to think your way logically through it. If all we did was memorize this answer for that particular question, it wouldn't do any of us any good and we'd all suck at our jobs.

You must be able to be thrown any situation, and look at it objectively and say, ok, deal with this first that second, or this med is for ___ and you'd give this much, however many pills, this much of an injection etc etc... Being a nurse is very fluid... I say that because from moment to moment your priorities can change, what was important and needed to be taken care of two seconds ago may have changed and now your dealing with a totally different issue, and it's not because we knew this answer to that question... it's because we can think on our own and say we need to fix this and stabilize that first, then do such and such. Priorities priorities priorities, what will kill the patient always goes first... everything else goes next and from highest degree down...

Wayne.

A lot in my class were just like that. They all wanted to just memorize the answers if we got a study guide. And hence....they are the ones failing the NCLEX! I tried to tell them they needed to understand the material not memorize it. So now they are paying the price... But they were the ones cheating also. I guess there's some in every class.

Hey postmortem_cowboy, have you worked much in ER? I thought I read you had? If so, any advice for me? Starting as a new grad in 2 wks. It's overcrowded being the only ER in a population of over 138,000. Patients sitting in the hallway in chairs, beds, etc. I'm on nights, so this also being new to me, how to get enough sleep?

Thanks, you always seem to have such good advice!

Advice meaning? need to narrow it down just a wee bit... lol...

And yes i've worked the ER at Garden Grove hospital, East Valley hospital in glendora, Chapman Medical Center and also Gardena memorial which is right next door to compton, so alot going on there. I'm actually going to go back to gardena here hopefully soon, and this time around not as a registry nurse, but as a staff nurse.

If you want to be successful in ER. There are a few things you need under your belt. First and foremost, a little bit of experience, don't go to ER first thing, it's a battle ground, give yourself a few months of M/S (I know i know it's a boring ass floor but still) or DOU, or something other than ER first! Let you get yourself comfortable with having more time on your hands to prep things, so that when you make the move to ER, you know all the tasks you will have to accomplish like the back of your hand. Does no one any good to have a doc say this patient needs an IV, foley and IM demerol and you take 30 minutes prepping their foley just to not be successful. Get it? There will be some time you will need to get adjusted in the feel for the job, it's very different from nursing school when your on your own and out amongst other nurses.

#2, get an IV and phlebotomy class, and start poking and never stop, you'll suck at it at first, we all did when we first learn it, but don't stop poking... keep starting them and staring them and drawing labs, that's the only way you'll ever get good at it.

#3 Take ACLS, you have to know what's going on during a code, every ER has to be ready for a code to walk in the door, if your not ACLS certified, you won't be of much use other than a doorstop.

#4 Take some telemetry classes, find yourself an EKG class and get that and possibly 12 leads under your belt, if you can see and understand what the EKG is telling everyone and not have to ask, ok so what's wrong with this patient you'll be much more worth while to an ER. Being able to run and spot problems such as MI's on 12 leads is important too, damn near everyone that's medical coming through the door of an ER is going to get one, and if that particular ER doesn't have an EKG tech, guess what, your low man on the totem pole and you'd better start learning how to run one, and show off a bit of your knowledge and be able to spot an MI in the mix.

Combine all those things with your license, and you should have no problems with handling ER as an LVN, there are some things you'll have to learn, splinting, and particular meds to ED, but that comes with getting into the floor and doing them and seeing it all. The one biggest thing, throw in as many IV's as you can, that's the most difficult part of the whole thing. It's an art, and you'll do it over and over and it won't "click" and one day, all of a sudden it will and from that day forward you'll never have another problem. Case in point, I really sucked at putting in IV in old people, young people I could hit anything on, but the old one's nope. It wasn't till i'd taken registry at gardena and had to drop 30 or more lines in my own patients every single day and offered to other nurses to put in theirs (ie I took the initiative to make myself good at it) that I not only made alot of friends, but also got pretty damn good at finding veins and dropping 14's and 16's in arms.

Take from my experience what it took me so long to learn, benefit from what I had to learn the hard way. My first LVN shift in ER was actually scheduled as a M/S shift, the supervisor came to me and said... "you have any experience in ER?", my answer was "well I was an EMT for 2 years and had been in and out of ER's but not as a nurse, no not any experience"... her response was "good you have more than anyone else in the hospital right now so you're being moved to ER for tonight"... so some of it is fate as well... and I'd only been a nurse for a couple of months when that happend, but I got a few strong months to get solid on my skills on my own as well to sink/swim in ER without making myself out to be too much of an ass.

Wayne.

A lot in my class were just like that. They all wanted to just memorize the answers if we got a study guide. And hence....they are the ones failing the NCLEX! I tried to tell them they needed to understand the material not memorize it. So now they are paying the price... But they were the ones cheating also. I guess there's some in every class.

Hey postmortem_cowboy, have you worked much in ER? I thought I read you had? If so, any advice for me? Starting as a new grad in 2 wks. It's overcrowded being the only ER in a population of over 138,000. Patients sitting in the hallway in chairs, beds, etc. I'm on nights, so this also being new to me, how to get enough sleep?

Thanks, you always seem to have such good advice!

Oh yeah, and to answer the first statement... lol... yes there are cheaters in every class, but like you said, they are only cheating themselves, they are the ones who spent a year cheating off someone elses test/exam, homework etc etc etc, that get to boards and fail miserably. A "friend" i'd made in my class had told me "thanks for that" one afternoon after we'd just taken a test, as I wasn't aware of what he was talking about he'd told me he cheated off my test, I promptly had my seat moved and started watching my test more readily and the people surrounding me with lingering eyes. These were also the jerks that didn't get to take boards right away because they had "issues" with their child support and being behind on payments, which the board of nurses doesn't like either.

And Gardena Memorial is the same way, 4 hallway chairs and 11 beds and they're going through 100+ patients a shift now... that's alot for a small ER such as Gardena, but there's almost always 2 docs on at all times. ER is a very different floor, your not calling doctors for orders, you have one right there, and if an admitting doc needs to be called, the ER doc does it for you usually. The waiting room is always full tilt and people complain about this or that taking too long, and someone's not being cared for, but with no new hospitals opening up (and this is another issue that ER's deal with) they get innundated with everyone's problems, and dummy me, ER's are for emergencies, not runny noses that can wait till the morning to see the pediatrician. Once you make it there you will see, trust me you will see. lol...

Wayne.

Wow. I worship you! lol

No really, that was a lot of great info. We're probably getting off the "thread" subject too.

I'm printing this out so I can look back and say "gee, he was right!"

Thanks so much!!

Wow. I worship you! lol

No really, that was a lot of great info. We're probably getting off the "thread" subject too.

I'm printing this out so I can look back and say "gee, he was right!"

Thanks so much!!

Your welcome, anytime!

Trust me, anything that will make you more "appropriate" for the floor your seeking to be a part of, do it. You won't regret it and the hospital will take that as a sign that you are serious about moving to ER.

There was a time that I was the only ACLS nurse on the M/S floor, and that's including all the darn RN's on the floor as well, and none of them knew how to run a code successfully, and I did, how does that look... when an LVN that's ACLS certified can tell them, "push this med, push that med now"... and they don't know their butt from a hole in the ground. We had mock codes one night, and none of the RN's knew what med came when and how often do push them... I kept answering questions when none of them knew what to do... showing off? nah not really, but showing up the others that should know what do is what it was.

Wayne.

Yeah, isn't he (Wayne) great with the advice? I was also thinking of retaking an IV class because I didn't get the piggyback situation done correctly during my 6 week bid in med-surg (I work in a clinic). My hospital certified me, however, it was a poor job. I am a phlebotomist, so, the starting of the line is not a big thing, it is the pump, priming, really silly things that I had not gotten together. They kept placing me with different nurses that did different things and since I was leaving to go to the clinic, it didn't make much of a difference to me, but I have to revisit this in order to go to the floors every now and then.

Hi! I just took my NCLEX in January. After talking to my fellow grads (we get together every couple of weeks or so), NCLEX experiences can be broken down into two groups: those who came out of thinking that, for sure, they did not pass - but did and those who came out thinking it "wasn't that bad". There is no real way to study for the test. You either know it or you don't. I didn't really go thru any practice tests or anything beforehand. I just read and read and read my med surg book and 2 NCLEX-PN review books! I read alot about rationales. That helped alot. It is alot of critical thinking. You may have questions where there is more then one right answer...but you need to pick the BEST one. You just don't want to do anything that will harm the patient and also remember your priorities when taking care of pts (ABC's).

Good luck!