the dood

my 2 cents as i see it, and unfortunately, in reality: 1. nursing school does NOT equal nursing in real life. they are NOT the same! school only preps you for what you want to become in the real world. therefore, and i stress this, everybody who passes and completes a nursing program is NOT NECESSARILY cut out to be a nurse. period. most can and will, but many won't. bummer and sorry. nobody ever said life was fair. 2. this is a general entry level exam designed to see if you can think critically in the real world. and more critically than most jobs out there. so many things will never come up once you start nursing, especially when you decide on your specialty. 3. of course the nclex is difficult! and should become more so every time they review and rewrite it. nurses are being required to assume more responsibility of patients lives. you dont want any joe schmoe nursing. not even if its you, but a co-worker too as it can stress your life out as well. 4. as far as difficulty, when i took the exam a few years ago, they started adding new things (e.g. hot spots, fill in blanks, multiple selections). this wasnt on the exam 30 years ago, but i still work with nurses who took the written exam like that and never took it again. society wants to feel confident in your ability to do your increasingly demanding work especially when dealing with their health and lives. look at the cost of our healthcare. paying that much money, surely anybody would want one of a kind care. dont wuss out. but dont be angry either that the exam gets more difficult. thats life. and nursing is getting harder and extremely more demanding and stressful, therefore testing your knowledge will follow suit. best of luck. (and obviously if it was impossible, NOBODY would ever pass. but there are still and will be plenty of people passing) p.s. this test doesnt prove your competent to be a nurse. you achieve that status once you get nursing and been doing it a while. testing and school doesnt replace experience. this test proves your ability to 1) think very critically 2) apply basic nursing/human issues in a situation so you make the BEST call. in the real world many times, there are no "right" answers. only best choices from a given selection. thats what you have to remember. the only person who can define and acknowledge "competency" is your organization if they decide to keep you (my place waits a year before making that call)

boy, i hate google-ing info for nurse stuff because it seems like a lot of info is old (e.g. 2006 or earlier). i know this is especially annoying when it comes to pay, because a few years can make a big difference in what people are now making. anyway, i figure i should put in my 2cents worth to give prospective, anxious, and nervous nursing students a little piece of mind...... so this section asks about passing the NCLEX-RN. this is my story: 1. most of my classmates had 75 questions. 2. they had almost 100% pass rate. (a classmate had 75 and didnt pass) 3. i, personally, had 135 questions. 4. i WANTED more questions because i felt i had not "proved" myself to be a competent and safe nurse. (more ? is not necessarily bad. its just the test giving you more chances to prove yourself) but the test ended. 5. i also missed my last question. (looked it up when i got home). 6. needless to say, i was pretty bummed 7. good news: i passed!! (results posted in 3 business days in Calif) so, avoid myths about missing the last question, or anything about the # of questions. its a hard test. if you feel good coming out, you probably did poorly. if you feel like youre the biggest dumb nurse and you failed, you probably passed. hope this helps! best of luck