KatRN25

I have been a NICU nurse for 2 years now. I just got accepted into Grad School from my NNP. I would highly recommend working as an RN for at least a couple of years. Although I am excited about going back to school I am super nervous because of my lack of experience. Many of our Neo's and practitioners are supportive of me doing this, but they have commented on how experience means more than having book knowledge.

Congradulations! I think you've made the right choice. NICU is such a special place to be. I am a new grad recently off orientation and I am so grateful to be a NICU nurse. It's not an easy place to get into. I hope all the best for you. Congrats again!

I took NCLEX Sept 07 and I used Saunders Q&A, I took a review course by Sylvia Rayfield, and I also used Kaplan online. Kaplan hands down worked the best for me. The QBank questions were most like the NCLEX. I would suggest using Kaplan questions online. The format and types of questions are similar. I would suggest doing at least 100 questions a day. That way you'd be used to sitting down in one session the way you would during the NCLEX. I would score anywhere for 61-65% on Kaplan and I passed the NCLEX with 85 questions. Good luck to anyone who will be taking boards soon. There is light at the end of the tunnel!

I am a new grad and have been working on the unit for a total of 4 months. I am having a hard time finding the right words to use when telling parents to quiet down, or bring their other children in the waiting room. I wish I could just assertively tell them, but I am afraid to be the "mean" nurse and have it be reported to the nurse manager so early in my new job (my nurse manager highly values parent satisfaction surveys). On the other hand I would rather be reported as a mean nurse because I know I would be doing whats right by advocating for my patient. Yet, this is still one of my harder obstacles as a new grad.

Hi Kaytlin, I too am a new grad. I will be working in a level III NICU, and I am starting off working in the intermediate nursery.We get a total of 6 month orientation. I'm very nervous too, but I think one strategy I'm going to take is to ask lots of questions!. Good luck to you!