Carolanne

You're the new kid on the block and many eyes are focused on you. How will she handle it, how flustered is she going to get, when is she going to lose it? There's probably a little bit of jealousy, too, over your accomplishments and increase in pay over the aides. I think it's a common scenario, I see it in my hospital too all the time. But don't sweat it, they'll get over it. Just be your professional courteous self and walk around the horse-droppings, and focus on what you went to school for in the first place, be a nurse. The office politics will fall into place soon enough.

Just found out this morning ... I made it! Took the RN boards on July 4th, what an Independence Day! What a relief. This was my third time taking it - tests 1 and 2 took me all the way to the end with 265 questions and then this time it shut off at 75. I was a wreck between July 4th afternoon and this morning when I found out - have a bad stiff neck from being so tense, have a tingling throbbing cold sore erupting on my upper lip, and I've had diarrhea for the past day and a half, but it's all been worth it! :chuckle Anyway, enough blowing my own horn --- I owe it all this time to the following book: Saunders Strategies for Success for the NCLEX-RN Examination by Linda Anne Silvestri This is a new workbook just out this year by Linda, who also does the fat green book for the Saunders review. I used these two together to review, review, review. The more practice questions you do the better. Her new book is awesome, extremely user friendly, I felt like she was sitting across from the table explaining things to me. Just wanted to HIGHLY recommend this book to those taking the boards in the future. Tremendous help!!

I'm really starting to question my abilities. Here I am, a graduate of RN school with a degree and the State says I'm not yet competent to practice nursing. I'm getting a little frustrated. I took the NCLEX in March, failed, signed up for NCSBN and the MOSBY CAT on line, did well on both, ordered the Kaplan review book, did well with that, took the NCLEX again this past week and just learned I again did not pass! I just don't get it!! I got all 265 questions both times, so must be I'm getting close but no cigar. I just signed up for the test again, though, darnnit before my current ATT runs out in August. I just need to get this off my frustrated chest for a bit ... thanks for listening. I know I will eventually do this, but it's just getting frustrating (and expensive!!)

Thanks so, so much for this info - I feel better already. This is probably just what I need to work on my weaker points. I got tons of questions on delegation and prioritizing, so I know I need to focus on that. I'm working this weekend and didn't say a word to anyone about it last night, I'm still too humiliated. I'lll have all I can do to break the news to my supervisor during the week. But something occurred to me this morning in the shower (where I do some of my most enlightening thinking!), I successfully graduated from nursing school and still have a two year degree as an RN, so I'm not going to let a couple of hours at a state exam completely shatter my self esteem. I WILL do this, and I thank you all for your words of encouragement. That's why I love this board.

I took my RN boards on Thursday and just went onto the web site to view my grade - the dreaded F word - FAIL! I kind of had a pit in the stomach feeling when I left there - it took me all the way through to the end of the 265 questions and I finished in two and a half hours. I told myself to prepare myself in case this happened, and to just try again ASAP, but it's still a kick in the chops. Now my next dilemma - I have to go to work where I've been a GN since December and tell them I didn't pass. I looked at my temporary permit this morning from the State and it said the permit shall expire after ten days of notification of failure to pass the exam or on the expiration date shown below, whichever occurs first. So here I've been working as a GN after eight weeks of orientation, now will I have to go back to working as a PN and lose the "RN train of thought" not to mention a cut in pay? Anyone out there ever run into this situation?

Hi NND, I can very much relate. I'm 44 and was a week away from graduation in May and failed Cardiac Nursing by 2 points. It's a seven week course and they cram way too much info into that time period to be expected to get any kind of a decent grade. Sure, I thought I was a total has-been, but after licking my wounds for a week or so, I called my supervisor at the hospital (I had already been hired for an RN position), who said to get my LPN permit and work as an LPN until I retake the course and graduate. Best advice I've received in a long time! I have been doing just that since June, am loving it, and learning tons. I'm retaking the course again in Nov. and will be a Dec. grad. The on the job experience has been incredible and I feel much more relaxed and confident about retaking the course. I just have an inner feeling that this time it's going to click and I'm going to reach my goal of being an RN (pending boards of course :chuckle). Anyway, it happens to the best of us, and it is easier the second time around. You'll know what to expect, and believe it or not, you already have a lot of the info stored in your head. Don't get discouraged, keep pluggin'! Good luck!!

It's a very different kind of clinical. No treatments or dressing changes, etc. We even wore street clothes and just our school name badge. We passed meds and took some vitals, followed patients on the Ativan detox protocol and checked their vitals, assessed for tremors, etc. Most of our time was spent talking with the patients, getting them to open up a little by using open ended statements to encourage them to express their feelings. We also attended groups on things like anger management and healthy choices. I too found that the patients enjoyed the interaction with the students and appreciated our genuine concern and nonjudgmental attitude. Psych wards have a lot of stigma about them which I too was a little leary about, but it wasn't like that at all. They're just people. I really enjoyed it, it was a nice break to veer off into a different area for awhile. Hope you enjoy yours too.

Med Surg is tough, a lot of critical thinking involved. Get hold of some NCLEX review books, they should help you a lot.

very, very good!! i especially like the supine one -- i never even thought of spine and supine being related. good ways to make them stick!

When I decided to go back to school at age 40, I started in the summer semester and for some reason still unbeknownst to me, I chose chemistry as the first class to start working on my prereqs. Why I didn't choose something a little lighter like English, I may never know. Anyway, it was a crash seven week course and after being out of school for 22 years, needless to say I was overwhelmed. I found it extremely difficult, but managed to pull off a C. God bless my Professor, he knew I was a future nursing student and I think they know that Chemistry is not an absolute must to have down pat, but it is a required prereq. And to be honest, I'm still not finding a use for it in my present nursing program, but as they say, knowledge is power! :chuckle Don't get discouraged by it, just get through it and you'll get closer and closer to the nursing courses which is what you're striving for. Then you'll start to actually enjoy learning again! Good luck!!

My thoughts exactly.

I have one seven week course to go beginning in the end of October and finishing in December (on my birthday! ) Course entails six hours of lecture and seven hours of clinical a week.

I can't help you in the course area, but I know what you're going through. I was supposed to graduate next week and just found out that I have to retake cardiac nursing. Try not to be too hard on yourself, it happens to the best of us! :) Good luck with finding an opening somewhere.

Sometimes the laws of attraction have a funny twist. I don't see anything wrong with the student forming a new friendship, but I think it was a mistake to bring him along to the study group or involve him in a nursing function where others may recognize him as a former patient. If love is in the air, wonderful, but keep it separate and apart from nursing business. What she does on her own time is her own business.

Nursing homes definitely aren't for everyone, just like the ER may not be, or peds or trauma. But they definitely are needed and it takes a certain type of person to work there. Some people actually get a lot of gratifaction from it, perhaps the elderly remind them of a dear grandparent or family friend, and it's a way of giving back to them in their older years. On our nursing home rotation, I saw the difference between staff just going through the motions with the patients - passing meds, wiping and diaping, and then the staff who made a genuine effort to connect with the patients and make a difference in their quality of life. To sum it up, I think the atmosphere of the facility reflects the care that is given to the patients, and they reflect it.