Spiderman74

"Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength." CONGRATULATIONS!!!

I disagree w/ Been There,done That...only you can decide whether or not nursing is right for you (not your wife). I was in the banking/mortgage/investment for 12 years, and studied economics in college. I had a lot of naysayers who thought I wasn't going to like it & that they didn't think I was going to be a "right-fit." But guess what, I returned back to school in an accelerated post-baccalaureate program, received my BSN, passed my state boards, and now I am a full fledged nurse. Did I mention I absolutely love it, and my patients love me? The cool thing about nursing is that there are many directions you can go into. I have noticed many men, like myself, go into the adrenaline-rush jobs found in trauma, ER, and critical care. I eventually want to become a CRNA or Flight Nurse. I highly recommend you move on from your job and start taking your pre-recs. Someone mentioned getting a job at a hospital/ clinic/ or lab to get your feet wet (which I agree with). I spent way too many years unhappy in my line of work, and should have listened to my inner voice telling me I needed to get into the field of nursing. Lastly, in many regions LVNs are being phased out and many ADN prepared RNs are being over-looked for BSN prepared nurses. I would actually recommend you shoot for becoming a BSN/RN. You are still young and can do anything you set your mind to. I decided to become a nurse and returned to take my pre-reqs at 34 y/o. It took me 1 year since I had previous classes I was able to transfer. I started the RN program at 35 y/o and finished at 37 y/o. I passed my boards and have been working as nurse at 38 y/o. My point is that anyone can go back to school no matter what age. Anyway, GOOD LUCK!

I failed the nclex twice after taking both the Kaplan Review & Hurts Review. I read your post, followed all of your advice (including buying & reading the "Prioritization, Delegation, Assignment" book...and I passed!!! Yeaa...thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

omg, i feel your pain and frustration!!!! i am happy to say that i finally passed my nclex 8 months after graduation, and after taking it the 3rd time. i have read post after post on allnurses.com and many people offer great advice. bostonterrierloverrn wrote some great tips earlier on this thread. i prepared by taking the kaplan review the 1st time and failed at 141 questions. although i did learn a lot, it wasn't enough for me to think on a higher level bc i was not connecting the dots. i did buy the saunder's review 5th edition, but only read the 1st 100 pages & eventually just used it to look things up. i felt like it was information overload because they went into too much detail. also, i completed all the qs in the q-back and all test trainers. for the second preparation, i re-took the kaplan review course and started to make exams using question i previously did not get correct. i saw all the hurst review videos & thought it was tremendously helpful. marlene hurst has a great way of breaking subjects down. i re-took the nclex exam 2 months later and applied the kaplan tree (when i could bc it was not applicable to all questions), and stayed there for the full 6 hours. i failed at 101 questions. after crying & sulking for a couple of weeks (and taking a mini-vacation immediately after finding out i didn't pass), i picked myself up and tried a different strategy. i waited for the brn to send me the letter stating which content areas i did not do well in, and concentrated on those areas. i used the kaplan book they sent w/the program, and reviewed the kaplan videos for that section. i made sure i stopped, highlighted/ underlined everything in that section. i would pause & rewind when i wasn't clear about something. i reviewed the hurst videos for a second time by just sitting there and following along with my notes (absorbing the information). the first time i was too busy writing everything down. i kept the book "exam cram" in my bathroom so that i could read questions, answers & rationales while in there. tmi (i know), but i used every opportunity i could to review questions. i made sure to review the pharm. section & videos kaplan provided (for a 2nd time). i also bought the book, "prioritization, delegation, and assignment” by barbara bartz, candice k. kumagai, linda a. lacharity. that book was soooo...useful! it made me think about how to answer the critical thinking questions. and the majority of my test consisted of the type of questions from the book, along w/ sata. i have serious test anxiety & could not focus when i studied as the test date approached. i was a completed mess during the exams bc i couldn’t concentrate & i forgot things i already knew. the anxiety was paralyzing me. so this time, i started taking a low-dose prescription of paxil and it completely helped!!! mazee was right on the money when s/he recommended “i think your answer might be a simple antianxiety med.” it helped me tremendoulsy!!! the last thing i recommend it that you memorie your lab values (all of them). they vary from book to book so i just picked one book and went with that. i didn’t worry about memorizing the values for pediatrics, but you definitely have to know them. and write them down on the scratch board they give you as soon as you start the exam. any other tip i recommend is memorizing your standard precautions. i used the chart i provided at the end that i found on allnurses.com to help me memorize them. it helped me answer 8-10 questions!! and lastly pray (or meditate)! whether you are religious or spiritual, you need to find a happy place so that if you freak out on the test, you can center yourself and re-focus. i went to a church ½ away from my home the day before the test and prayed to st. jude (i was raised catholic, but i’m more spiritual now-a-days). anyway, it helped me center myself & i drew from that energy while i was midway through my exam and i started to panic. i finished the exam with 75 questions (this time) and subsequently passed my nclex. i really think it was a combination of everything i did to prepare on my third try that really took me to the level i need to be at in order to pass. don’t give up...if i can pass this exam, you can too! i struggled taking my state boards and it was very humbling. however, the day i passed was the day i proclaimed i was not leaving until i passed. you have to believe in yourself...you can do it! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ airborne precaution my - measles chicken - chickenpox hez - herpes zoster (disseminated) tb - tb private room negative pressure with 6-12 air exchanges per hour uv mask n95 mask for tb droplet precaution think of spiderman! s - sepsis s - scarlet fever s - streptococcal pharyngitis p - parvovirus b19 p - pertussis p - pneumonia i - influenza d - diptheria (pharyngeal) e - epiglottitis r - rubella m - mumps m - meningitis m - mycoplasma or meningeal pneumonia an - adenovirus private room mask contact precaution mrs.wee m - multidrug resistant organism r - respiratory infection - rsv s - skin infections w - wound infections e - enteric infections – clostridium difficile e - eye infections private room (or pt of same infection) gloves gown skin infections: v - varicella zoster c - cutaneous diptheria h - herpes simplex i - impetigo p - pediculosis s - scabies, staphylococcus

Since I moved from San Diego, I disconnected my phone. Although, it wouldn't have supported this application. So I am going to use my Palm Pilot (Zire 71).

Hi Gals! It's me Victor from orientation today. I was so excited to meet everyone and I am sure our Co-hort is going to rock! I can't wait to start the program. Until then, it was a pleasure meeting you!