Coolbean12

thank you for sending me to that thread, what a WONDERFUL thread. I did not seem to find that when I searched it (not sure why, but obviously I did not put in the right clue words) how Great those sheets are.. Thank you!

I just wanted to thank everyone for posting your sheets, I start a new job next week and I have the hardest time organizing myself. I have saved about 30 of these on my computer and plan to create my own but use bits and pieces of many of your wonderful suggestions.. so happy to see nurses working together and helping one another out. I will def post mine once I actually figure it out ?

I wanted to thank everyone again for all their responses, it has been a while since I checked back to my post! I certainly read these comments and could have sworn that I wrote back but it looks like I never did.. How wonderful you all are for responding. It is great to see the way that Pediatric nurses think as I never really was able to do a full rotation and I wish I was able to.. Xstarsfalling- I do understand your comment now about the psych and that psych skills do play an important role, I just meant that originally I wanted to go into adult psych because that was the only experience I had (we never did a pediatric rotation).. Once again I am keeping all your comments saved because I am certainly going to refer back to this in the future, I thank you all for your comments.. Janfrn, I will look for your article, Thank you :)

Thank you sooooo much for your response!!! I'm sorry it took me a while to get back to you, I was getting myself together for my new job!! That sounds like a good idea and I will look at that site right now!! How wonderful of everyone to be so helpful :) I'm glad to know it comes with experience...

Hi Everyone! I am about to start a job on the 14th. I struggled throughout nursing school with organizational skills. I did get better as time went on with making check off sheets and lists with times and followed them as much as I could. I was wondering if anyone had any tips. I have A.D.D. so I've always had a hard time with getting interrupted and organizing myself, I am not using that as an excuse I am simply saying I know I do struggle with this, hence why I am asking for help. I am sort of one of those people who FUNCTION in CLUTTER!! Haha.. I know where everything is, but no one else in their right mind would be able to find anything in my room, but it's how I am, nonetheless, I do not want to be like this in nursing because I know thats when errors can happen. I am open to any suggestions. Also** Does anyone have any ASSESSMENT or REPORT sheets that they find useful that they can forward to me, if so please PM me and I will give you my email address. I will be extremely grateful, a few teachers gave us one or two throughout nursing school but I did not like them, they seemed to make me more unorganized as I found there was never enough room to write on the side or weird useless lines....** Thanks again everyone :)

There is no such thing as setting yourself up for failure. I too am ADD if you look at some of my posts, specifically the one where I talked about my NCLEX experience you will get a glimpse into my struggles of studying for the NCLEX. I would be lying to you if I said that nursing school was easy but then again I do not think it is easy for anyone (if it is, then damn them!!!! haha!) Hopefully you have medication and if you do, utilize it. There was a point where I thought I didn't need it anymore and decided not to take it right before an important exam, BAD IDEA. Wait until after you've become settled in a job, after your comfortable in your career to stop (my opinion at least) I found that organization for me is a HUGEEEE problem and continues to be and with that comes deadlines, I unintentionally put things off and unfortunately this is not a profession where this is an option. I have learned techniques to help myself with this but I have yet to master it, this is something I struggle with but I am getting better. You need to realize your strengths and your weaknesses and address them from the beginning. I will also tell you this I had a bachelors degree in a totally unrelated study (Journalism) and the way I studied at my 4 year school was TOTALLY different than how I studied for Nursing.. I CHANGED EVERYTHING when it came to nursing school, I learned how to study before last minute, how to make charts to organize myself, how to use to "ORGANIZED TRAPPER KEEPER" and how to use tabs for my books.. and even color code my high lighters.. All these methods are methods I never utilized until nursing school. Find what works for you and go with it... But Don't give up just because you think your at a disadvantage, you will find lots of threads on here with people who have similar issues :) Good luck!

Wow, I can not thank you enough for that post.. You addressed many of the issues I was almost too afraid to bring up.. one being, as you quoted " You need to be able to conceal your feelings when you're faced with a non-accidental trauma and the mom sitting at the bedside is the perpetrator. Peds nurses are tough." I do think that, that part of it will be difficult for me.... but I guess I will have to learn to look at the WHOLE picture and the child's best interest and as you said... put my feelings aside.. I do think I am as creative, as creative comes, I think I can bring that to the table but not only that of course.. I give peds nurses so much credit because they must have so many eyes on them, of course they are so knowledgeable, but the parents too (in most cases) know just as much, in some cases more, about their child's illness... so the eyes are constantly on the caregiver, wanting to know each and every move.. I love the parts in which you addressed regarding "toughness" as a nurse, because thats where I feel I am, and it would not be in a negative way.. I just have never been one to OVERLY baby anyone including myself, but please, do not confuse that with a lack of sympathy by ANY means.. but mores in the regards that you addressed, right on the spot :) I sincerely thank you for your comment and am actually going to save it for the future so I can refer back.

Thank you so much, great response.. Stuff like that I would like to know.. Guess I'm just a little nervous because those who do not know the nursing side of me always think that I am "tough" and I am under the impression that pediatric nurses are very sensitive .. I mean I know I'm not "tough" like others portray me, anyone who has seen me in the "nursing world" knows the truth, but I guess it's not how others portray me, it should be how I know I will be..

Hi Everyone: I am a recent grad and I was hoping to get a little input from anyone who either works or has worked in a pediatric facility before.. I unfortunately never even did a rotation in pediatrics so I was just wondering what type of person it takes to work in pediatrics. Please don't respond with things like OBVIOUSLY COMPASSION, WHY ARE YOU ASKING THIS! (haha) I know this type of answer, hence why i went into nursing in the first place, I do consider myself compassionate, caring and have great patience.. But I do not have children at this point, I have nieces and nephews I care dearly about. I am only in my mid 20's... I can tell you this much about my nursing experience, I did Maternity and I did NOT like that.. but every other aspect of nursing I loved.. ranging from regular floor nursing, oncology to geriatric nursing.(even psych which I loved, total opposite of pads I know). People have told me it takes a certain type of person to work in pediatrics but what is that "type of person" I am gentle and kind and can't wait to begin my nursing career, wherever that may be.. but I just don't know what type of person it takes and am curious if anyone could offer me advice, I've always wondered about it but I do not think it's something I should fully submerge myself in.. I will gain experience elsewhere first (hopefully) and then if I am still interested I will hopefully look further into pediatrics.. thank you for any comments/thoughts/advice..

Hi, Similar to many posts above, I too was a B and sometimes C student... I even had one semester where most of my teachers told me I was better off withdrawing for the semester and retaking it next semester (luckily I pushed myself and passed for the semester, which my grade was reliant on my final..) I worked hard but I never received an A and was MOREEEE than happy with a B but I kicked butt in clinicals.... NCLEX: Never thought I would due to low self-esteem, not receiving high grades in nursing school and having the attention span of a goldfish (DAMN YOU A.D.D.) However, thanks to Kaplan(live on-line) Saunders... my loving parents and a great support system and about a month or two of preparation I gave it a whirl and passed at 75 questions.... I did not kill myself preparing, I did not study 8-10 hours a day because that does NOT work for me...but I did study hard and busted my butt... If I can do it, you can do it too.. and as cool as it would be to say I got lucky with my questions, I think it's much better to actually say, I knew my crap when taking the test!!! Good Luck and do what type of studying works for you... my advice would be to not try to adapt all new techniques, stick to your study techniques in the past because if you made it this far, they obviously have worked for you :)

That is also my understanding, as I took it last week... that you are free to write whatever you would like AFTER the tutorial is over... They must believe that the few minutes of optional tutorial will really prevent you from remembering stuff, haha.. SOOO if you really want to write stuff down, then I suggest you SKIP the tutorial BECAUSE the exact same tutorial is on the NCBSN website and you can watch that beforehand, and then the time does not count against you (if you watch it from your own computer) but if you watch the tutorial from your computer at the testing facility I am almost positive it does count against you.. (timing)... but again my understanding is that once the test starts you are free to write whatever you would like..

Congrats!!

I believe I had a similar post to this last week before my exam.. (If I didn't actually post it, I know I contemplated it in my head a million times)... and wondered what to do.... I read somewhere that someone said "do what works for you! What worked for you in nursing school?" and I thought that was very important!! Because I know that 99% of the people here will respond and say to relax and that is probably the thing to do, but I also believe there is no set thing to do, there is only a right way if it works for you... and I know for nursing school, I did study the day before a final and sometimes even the morning before just to get my head going.. I dont mean STUDY STUDY the morning of.. I just mean like run over the labs or infection control mneumonics and for me that worked.. I passed in 75 questions and TRUST ME, I am no genius... The day before I knew I was not going to be able to relax.. although my goal was NOT TO STUDY.. that did not work out.. I woke up.. and casually went over the endocrine system as I heard that it was important and then I did some questions on that, infection control and a few other sections.. I Gave myself a cut off time of 3 pm (since my test was 8am the next morning) and I stuck to it.. I ate a nice dinner ( I Heard seafood helps the memory so had some fish and some carbs) actually took an ativan, but I occassionally take them so its not something TOTALLY out of my routine (wouldn't suggest something out of your routine) and I watched a movie... complained on here a bit.. and tried my best to not think about the test... and I actually did get 7 hours of sleep.. which was VERYYYYYY important!!!!! (to me at least, I allowed myself over the summer to wake up later, so to have to get up at like 545, was out of the norm for me).. Anyways, I just babbled on but I figured it may be helpful.. All in all, if you can't put down the books.. Dont, but give yourself a cut off time.. but if you feel good, dont study!! Give your mind a break and DOOOOO something enjoyable.. watch a movie hang with your family :) but dont exhaust yourself!! GOOD LUCK :)

check out http://www.cochranschoolofnursing.us/ I was very surprised to find out that they look like they make their program so accommodating.. at least their website looks it.. I have already went to school and finished but I was surprise after the fact, I would at least look into it, good luck!!!

Congratulations, It is such a great feeling, just got my quick results, it really is such a great feeling of accomplishment :)

So glad to hear we both made it through nursing school, I really feel that is the battle.. I just got my quick results and I did indeed pass.. :) and you will too!! Like I mentioned I truly feel like you just need to go in and relax!! You made it this far, take a deep breath, be happy you are there and put your best food forward.. trust me, I am not this positive... ever! But in this case, that is the best advice I have.. And to address the other questions in this thread... (sorry if I repeat this, but I am having a hard time scrolling up so I will just type it again anyways) I did not have ANY drop and drags, no sounds or any reason to listen to the earphones however, I do suggest keeping on headphones I had some girl clearing her throat every 2 secs and like I said everything bothers me... they give you noise cancelling headphones, reg headphones and ear plugs at your request.. I actually kept on the reg headphones cause I could actually hear my heartbeat with the noise cancelling ones.. (weird I know) As far as questions to concentrate on... as other people suggest to; I would go over Endocrine the day before(if you want to study the day before, or closest to the day you want to study)... antipsychotic meds... people were correct, I did have quite a few infection control so look at those mneumonics.... As far as question base, I had about 10-11 SATA? (stopped keeping track but approx) alot of priority but not as many as I thought, but honestly I never had much diff with them.. and one where I had to pick how you would position them.. Hope this helps!!! And good luck!!!

Sixteen is referring to the Credit Card page, in other words, when going to the pearson vue website, after attempting to register if it allows you to go to the CC page ( Credit Card Page) it means you fail... (according to the trick) Hope this clarifies it..

Hi Everyone, (Warning: I babble so this is long if you dont feel like reading stop now haha) I know that reading many of your posts on what you did to study for the NCLEX and your background, as far as the type of student you are helped me with my anxiety as I was preparing for boards... so as I am writing this, I can only hope that maybe I will help relieve some anxiety at least for one person so here is my little input on the boards starting with a little background.... I have the attention span of a goldfish.. is that a fly on the wall.. did you hear that outside?... is someone snapping their pen? So Yes, I have A.D.D. and that was NOT easy to say the least, not easy in nursing school and sure as HELL not easy to study.. I have the worst organizational skills known to man, so to try to sit to study was very hard. I am in my mid 20's and I have a previous bachelors degree and I returned to school for a ADN, I knew I wanted it, but I was NEVER a straight A student or even a B student in nursing school... I struggled but I LOVED It.. standardized tests were always my weak point, SAT's in high school, ATI's.. the whole nine.. Anyways, like I said I have A.D.D. so I tend to babble, so I'll try to get to the point... I struggled but I knew what I wanted and I went after it.. I never had to repeat a semester although I came close a few times.. I always thought in the back of my head that NCLEX will probably not be my thing, I sucked at SAT's and almost all standardized tests that most likely I will probably have to take it twice or maybe more, but I figured "Hey I'd rather re-take the NCLEX than re-take a semester" sure that's not the most positive outlook but I guess if I looked at it like that I wouldn't be so let down if it happen.. So I graduated in May.. started studying with Kaplan Live On Line end of June, I figured the Online class was more for me, I really cannot sit in a class for too long, I get very ansy. I found Kaplan to be very useful.. The classroom part of it was helpful but not nearly as helpful as the QBank and Trainers (I did not really get an "Repeats" on the test but they were very similar).. in case anyone is wondering, I did not watch CONTENT videos, I really hate that kind of stuff, if I struggled with something, for instance, chest tubes, ob stuff, I would find my own content videos but I just didn't want to sit through their long videos.. I figured if I had to second time around I would.. but I did watch each and every class and reviewed each and every question, took every trainer and all but 200 questions.. My grades were as follows: Diag: 59 1: 53 2: 54 3:54 4:61 5:53 6:58 7:69- I'll be honest here, I did it two days before my exam and if I was unfamiliar with a question I would sometimes google info for it, so I do not think my score would have been really this high, I prob would have received around a 60.. I prob looked up around 20 questions.. Readiness: 58.. Advice/NCLEX Experience/Day before: I would say that almost everyone on this website will say DO NOTHING THE DAY BEFORE!!! But I remember reading someone's post that said, you know what, DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU.. and that's what I did, I did what worked for me in nursing school, I woke up early, reviewed a few things like diabetes, ob(luckily I barely had any on my test THANK YOU GOD) and a few other things.. then put the books away, but I did review for a little and even in the morning of the test.. because THAT'S what works for me.. then I watched a movie before bed.. (Even took an ativan! Haha, I was never that study freak in nursing school who studied weeks before the tests or even did all the readings but I did study until the last minute haha) so do what works for you... As far as my study plan, I have worlds best parents still and I live w/ them, they made a room just for me to study in but I constantly need a change of scenery, I never had a set plan of when I was going to study... Most people said I studied 6 hours a day for this long, I didn't... But DO QUESTIONS and UNDERSTAND THEM!! If you don't get something don't kil yourself on it. I used Kaplan and correlated it with Saunders and used both.. but did use all of Saunders by any means.. Both were very useful, I didn't think Kaplan book was too great, I would recommend Kaplan questions and Saunders book... When you get to testing facility, at first I felt like I was waiting in like purgatory, it was crazy with all the IDing and stuff... but instead of praying to god to PASS, I checked in.. got to my seat and thanked god for giving me to the opportunity to be there, I thought to myself, I made it this far if I have to take it 100 times I will, sure I'll be broke and this facility will know my information like it's nobodys business but I will pass..... I took a deep breath and started the exam.............. My screen went blue at 75.. (Mind you, I figured that out of all people I would have to take 265 questions and I sure as hell brought my meds to prepare for that haha)... I came home and did the trick and got the good pop up.. I am NOT getting my hopes up yet, I don't care how reliable this trick is... But I just wanted to let everyone know that even if I do have to take the exam again, the initial part of waiting, was WEIRD that's all that can describe it, but other than that... it really wasn't that bad.. and if your even being allowed to take the boards, you made it this far.. so keep your chin up, take a deep breath before the exam and don't try to ANALZYE the test, I am proud of myself for trying not to do that.. I think it may have helped me.. I didn't psych myself out.. You made it this far, you can do it..... If I can do it (meaning even SIT for the test-we'll know official soon) you can do it.. TRUST ME!!!!!

Hi, I just took the NCLEX today.. (I am running out right now.. otherwise I would search up and down to help you find it- I will look later if you still didn't find it) but run a search for STUDY GUIDE.. someone on here made a study guide, I believe it was approximately 35 pages, there is a link for a pdf form, and in that pdf about a page of it gives a brief description for the foods for each of the disorders.. I found it useful when studying.... In addition to that study guide I also found Saunders helpful, for ex; if they discussed Potassium, they would usually provide a box to the side with examples of food high in potassium.. same goes for other important labs.. i'll check back later if I can to see if you found it.

I tired changing it too.. still getting the good pop up... I know that before I actually took the nclex and I read all these posts from people stating comments like "I am getting this pop up, is it real" I was thinking inside my head.. God people, just believe it! If your doing the trick right just believe it... but here I am.. doing the same thing hahahaha!!

Hi All, does the way you answer the Yes/No question reflect the PVT: I anwsered Yes Yes No I am getting the good pop up, just wanting to see if it matters at all :) thanks

Hi Everyone, I just finished my test (ahhh) and I am getting the good pop up!! But I was just wondering if the way you answer those Yes/No questions before you hit next has any impact on the pop up, I assume not but I figured I'd ask before I even remotely get excited.... Still going to wait for my official results but nonetheless I figured id ask if answering those questions matters?

Hi Everyone, I just finished my test ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh... and after waiting for it to say delivery successful, I am now getting the good pop up .. Yay.. just wondering if the way you answer the "Yes/No" questions has any impact on the pop up? ...I'm assuming not, but I just figured I'd ask some of you experts out there!

Hi, I will be honest and say that I have not really posted on any topics here other than my current interest of NCLEX and when I originally started to apply to schools. However, I found this title to be interesting considering I too thought that going into nursing school. A few words of wisdom from a new grad. (you can either take it or leave it.haha).. I had a bachelors degree before going back to school for my ADN and nursing school was nothing like a bachelors degree, this is NOT to scare you by any means, but you should know how time consuming it is..( I knew it was going to be tough but my lord it was alot of work) but it is WORTH IT!!! You will know right away if you are cut out for this profession, I knew immediately that I loved it and that I was going to give it all I had, whether that meant taking a semester over or not.. Luckily I never had to take a semester over. That is not to say that I did not come EXTREMELY close, one time I was so close that my final grade was literally so dependent on the final that I passed by less than a point. I always look back now, as I study for my boards and think how hard I pushed myself that semester (and all throughout nursing school) some professors told me to withdrawal, others told me to stick with it... and luckily, I made up my own decision to keep going and push myself.. I think that is what nursing school is about, pushing yourself past your limits, whether it be with patients, studying, balancing family, children, whatever it may be... From a personal view point, do not go in expecting to take a semester over, I did that and each semester I kept saying "Is this going to be the semester I will have to re-take? I psyched myself out!!" Just give it all you have, in the classroom and in clinicals.... and as someone mentioned earlier, USE NCLEX REVIEW BOOKS!! I did NOT use them until maybe my 3rd semester, BIG MISTAKE!!! I do not think they will help you so much with fundamental but everything thereafter, utilize them, buy a book like silvestri(Saunders?) and find what class material you are learning and correlate it with the book so that you are useto doing NCLEX style test questions, you'd be surprised maybe your teachers will pick some of those questions or at least word them similar.. As I am lecturing YOU not to go into the semester saying that you are going to fail, I am having the same thoughts about nclex (thinking, hey dont you expect to fail the first time) but the truth of the matter is.. if you want something, you keep going until you get it right? Good Luck with school.. push yourself past your limits :)

Thank you lisa, Congrats again :)