lilyrn86

It seems like high periods of stress tend to trigger my episodes. I didn't even start to have them until after my first semester in nursing school. I have an appointment on Friday to go to my primary, so I will mention my sleep problems to him. Thanks for the posts!

Has anyone ever experienced sleep paralysis or have a chronic narcolepsy disorder? I have been experiencing this for three years now where I wake up at different times, sometimes being at the beginning of sleeping, the middle, or end, and I will not be able to move. I know that some people experience visual and auditory hallucinations with sleep paralysis events. When I wake up, I usually always am in a dream, but I am wide awake and not able to move and I typically hear a noise that sounds like wind blowing in my ears. At times when I awaken and am paralyzed, I am also unable to breathe. The event usually lasts for anywhere from 15-30 seconds, but I have also experienced this for what seemed like a couple of minutes. I don't always experience a sleep paralysis event every night I go to sleep. In fact I just had one for the first time in about a week or two. Also, there have been nights where I experience this several times, and one night I had 11 events that caused for me to have no rest. It took a long time for me to tell anyone about this because I thought I must be crazy and slowly losing my mind. When I went to a psychologist/counselor for the pre-marriage counseling (to get a discount on the marriage license) and I mentioned it to him and he told me that it is experienced by many people and that most people will experience it at least once in their lives. Also, I don't feel so crazy anymore now that I found it under narcolepsy in some of my old nursing school books. He also suggested that it would likely be a temporary thing, but this is now three years of this. I am tired of it, I guess I ought to tell my doctor, but like I said, the only people who know this about me is my parents and my husband. I just want to know if anyone has ever experienced this or lives with this chronically?

You can say that you have worked in a LTC facility therefore you have experience with a wide range of patients with multiple medical conditions. Also that you have your ACLS (thats always a plus) and extra experience working alongside or as a treatment nurse. Does your LTC facility take rehab patients? If so you could say that as well. I don't think you'll have a problem getting on in the hospital, basically its like anywhere else, they want someone who is willing and eager to learn and work! Best of Luck!!

HESI has both an entrance exam and exit exam. The exit exam is used to test over the general studies you learn in school. It is said to be a reliable indicator of whether a student will pass the NCLEX. At the school I graduated the score was 850 to pass and I made a 1024. I did pass NCLEX on the first try but I think that the NCLEX was more detailed than the HESI.