RNTutor

Sorry about that, thanks.

The schools can buy different versions of the HESI exam, so while I don't know the exact method for numbering the versions, it really doesn't matter which one you take. All of the versions will be tested by HESI so that the scores are comparable regardless of which version you take (aka they're all at about the same difficulty level). Some schools will buy several versions to use so that it will be different if you retake, or even so that students taking it at the same time won't have the same exam. However, other schools will only buy one version, which is one reason why there are often limits on how frequently you can retake (so that you don't remember the questions/answers from the last time you took the exam).

If you're only doing it for the purpose of trying to get in nursing school, then I would probably skip it. You can show on your application that you have previous nursing experience from your work history. The only reason I would consider doing phleb/ma first is if I wanted to show the nursing school that I had an interest and experience in healthcare so I have a clue what I'm getting myself into. At most schools in my area, students aren't even allowed to do IVs or blood draws on real people (only practice on mannequins) until their first job. And the MA usually does a lot of the intake stuff (BP, temp, etc) but that's all pretty basic. Also, if your nursing school is very competitive then you might consider asking the admissions officer if having those certifications would increase your likelihood of admission. I'm guessing not, but it depends on the school.

Yes, the Kaplan strategies book is a good one...I recommend it to my students who want to improve their test-taking strategy for NCLEX. If you're looking for ideas on how to master pharmacology, I think using a "prototype" method is the best way to study meds. Pick 1-2 common medications for each category (i.e. narcotics, diuretics, etc), then focus on understanding those specific meds. The majority of the time, those characteristics will generalize to the rest of the meds in the category. It's a nice short-cut method to understanding pharmacology!

Yay, that is awesome! Congrats on all your hard work, and good luck as you start the next part of your journey to BSN :)

I suggest starting out offering 1-2 types of classes just so that you can focus your time and develop quality course materials. As you get experience finding your ideal customer, you will also discover what they're biggest problems and concerns are so that you know how to help them. Don't spend too much time guessing what their problem is, just ask them straight out...and then create their solution! After you have done a couple classes, you should have a pretty good idea of what the majority of students are struggling the most with, so you can tailor future classes to those major issues. You can then also convert your class into other products, such as ebooks, videos, review guides, etc to maximize your time (work once, get paid over and over, help more students!). Having the same information in different formats is definitely helpful, because different students prefer different methods of receiving their info. Good luck!

Wow, I remember when you first posted this thread and I can't believe how long it's been since then! Thanks for the update, that is awesome that you have come so far. Congrats on only 6 months left!

Thanks for coming back to share the correct answer, and not leaving us in suspense! I think I would have picked documentation, too. But this is a perfect example of a question where it's sooo easy to read too much into a question. If you just take it at face value, then obviously writing something incorrectly is less harmful than the other options. But when you start "reading into" the question then you start worrying that another nurse would try and give the medication again if it was undocumented, even though it doesn't sound like that's what the question was asking. Very interesting!

Hi velmalws! I find that tutoring is still much needed by many nursing students. The biggest challenge is finding a format that pays you what you're worth as a tutor. Obviously, most nursing tutors don't do it only for the money, but we've got to eat too! And as you've probably guessed, the average nursing student has a cash flow problem. I would suggest focusing on business models and even products that help keep costs down for students while still earning enough to make it worth your time. For example, offering small group tutoring would allow the students to pay less per person, while still giving you a reasonable hourly rate for an experienced specialty tutor (3 students x $20/hr = $60/hr). Other options include coordinating with local schools to offer optional review sessions, and charging students $5-10/student to attend. If most of the class decides to attend, then you'll do pretty well for a 1-2 hour review session. That's just some examples of how you can "think outside the box" to provide tutoring but still get paid enough. Even this model makes it tough (or impossible) for tutoring to be a full-time job, though, because it's still very time intensive and you're still going to be limited by what your local nursing students can afford to pay. NCLEX and/or HESI review classes are also an option, and students are usually willing to pay a bit more for those. I chose an online model for my tutoring business (you can see my website link if you go to my profile). When I do individual or small group tutoring, I use video conferencing software (which is cheap or free, depending on your needs, and easy to learn how to use) so I can be available to any nursing student in the world. That definitely opens up my tutoring market so it's easier to find students who are able to pay my rates. But I also want to provide services that are more affordable, so I created and recorded an 8-week class teaching students the best ways to study and how to learn to think like a nurse. Now students can sign up and start anytime they want, and I can charge a lot less per student because I have to spend less of my time with each student (I still provide great customer service and unlimited email support for questions, so the class isn't completely automated and they still get a "personal touch"). I think my best advice before you proceed with a business like this is to answer two questions for yourself: 1) Are you doing this to earn money, or more as a public service? 2) If you are doing it to earn money, can you develop a business model that will actually earn money? Question #2 is where most potential nursing tutors get stuck, so think about it carefully. Of course, if you decide that you want to offer tutoring more as a public service, then #2 isn't as important (although I DO find that some students are more committed if they pay, even if it's just a token amount). When you're answering #2, make sure to remember that tutoring is more than just the time you spend with the student...it's also any prep time you need, time spent creating worksheets, writing practice NCLEX questions, talking to students via phone or email in between tutoring sessions, advertising your services, scheduling your sessions, and travel time. You can see how something like $60/hr might SEEM like a lot for tutoring, but when you take into account all the time spent outside of the actual session then it's actually not that much :) Hope that gives you some more ideas to think about as you work through this planning process. Feel free to ask me any questions or run any ideas by me...I love talking business, especially tutoring business!

Donaldo11: I don't think that the different schools can automatically see your results unless you took the exam at their school. My experience is based more on the HESI exit exam, though, but I am assuming that the entrance exam would be handled the same way. For the exit exam, the school buys permission to give a particular version of the HESI exam at their school a certain number of times. Once they've used up all the exams, they have to buy more. Because of that, I think the scores are only "located" at the school who purchased the exams. In fact, HESI/Elsevier doesn't even know your score (I don't think) until the school submits all the exams from that package to them so they can post the review materials on your Evolve account (not sure if they post to Evolve for the admissions exam). I would guess that the 90-day waiting period is probably just school specific. Do they make you pay a fee to take the exam? If not, they probably just don't want students wasting their money to fail the exam everyday for a month :) Or if there IS a fee for you to take the exam, then they might only have one version of the exam and so they want to give you time to forget the questions before you retake the same version of the exam.

If you're prioritizing and thinking in terms of an exam (like NCLEX), my understanding is that pain is always considered a "psychosocial" need. In that way, it would be prioritized after things like nutrition and fluid balance, since those are more basic needs according to Maslow.

Yay!! Congrats!

I love your thoughts on the reasons people get into nursing, and the importance of passing on the love of NURSING (not just a flexible JOB) on to students. But I would challenge the idea that the best chance nursing educators have to increase their salary is to lobby. I think this is one problem (of many!) that the government can't solve. They don't have enough money (and the money they have comes from our paychecks anyway), and just because they don't require any return on investment like the private sector doesn't mean that they can continue spending just because something is a good cause. No matter what arena of nursing we are all in, we're all problem solvers in our chosen profession. I wonder how we can apply our critical thinking and problem solving skills to this issue to come up with some more viable solutions than trying to squeeze more money from the government?

Thought I would throw in my two cents... I think llg put it very well, as did mcmgal. It is not that exit exams are inherently wrong, it is that they are gravely misused by some nursing schools (such as the one mentioned in the article). The exit HESI exam should NOT be the first indication that a student might have trouble passing the NCLEX. If a student (or, more condemning, a large percentage of a nursing class) has passed all of there classes throughout the program but can't pass an exit exam...there is a serious problem with the nursing program. And the nursing program has to take responsibility for that and make some significant improvements, not simply rely on exit exams to "screen out" students and artificially inflate their NCLEX pass rates. I have no problem with schools that use the exit exam, or even use it to identify problems in their program AND THEN work to make real changes and improvements for the future. I have a BIG problem with schools that instead choose to blame the students and say they didn't study enough, work hard enough, etc. (caveat: 1 student failing out of 100 might be blamed for not have worked hard enough, but not when it's the majority of the class...)

Sounds like it would work to me. Although I think it's funny that the Adult Failure to thrive nursing dx is psychosocial, while the childhood failure to thrive medical dx is very much physical. Ah well.