procrastin8r-RN

Thanks to everyone who responded to my post...I don't know what I would without you all considering that I don't have ant family member or close friend who's a nurse. I want to be good nurse and the best nurse that I can be that all. I will take heed to the advice given and hope that when I am on my own (out of orientation) that I will feel that the preceptor experience has given me a somewhat firm ground to stand on and begin my nursing career with. I will keep you posted.

Thanks for all of the advice I truly appreciate it. I do understand that the real world of nursing is sooooo much different than nursing school. I do understand Brenner's stages of nurse development also. I know that I am a novice and will be for a while. This is not my issue. My issue is the preceptor having their own patient's and interrupting me doing stuff with my patients to come and help them with their patient and then wondering why I haven't done this or that yet. Or why I'm forgetting this or that. I just feel that if they didn't have their own load things would go better for me. So I'm not interrupted with issues with the patients that I have, I'm interrupted with the patients that the preceptor has to come and assist her. I'm aware that interruptions occur. I know that you can plan as much as you want but nothing rarely goes the way you expect for it to go. I feel that those are the things that I will have to learn how to adjust to on my own. But I still would like to have some understanding of how it is to have a load without the assistance of the preceptor doing anything to help me out (like pass a med or change a dressing or hook up a tube feed). If I keep getting help I feel that I will not truly understand hoe to manage my time and prioritize my work. Let's not miss also that this is my 4th week of orientation but my first week on a different lower acuity level floor. I've had 4 patients by my self on the third week of orientation and was doing well with that particular preceptor. Anyway I will take the advice in sitting down and talking to the preceptor, I will take the advice to take what I get from my orientation or leave it. I just feel that this preceptor should have established goals and certain marks of where I should in this stage of the orientation and what is expected of me and they haven't. Thanks for your replies.

Hello fellow RN's- I need your help preferably from experienced nurses but any advice is welcomed. I am a new grad RN and am on week 4 of a 6 week orientation. The first 3 weeks were going fine. I had one preceptor who was fabulous. I have now switched to a different floor (higher acuity) and will be there for the remainder of the 6 week orientation. The new preceptor is a good nurse but not such a good preceptor in my opinion. I feel that the purpose of orientation is to understand the flow of the floor and to gain some form of order as in my time management and how to handle my patient load. Does anyone agree? I feel the best way for me to accomplish this would be to take on a small patient load like 3 patients so that I can get an understanding of how to manage my time and get all of the tasks completed. In doing this I will begin to form my own way of doing things and how to prioritize my day. Does anyone agree? I'm finding it hard to get my preceptor to understand this. I find that I'm constantly interrupted by my preceptor pulling me off of my concentration. I find that I'm making mistakes because of this which makes me look incompetent. I know that mistakes will be made but some of them have been made because I got thrown off by being asked questions or to do things that have nothing to do with what I'm focusing on at the present time. i would like to do my tasks then have the preceptor critique not critique every single thing while I'm doing it because it throws me off. Also add to it the preceptor has there own patients. I don't think it should be that way. I'm new and yes I will be slow because I'm new. But to make sure that they're not behind they pull me to help them with their patient. I'm pulled to help out others. Then i look up and my focus is lost and I'm behind. So that they're not late getting out they'll pass my meds or put my patient back to bed and etc. In the end I still haven't established my own time management and prioritization skills. I understand about being a team player and all but during orientation I don't feel that it's a priority. I need to know how to manage my own before I can help others right? i would like to have check points so to speak. Certain times of the day where I should have things completed and check in with the preceptor. I would like for the preceptor to allow me to provide nursing care first while she watches and then critique (unless of course they observe a drastic error like meds) but if I forgot to take the bp cuff off they could say did you forget to do something and I take a look and see oh i forgot the bp cuff. During the check ins we can go over what all i should have completed by that specific time. In doing this I am creating my time management and prioritization skills. Do you agree? I can be shown all day how to do a procedure or task but it means nothing if I can't manage and prioritize my shift. I feel that this is what the preceptor is for-to help me with time management and prioritization and not getting hung up because I don't do procedures or tasks the way that they do. There is more than one way to skin a cat and I need to find my way not there's. Please help me out!!!!!

I PASSED!!!! The PVT worked for me. I took the test yesterday and it shut off at 75. I came home did the PVT and got the good pop-up. 24 hours after I tested my license is "ACTIVE". So I believe the trick works. Thanks to all who responded to my post and good luck to the future nclex takers.

Update I PASSED!!!!! The PVT worked for me. I took the test yesterday and found out today that I am an RN.

Hello All I took my nclex yesterday and the test shut off at 75 questions. I did the PVT and got the good- pop up and am still getting the good pop-up. I'm still skeptical about it, I will feel better once I know for sure. That test was rough. I felt like I knew nothing. I calmed myself down and used my test taking strategies when I had no clue on what the correct answer was. I looked up 5 questions that I could remember and found that I answered 4/5 correctly using my test taking strategies. Everything else is a blur. This am I just got a job offer. It was not from the place I had hoped for but in this economy and with jobs for new grads being so scarce I will most likely take it. I still need to talk it over with my hubby though. (Now if I could just know for sure that I passed the nclex). Some advice that I can lend is know your infection protocols and priority info. Use the test taking strategies that are provided with every nclex prep book. I used kaplan from 2007-2008 and davis's q & a. I found that these strategies are what helped me when I was lost which was 98% of the time. I think it took me 1hr 45min to complete the test @75 questions. I was on a math problem for about 25 min ( I had a black-out moment and it took awhile 25 min. exactly for me to recover). My BON does participate in quick results but I also know of some people who were able to see their license # after 24 hr of taking their test. I hope I'm one of them if not I should know for sure by Saturday. In the mean time i will continue to do the PVT. Thanks for all of you thoughts and prayers and good luck to the future test takers.

Congratulations I hope I'm able to say the same thing tomorrow.

Tara,LPN- thanks

smith1 and dirrtyxris, good luck on your retest. I have not taken my test yet d-day is tomorrow for me. I don't know if ya'll are familiar with lacharity but alot of people say that it was a lifesaver for them and the infection control mneumonic. So if ya'll don't have those they may be helpful. I can personally say that before I purchased lacharity I was doing terrible on the priority and sata questions. Afterwards I did better. The book helped me to put things in a better perspective than what I was doing before. I still get sata questions wrong at times but more right than wrong now.

No problem:) I will try to relax. I feel relaxed right know. I feel good like I will PASS. I'll see how long it lasts.

dirrtyxris, thanks I hope you're right on that.

Hello group Just letting ya'll know that I will be taking the nclex tomorrow and I'm scared out of my mind. I have been away for awhile studying. I'm soooooo tired of studying. To bring people up to speed I have been studying from lacharity, saunders, tidbits from the nclex thread, davis's q&a, and I did a 3 week course from the nscbn website. I did not purchase the questions I spoke of in a previous post. I felt that I was jumping for any and everything I find on the nclex. Good luck to all who will be taking the nclex, we can do it!!! I will post my feelings on the test and the results tomorrow, hopefully. Please say a prayer for me.

I know where you're coming from. I will be in your place tomorrow. Seems like you have a great game plan and I will say a prayer for you. Good luck!!!

Hello all just chiming in to let everyone know that I will be taking the nclex tomorrow at 12pm. i haven't been here in awhile to post because I was studying. I've seen many people post that on the day before you test to just relax and not do any studying. I'll see how that goes for me. I like ALL of the other people going to take their test really need to pass the first time! I'm tired of studying. I'm ready to have my life back and my family is ready to have their wife and mom back also. You guys know what I'm talking about. I don't even have a job lined up yet but I know that one will come, I just want to be able to not think about nursing school or studying or nclex anymore! I have been praying, crying, studying, praying crying, studying for so long that I feel drained and am just ready to take it and get it done and over with. How do you know that you are ready? I figure that I am because I'm tired of studying. I do questions and am on a roll then take a break and start back only to do terribly then I freak out saying to myself "You're not ready"! Then I feel as if I'm going to have a panic attack. But i don't want to reschedule because I feel like I am ready. Wouldn't it be nice if there were a screening available for us to know that we will pass nclex for sure? I was not able to afford the luxury of taking an nclex prep class so I've been using saunders, davis's q&a, lacharity, the tidbits from the nclex thread and I've taken the 3 week ncsbn online prep. I don't know what else I could possibly do to prepare myself. Please say a prayer for me and I will chime in on my feelings on the test and the results (after I've done the PVT first of course) tomorrow. Thanks procrastin8r-RN

Hello all Just popping in to let you guys know that I have scheduled my nclex for September 9th. I'm super nervous and excited and scared all rolled up into one. I've got 30 days to study hardcore before the big day. I already fell sick just thinking about it. I still don't know how many questions I will do per day or in a week. I do know that I want to build my self up to taking 265 questions in one sitting as that is the most questions you can get. Good luck to all