mookyjoe

Finger crossed!!!How bad do you want it? Let that resound in your mind when you're sitting in front of that screen saying, "WTF kind of question is this!" Slow down and read carefully. It's all up there.

Need to wait for your license in order to apply for your NPI and don't list your home address, give a business address or every drug rep in Kingdom Come will come to your house! You can change the address once you find employment.

ER specifically....as some others suggested, SBAR to begin with, with a review of meds and how much the patient is already taking/being given will guide the physician to make further changes if warranted. Remember new grads, if you don't have a trend of BG's, temps, or O2 sats, why would you expect a change in orders or make suggestions in the first place? You need to have that information available to guide decisions. Also for ER, you follow the guidelines/protocols, if you haven't started there, example- MI protocol per se, aspirin, O2, IV lock, etc, then let the provider know, I followed MI protocol, here's what I'm looking at now so what would you like to do? Hope this helps!

Hi LeeDe. If you PM me here then I can get back with you. I think passing was really a matter of reading the questions and all the choices. I usually scored over 73% after my first predictor (68%) and remediating for 4 weeks. Until you were scoring above 72% on predictors like APEA or ANCC, I would not test if it were me. I liked the predictors because it really showed my weak points and after remediating those areas, those were the areas I saw on the exam itself so I felt really happy with my studying

Hi everyone! Just wanted to give my two cents about passing the AANP boards Jan 2018. Study wise I took the online Fitzgerald review as required by my program. I also used Maria Leik's book and Hollier's book, answering everything in all of them. I think Fitzgerald is really good, interesting to listen to, and her content is relevant, but for testing, it's overload. As a prior educator, I think the more you know the better and cram sessions are not going to help. I thought Liek's end of chapter knowledge points are totally on-point. I did not have one diagram on my test and my test covered lots of gero, peds, women's health, urology, pharmacology, and well....family practice in general. No surprise there. Question wise, I was really excited about the "mark" button to come back to questions as there were 8 I needed to re-visit at the end. I'm a fast test-taker and completed some predictor exams from FHEA, HESI, and APEA finishing in 65-73 minutes. Predictor wise- I scored above 73% on half. First predictor I scored 68% and remediated for 4 weeks before taking the other predictors. My last predictor, the day prior to testing, I had a horrific head cold and scored "at-risk." My brains were fuzzy and although I wanted to push the test back until I was well, it was too close to test time and they won't let you reschedule if there's less than 48 hrs to test taking. The AANP took me 143 minutes total. The head cold kicked in around question 86 when I decided to break to splash water on my face and do jumping jacks in the restroom. Worked wonders! The questions on the exam are how Fitzgerald explains. Meaning, when I got a question, you need to read each one thoroughly because as an educator, I actually saw the distractors and first picked the wrong answers. When I would re-read the question and answer choices, my whole opinion about approaching the question changed. Another author described thinking about the questions as, okay chronic vs acute prostatitis....what are the differences in presentation, in treatment, with penicillin-allergies, etc. After you know these things specifically, then answering the question is completely rational with the choices presented. Question-wise, my questions were closely worded to Hollier's book. After reading all these books and answering all the questions, I can say there were 3 questions that were word-for-word out of the books, while probably three more were similar in content. Not one book was better for answering my questions in all honesty. Just wanted to say that waiting for the test results was the very longest 2 minutes of my life. Hell, giving birth seemed faster and easier. LOL! Take your time and read carefully to one self. I didn't think it was that bad looking back a few days later. I do plan to also sit for ANCC. I think it's weird how some nurses say "Don't even waste your time with the AANP, because ANCC is more relevant." I think it's all relative and I just happened to get a test-date for AANP first and this is allowing me to obtain my license, so that is why I took AANP first. It's just another test...take predictor exams, if you believe in them, at the same time you are scheduled for the real test. EBP says testing prior to 10 am produces better test scores. To each his own and be the practitioner you always dreamed about!

While albumin is not considered a banked blood product at some institutions, it is a component of blood, as FFP, etc., regardless of where it is kept in a hospital setting. Whether the institution treats it as such is a secondary policy, but I agree with Aspiring MD, it should be explained as a blood by-product.

We only teach percussion as to how it should be used which now relates more to gas in a belly, but there still are plenty other circumstances. Other techniques are for advanced nurses and are for diagnostic purposes. Everything should be covered in the curriculum as it is presented in their text, which is geared for their level of expertise. Some instructors don't know or remember or teach well so this is why it is skipped. Always default to the student text, this is every aspect that should be taught. Just because they don't cover it in or see it in clinicals means it's even more important to cover in lab days or in post-conference. I never left my students on their floors alone. I was always there to see what they were coming across.

I taught for 5 years at technical colleges, universities, and community colleges. The bottom line is what does the institution call for as far as qualifications. I only had my MSN when I taught and was offered a full-time assistant professor position after one semester, but I would have been pushed to acquire my PhD. I hate research except when it involves teaching the latest and greatest out there. You must learn to love reading research to stay a breadth in everything medical especially nursing. You will be teaching not only students but your peers also. It was interesting for me to see my peers I graduated with, fall behind on so much as I continued to pursue my education. Sure, they know their specialties, but there's so much they don't know also because they stayed stagnant in their discipline and never sought out more continuing education other than what the hospital required of them. You don't need a PhD to teach, but taking a class per semester also doesn't hurt or hinder a full-time instructor. With a MSN you will be conducting clinicals mostly at first with some highlights in lecture. If I took the assistant professor position, I would have been holding my own courses, advising of so many students, and clinicals too! There's no such thing from Kansas to Tennessee as lectures only. And the money is always better at a state university compared to other institutions. It's a passion, not a paycheck! Hope this helps you as you take the leap.

I can tell you I had no clue how tedious it would be to cold call every single clinic office from my city to up to 4 hours away before I found all my preceptors that I needed. You seriously cannot be picky about "maybe I'll find something closer." They don't exist! I took every single no like a personal attack on my nursey being, but I also knew some yesses were bound to happen...eventually. I live in the Vanderbilt district and every clinic within 100 mile only takes Vandy students because they have that many collaborative agreements. Vandy is also one of the only schools that actually places students in clinicals, but that comes at a $40,000 price tag for a MSN. Me? I took the cheap option, which was find my own. I had interviews even because some preceptors had such awful experiences with other students they took on they wished they never had. I work in critical care so that's why I had such a hard time finding preceptors in general. If you work in a hospital then finding preceptors is certainly easier. I happened to have moved and lost all those precious contacts I made! It's still doable, one year in advance, even with no one knowing you. Marketing yourself is sort of difficult, but with practice from all the "No's" it gets easier. Best of luck to all. The struggle is real folks!

Hi Doc, You ask a pivitol question IMO. As a Nurse Educator, now, Post-MSN FNP certificate seeker, I asked this myself! I worked ER and saw what you saw and I worked med/surg, community, pediatrics, and women's health and asked myself why are skills so BROAD from specialty to specialty or in some cases, lacking. What is going with schools is that there is a general consensus and agreement that all FNP focus should be directed to outpatient family care/AKA fast track. The only time you really see a FNP with ER skills like suturing and x-ray knowledge is IF the hiring agency sends them to a quickie med class for these specialized ER/trauma skills. The only place these skills are commonly acquired in school for practitioners is if they request an ED experience when they can pick a specialty during clinicals or if these are Acute Care Nurse practitioner students. Hope this helps! There are VERY real differences in schools and syllabi for that matter! Some NP schools do not even require contact with OB patients or geriatrics so again, that lack of expertise is more apparent until they (FNP's) get the exposure in practice. Best to all and hopefully this was not distasteful to anyone. My intention is to be objective on the matter of education.

This is probably going to be the worst advice, but I HATE the hospital except for ER myself and while it does get boring, I like having something I know and something that is not go, go, go for 12 hours. It's my own little hospice at times. I have worked enough specialties in my career now to where I know if I was in your shoes that ICU would not be my next specialty to conquer because of the stress. Just not worth it. I would say to management I gave this a go and it's not for me. I am miserable and find that "catching on" here is not something I have within me so what other area would you like me to go onto? I know some hospitals have rules like you have to stay on a unit for 6 months or whatever with no write-ups before you can transfer, but you and only you wake up every day saying, "I gotta go to work." Is this something you can wake up to and feel good about? I was the queen of running from bad management and positions I knew I didn't have the heart to put my all into. Realizing and verbalizing some are meant for it while I am not keeps everyone happy in their place in life including mine. Consider what you can wake up to everyday because being burnt out emotional or physically is no way to make a living on a daily basis. Best of luck to you and follow your heart. BTW....you won't ever have a problem finding another job doing anything with ER experience!

Anyone have any thoughts about Diversicare? I am considering a position and after reading this long, but educational post about LTC facilities, I am also wondering....did any DON's walk into a place knowing administrator's weren't interested in your concerns? What did you do about this? Any success stories on how your facility started off in bad shape and then got better with you and your expertise? How did you accomplish this? Looking forward to these stories!

Hi there, it's been over one year, but I was wondering if you found preceptors? I attend APSU as FNP student and am currently hunting for my own. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Hi MiahMSN, I am starting at APSU this fall. I do have to secure my own preceptors which, I have my adult health covered, but still need to find peds and women's health preceptors. This would have been a snap had I not relocated at the beginning of my program. Need exact preceptors secured at least 3 months in advance. My program is strictly online, which I love, as I completed 98% of my MSN in this manner. Although, not licensed yet, the premise behind studying and reviewing for boards, there's a ton of recommendations on this site that are more than helpful. I can also completely agree to your commitment to pay cash for this program also! I agree with cash being best. My school also required pharm, advanced assessment, and advanced pathophys be completed prior to clinicals within last 5 years so is that why you would need to repeat...because been more than 5 yrs? Cheers to you in any regards and follow your heart! I know this is exactly where I want to be in life!

If you can stand a heel, then you will LOVE Klogs. It really is spelled Klogs with a "K," they are not hard like Danskos. If you don't like a heel, they do make low profile ones too. My personal faves right now are actually Sketchers Go Walk 3. I walk in these 30 hours a week and never notice my feet anymore.