rn2binca

I took the boards on the 15th of June. Nobody could have prepared me for the wait afterwards. I was a wreck, could hardly sleep, didn't feel like eating. I passed with 75 questions, no math, few meds, many many random questions that I had NO clue what the answer was. I just did my best and was really worried afterwards. The only thing I can say is.... try to be positive and hang in there. There really wasn't anything anyone could have said to make me feel better. Only my result made me feel better. Tracy, RN NICU

TXNurse.......... good luck, I hope the waiting it worhtwhile :) I found out at 4:30am that I passed, a friend from the east coast checked before work and called to wake me up and tell me. I was so scared of looking and being disappointed wth my name not being on the website that it was a nice way of finding out. Back to sleep for an hour before i have ot get ready for orientation. Thanks for everyone's support. :balloons: Tracy, RN

Hello everyone, I came here because you can commiserate with me. I took my test on thurs june 15th in california. Sorry for the lack of proper capitalization, I'm just too irritated to care enough to fix it . Anyhow, CA does not participate in the rapid results and it's killing me. I had 75 questions, no math, alot of prioritizing and felt like I was making a best guess half the time. I felt ok right after the test then the impending doom began to creep up. I was holding out for this morning thinking positive that it would be there, I'm doing my hospital orientation so am up early this week. I checked about 5:30 and there was nothing for me. I checked again at 5:45 site was being "updated" I thought "oh please let my name be listed". Back up at 6am, nothing for me. WAHHHHHHHHH I wanted to throw up, stomp my feet and cry all at the same time. This wait is making me feel bitter and disillusioned. Thanks for listening (reading) and letting me vent. Tracy (RN Hopeful)

Wow, how did you find out so soon? I'm in Cali, I think the best time I'll get is 3 days. I took my test today, stopped at 75 with alot of priority, few delegation, no math either. i'm scared........ Tracy

The NCLEX is the same nationwide. I think the difference in California may be in the depth of the RN program itself. There is some sort of difference in Cali from other states but I can't be sure of what it is. Tracy

Are you sure you aren't Me? That was my day...... actually she didnt ball me out, but I have been making mistakes that I shouldnt be. So, I feel stressed and worried about making it through this semester..... Hang in there everyone.

Your past should not be an issue during nursing school BUT I highly recommend you are completely and totally honest with your school and the Board of Registered Nursing about it. I am in my last semester and we had the program director come in and talk to all of us about our license paperwork. She said she has seen everything in student's past and as long as they have recovered or changed their ways the Board will usually grant a license. The director has to write a letter of recommendation to the board and the student must write a letter explaining what occurred and what the student has done since then to prove he/she has recovered. Congratulations on getting through your prereq's! Tracy

In order to properly care for your patient you must be willing to care for every aspect of their needs. Whether that is cleaning them up, changing their beds, bathing them, feeding them, medicating them, changing their dressings or what not. RN's MUST be able to handle all of the above. I didn't say you had to love all of it, but you must do it w/out making the patient embarrassed or uncomfortable. CNA and LVN's typically help with daily living needs of the patients, but again I would not want to wait or have a family member wait for a clean up if the CNA was busy. I honestly believe in teamwork to help the patient the best we can. Also, some hospitals do not employ CNA's or LVN's. In which case the RN is repsonsible for total patient care. Good Luck with your education and career. Tracy

I am! I cannot wait. I work as a student nurse extern in a teaching hospital now (in the nicu) and am praying there will be a position available for me in May. Tracy

Sorry to say our school has a required passing of dosage calculations exams every semester passing = 90% or better, we get three attempts as well. Tracy

First off, my prayers are with your cousin, her baby and her family. I am finishing my 2nd semester of an ADN program and work in a nicu as an extern. I also had personal experience with preeclampsia. Your new cousin at 24 weeks has a very long bumpy road ahead of him, one unfortunately many preemies do not survive. From what I have heard, read and seen, 24 weekers are still on the verge of viability. Alot will depend on the medical care available to him and on him. No child is like any other, and that begins long before they are born. Again my prayers are with your family. Please keep us posted. Tracy

I loved my copper IUD. I had it placed at my 6 week checkup after my 3rd child. We were pretty sure we didnt want any more children but weren't ready to make it a permanent decision. There is a risk of infertility from complications of the iud, but I had 3 kids I was willing to risk it. The placement was not painful at all and the removal was a light tugging feeling. I had it in place for 4 yrs and finally removed it about a yr after my hubby had a vasectomy. As with anything you use or put into your body, do your research and be comfortable with what you choose. Personally, I was quite happy with it. Tracy

My personal opinion is that you cannot take your children on a job interview. Honestly how productive would it be? You wouldnt be able to give your full attention to the interviewer. I have done things like go to my own doctor with my children in tow and I know that I am not able to give my full attention to my appointment. It is what it is. If you want to change to a new/different position, you must make the sacrifice (which may be financial in order to pay for childcare) to gain new employment. Tracy Mother of three, been there, done that.

We have had lengthy discussions in our post conference about how to handle the staff as we take on more patients. Where we do our clinical we have CNA's and LVN's. I "cleared" this with our instructor, but I wanted to make sure that it was OK to expect the cna to continue to do their portion of the team work. I am not opposed to doing bed baths, vs, or adl's. However, when I am functioning as the rn with 3 or more patients...... even the "seasoned" rn's are not doing complete patient care. Why should I as a student nurse be expected to be able to handle more work than a seasoned rn? It only opens me up to making an error out of disorganization and stress. I think part of the "growth" process as a student is coming from that place of being expected to do the grunt work to saying to the staff, wait I am truly too busy to take that patient to the bathroom, when the cna is standing in the hallway chatting. Only if I *am* too busy that is. I am the one responsible for the well being of my patients I want to have as much organization as possible. Before anyone gets bent out of shape with my theory, remember I am not yet at that point in school. Nor am I one of those students who thinks that "once I'm an RN I wont have to clean up x, y, or z" If I am working in a team setting, I expect there to be teamwork. That expectation follows through onto myself. I dont expect anyone else to do something that I won't do. Within everyone's scope of practice, of course. Tracy

Our instructors take the meds out of the pyxis with us, well allow us to do it while they supervise. My instructor has allowed me to "make a mistake" pulling out a med, get out the door of the med room and have me review my meds to see if I caught it. Yes I did and back to the pyxis we went to put the incorrect med back in and remove the correct one (I had pulled out of th wrong pocket). I learned SO much that day. I was happy he let me get that far with the error, it was completely under his control, but he let me panic and see how it felt to nearly make that error. Once we have gotten our meds out of the pyxis and verified they are correct with our instructor, I've often given the PO meds alone. The sq and im meds he stays with me and watches. Tracy (ending 2nd semester)

I am sorry for all you and your family have gone through. I have to say that the thought of a "happy pill" is a myth. Some people think that a pill will make miracles happen, weight loss, depression cleared, other psychiatric conditions poof all better. There is no quick cure for anything. I disagree though with saying that every patient is not made aware of side effects. Have you known anyone to ever read the entire drug insert that is given out with all medications? Is society aware that such an insert exists? If you dont know what you are taking, EDUCATE yourself. I am not speaking at the original poster or saying this person did or did not research the med her child was on. I simply know that I am the only person I have ever heard of who reads those inserts. The information is readily available. Please take my post with a grain of salt as I am a "medicated" person who takes effexor to help with my depression and anxiety. It is not a happy pill for me. It simply takes me from the pit of my mind to an even ground with most other people. It allows me to wake up and ask what will this day bring for me with an open mind. Instead of waking up and feeling as though my life was horrible. I have done much work on my self esteem, with and without counseling. There is no magic pill. I cannot stress that enough. I truly do not mean to offend anyone, so I apologize if that erroneously happens. It is difficult to have a conversation via bulletin board posting. You cannot see ones expression, concern or mannerisms through typing that you would have with one on one contact. :uhoh21: Tracy

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW I'm with those on the dentures. They make me gag thinking about em. :barf01: Tracy

I think you should try for it. I think there was a male cna or student or something during my post partum period with one of my children. Sorry I'm so vague I was pretty out of it exhasuted, but I didn't mind at all. Especially with you living in the bay area, it's pretty open minded. You should have a decent chance. I don't believe you being male should have any bearing on your ability to do your job. Unfortunaly it might. I love L&D, if you enjoy it go for it! :balloons: Tracy

I had the same problem until I finally got it straight. My way of thinking is that the HYPERtonic solutions have more solutes than the vascular space. So if you put hypertonic into the blood stream the body needs to pull fluid into that space (because it now has too many solutes) to go back to homeostasis. The fluid will come from the intracellular space thus depleting the cells. For Hypotonic, if you put that into the vascular space you are diluting the vascular system and must get rid of fluid (into the cells) to go back to homeostasis. Causing cellular swelling. I also found on one test that thinking, Hyper = Shrink (if you are hyperactive you need to see a shrink, lame I know) and Hypo = swollen. Not sure if this helps anyone I have a strange way of remembering things sometimes. Tracy

I'm sorry but statutory rape also think of incest. That 'step-father' was a father figure to her. I beg all of you to slow down with that teenage girl and LOOK and ASK if you have to about the girl's life. She may indeed be in a sex abuse situation. It is true that 1 in 3 women will be the victim of some sort of sexual abuse in her lifetime. We may not, as nurses be able to help many of these girls, but for me if I could get just one out of an abusive situation I would feel proud. NOW for the teens who are not in the above category, how do we help them avoid another pregnancy? How do we teach them to make something of themselves? It horrifies me and makes me saddened. Tracy

His best bet is to check directly with the Board of Nursing for Michigan (it says that is where you live). Many states would have issues with the domestic violence and most with the DUI. I did hear somewhere that as long as it is not a felony and 10 years have passed they may not be as concerned. He must always be honest with his history or it will absolutely be an issue. Best of luck to him and to YOU. Tracy

i am at sacramento city college in sacramento, ca. we have a great reputation and high passing rates on the nclex.... but i think most nursing programs are designed to be tough so we learn as much as we can. tracy:cool: