justjohnthomas

i am lucky enough to be able to study for a few hours a night while i am at work (the perks of working graveyard in a psyc unit), and when ever i come across drug questions i ask the rn's i work with what they would answer after i complete the question. most of them have not seen or have maybe only heard of some of the medications in questions. this makes me wonder, if the purpose of the nclex is to make sure you have the minimal competency to practice safely wouldn't the safe thing to do is look up medications you are not familiar with? i have no problem calculating medication dosages and am becoming familiar with a lot of medications while studying, but when a question gives you an ordered dose and says what should the nurse do, or says the nurse if reviewing the following medications knowing the pt is taking it because, or the nurse should instruct the pt to watch for s/s of, it boggles my mind because anyone has access to a drug book, the wonderful internet, and you can even get epocrates on your cell phone. so if the nclex is testing out minimal competency to practice safely shouldn't the safe thing be to look up medications you are unfamiliar with, or even those you are? they provide a button for a calculator, shouldn't it be obvious to provide a button for a drug book to show you have the competency to safely administer medications. maybe i should start consulting our pharmacist to see what resources they use and how often they use them rather than relying on memorized information.... rant over, now back to studying because if i have to take this test too many more times i'm going back to school for diesel mechanics or engineering...

I work fulltime at a state psychiatic unit as a tech currently. I was on the 3pm-11pm (swing) shift since being hired 1 1/2 years ago. (Graduated 2 years ago, took NCLEX did not pass needed a job and money) Recently I transfered over to the 11pm-7am (graveyard) shift which allows me to study most nights for about 4-5 hours while at work because most of the pts are asleep. I am hoping this will be the turn around I needed to pass because working 3pm-11pm did not allow much much *functional* study time. I did question and content before and ater work but really could not concentrate.

In studying there has been a few times in question answers and rationales I strongly disagree with them and then upon looking the information up see that it is not correct. Has anyone else noticed this? I've seen it in different sources, and tonight studying from NCLEX 3500 it finally hit the last nerve as I have taken the NCLEX-RN multiple times and receiving false information in rationales or questions is not what I need right now! For example here is a quote from the rationale for a question from tonight from NCLEX 3500 (I got the question right it was about smoking censation with angina, but I still always read all rationales.) ".....The client must seek immediate medical attention if chest pain doesn't subside after three nitroglycerin doses taken 10 to 15 minutes apart;....." Hmm, I'm pretty sure its Nitro every 5 minutes x 3 as confirmed in the closest drug book I had availiable, Lippencott. Even a quick google search will tell you that. So who else has noticed this? I wonder how many questions or rationales I have gone over that had wrong information that I believed was correct....guess time will tell when I take my NCLEX again for hopefully the last time.

I just enrolled into the online review a few days ago and enjoy it so far. Throwing in some humor makes the content easier to remember. In nursing school when ever I explained something and tried to make it interesting or entertaining most of my professors frowned upon it, so I appreciated Hurst doing this. Hopefully between this course, LaCharity P-D-A, Exam Cram, NCLEX 3500 (online link), Kaplan Stategies book, and Saunders for reference I can pass as I am a multi-time Nclex tester and being out of school for almost two years. Reading on this site is how I found out about LaCharity, Exam Cram, and Hurst. I plan on reviewing the content from Hurst until I know it "without a doubt or hesitation" and then taking my boards for the last time and passing! I work graveyard at a State Psychiatric Unit so most nights I can get through one section along with doing 50-100 questions, then I review the Hurst lecture again when i get home in the AM.

Another question about rounding maybe someone can answer. If the NCLEX specifies round to the nearest tenth, do you round during your calculation, or for your answer. Maybe I'm stressing too much over this but for example if you had a calculation ending you up with 5.25ml x 3 (TID) if you round at for the answer you get 15.75ml/24hr up to 15.8ml/24hr but if you round during the calculation you'd get 5.3ml x 3 = 15.9ml/24hr. Difference of 0.1 that the NCLEX would take wrong?