Bel-USA

Where I work, patients are not allowed to leave the unit for the length of their stay. Thus smoking is out of question (+ we are located on a teaching campus, so smoking is not allowed around the hospital).

Wow you have a lot of books... In my opinion, it's better to have 1 book for review (Saunders) and plenty of other books to practice questions. The Kaplan book I'm talking about is "NCLEX-RN Strategies for the registered nursing licensing exam" 2008-2009. You'll find 1 test with 180 questions in the book and the 2nd test is on a CD. The book is not too big to carry along with you on your trip. It also gives you some strategies to help you answer the NCLEX style questions. I wish I could help you more. Saunders is a big book but for me it was well worth it going through it. Make sure you know your body systems and how they relate to each other. Know your labs. For the medication part, I didn't study each individual one (except important one like heparine, Coumadin, aspirin, Lasix, and the ones that have some dietary restriction like the ones contradicated with thyramine containing food or grapefruit juice, etc.). I studied the classes instead of individual meds. Look at how many free time you'll have on your vacation. Think if you'll be more willing to read your Saunders book (and take some notes) or if you would rather do questions. Will you be able to find a quiet place with no distaction? I think if you can find 4 hours for yourself almost every day, you should be fine (2 hours in the morning, then 2 hours later in the day for example). Use the books you feel good about. Again, I loved Kaplan for the questions, not so much for the review part of the theory. You might not like Kaplan at all so you shouldn't use it. I can't help you with Hesi and Mosby, I didn't use them...

Candy13 you can do this!!! I graduated from nursing school 9 years ago in Europe and just found out today that I passed the NCLEX-RN. It will take you a lot of studying but you can do it! Passing the NCLEX is a real challenge but it's so rewarding and so worth it. Make the call to your board of nursing and ask them what do you have to do to apply for your test. Go for it, you have nothing to lose! Good luck!!!

:wink2: You are welcome! I just have a hard time believing your friend has to go through this... Isn't going through nursing school good enough? I wish you both the best...

I would try to do as many Kaplan questions as possible. For me they are the closest in difficulty and wording to the NCLEX. I found out today that I passed with 75 questions. I used Saunders for the content and several other books for the questions. I didn't like the questions in the Saunders book, they were too centered on the book content and didn't really emphasized the critical thinking needed to pass the NCLEX (just my opinion here). There is a Kaplan book that offers 2 tests with 180 questions each. I scored 72% in each. They rationalized and analyze all your answers. There is another book I used to do the new question style (blank, drop in the box, asap, etc). The book is separated in different chapter with an average of 10 questions per chapter. It's a very easy book to use and carry along (on vacation:up:). SAHStudent do you have the option of changing your testing date, even for a couple of days? Wouldn't you feel better if you knew you could enjoy this coming vacation to relax and have fun with your family? When you come back, you'll be able to focus on the NCLEX. If I have one advise to give to anybody, it would be to NOT sit for the NCLEX if YOU don't feel ready for it. If you can't use your critical thinking to answer the questions, practice more. Good luck to you and have fun on your vacation!

I don't have an answer for you, for what I know here in the US you have unlimited number of time you can sit for the NCLEX. Try to post your question in the Foreign/International nurse forum, hopefully they will be able to answer your question there... Has your friend contacted his nursing school? They might be able to help him. Good luck to your friend.

Hi kind-hearted08, here is what I remember about acute/chronic renal failure. In acute R.F.: it starts with the oliguric phase (so a decrease in urine ouput). This means that the body is not excreting enough fluid, thus hypervolemia (too much fluid in the body). Potassium is excreted with urine. If there is no urine, this means that the potassium can't leave the body. The potassium accumulates and results in hyperkalemia. The second phase is the diuretic phase (urine output slowly increases). As the urine is excreted, follows the potassium. At some point, the body will get into a state of hypovolemia, to much potassium and sodium excreted --> hypokalemia and hyponatremia. Here is my thought about calcium: There is hypocalcemia when the level of phosphate is high (and vice-versa). When there is no urine excreted, the phosphate stays in the body: hyperphosphatemia and hypocalcemia (I think the calcium from the bones needs a low phosphate level to leave the bones and get into the extracellular fluid.) When the body fluids are finally excreted, so is the phosphate. This lowers the level of phosphate (giving you a normal or low level) and with that an increase in the level of calcium. If to much phosphate is excreted, you'll get hypophosphatemia and hypercalcemia. In chronic R.F.: the same phenomenon happens except that in this case the destructive process takes longer. One of the kidney stops working properly and the other kidney will compensate (it will work for 2), so there is still urine excreted (nocturia and polyuria). But the healthy kidney can only do that job for so long, its ability to compensate will decrease --> not enough urine excreted --> oliguria --> edema. Chronic RF is irreversible, the patient will need dialysis or other treatment. In acute RF, the problems are temporary and usually don't end in irreversible kidney damages. I hope I'm not telling you anything wrong... hopefully someone else will reply to your questions too so we can compare... I'm sitting for the NCLEX-RN this Sunday (2nd time)... I wish you good luck for your test and your nursing career.

Silverdragon102 is right, you can get your unofficial result on the Pearson Vue site. If your results are available, you'll have to pay a small fee to see if you passed or not. (something like $7.00). It will be very stressful to check your result online but at least you'll know. I would start with the NYBON site first and if nothing comes up, look on the Pearson Vue site. Of course, you could wait another day for something to come in the mail... I'm not trying to put any more pressure on you... I don't want you to feel alone in this stressful moment. http://www.vue.com/nclex/

Have you look on the NYBON site if you had a nursing license number issued under your name? http://www.op.nysed.gov/opsearches.htm If you do it means you passed!!! :yeah:Good luck! Let us know...

Nope sorry, it was in Rochester, NY... I'm still waiting too lol.

i so understand how you feel! i sat for the test yesterday too (ny) and got 265 questions. i think i got hit by the same semi-truck because i felt so knock out when i left the test center. i still can't believe i had to go through the entire test! i guess i've got for my money... my test was very similar to your: lots of satas, math, meds (many unknown to me), lots of prioritizing and infection control. i studied with kaplan and found it was very similar to the nclex-rn. my state participates in the quick result so i've been checking my pearsonvue account every 10 minutes (i was supposed to clean my house today...). i guess there is nothing more we can do but wait. i really hope you passed and don't worry about your school statistics! you'll be a great nurse . something weird did happen with one of the test administrator. i know they can't see the pass/failed result but before i left, the lady said that when i'll check my result i'll be favorably suprised and that i should go celebrate this weekend! darn, i don't know what to think anymore. did she or not see my result?! it's called false reassurance! other than that, the 2 administrators were very very very nice; that was a big plus. let us know when you get your result! i'll be thinking about you (not sure it's helping reducing your stress level).

Hi dettedette! I'm very sorry to hear about your issues with the CGFNS. I know how you feel... I have a BSN from a foreign country (Belgium) and I am trying to get my license here like you. I applied to the CGFNS on April 2006 and I had the same problem: my school never received any letter requesting my transcripts. Last November, I decided to request my transcript myself and just asked my school to send them directly to the commission. The commission has my papers since January but since then nothing, no update, no evolution. I know my transcripts need to be translated and when I called them to get more info on this issue, they told me to wait until they request the fee for the translation. They told me it will cost me $75 per page! I have 8 pages that need to be translated!!! Well, it's April 2007 and I haven't got any request from the commission to translate my doc. I can understand that they have a lot of work but this shouldn't take a year to be finalized. I read Suzanne advice about applying directly to the BON but apparently all documents have to pass the CGFNS evaluation first. I don't really know what to do at this point. I applied to WES which is an organism specialized in foreign credits evaluation. At this point, I'm thinking of going back to nursing school here in NY, just start everything all over. Well, I hope you'll get some good news very soon and that you'll start a great nursing carrier in this beautiful state of NY. Good luck!

Hi BlueLady79, I'm not sure this will help you but I'm a foreign trained nurse with French as a first language. I am applying to work in the U.S. and for this I, too, have to pass a test of English. This test shows a candidate proficiency in English as a foreign language; TOEFL or Test of English as a Foreign Language (www.toefl.org). No need to pass a test specialized in "english-nursing"... Anyway, good luck !

So maybe that's the problem. I have an ADN from Belgium, not from a U.S. college. :angryfire Then do you think I have a chance to get a lvn license? Anyways, thank you very very much for your help.

Hi and thank you for your suggestions. To give you more info, I have a ssn#, permanent green card, visa, background checked, TOEFL. I've been living in California for 3 years now. I have an ADN with 2 years working experience in my country. I don't if the problem is my grade or the hour requierement. I plan to show my transcript to another college to see what they think about this situation. Or maybe I should apply in another state and endorsed in Ca later, like you proposed.