SaltRN

It would be great if they gave you the answers at the end so you can see what you got wrong… I guess I'll never know..lol

The text I recommended above is really good. Well written and easy to understand. I felt the experience made me a better nurse :-)

I've been a med/surg nurse for 2 years and excited I became eligible to sit for certification. Unfortunately, there are little study resources for this exam. My employer offers a 2day certification prep course, but I couldn't reserve a seat because it filled up fast. So I was left to study on my own. The text I used is Lippincott's Review for Medical Surgical Nursing Certification, by Lippincott, 5th Edition. I read the entire text and took the practice exams. I also found some questions on amazon for $10. The day of the exam, I felt very well prepared and confident. However, after the first 10 questions, I was dumbfounded. The questions are difficult and concrete. You must know nursing content. It's hard to isolate/deduce answer options, Some questions provided answers that seemed all wrong, while other questions provided answers that seemed all right! I didn't feel prepared and for the next two hours, I felt despair. I was going to fail and felt humiliation and pity creeping in. The exam is 3.5 hours. 175 questions. ( I completed the exam in 2 hours) You are allowed to revisit the entire exam as much as you like so I went back to review about 75 questions (the questions I felt I guessed After I submitted the exam, you're given the option of completing a survey ( you bet I vented my frustration on this survey. ) I walked to the front reception to get my results. To my shock, I passed. I felt faint and euphoric. Moral of the story, I don't believe a two day course will prepare you for this exam, you must review nursing content. Take as many practice questions as humanely possible. Read the text I recommended. I've earned my stripes, I am RN-BC !!! (Registered Nurse - Board Certified) P.S. This exam is 100x harder than NCLEX

did you publish anymore articles? your post gave me some great ideas

Interesting topic. I'm going to the press ganey seminar in may, maybe I'll bring this topic up. I think educating the patient why they must remain NPO is important. Simply stating they're doctor required it is not convincing to some patients.

I overpronate and have plantar fasciitis. I bought a white pair of sneakers from Mephisto because theyre comfortable (expensive). But they didn't help the shooting shin pain and burning sensation I would get after 12 hours standing. I just started wearing Alegria Women's Debra Slip-On and I think I might be able to retire from nursing after all. I bought mine from the shoemall website, but a few online store carry them...

I graduated from FDU. I hear the same story everywhere; you have to teach yourself regardless. Going to class to take exams and hear the lecture is only 30% of your effort, the rest is studying on your own. Read the textbook, take practice exams provided by the textbook, view the videos (if given), and create study guides. One of the most effective yet painful way I would study was to read the required chapter, and write a summary of the chapter as I read along. Takes time and dedication. E.g. I learned about the heart by drawing it out, like if I was in 2nd grade! But it works! I would draw the valves, arteries, and ventricles during dinner parties, on a restaurant paper table. That was the only way I could absorb the information. I developed neck pains and would stay awake taking guayaki energy drinks before finals. I'm sure there’s a science behind how this memorization works. Also, record lectures. I would listen to the many lectures on my 30 mins back home etc. Many times, I didn't remember half the materials the teacher covered until I heard it on the recorder. IPhone works great for this. The sad part of it all is that once you start working as a nurse, you forget a lot of stuff you learned in school. All you need is basic knowledge (hence the reason associate degree nurses can become RN's) there are a lot of classes you take that just fill up your time and serve no purpose than to break you. When I was studying for the nclex, I went to Kaplan and met a student from NYU who stated she didn't like the school because she felt they didn't prepare her well and didn't receive much staff support. There was another graduate from Columbia who was bragging about chest PT and how well she knows how to do it. I never learned chest PT so I was a little sadden she knew more than me. Well, what do you know, I'm a med/surg nurse and I don't have to do chest PT! And if I did, the respiratory teams are there to teach you!! At my job interview, I wasn't asked about chest PT either! lol.. So there! Don't drive yourself crazy, you will learn a lot on the job. Get good grades and be a good student. BTW, make sure you get a good rapport with your teachers because as a new grad, every job will ask you for a letter of recommendation from your teachers!!!!

gulp* I'm aspiring to become a nurse anesthetist and the info you provided is great. Thanks for the input.

They surely make you spend money on crap you will never use... foley catheter? I never got to use it on a live patient. The rubber patients didn't catch bacteria infections.... the only good thing I got out of that kit was the stethoscope.... good luck

I hardly ever post on forums, but I have used all nurses.com for reference on nursing school and nclex. So I hope you can use my feedback as your input has helped me in the past. A little about me: I started an Accelerated BSN program in 2008. I lost a year because I had to repeat a class. ( I had to repeat it because my professor wouldn't accept a late paper I wrote worth 20 percent of my grade. Obviously that meant I had no room for error in exams etc. ) I almost dropped out of nursing school because of this incident. I decided to return the following year and graduated last year 2011. (btw, I worked 40 hours a week while in nursing school while raising a preteen who drove me nuts) In order to get my walking papers from the school, they required us to take the HESI exam. This exam was HORRIBLE! So much content and total of 175 questions ! The school gave us 3 months to take it. A total of 12 exams date were scheduled. I waited until the 10th exam date to take it. (So 2 months after graduation had passed and now I was rushing myself.) If I failed, I would only get 2 more tries and then have to do some remedial class, pay $800 and wait 6 months. (this meant another year wasted) I took a big chance, (note, I was mourning the death of my young sister whom died one month before my graduation in a car accident.) It was very hard to study under these conditions. But I read the WHOLE HESI book, took all their online exams (about 600 questions), and barely passed with a 910 ( passing was 900 and above) I received my ATT a few weeks later. I scheduled the exam 2/27/12. My goal was to complete kaplan Qtrainer and Qbanks. My brother downloaded the kaplan audio lectures onto my iPhone, which I would hear while driving, riding the subway, cleaning my house, exercising. I also had an ambitious goal of doing the whole saunders CD but was pretty burnt with just Kaplan questions!! On 2/11/12, my favorite aunt got diagnosed with uterine cancer, and she made me her proxy for all her medical needs. I started panicking again. The exam was in two weeks and I had a lot of questions left. But I had to care for her also. On 2/24/12, I had 400 questions left. I knew I wouldn't finish by that monday so I rescheduled to 3/2/12 On 2/27/12, I get a call from a classmate telling me he failed the NCLEX. This guy ran out of time and only completed 200 questions! I have to mention, he was one of the smartest students in class. Average GPA for him was 3.8. (Now I begin to doubt myself.) On 2/28/12, my poor aunt died from complications of a hysterectomy. I can't begin to describe my thoughts. Just 3 weeks ago, her and I were chatting about traveling after she recovered. We made all her funeral arrangements and I debated rescheduling NCLEX again. I decided exactly 26 hours before the exam that I would just take it ( they give you 24 hours to reschedule) At this point, I was done with all the kaplan questions. I read every single rationale. I averaged 60%. on 3/2/12, I'm scheduled for a 8am NCLEX test slot. (The afternoon of the NCLEX test date was my aunts wake.) At this point, I was numb, tired, mentally exhausted. I reminded myself that life was too short to stress something so much. I woke up that morning at 4am. I had a 20 min drive ahead of me. I parked my car at 5am a block from the test site. I sat in my car and heard 1.5 hour of nursing content audio (kaplan) and read some notes for the next hour. ( I saw the sun rise and was eager to get this test over with) at 7:30am I bought ice tea at the nearest starbucks. Then I proceeded to check into the pearson center. FYI: make sure you bring the ATT letter, they turned away 2 girls because they didn't have this. I was fingerprinted 6 times! They also take your picture and record audio and visual images of you while you're taking the exam ! The test was a blur. It was so easy that I couldn't figure out if I was receiving hard questions. I began to panic. once I reached the 70th question, I figured I was failing because I hadn't been given any med math, no diagrams, no hard medication questions! It shut of at 75 questions after 50 minutes. I'll never forget the warm flushed feeling of panic and despair! I did the pearson trick 10 mins later and got the pop up that suggested I passed. I couldn't believe it. I checked on Sunday for the unofficial score online (theres a 48 hr wait) It confirmed I passed. My advice to future nclex applicants: Do ALL Kaplan Qbank and Qtrainer. Read all rationales. (You learn/reminded about 3 different topics from each rationale). The decision tree does help but it can be overwhelming to apply when you're panicking, so consistent test taking will help you determine what nclex is looking for. I briefly went over the Saunders book for the hard to absorb topics. I didn't do any saunders questions. I racked my brain with meds for nothing, the questions on nclex were upfront. Kaplan questions are 10 times harder !!!!!!!!! I can't emphasize that enough. I barely did 50-100 questions a day because my brain would hurt. Make sure you're scoring in the 55% and up scale. if not, review the topics you keep getting wrong. Don't let people who have failed give you doubt. Most likely they didn't study right. You can read the whole Saunders front and back and fail if you haven't done Kaplan questions (or similar) Saunders CD is hogwash compared to Kaplan. In the end, I'm glad I'm done. On to mourning and figuring out what happens next. GOOD LUCK TO ALL....