avhoney

Congratulations!

I believe that if you are doing everything that you are doing then maybe the right position for you hasn't been available. I believe that in time, it will happen! Keep contacting the recruiters but give yourself two week breaks in between leaving messages. Leave a message with the nurse HR recruiters. After two weeks, call them back, be polite and enthusiastic, and tell them you are interested in nursing position. All you can do at this point is keep volunteering and applying for jobs. Also, if a nurse recruiter or nurse manager is rude to you and doesn't explain why they are busy or ask you to talk to them at a specific date or time, you have to ask yourself do you really want to work for someone who treats potential employees like that? The best advice I was ever given about job hunting is to never act desperate if you are. You want to come off persistent and enthusiastic. You sound highly qualified and a catch. Just, remember that you are! Good luck; Good things will come with all this hardwork! :)

Hi, It is definitely hard to get past the computer application BUT you should call and talk to the recruiters of the hospital! First apply online to all the jobs that you are interested in. Then do not wait around for them to call you. Call them! If you do not know the number, call the operator of the hospital and tell them that you want to talk to a nurse recruiter. Talking to the nurse recruiter is your way in to the nurse managers! You might be getting rejected for jobs that you qualify for over the internet by marking something wrong or not marking something. Also, the nurse recruiters know what the nurse managers are looking for. Sometimes, there are jobs that are not posted that only a nurse recruiter knows about. Ask the nurse recruiter what job positions can you apply for as a new grad. Some units are not hiring new grads and others are. My friend in Cali and is working PRN. But I am in the midwest, at one hospital I interviewed, they were not even hiring new grads for a PRN position. Another hospital in the same region was hiring new grads only fulltime. Some places it is only nights for new grads. Or like me, I interviewed for a night position and the nurse manager created a day position for me! You just never know! Apply for everything! Build a relationship with the nurse recruiters of the hospitals or nursing homes in your area. If there is not a job now, then there might be one perfect for you later! Also, how are your licenses like CPR, PALS, ACLS? If you work on these, this will help you stand out. Sometimes, recruiters are given incentives to recruit nurses who already have these. Also, look into volunteering like for camps or to give shots at flu season. Or you can volunteer at Red Cross. This will help give you experience while you are looking for a job. Good luck! Stick in there!

No matter what school you go to, make sure to do an internship or externship! I did this plus worked as a nurse tech and this made me stand out as an applicant. I know other nurses who did this and were able to get employment quickly after school! Good luck!

Honestly, there is always a risk with newly accredited places. When I was interviewing for jobs, I asked the hiring manager why they had openings on their unit. The person told me that they had to let go of two of their nurses. The two nurse's had worked as student nurse techs and were in nursing school and sat and took the NCLEX and passed with a RN license. They were going to work on the unit but a month after they graduated their school lost their accrediation. The boards revoked their license and their degrees were useless. When it comes to nursing, take the safer route and go to the school with a history of a long accrediation; I guess in this case go to the University.

I started nursing school when I was 18 and I graduated with my BSN when I was 22. Although I do not have any children, I had colleagues who were married and had children. You are never to old to start after your dreams! If you want to be a nurse, you can totally do it! Like anything, it takes hard work and dedication! :)

Good luck!

A555, I kept a list of my scores from Saunders CD rom practice tests and Kaplan qbanks questions. I constantly kept track of strengths and weaknesses and renumbered them. As I was studying, I kinda knew what stuff I was missing or skipping over. It is hard to say how many hours a day I studied. Honestly, I don't think that if you set 5 hours a day that you are definitley going to pass. It is more about the quality time spent. Instead, I set goals of doing 100-150 questions a day. Normally, in a week, I did questions 5 days a week and took two days off. Sometimes, to get through the 100-150 questions it would take me 1.5 hours and other days it would take me 5 hours (if I was not focused). Read the rationales. Don't freak out if you get the same questions. This is good practice. I just did Kaplan q bank and Mosby flash cards the month before my exam. I hope this helps! Good luck!

Thank you to everyone who posted! Thank you for sharing your stories! :)

Good luck anneontherocks! If you were near passing, you were so close! Good luck! Stay focused! I wish you the best!

Congratulations!!!!

Congratulations!!!

Hi everyone! I love being a nurse! However, I am that nurse who did not dream of becoming a nurse as a child. Even when I worked in the nursing home (a job that I loved), I swore that I would never be a nurse! It was not until I was older in college that I met a nurse that inspired me through her nursing philosophy of life that I knew that this was the career for me! She was absolutely right! Nursing has become my adult dream! :) What I would like to know is your story or the reasons why you knew you wanted to be a nurse from a young age? I do not want to know that you wanted to do it for the money or that there were good adult benefits or anything like that. I hear this too often. I also hear too often from people like me who found the calling later in life or while in school. I am very curious to know how people knew from a young age their dreams. This is really fascinating to me. I want to hear from people who are not like me.I want to hear the stories from the people who knew at a very young age that it was their goal to be a nurse. I am really interested in hearing your stories. Please share, my ears are open...

Hi mnh03! Where to start studying? That is a really good and hard question to answer. I would say first make two list that prioritizes your weakness to strengths. Put in order these.... 1. Psych 2. Adult/geriatric Medical Surgery 3. Pediatric Medical Surgery 4. Fundamentals 5. Pharmacology 6. Maternity 7. Safety 8. Management of Care or Delegation/ Prioritizing Pts The first list is the order that you think that you are weak in. The second list are the nursing grades that you got in these categories. That way you can see, compare, and confirm or realize that you have weaknesses in areas that you are overlooking or only focus studying using your strengths. Then take the practice assessment test that Saunders has in the CD-rom. This will give you a study guide on what to take first. Use it as a guide to take to finish the CD rom questions in saunders. Set goals for yourself. For example, it could be like... I give myself four days to finish 323 questions on safety. Then I will dedicate the next week to pediatrics questions. Questions that you miss read the rationale on the correct answer. If you really do not understand look up in book. Do not read Saunders cover to cover. This resource will not help you in this way. Practicing questions is the only way to get your mind on track for taking the NCLEX. Seriously, use the CD-rom to get you content ready for Kaplan course. It has 4000 questions and it is time consuming but you start to realize what is most important for you to know about that topic. Also, MOST IMPORTANT, know your lab values. By doing the saunders content cd rom questions, you will start picking up lab values. Take notes of the ones you constantly miss and make a quizlet on it. For example, if you have a med surg question about a renal failure pt, you are going to need to know the BUN and cr levels OR you have a pt with diabetes mellitus then you will want to know blood sugar levels. After saunders, do the delegation book. The reason is that after content based you will start to realize what disease processes are most important. At times, it all is important but the delegation will really help you break it down so you will know what the most important things to look for in certain diseases. After a while, some things will always take priority over others. For the longest time, I denied to myself that I needed to use the Saunders Cd-rom to get content ready. I honestly believe if you do the 4000 questions, before Kaplan, I believe that you will succeed with Kaplan! Also, I would suggest to push the kaplan review course to give you about a month or two -three weeks to get content ready with Saunders. This is my reasoning, I think that you might get overwhelmed during the Kaplan prep course. They teach you how to prioritize which is great if you are ready to sit and take the exam. The reason I say this is becauseI would hate for you to go and feel that you are not learning anything from the course because it may be hard to apply what they teach you. However, if you decide that this is the path for you. I want you to know that Kaplan is very helpful. If you find yourself overwhelemed. Stick it through! Take notes that will help you test. Some of their tactics seem silly but in the end it is helpful. Just make sure that you practice what they tell you to do. I hope that this helps. I hope to not confuse you or anything like that. If something is unclear please feel free to message me again. I wish you the best! Good luck! Do not give up! You can do this!

If they are not a nurse or did not go through nursing school, they don't know what they are talking about. It is their best way to be able to relate to you. I cannot tell you how many times family, friends, acquaintances, and strangers have given me more than their two cents about nursing. I deal with this issue by honestly just letting them vent and not add to the fire. I am respectful in listening to them but you have to accept that they are not you and they are not a nurse so they cannot understand. If you meet someone who is a nurse or was in the health field annoying you about it, remember its your life and this career is not for every one. If you like it and enjoy it, its the career for you. In regards to them giving you advice on where to work and what to do. You can redirect the conversation by sharing what you do like or you know that is not for you or share your dream job situations. Usually, when I start talking the person stops the conversation after this.

If your weak in content, do Saunders CD rom 4000 questions first. Then do Kaplan. Kaplan is great once you are content strong. Kaplan has about 1200 questions. I also found Mosby flashcards a good supplement for questions. Practice as many questions as you can. I am not sure of the exact number but there have been studies that say you need at least 5000 questions before you take the NCLEX. I took about that amount and I passed in 76 questions.

Congratulations!!!!!

I just took my NCLEX this summer (2013) and this is a good post on this topic. You have to make sure to tell them that you have a cellphone and they did put mine in a plastic bag that I signed before my test and after my test. Make sure you turn your cell phone completely off. When I was there, another persons cell phone was ringing and also not in a bag. The person was removed from their exam. They are serious about it.

Thank you so much for the comments of support! Kyliez,I know exactly how you felt. I was so burnt out after my second test. I didn't know how long I needed a break. It just happened to be one month. I just woke up one day and said "I am ready to try again." I meant it. During my break, I did some soul searching and did alot of self reflection. Personally, I let my nervousness and self doubt get to me on the first exams. I had to ask myself "how do i feel about this" and "what is causing me to feel this way" and I had to honestly answer myself. For me, self reflection was something that I had to do before I could even begin to restudy. One thing that I personally struggled with that I had to let go was my competiveness to compete with others who had passed NCLEX and got jobs. I was happy for them but I felt so behind in life. I had come to the realization that my only opponent is myself and that everyone is on a different schedule in life. Once I accepted this concept and also had accepted myself, I was able to move on. Also, Kyliez congratulations for going out there and taking it again even for a second time. Regardless of your outcome, it takes courage to do that. The fact that you went out and tried shows that you can indeed do it again! Hopefully when you do it again you will have a different and more positive result in the future! Also, Kyliez remember you do have an advantage now because you have taken it twice so there is not that element of surprise. Even though, you are not likely to get the same questions, you are familiar with how the questions are asked. I sincerely wish you all good luck!

Hello, I graduated nursing school in 2012 with my BSN. I have been reading allnurses.com for a year now and I said that when I passed my NCLEX I promised that I would post my story. I seriously have so many people to thank for emotional support including the community in allnurses.com. So here it goes... Last year, I graduated nursing school from a top 50 nursing school. I thought that since I choose a major nursing school that I would not have a problem with NCLEX. My gpa was a 3.0 but I excelled in clinicals. I choose Saunders for my main study tool. I read the text book front to back and did the questions in it. I was not keeping track of my scores or anything like that. As soon as I got my ATT, I scheduled my date for early fall. I told myself that I was going to dedicate myself to a month. In reality, I only did an actual studying for 2 weeks , the third week I moved to a different city,and the fourth week (the week before my exam) I was totally nervous and avoided all studying by watching movies or playing video games. I was in denial about how I really felt for the exam and that was unprepared but I ignored my feelings. Plus, I kept seeing people in my class passing and getting jobs and I wanted to make my family proud of me for being a self sufficient adult. So basically, I focused on other things rather than myself and the test. So on the first test, I got around 120 questions. At question 100, I let myself get so overwhelmed and started crying at the testing center. I did the worst thing that you can do and that is give up. I started clicking on any answer because I just wanted to go home and lay in bed, snuggle with my dog, and eat ice cream. After I finished the exam, I went home and did exactly that. However to make things worse for myself, I did the pearson vue trick to see if I could get my results faster than the 2 days. I got the credit card page (sign that I failed) and prayed that it was a fluke. Needless to say, I was sad. By the way, I was also late for my exam; don't do that either! After a week of tears, I was determined to pass NCLEX. I signed up for my test for December and I dedicated three months to Kaplan. I signed up for Kaplan the week before my test. I went to the class and it made me feel totally overwhelmed. I hated the Kaplan strategies and just my own. I just couldn't get it down. I could see that Kaplan was good if you already know your content. Instead of reschelduling, I ignored my feelings (agian) and stayed dedicated to my date. I went to the exam feeling nervous but confident. I actually did all the kaplan q-banks (60%) and did Q-trainer 1(54%),2 (54%),3 (58.5%). I don't remember my scores. At the exam, I couldn't figure out the questions so I used the Kaplan strategies that I didn't practice at all before the test. My exam stopped at 75 and I failed. I did do the pearson vue trick and there was a part of me that was still skeptical but it took me to the credit card page. This time I didn't cry. I went into shock and basically didn't say anything for two days. I was so depressed after failing the second time. It was terrible because it was around Christmas time and I traveled to see my family and friends. It was terrible having to tell ppl that I wasn't working as a nurse and hadn't passed my NCLEX. But I learned that my family and friends supported me and didn't judge me. If I had any feelings of judgement of me , it was all coming from me inside my head. So what does someone do after they fail NCLEX twice? The first thing I did was take a nice long month long break. I had to rebuild my confidence. After, I felt ready again,I sought out help from others. I was able to find a nurse who personally tutored me for 2-3 months. My tutor was able to help me realize my weakness and strengths. My tutor helped me focus. I will list my study aids then explain how I used them: Study tools: Saunders Book and CD rom Mosby flashcards Kaplan NCLEX RN Book Kaplan Class Kaplan Qbank and Q trainers Quizlet And now I will explain how I used these to pass the NCLEX on the third time... 1) Content review. I really needed a content review. My tutor instructed me to do Saunders CD-rom (4000 questions) first. If I missed something then I need to review it in the book or the a textbook. Otherwise, you will get to overwhelmed with all the info. What I needed is to jump in and start practicing questions. We have a ton of knowledge but we need to practice questions. Also, practicing content based questions helps you review so it is a win-win. 2) Next I had special dedicated time to my weaknesses which were: Pharm, Safety, Labs,Growth and Development. I used quizlet to help me memorize things that i needed to know like therapeutic drug levels,lab, and human development. I also used Kaplan content review on Pharm (highly recommend)! 3)Once, I finished content, I did Mosby Flashcards. They are broken up into sections and in my opinion are a good transition from Saunders questions to practicing Kaplan questions. 4) Then I signed up for the Kaplan class after I had already did my major content study. I went into Kaplan and it was a whole different experience. I did feel confident in my content and this point and Kaplan was able to teach my tactics to help select the answer. Kaplan is great once you are content ready. Here were my Kaplan scores: readiness- 75% QT1-72% QT2-58.5% QT3-49% QT4-62% QT5-62.7% QT6-65.5% QT7- 62.6% QBANK RANGE- 80%-100% 5) After the class , I had 5 weeks to do all the qbank and qtrainers. So this is how I did my QT: week 1- QT 1,2,3 week 2 QT 4 week 3 QT 5 week 4 Qt 6 week 5 QT 7 exam on mon. I used my qbank in between the QTs and I also used the Qtrainers to help see what I was weak in. Anything under 65%, I reveiwed and did questions on. I used only Kaplan qbank and book. I also reused Mosby flashcards on areas that were weak. I went home after the exam and I did the pearson vue trick and I got the special message and two days later it was official I was an RN! So how long did it take me to prepare for my third NCLEX and pass? 6 Months of dedication! A total content review for me was about 4.5 months; practicing test based questions with NCLEX was about 1.5 months. Overall it took me 11 months out of school to pass my NCLEX and become a RN! All in all, it was totally worth it! If you are a first time NCLEX test taker and reading this, you may not have to work this hard. I would say pay attention to yourself and rescheldule if you are not ready but make a study scheldule. If you are reading this and you need to retake the NCLEX or you were like me and unsure if you can get through this, I want you to know that I am living proof that it can be done! Don't give up on yourself! You can do this! I believe in you! Believe in yourself that you will get through this! I think anyone who is reading this and is planning on retaking or taking NCLEX for the first time needs to know: 1. Make a plan. Start with your weaknesses and work towards your strengths. You need to study! 2. Take breaks and have a stress outlet! Sometimes we think we don't have time and that may be true but you need to take time for yourself. But you will need to set limits on your breaks. The first and second time I took the exam, I didn't take many breaks and the few times I did were not appropriate times for breaks. You pay for it later if you do not take breaks. There is a lot of stuff you need to know. The third time I took the test, I would watch a 20 min show on netflix in between my studying. And I would tell myself only one 20 min episode then I will study. You just have to make yourself do it! 3. Yes, you need to know lab values, pharm, and priority questions! 4. 30 min before the exam, I took the time to write my name plus BSN,RN about a hundred times and it boosted my confidence before the exam. 5. Stay calm so you can be focused. 6. One question at a time. This is a test where every question matters. Also take extra time on your first 75 questions. 7. Read carefully and think about it! Use your strategies for picking answers. 8. Believe in yourself. Be ready! It will happen and when it does....it is amazing! Good luck! You can do it ! :)