ThatNursingDude

Sorry if there was a better way to address you all, but I'm not really versed in communicating via a forum!

Well, it is correct necessarily. That's why I added the data from the NCLEX site on passing rates for first time test takers. "Plenty" fail in the sense that a lot of people fail, but it's not the case that "plenty" fail if you look at it in terms of percentages. And I think percentages is the correct way to look at it... I guess however, if you know your school has bad passing rates, you may be right to be more fearful. But in general, on average, this is necessarily true according to the data. Thanks by the way!

I agree, it's more about studying a lot and not really spending a lot.

That is awesome! Congrats! But what I was also talking about is you can get the same preparation if you simply put in the study hours on material far cheaper than those "courses". It's about saving money, and decreasing anxiety. EDIT: Sorry, first time really trying to work this site... This comment was addressed to TheCommuter.

Amazing insight! I agree, some people do need a lot of preparation to make them feel good, but what I also said in my post is that, if you are looking to save a couple hundred dollars anyways, go to the library or even buy books cheaply and study those. If you can pass Nursing school, you shouldn't be intimidated about the thought of clicking on the correct answer in a computer format. Plus the NCLEX gives you a demo that you can take over and over again for free before you take the actual exam. Great! It adds to the evidence that you learning nothing new in Kaplan! Again, I don't think you should be intimidated about clicking the right choice on a computer if you got through Nursing school. Absolutely! If someone needs more things to study, all I'm saying is save a couple hundred bucks and buy some books or even just browse the internet.

Why hello there! How are you all? I'm a recent College grad of my local Community College's RN program, and even more recently, I've become a licensed Registered Nurse! I passed the NCLEX in 75 questions! I want you all to consider something before you pay hundreds of dollars for these NCLEX preparation courses (Kaplan, Hurst, or otherwise). I also want you all to know things about me so you can compare yourself, to myself, which is I'm telling you all, I'm a Community College graduate. I think it would be helpful for you to compare yourself to myself so that you can see that: You are likely more knowledgeable or as knowledgeable as me. I'm nothing special, and I've passed the NCLEX in only 75 questions. You don't need to stress if you graduated from your program. You are likely smart enough to pass the NCLEX. Point three is a big one. You are likely smart enough to pass the NCLEX! I know this, and so do all of these "preparation" test corporations. Lastly, the main goal of this post is to decrease stress/anxiety among everyone who thinks they will be taking the NCLEX. The very close second goal of this post is to persuade you not to take any "preparation" course, especially if you (like myself) don't have much money to spend. (skip this part if you don't care to compare my normalcy to your awesomeness!) About Me I have an Associates degree, not a Bachelors. I graduated May 2nd and took the NCLEX 2 and 1/2 months later on July 15th. I've earned one C, and the rest B's in my theory/lecture classes. I've averaged perhaps in the mid 80's on my exams throughout the program. I passed the Exit HESI just barely, according to my school's minimum requirements. I received an 835 on my Exit HESI. Here are all my other HESI scores (syntax: [Name of HESI]: [1st attempt], [2nd attempt if applicable]) Psych: 884 Peds: 633, 752 Management: 762, 642 Pharm: 688, 1012 Fundamentals: 782, 916 Maternity: 931, 576 Med/Surg: 1010 Exit: 835 (As you can see, I'm not exactly a top notch candidate am I?) [*]I did study countless hours throughout the program. I'm not sure you could get through without studying for many hours. My studying consisted of ONLY reading the book(s), reviewing particular lab values or staging values (like stage x pressure ulcers, or +x pulse strength, etc...), and what I consider pretty awesome, taking pictures of excerpts of parts of the book I just thought may be useful. I NEVER wrote down notes from the book while reading it as, when I did do this in the first 2 semesters of my program, it would take many more HOURS to study. You want to study WAYYY faster? Take pictures instead of writing things down, and/or just simply read the book. [*]I dropped out of high school in the 10th grade with a 1.x GPA. [*]I am a normal human being! Why You Should Consider NOT Paying For A "Preparation" Course Alright, here we are! I'm going to present an argument for you all, and you can either accept it, as I do, or say, "huh, this dude is a little cray-cray." Either way, I wish you luck! Also, this is mostly directed to Kaplan as that is what I've had most exposure to. Let me lay out some premises for you: On average, if you graduated from your school's RN program, you are likely to pass the NCLEX. On average, if you have failed your NCLEX on your first try, you are likely to fail on your second try. (P.S - I was just assuming these two premises were true but if you look here: https://www.ncsbn.org/Table_of_Pass_Rates_2015_(3).pdf, it actually is true.) Now then, what is Kaplan's guarantee? Let me recite it for you: They give you a money back guarantee if you have NEVER taken the NCLEX. If you have taken the NCLEX and failed before, this guarantee is null! Now let's notice some things about their marketing: Their big buzz is the money back guarantee, which is why they will tell you it if they go to your school, and why it is the thing they put right on the front of their web page. This corporation WILL poke at your insecurities of failing subtly. If they go to your school (as they did mine), they will tell you why it's so different from any exam you've taken in class ("It is significantly different from any test that you took in nursing school." []File Not Found), hint that some secret strategy that they will give you will make you pass ("The key to passing the NCLEX is strategy." []File Not Found), and of course that, if you fail, you get your money back, so why not? With that in your mind, let's make some more assumptions: Kaplan knows you are likely going to pass the NCLEX since you passed your RN program. They also know you're fearful of failing. They are profiting off of your fear and the irrationality it causes. They know that if you failed your NCLEX once, you're likely to fail it again which is why they DO NOT give you a money back guarantee if you take their program. From that, let's draw some conclusions: They make you feel that if you take this course, you will be learning something you don't know. Otherwise, you wouldn't take it. Now, what does it tell you that they will not give a money back guarantee to those who have failed once? What it says is that, what they are going to teach you is either going to help you marginally or not at all. In other words, they cannot turn a failure into a winner with any real or significant success. I think that last point is CRUCIAL. They CANNOT turn a loser into a winner with any real success, which is why they don't give a money back guarantee for those who have failed before. What are you paying for these courses for? You're paying them because you believe that they will increase your chances of winning! Well I'm here to say that based on how they treat past failures, they don't believe that they can increase your chance of passing with any real or significant success! They don't believe they can improve you much, and if they don't believe they can improve you much, neither should you! And before I end this, here's one thing I always hear. Something like, "If they help me pass, I'll be making a lot more money as an RN sooner then if I fail because I didn't take the course." To that, I say, "Ahh yes. You're assuming that they will increase your chances of passing, yes? And even if the improvement is marginal, which it probably is based on the way they treat previous failures, if they help you win 5% more of the time, it's worth it because you'll be making a lot more money sooner right? Well, if you consider that if you say... STUDY yourself and do practice questions w/rationals and understand these reasoning's you will gain that same 5% increase in chance WITHOUT paying $500, does it make sense?" - I hope it doesn't... You understand you are paying them to give you work! Work you already have! Look at your text books! Go to a library/Barnes and Noble and study for free. They don't know anything more than what your text books have already told you. And you want to know their "key strategy"? It's called the Kaplan decision tree. Literally just Google "Kaplan decision tree" and there you go. And as for some cheap anecdotal evidence, everyone of my colleagues have told me it was a waste of their money. They don't have "secret" information that will all of a sudden make you better. They don't have a strategy that's going to make you better than the next random RN graduate. They are trying to sell you magic, and you know what? Magic doesn't exist. If you want to increase your chance of passing the NCLEX, study hard throughout your program and study after you graduate and DO PRACTICE QUESTIONS from books w/rationals and UNDERSTAND them! Understand why they are right, and why they are wrong! And know your labs! Paying $500 isn't going to substitute for simply putting in the hours that it takes to study. Don't pay $500 for magic because only work will get you where you want to be. You and I are average my friend, and average is all it takes! I apologize for any spelling mistakes. If you'd like to know any more things about my average self, just ask! I'd also love some opinions and counter arguments if you disagree with me! Thanks for reading, -ThatNursingDude

I agree, it does seem obvious, but I'm not sure you read my entire post... For clarification purposes, would you call a.fib normal heart sounds as GrnTea did? Because my teacher wouldn't, but I would. Now I'd like your opinion as it seems according to my quote, that you wouldn't consider it normal sounds. This is where I'm confused, and seemingly other people too. Thanks a ton!

Okay, okay, okay. I'm in the last semester of school and seem to have not gotten down something I thought is really simple. It is the idea of, when documenting, what is heart sounds vs heart rhythm. Heart sounds can be normal or abnormal, and heart rhythms can be regular or irregular, according to my school's teachings. Now, when they say, are the heart sounds normal or abnormal, I'm thinking, the actual question is: are there any murmurs, s3, s4, or out of sync beats (like an extra beat that you'd hear with a.fib or something)? If yes, then the heart sounds are abnormal, if no, then they are normal. For heart rhythm, I'm thinking the question behind it is, is the beat steady. If we have an s3, but the beat is steady and constant, then the rhythm is regular. If, for example, we have a 3rd degree heart block, then of course the rhythm is irregular. Is this correct? And if I'm not correct, what is the difference between Sound vs Rhythm with an example. Because my teaching was describing it to me in a way that made it sound like they were basically the same thing, making one of the categories redundant... Also, if you can give examples of, Normal Heart Sounds with an Irregular Rhythm, and also Abormal Heart Sounds with a Regular Rhythm, that would be sweeeeet. What the lump?

Exactly! I believe this to be true. Not just legally true, but innately true, and morally true. If a competent patient/human being doesn't want you to touch/help them, then that is what you do!

Hello all once again! Thanks for the awesome responses! What's going on seems to be what goes on everywhere I bring up the problem. One side believes you should just "help" the patient as to lessen the burden on staff/yourself. The others really believe, down to a moral point, in the right of the patient to say no. I'm in the latter of the group. I feel really horrible about myself if I don't listen to a completely conscious human beings' request to not touch/help them. That being said, it seems the "solution" is to really try to persuade the patient to do as you would like them to. Which is something I could definitely work on... But my other big problem was dealing with others getting angry at me. I think I'll just have to tell them why I did what I did and how strongly I feel against disregarding their requests. Good learning experiences.

Hello all, So I'm still a rather new RN student, almost finished with my 2nd semester, and I have a huge problem: Patient Rights. Specifically their autonomy. In my classes we talk about advocating for the patient, for their rights, for their autonomy. But in clinical I've already been told to violate my patients twice! The first time I did violate my patient and I felt disgusted with myself. The second time I refused to violate the patient and made others angry at me. So I need your help! Please help me sort this out so I can have my morals in-tact and also stay on everyone else's good side! If someone could please take this really serious that would be so great as I'm stressing out big because of this. Also, please know this is barely my second clinical I've been to, and we were only taught how to do a head-to-toe assessment thus far, and that's all we're allowed to do. NOTHING else! So here's the first scenario: I walk into a female patients room. She was in a car wreck and cannot move much or talk, but can still make conscious decisions by shaking her head yes/no. My teacher tells me that she doesn't want any male nurses helping with changing/bathrooming before approaching her. The first thing my teacher wants me to do is auscultate posterior lung sounds so I walk up to her, introduce myself, and tell her what I'm going to do. As I move my stethoscope to her back she shakes her head no. Presumably, I think she doesn't want me to touch her as she feels uncomfortable with a male nurse. So I ask her if she doesn't want me to listen to her lungs and she shakes no. She shakes her head and her shoulder, "no". So I tell my teacher, "she doesn't want me to touch her." My teacher tells me, "It's okay, just do it." My teacher brings me to her and tells me to auscultate the posterior lung sounds as the patient remains tense as I'm listening. I myself feel awkward and disgusted with myself. Did I do the wrong thing? Cause I'm sure I did. I literally think I wont forget the way this female looked like and what I did to her... I have a huge problem with violating peoples' rights/autonomy. The next scenario is a little different. This is the one I want the focus to be on. It's a little long as I want to give you the nuanced details. A male patient about 9 days after having a right sided CVA is paralyzed on his left side of his body. At this point in time he has no decreased LOC. A nurse tech is with me in the room as the patient states he needs to urinate. As the patient says this, the tech states he needs to go and asks if I can help the patient. I naturally tell him yes. So I'm in the room alone with the patient and the patient tells me they have him urinate into these containers with measurements on them that are sitting on the table by his bed. I pick it up, walk over to the patient's bed and ask him if he's ready to urinate. In my mind (as I was never taught this) I'm assuming I need to grab his member for him and place it into the container so he can urinate into it or at the least hold the container for him while he holds his member with his functional right hand (this is what I thought "help the patient" meant when the tech told me to help him). Anyway, the response he gives me after asking him if he's ready to urinate is, "Yeah, but I can do it by myself." I say, "Okay, would you like me to step out as well for your privacy?" He says, "Yes." So I step outside of his room for awhile. As I'm outside his room the tech comes back and says, "Did you help him?" I tell him, "Yes, let me see if he's done." I ask the patient if he's done and he tells me, "I don't know who designed these thing but when I ****** into it, it just came back out." I say, "Okay, so your bed is wet now?" He says, "Yes." So, I tell the tech who is right outside the door, and he looks angrily at me and says, "Didn't you help him?" I said, "Yes. He told me he wanted to do it himself and he wanted his privacy." The tech then angrily tells me (which is what I'm shocked about): "Of course they're going to tell you that. You just do it anyway!!!" Immediately my brain breaks. Is this right? Am I supposed to disregard what my patient tells me? "Just do it anyway"!!!??? I feel bad for "causing" the mess so I offer to help the tech clean it/change the bed linens. He tells me, "No, just go away. I got it." And I once again feel like crap for this time doing what I feel was the right thing. Could someone please tell me if I did the right thing and also tell me how I can deal with this problem of wanting to stick of for the patients rights/autonomy without having others hate me for it? I feel like I'm less valuable to a employer for not possessing this trait. Please, I'm so stressed. I'd gladly disregard a patients autonomy if their LOC was diminished in certain situations, but if they are alert and have complete LOC, I have no idea how I could ever violate their requests. Thank you soooooo much.

Okay, so just a heads up. In my first semester of RN school, I indeed did not need any books. I did make friends with almost everyone and am able to use their books if I needed to (which was maybe 3x throughout the semester). I will be getting the book for level 2 though, as I'm told it's where the rubber meets the road so-to-speak. Cheers!

Very awesome responses everyone, thanks a ton! Can anyone tell me this: were there any books you didn't use much/at all? They can't all be THAT important right? It's just really expensive, and I don't have a job and don't plan on having one throughout the entire 2 years of going to RN school. I also plan on being debt free at the end of it .

Okay, let me try and put this right. First, I'm starting RN school this January. Through all my prereq's like A&P 1 and 2 and their respective labs, and also Microbiology and it's lab and EVERY SINGLE other class (including all my psych, basic chem/biology, and honors classes) I've never bought (or rented) the, "required" text books for the classes. I've also aced these classes without the text books. Anything I've needed I've gotten from my lecture notes, PowerPoint's from the teacher, or the internet. I've never bought a text book, and I don't really plan on buying any nursing text books. What do you think? They are really expensive, and I don't think I'll need them... Thanks everyone!