MikeyJ RN

I had a close friend of mine pass the NCLEX without studying. Granted, she was a 4.0 student in nursing school... but she did some practice NCLEX questions on her PDA a few days before the exam and passed with 75 questions. I don't recommend doing t...

Check out the stickies at the top of the NCLEX discussion forum.

You sign up on PearsonVue.com -- however, you will not be able to see any of the testing dates until you receive your ATT. Pearsonvue offers testing 5 days a week (7 days a week in some locations), but you have to wait and see which ones are availab...

How did you prepare for it?? I am taking my NCLEX on the 22nd of this month which is 4 weeks after I had graduated and many people tell me that I am taking it too soon.

I agree with the poster stating that most hospitals would prefer not to pay for hair follice testing. My brother is going through a custody dispute and was required to get hair follice testing done and urine and it costed him $150 just for the hair f...

I take my boards on the 22nd of this month but the NCSBN course focuses on providing material for you to study and provides practice questions. Kaplan focuses on teaching you how to answer the questions rather than making you re-learn material you a...

How did you study for it the first time around and how long did you give yourself? Re: NCSBN -- our class was required to purchase it and I honestly thought it was a waste of money.

I was going to use Suzanne's plan but her plan calls for a minimum of 45 days... that is way too long for me to wait to take the NCLEX. I am taking the exam 31 days exactly after my graduation date.

I personally purchased the QBank questions and am doing every single question -- I take the NCLEX in a few weeks. I am averaging 65% - 70%. Students and instructors have told me to literally do 1000's of practice NCLEX questions and read the rationa...

I am not sure why it bothers you that much. I personally don't buy into those type of products either based on what I have learned about the body. However, to each their own. If someone believes that it is helping them... then let them believe that. ...

Same here! When I worked as a nurse apprentice on the pediatrics floor, I wore hospital scrubs because it was easy and it saved me from buying my own scrubs... well I think that added to the image that I was a "doctor". Every patient thought I was a ...

My hospital has a clinical ladder as well. Very few nurses I have met actually take part in the clinical ladder and I am not sure why. You move up with different certifications, continuing with your education, becoming a nurse mentor, etc. Their are ...

My hospital reimburses $1000/year to pursue classes that are in the same field. I highly doubt you will find many hospitals that will reimburse someone to pursue medical school. Medical school is a VERY expensive journey (many students walk out of me...

I have the Kaplan book and I use QBank. The Kaplan book does not have very many questions -- it has practice questions at the end of the chapter (180 of them) and then the CD also has almost 200 questions. The Kaplan books mostly focus on how to take...

I take the NCLEX on the 22nd, but I do far too well using Saunders. I get between 80 - 95% of the questions right on Saunders. I get 55 - 65% right using Kaplan.

You will probably get more responses if you post on the VA forum. Go to the "Region" tab, click on "United States" and then go down to "Virginia".

I had a lap appy my 3rd semester of nursing school. I had the surgery on a Thursday night / Friday morning and missed that Friday clinicals. But I didn't have much time to recover because I had 2 exams Monday morning. I studied while taking Percocet ...

It all depends on the department's policy. When I took A&P, the lab and lecture conincided with each other. The department did not allow students to only take a lab -- it must be taken in conjunction with the lecture.

I don't think it has anything to do with being a new grad, as the other poster mentioned. Las Vegas hospitals are notorious for having slow HR departments. It takes a lot of calling HR departments to get hired -- constantly follow up!

Totally agree. All of nursing is learned on the job. Very little of it is taught in nursing school.

I have contacted different childrens hospitals (CHOP, Phoenix Childrens, Children's Hospital Boston, Childrens Hospital San Diego) that all told me that they are moving toward BSN prepared nurses. I contacted many different children's hospitals becau...

Oh goodness no -- absolutely not. I don't think either is better -- if you have passed the boards, then you are an RN in my eyes. I was just trying to make the point that there are differences between an ADN and BSN programs. One difference I can at...

Theory is the wrong word -- I have actually not studied a single nursing theory in my entire BSN program. And I said SOME ADN programs -- not all. There is obviously a difference between ADN and BSN programs -- neither is better over the other but ...

Compare an newgrad ADN with a newgrad BSN nurse -- the ADN can run circles around the BSN nurse in terms of clinical skills. There are some BSN programs that try to integrate more clinicals but I have never met a nurse that has attended one. There a...