SnowballDVM

I did and it was really helpful. You should check out her website, she is offering workshops in PA now on a more regular basis I think and she herself is moving to Tennessee this fall, so her workshop will be there from now on.

Oh, wow, what a ripoff! What would have happened if you'd refused to buy the ATI? My college offered it free and I never used it. I just never got around to it and then when I found out from another student that there was an actual coach who was supposed to approve things and guide me I just said no way, I don't need or want that kind of help. Congrats on your pass!

I had a few review books I'd picked up at a used bookstore, and I initially started by doing some of their questions. But once I started UWorld I stopped using the books. The UWorld screen setup is very similar to NCLEX and there are lots of SATA questions, and with 1600 questions there is plenty to keep you busy.

UWorld! I passed first try with 75 questions in 40 minutes. I did the entire QBank once and then reviewed the ones I missed. Their rationales are good and some of their charts are excellent. I never really bothered with what percent I got right, just focussed on the rationales.

I took them both separately. That wasn't very smart of me. Take them both together.

LOL @ "SATAN questions". Such an apt description! I'd be careful discussing ANYTHING about the content of the exam, that release we had to sign was pretty thorough and strict.

Legally this could potentially be considered a battery since the patient or a POA or a family member did not consent, IF it was not medically necessary to cut the patient's hair. This wasn't an occasion where the patient's head needed to be shaved for some kind of emergency procedure. I also wonder if the instructor consulted the patient's RN before doing this.

I think you are being overly optimistic about your timeline, unless you get insanely lucky with a cancellation date. It's certainly possible to learn all of the CPNE material well enough to pass in three months, but even if you get a July test date, you won't be graduating until late August at the earliest. For 2015, if you finished your CPNE AND all other graduation requirements by July 5th, your graduation date was August 21st. If you finished by August 2nd, graduation was September 18th. I expect the timeline is similar for 2016. Your state may or may not allow you to work as a graduate nurse before you actually graduate. Will your job wait for you if you haven't actually graduated by August? And all of that, of course, assumes you can get a cancellation date.

No, I tested in Wisconsin before they closed both test sites.

I was at the same workshop as MedicFireRN and tested and passed about six weeks after she did, so about four months after the workshop. I agree with her that you shouldn't take a workshop the weekend before you test. I'd say a month or two ahead of time is better, since then you have plenty of time to practice things you learned at the workshop, but not so much time that you start forgetting what you learned. Good luck!

Oh, wow, you are about as far from a loser as there is! Think of what you have gone through and accomplished already. There is absolutely NOTHING shameful about living with your parents like you are. You are saving money, and helping them out, and spending time with them, and going to school for what will, I hope, be a great career. You are not lying around in your bedroom expecting your parents to wait on you. If any of your classmates think you are a loser because you are living with your parents, well, to heck with them and what they think. And whatever happens with nursing school, you are still not a loser. Hang in there and hope you are doing well on your finals.

A close friend related this to me about a close friend of hers. His widowed mother was in the hospital, at the end stage of some chronic illness I can't recall right now. His brother was at her bedside when he noticed her looking past the foot of the bed very intently. She just stared and stared, there was nothing there, no TV, no paintings on the wall, no window, no nothing. Finally he asked her, "Mom, what are you looking at?" And she answered in that maternal tone that brooks no argument, "Why, your father, of course, who has come to get me". She died a few minutes later. Now whether that was a hallucination caused by the last firings of her brain, or her late husband truly had come to get her, I don't know. I hope it was the latter.

You won't be done with the entire program by December. If you finish all of the exams by the end of August, you still have to take the FCCAs, which will take at least eight weeks, assuming you take both courses at the same time and pass both of them. Then you will have to get your CPNE application in, and then wait for a test date. Currently the wait to get a CPNE date, unless you call for cancellations and get lucky, is about three months, with an actual test date several months after that. Don't underestimate the CPNE; the study guide itself is over 500 pages long and you will need to know it very well, plus probably do some outside workshops and a LOT of memorizing, before you are ready for the CPNE. I wouldn't rush the LS exams either. They are probably the toughest exams EC has, apart from the CPNE. I'd recommend reading the textbooks and following the syllabus. Good luck.

Thank you for the great article. I am very grateful to those who work on holidays, no matter what their jobs are, but especially those in the medical field. Yesterday I took my little therapy dog to the hospice where we volunteer; Thursday is our normal day anyway, but we also went on Tuesday this week. I think he brought comfort and entertainment to a lot of people. Of course the fact that I put this outfit on him contributed to the entertainment value! Poor dog.

Nice article, Lynda! I am a big WWII geek, especially DDay, Midway, and Pearl Harbor. One of my parents' friends is a DDay vet and I finally got to hear his story last summer when my mom and I bumped into him and his wife at the hairdresser. I was in Normandy last summer and sent him a couple of postcards, a magnet, and a commemorative coin, and he was just so pleased by those small gestures. Very modest man and very humble about his service. I volunteer at a hospice and my favorite patient so far was a WWII vet. We both loved the same NFL team and the same airshow, and I spent hours talking with him. What a great guy. Whenever I see that a patient/resident is a veteran I ask about their service; some will talk about it, some will not. As an aside...while in Normandy I met a nice family from Belgium. The father said, "Well, if it weren't for you Americans, we wouldn't be free today. So thank you." And the people of Normandy, for the most part, love Americans. Nice to know that the incredible sacrifices our military members made have not been forgotten there.