ak3991

I used the Kaplan Q-bank program last year when preparing for the NCLEX and can hands down say it was worth every penny. We did ATI in school too and I passed all of those no problem, so I was discouraged when I started the Kaplan program as a supplemental study aid and was making 50's on every test. I did every single question though and powered through just to say I tried and I'm so glad I did. The NCLEX was not exactly like the Kaplan questions, but definitely more similar than the ATI questions. I passed the NCLEX the first time with 75 questions thanks to Kaplan.

The mother/baby unit that I work on does this too. Granted, I work in a state with no union so rules are way different. Our unit takes up 1.5 floors of the women's hospital and we share that half floor with a high risk ob unit. There have been plenty of times they have assigned 1 RN "upstairs" (1/2 unit) with 4 or 5 couplets to herself. It's been brought up countless times how dangerous that is, but it's all about the budget to management. Unfortunately, I think it's going to take a sentinel event to change things.

I work postpartum/well baby. The things I currently stuff my pockets with are: pens (one pink for notes and black for charting), a pencil, alcohol wipes, band aids, paperclips, sissors, and Chapstick. I carry a stethoscope around my neck with a little watch attached and a clipboard that opens up where I store extra "brains", notecards, some of our most frequently used policies for reference, and an ammonia inhalant just in case.

I used the Kaplan Qbank to prepare for my NCLEX in June. my program used ATI so between studying for that at the end of the semester and doing all of the questions in the bank, I felt prepared enough for the test of all tests. I passed the NCLEX in 76 questions and I felt good about it after the exam. I've been recommending the Qbank to all of my friends who are still in nursing school!

I'm looking for suggestions on how to make bedside shift report quicker and more efficient on my 40 bed unit. On my floor, we clock in by 6:45 and clock out no earlier than 7:15 (making up for 30 min deduction for lunch). Shift report takes so long that we rarely clock out before 7:30, turning our 12hr shift into a 13hr shift. Our unit has been complemented on how thorough our bedside reports are and the patients have expressed their satisfaction with the way it's currently done, but I feel that it would make all the nurses happier to not be waiting around until 7:05-7:10 to actually begin taking report and getting home unnecessarily late. I will describe the way that shift change currently goes and I ask for suggestions or examples from your units on ways to speed up the process. First, we clock in by 6:45. Everyone grabs an assignment sheet and picks up a kardex for each of their patients. Next, we head to the break room to unpack and put away purses and coats. We all sit in the break room and fill out a report sheet with the info from the kardex (we all use similar, but slightly different report sheets based on how we like to take notes during the shift). We then head out to the floors (our unit takes up two floors of the hospital) to find the nurses who had our patients during the previous shift. It's rarely the same nurse giving report on all of your assigned patients so we normally have to wait around for our reporting nurses to be finished with their other reports until they come find us. We do bedside report in the room, which doesn't take that long as long as the reporting/receiving nurse doesn't chat with the patient too long. (We are going to start requiring daily goals to be discussed w/ report too so that will add some time). When we leave the room we are usually on the hunt for our next hand-off nurse to get report from. The whole process takes way too long and there are some obvious ways to improve it like getting to the unit earlier and photocopying the kardex itself instead of writing in report sheets, but some really time consuming things cannot be avoided. We can't always get report from one nurse for all of our patients. That won't happen, but I'm sure there are better ways to streamline that process that I'm not thinking of. What do you do on your unit to make shift report more efficient?

Hey! I am currently in the BSN program at UAB and was looking for some insight into UAB's MSN program. I have heard some rumors about the MSN program that make me worry that UAB is not a good choice for me for grad school. My experience with the BSN program has been awful and I'm fearful that the MSN program will have the same flaws. The two biggest concerns I have with the program I'm currently in are the lack of communication and organization. Those issues make school SO much more difficult than it actually needs to be. Some nurses I spoke to at clinical were getting their master's degree at UAB and said that the disorganization in the grad program was horrible. They sounded like they really disliked the program. I'm wondering if I need to just forget UAB and look elsewhere for grad school. Does anyone here have any info about UAB's MSN program and care to share their experience?