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The PocketPrep PMHMP phone app is very good and only about $40. If you get 70% correct, you should be okay. The official practice tests are of some value in conditioning yourself to test well. PocketPrep is much better for content review.

Responses can be in four major categories: ignore, make a joke, punitive, or instructive/rehabilitative. Making a joke is arguably punitive and possibly for the satisfaction of the person making the joke. Different people chose different approaches, possibly in combination. The same person may choose a different response depending on the inmate or patient. The punitive and ignoring categories are behaviorist approaches which may extinguish the behavior. An instructive response is cognitive (see Noam Chomsky's criticism of Skinner). What is the goal, stopping the behavior or stopping the desire to behave that way?

The supervising nurse who once called me slow, now that I've established myself as a nurse, describes how I was "very thorough" when I worked with her. She has even offered to help me take the next step in my nursing career and she is genuinely sincere. Yes, I might have killed her with kindness to some degree way back when. Killing someone with kindness is kind of like playing the lottery, sure, it's unlikely, but you can't win if don't play. Years ago before nursing, I interviewed with the owner of a company. He was exceptionally rude and told me I would be a terrible employee. Since he was the owner, killing with kindness was pointless. After his rudeness, I thanked him for his candor and excused myself. I truly meant that - I'm so glad I saw his true colors before being hired.

An Episcopal priest told me that his elderly aunt and her best friend decided to go to New York City and see the sights, including riding the subway. A man exposed himself. The priest's aunt turned to her friend and said, "Look, a member, only smaller."

Aspen is CCNE accredited, which is good. But it is DEAC (nationally) accredited, which is not desirable, instead of regionally accredited. It is for-profit.

There are direct entry MSN programs for non-nurses. I know two NPs from Vanderbilt who did that. But you need to understand that NPs are nurses. If you matriculate into a direct entry NP program, at some point along the way you are going to have to pass the NCLEX and become an RN. You won't become an NP without becoming an RN. If you don't want to become an RN, go to PA school.

Getting back to the original post about the value of a BSN, it's simply not fair to lump all BSN programs together. As others have pointed out, there is the entry level BSN degree and there is the RN to BSN degree solely for people already licensed as an RN. The original post is about the latter. While there are exceptions, generally speaking, nursing school takes 4 semesters to complete for people seeking initial licensure. If you get an associate's degree in nursing to qualify for becoming an RN, you will have taken 4 semesters of nursing courses. If you get an bachelor's degree in nursing to qualify for becoming an RN, you will have taken 4 semesters of nursing courses. I was accepted into both associate degree and bachelor's degree programs. I was going to be in school the same amount of time either way. If you are entering the field of nursing, it just doesn't make sense to spend the same amount of time getting a lesser degree. Granted, there is the issue of needing more prerequisites to enter a bachelor's program instead of an associate's degree program. For initial licensure, there is another consideration about BSN vs. ADN that is extremely important. If you live where there are magnet hospitals and both types of nursing degrees available, you are likely to find that the magnet hospitals do not accept ADN students for clinical rotations. So, if you want the best clinical experiences, being a student in a BSN program is likely to prepare you better. Better clinical experiences make for better nurses. For those who have a diploma or ADN education, RN to BSN programs typically do not improve bedside clinical skills. That is a completely different discussion. If RN to BSN programs aren't of value, entry level BSN programs should not be lumped in with them. If we are going to discuss the value of the RN to BSN degree, we should also have a discussion about online nursing education. The overwhelming majority of RN to BSN programs are completely online. Are all of those discussion posts in online degrees promoting learning or are they being doneto make it appear that learning is taking place when it isn't? Does the online program contain a pathophysiology course? Most don't. I know of an RN to BSN program that had a really great pathophysiology course. They got rid of it to match the competition. There's a similar discussion we could have. NP education is master's level. Generally speaking, DNP education doesn't provide hands-on direct patient care clinical education. One could have the same discussion about whether or not a DNP program makes an NP better. For anyone starting nursing school for initial licensure, I recommend the BSN over the ADN as a better use of your time. APA could warrant its own discussion. It's about formatting, plagiarism, and attribution. Unfortunately those things get lumped together. We should all be able to agree that plagiarism is wrong and that credit and attribution should always be given to the original authors. If we could agree on those points and only discuss the details of formatting in precise APA format, I'd be the first to say that we're wasting time on the details of APA formatting. It is anachronistic and hasn't adapted to the digital age. In this digital age, we should be able to provide a hyperlink to the source document and be done with it. APA is a time consuming pain. Using a Word template helps. Buying a program that helps with the formatting can help more. Pulling an APA formatted citation from Google Scholar is what most people do. Sometimes the instructors count off for Google Scholar's interpretation of APA formatting. What an unproductive waste of people's time. Most RN to BSN programs require a statistics course. That's not a bad thing. Evidence based research is based on statistics among other things. Every nurse needs to understand that causation does not mean causality.

NCLEX pass rates are a poor way to evaluate a school. The NCLEX pass rate only tells you what percentage of their graduates pass the NCLEX. What you really need to know is what percentage of the people who originally enroll pass the NCLEX. Attrition rates in for-profit schools are generally high. If 95% pass the NCLEX but only 75% of the students who start actually graduate, that's not very good. Many schools, both for-profit and taxpayer funded schools give exit exams to manipulate the pass rate percentages. If you don't do well on the exit exam, you aren't allowed to graduate. This prevents weaker students from taking the NCLEX. The other thing you want to know is how many students graduate on time, not just graduate. The accrediting agencies consider on-time graduation to be 150% of the scheduled program duration. If you take 6 semesters to complete a 4 semester program, technically you are considered an on time graduate.

CLEP tests are a great way to obtain academic credit quickly at a low cost. The tests cost $80 each. Some testing centers charge an additional ~$20 as an administrative fee. Modern States – Freshman Year for Free offers free courses to prepare you to pass many CLEP tests. They'll even provide you vouchers to take CLEP tests for free. Yes, I know, you don't believe me because this sounds too good to be true. It's underwritten by billionaire philanthropist Steven B. Klinsky. CLEP is really good for introduction to psychology, introduction to sociology, U.S. History 1, and U.S. History 2. There are CLEP tests for biology and chemistry. Medical schools almost never let applicants test out of science courses. Some nursing schools may allow testing out of biology and chemistry. What if the school you are applying to doesn't give credit for CLEP tests? No doesn't always mean no in this case. It gets rather technical and depends on the state you live in and whether the schools are public or private. In Texas, state law dictates that core course credits at one public school in Texas transfer to all other public schools. For example, if you get CLEP credit for U.S. History 1 and 2, these courses are part of the Texas academic core curriculum. If your local community college gives you credit for passing those two CLEP tests and your community college transcript says Texas Academic Core Curriculum complete, the credits will transfer to any and every public university in Texas even if the school you are transferring to doesn't give credit for CLEP exams. Other states have similar policies.

Have you looked at Atlanta Metropolitan College? It might cost less. You could take CLEP tests now at your current age and earn college credits. They cost less than paying tuition. You'll have to first figure out the places you are likely to want to go to college and see which CLEP tests they accept. I used CLEP tests to fulfill several of my nursing school prerequisites.

How would they know you attempted the NCLEX more than once? I've been accepted into four advanced practice programs and was never asked how many times I took the NCLEX. All I had to do was provide proof of RN licensure.

What online FNP or adult/gero programs allow longer completion times? For those of us who work Monday - Friday 8-5, it's really difficult to work clinical hours around our schedules. Most NP programs seem to be oriented to getting people in and out in two years or less, which is a good thing for the vast majority of nurses. Faster completion means more hours per calendar year, more hours per semester, more school and job conflicts. If I could spread my clinical hours out over three years, I could keep my current job. I could obtain 40 clinical hours during a week of vacation time. I'm well aware of the number of clinical hours - I happen to have a lot of vacation time. I explained all of this to the recruiter at a well known private nonprofit nursing school and was assured there was no problem, although I sensed that the recruiter wasn't really listening to me. Once I was accepted, the department head said I wouldn't be allowed to obtain clinical hours in 40 hour one week blocks. I respect that different schools have different policies. I'm just looking for a school with policies that won't force me to change jobs. I've found two programs that would work except that they aren't online. The classroom attendance part would burn too much of my vacation time leaving me without enough for the clinical hours. Public, private, for profit, I'll consider any school. Post-master's certificate programs are preferred. I've completed the three P's. It is possible that what I'm trying to do can't be done now. Quitting my job might be an option a few years from now, just not today.

I was admitted to eline and chose not to attend. It is extremely competitive. I ended up quitting my job to attend a nursing school in a large medical center. One good aspect of eline is that you could probably keep your job and drag out the BSN over 4 years. Economically that is appealing. If you can get accepted to eline, you can get accepted to a top nursing school and get far better clinical experiences at a major medical center. The eline staff weren't very good about responding to emails. If you don't live in Corpus Christi, you'll have to find your own hospitals and preceptors. This is extremely difficult to do. A staff person told us that students often failed in finding a hospital and preceptor and ended up going to Corpus Christi to do clinical courses. That certainly can't be very job friendly for people working full-time.

If you do get infected with hepatitis B, it can kill you. Most people survive the acute phase. It is debilitating and recovery takes months. These facts make it appropriate to go beyond just being careful when working with patients. You may be what is known as a nonresponder as defined by the CDC in this document found on the WHO website: http://www.who.int/occupational_health/activities/3hepatiti.pdf Should you be revaccinated? Perhaps not, or at least maybe not by repeating the same process that didn't work the first time. See this: Repeated vaccinations do not improve specific immune defenses against Hepatitis B in non-responder health care workers Possibly you should be revaccinated with a different adjuvant, if you can even find this formulation described in Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics "Immunogenicity of an investigational hepatitis B vaccine (hepatitis B surface antigen co-administered with an immunostimulatory phosphorothioate oligodeoxyribonucleotide) in nonresponders to licensed hepatitis B vaccine" link didn't work after pasting it in, replace DOT with . and browse to the edited link wwwDOTtandfonlineDOTcom/doi/full/10.4161/hv.24256# Here is one possible explanation of why some people are nonresponders Increased Serum MicroRNA-155 Level Associated with Nonresponsiveness to Hepatitis B Vaccine Some nonresponders seem to benefit from intradermal administration of the second series instead of repeating the IM administration that didn't work well the first time. Scandanavian Journal of Gastroenterology, "A low-dose intradermal hepatitis B vaccine programme in health-care workers and students is highly effective and cost saving: A retrospective follow-up survey in the clinical setting" link didn't work after pasting it in, replace DOT with . and browse to the edited link informahealthcareDOTcom/doi/abs/10.1080/00365520701733806?journalCode=gas More information on the intradermal route. Hepatitis B vaccine by intradermal route in non responder patients: An update The links I provided contain links to even more research and guidance. Please don't make decisions based on what I say. Instead, take some time and educate yourself. Best of luck and health to you.

What I don't like are mispronunciations that cause medical errors. What's in a drug name?