Arizonaaa

Just some things I have come across at the IHS I worked at... please excuse my grammar/punctuation - I just wanted to lay this all out quickly I work for the federal government on the medsurg floor of a reservation hospital out in New Mexico. The MS floor patient load is based off of nurse staffing for the night- each nurse can have up to 5 patients and 6 if they want to push it. I have found a number of people always call in and every night is a surprise as to who shows up. We are always severely understaffed and have high acuity patients in the sense that patients will require one to one sitter's. Sometimes we have no NA's on the floor because the supervisor will let everyone call off for the night. We aren't suppose to admit psychiatric patient but get some on a regular basis. OB, Ped's, and ICU will send patients they don't want to handle (even though they're trained and able to). The ward supervisor has no experience and is never on the floor and is so forgetful. meetings are held but never provide any change to the problems the ward has. Along with that the director of nursing is never around and expects all nurses to carry a six patient load. New graduates are placed with patients after 12 weeks and sometimes are pushed to be charge nurse after because there is no staffing available. This IHS tries to keep up with some of the more newer equipment available or just some equipment we don't have in general. We just now own a bladder scanner. A lot of the items are older then private hospitals. This IHS hospital is also very wasteful with all it's supplies. The supplies sit in a closet and people and take whatever they please and nothing is recorded. The hospital it's good medicine and lots of things run our of stock quickly and just disappear. This is not concerning for the hospital and is really inventoried. I had a frustrating time with this facility after I've realized how things are done around here. I feel if they let all the unreliable staff go, do some decent interviews, watch there inventory closely, hire a supervisor with some years under her belt, and a director of nursing who cares I think this place could be a great place to work. Or if they at least try and set a goal up to work towards something remotely close to this I think this place would shape up well. I've brought up the short staffing, call-in's, low inventory on supplies with e-mails and one on one meetings with the supervisor. She told me she can't do anything about it and that the director is concerned with trying to have more open beds. Also I was told it's like this no matter where you and you just have to get use to it. I thought this was shocking and I found my self just trying to finish my two years and head to another department. I tried using the chain of command and was ultimately send back to my supervisor and her assistance because I was told that's where the issue lies. I stay with IHS because they are included in the loan forgiveness services, along with IHS loan repayment, and offer great benefits along with good pay. I am originally from this area also and can't see myself moving away from my home. These are just some things I have found myself very frustrated with and ultimately choose to move to another department after 2 years. I like the patients and the care I do here but the structure and set up is horrible and I see no changes happening anytime soon. I am now headed to public health with the same facility, but I have run into the problem of not getting paid what I am suppose to. IHS goes pay a pay scale called grades and steps. after working for a GS 7 for a full year and meeting minimum requirements to be promoted to a GS 9, I was told I'd have to star a GS 7 another year. I may even have my MSN by September (my official promotion review date) and she said IHS does not reward degrees earned. I know I am eligible to a promotion so I will not take no for an answer.

Try to really learn and master your material. I studied for one month with Uworld. It's like Kaplan but the rationales are way better and you get a lot of practice with SATA. I did 100 questions a day but spent a lot of time making sure I understood why I chose the write and wrong answer. 100 questions took me 5 to 6 hours a day to study. I used picmonic for my diseases like SIAH, Lupus, Meds... etc etc., and my saunders book was good for reading on the go. I did Kaplan my first 2 attempts and could not for the life of me hang on to the info they presented me, but Uworld was a lot better for me. I also tried NCLEX mastery and just found it too hard to understand. Also using Pharmacology Made Insanely Easy 4th ed. Edition also helped me grasp my material. Hope that helps!

As I studied for the NCLEX I came across several resources and some expensive. My school originally made us do Kaplan, while 98% of the students passed with Kaplan, it didn't work for me. I did Kaplan my 1st and 2nd round of NCLEX and I found the material to be exactly the same as Uworld. Even most of the questions were the same. However, I did alot better with Uworld because of the detailed rationals of both right and wrong answers. Uworld offered way more SATA and "hot spot" items, which made me more comfortable with SATA. Uworld gave me tips throughout also, like, think safety safety safety. I also found Uworld to test you on a subject repeatedly until I had the disease down. For instance, I am now very comfortable with everything about cystic fibrosis. Kaplan is a great learning tool, but we all learn differently, and I had to know why my answer was wrong in detail, and not a measly one sentenced line. My comprehensive book for Kaplan was also so just cut and try, bam bam bam bam. I decided to buy a Saunders book for comprehensive review and I found all things with that important "this shows up on the NCLEX" triangle was basically Uworld. They both go together almost perfectly. Kaplan just wasn't for me and that was only because we all learn so differently. And I'm extra slow at understanding material, so I needed all the detailed explanations for things to stick hope that helps. Good day! I tried a lot of other books also, but as I sat and thunk for a couple of days. I REALIZED Uworld and my Saunders comprehensive book was ultimately saved me for round 3 of NCLEX.

I recommend Uworld. I used Kaplan my first attempt at NCLEX and it didn't help me one bit.

I found UWORLD to be the most efficient studying tool for me. I used Saunders, Kaplan, and about 10 other books and failed the NCLEX twice. But studying you world and using picmonic made everything easier.

Thanks! After 2 attempts I finally understand what people are saying now, wish I really listened the first round.

I have to say the NCLEX was one of the hardest exams I've ever taken. I've been reading about how everyone studied and watching people explain how they studied for the NCLEX on Youtube. I tried to follow all these pieces of advice and what people in my graduating did to pass. My first attempt taking the NCLEX I see I was far from ready. The second attempt I realized I put some effort in but it really wasn't enough. My school gave us the Kaplan review and while I thought I was learning from it, I really wasn't. The question on Kaplan were really good, all above passing questions, but if you don't sit there and really try to learn the material it's pointless. If you just sit there and go through questions as fast as possible and try to answer as many as you can without really trying to learn the concepts behind them then this IS NOT studying. I did this for my first two rounds of studying, although I was gone from home for 6 to 8 hours a day I wasn't learning anything. Just trying to memorize facts and definitions. My third attempt I realized something had to change. I deleted Facebook (my only form of social media that I have) and decided NCLEX was going to be my life for the next month. I bought a number of books: Lippincott's Q&A Review for NCLEX-RN Prioritization, Delegation, and Assignment: Practice Exercises for the NCLEX Examination NCLEX-RN 2015-2016 Strategies, Practice, and Review with Practice Test (Kaplan Nclex-Rn Exam) Mosby's review questions for the NCLEX-RN examination, 7th edition NCLEX-RN Practice Questions Exam Cram (4th Edition) NCLEX-RN Content Review Guide Saunders Comprehensive Review for the NCLEX-RN® Examination, 6e (Saunders Comprehensive Review for Nclex-Rn) I found that the Kaplan review guide's first 100-150 pages were the most helpful. The book itself I thought was pointless to own- what you need is the content review guide. I personally liked how Saunder's content was explained but Kaplan seemed to be more point blank and was the one I chose to use. I also decided that the Kaplan review was not for me so instead I invested into Uworld. I did 85 questions a day but focused on the wrong answers the most. When I didn't understand a subject I used picmonic.com. The rationales are very important to understand and grasp for the NCLEX. All in all it's all about how YOU study and how YOU learn.