renewed confidence needed!

[CarieLyn]

I have wanted to be a nurse since I was a little girl.... NOTHING ELSE! I graduated hs in 2001 and immediately entered work in the hospital as a ward clerk in the OR, then went to be a CNA on the med surg floor. I worked throughout college in a hospital and my last year worked as a PCT in a children's oncology unit where I hoped to continue working as an RN. I failed my test three times out of college. I lost total confidence. I'm not a good test taker at all and feel also as if my experience in a hospital made the test worse because half the things you DO versus what the books tell you to do are two different things! I gave up. I haven't worked in the nursing field in 4 years now. I miss it terribly as I do feel it's my calling but don't know what to do in order to jump back in. Can I still take the NCLEX? what would anyone recommend? Can I work as something else in a hospital with decent pay since I have my BSN in the meantime?

[nyteshade, BSN]

Check with your board and take it again. If not, take it in another state. Do sign up for a review of some kind. Never answer the question as if you were working. In NCLEX land, the perfect answer is always the textbook answer.

[shiccy]

Yep ... I suggest getting the books with the tests you can take on your computer - it's much different when you take a test online, too ... so you're out of your comfort zone. Also some of the computerized things have the computerized adaptive testing, which is what the NCLEX uses.

Good luck!

[Muffy5]

I just want to say try not to get too discouraged. I work with a nurse who had severe ADD and failed the boards 4 times. Fifth time was the charm for him and I think he is one of our best nurses. I would trust him with mine and my families health.

Listen to the other posters and don't answer the "real world" answer, because the real world isn't perfect and NCLEX expects us to be.

I would suggest Saunders NCLEX-RN review book. I thought it was great the way it was broken up and there's an disc with extra practice questions.

As far as hospital jobs go, I don't know, I work in LTC. Just keep looking, they're probably there, but they might not have the pay you had hoped for.

Good luck to you. You can do it!

[angelbabey0500]

I would STRONGLY recommend taking the hurst review course. Its a live review and they give you this book that you have to fill in the blanks for. The book was able to break things down in specific sections. They have a 98% pass rate and if you fail the NCLEX they reimburse you. Look on there web site, they have a video of the review on it. It was expensive (350) but well worth it. www.hurstreview.com