Soon to be RN looking for some advice

[BDsn456]

Hi AllNurses Team,

First, just want to thank everyone on here for all the advice. I finally passed my NCLEX at 75 questions after failing the first time at 75q! UWORLD is amazing!!

So I start my Job in a month and a half and have some extra time on my hands. Does anyone have any recommendations on what I could review/look at to keep my mind working during this free time period? It's been 2 weeks and I feel like I'm already forgetting some stuff and I really don't want to brain dump everything! Just looking for some advice on what I could look over to keep my brain working?

Thanks again!

:)

[Neo Soldier, BSN, RN]

Go on vacation, please. You're probably so used to being busy right after nursing school that it is hard to fathom that you can actually wake up and not have to go to class and/or clinical. Please take some time off before work.

[adventure_rn, MSN, NP]

I had to chuckle because your 'can-do' attitude is such a quintessential, go-getter nursing student response.

Honestly, I'd just cut yourself some slack and take a break. Even if you forget some of the minute details, you're not going to lose all of that knowledge over a couple of months. Once you start work, your real-life experiences will jog your memory about the pertinent foundational knowledge you've amassed in school. After working your butt off in class, then studying for the NCLEX, I sincerely believe that it's just as good of a use of your time to take a break and relax (since once you start working, it will be infinitely harder to take a month and a half off to practice some self-care).

Honest to God, even though I'm several years out of school, I'll still have moments at work where I'll see a case that reminds me of something we covered in school, and I'll suddenly recall some random piece of textbook knowledge I thought was long gone. Just today, I had a patient on heparin who we thought may need to go to the OR, and out of nowhere, I remembered that protamine sulfate is the reversal agent (a drug I haven't thought about in years).

That said, if you really feel strongly about maintaining NCLEX-style textbook knowledge for the next couple of months, it seems like the easiest way would be to continue regularly doing practice questions on UWORLD, right?

[llg, PhD, RN]

Congratulations on your new RN and on your new job.

I also think you should take a break and enjoy life for a while. But if you feel the need to something, I recommend asking the educator at your new job whether he/she could recommend a textbook or some other resource that would be helpful to you to review prior to starting.

[Neats, BSN]

If you feel you need to do something clean house, make dinner dishes ahead and freeze, get all your laundry caught up...putter around your home. Go oh... holiday. You will be in the thick of it soon enough and will look back on this longing for the time again.

[SqrB3ar, BSN, RN]

Congrats!!

[nalie2, ADN, BSN, MSN, RN, NP]

Take a break. I started my first nursing job a few months ago and it can be draining. Enjoy some time off before you start working FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE...or until retirement. Congrats on your new job!