Tips for a Struggling Nursing Student?

fatfreelife1 · Sep 5, 2012

I have to share my experience in the hopes of inspiring others that struggled through nursing school and with nursing test taking strategies. I always considered myself “pretty smart.” I always did well in high school and I even won an academic scholarship to my local community college. While at college, I was inducted into the Psi Theta Kappa National Honor Society (for two year colleges) and I was on the Dean’s list all four semesters. Getting good grades was hard work, but I always had discipline, good study habits and a strong family support system. I am proud to say that I graduated with straight A’s

I was excited to transfer into the nursing program at a 4 year college, but within months, I was falling apart. The nursing program was a whole new world. My previous study habits were no longer working. Memorizing and studying facts were not enough to pass. I went from getting straight A’s to barely getting a C+ in each class. And because I am a visual learner, I also struggled with clinicals. If I was not allowed to do a procedure, an injection or tracheotomy care myself, I could not visualize and understand the concepts. Since my nursing class had over 50 people, all of us were not always able to perform each and every procedure. I was even written up once for not knowing that I had to “pinch an inch of skin” in order to give an insulin injection.

There were many days I thought about quitting. In fact two of my clinical instructors told me I am not cut out to be a nurse, and I should just quit. If it wasn’t for my family, I definitely would have walked out of clinical and ended my dreams. Then one day I had a substitute instructor. She told me that I cannot become a proficient nurse by just memorizing facts and figures. I had to understand nursing concepts and master the critical thinking that goes along with the physiological functions of the human body. The only way to do that is by practicing/ demonstrating techniques and then doing thousands of NCLEX style questions. Since I had such a difficult time with critical thinking, I knew I had to do something if I wanted to pass.

First I started out with an on-line ATI nursing instruction program. They offered detailed videos on every procedure you can think of. I carefully reviewed every procedure twice so that I was able to perform it on any patient during my clinical rotation. Then I bought every NCLEX prep/study guide that I could find on line. I had no money, so I borrowed more than I needed on my student loans & used the balance to buy over 30 used NCLEX books, as well as 3 on-line programs. I bought HESI, Saunders, Lippincott, Davis, ATI & Kaplan books. I also bought each of their specialty books (Peds, ECG, Renal & etccc) depending on what anatomical sections our nursing school was covering that semester. Every day I would do 10-20 questions from each book on whatever chapter we were covering in school, I would review the videos and read my homework assignments. You can imagine, I had no life for 2 years!!!!!!!. I was even studying in the summer because if I didn’t, I knew I would forget everything I learned from the previous semesters.

During my last semester, I purchased NCSBN & Kaplan on demand. Yes they are expensive (about $330 each), but it’s worth the money, especially if you do not want to take that dreaded NCLEX over. I must have done over 4,000 questions between the two sites, but to me Kaplan was the best. Kaplan questions are the most similar to the real NCLEX because it makes you think…Although I still struggled with a lot of the critical thinking, only averaging 61-63 on all the Kaplan exams, Kaplan was a God send!!!!....Kaplan has a 95% pass rate if you do everything they say and since I scored a 63 on my readiness test, they gave me a 94% success rate on passing the NCLEX the first. They also have a money back guarantee but it may take you 2 months of hard core studying in order to cover everything they offer (in order to qualify for that guarantee).

Although I went into the NCLEX feeling confident, I still got out feeling defeated, battered and drained. I went home, drank myself into oblivion and did the Pearson Vue trick the next day. I got the “good pop up” meaning I did not reach the credit card page. I thought to myself could it be true? I dared not hope…But it was true..Two days later I paid for my results and I had passed.

So to those who also struggled with nursing school, you were not alone

nicoleg4646 · Sep 6, 2012

Awwwww u inspired me thank u :)