Drum Rollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!

I am officially a Registered Nurse!!!!!!

Woot!!!!

Looked at my states Board of Nursing website yesterday morning and I'm liscened.

I've already changed my resume and everything.

Now, bring on the job hunt.

-DV

NCLEX Update

I took my NCLEX exam yesterday morning. Getting into the exam room was like trying to get into Fort Knox! We’re talking fingerprinting, pictures, palm-vein-scanning and the likes. I was not able to bring anything into the testing room such as a watch, wallet, phone, Kleenex (they provided that for me.) It took me all of about 2 hours including the tutorial. I had exactly 75 questions and then got the blue screen. I thought I was going to have a heart attack when I saw that screen pop up. This is what it said, “You have now completed your NCLEX-RN exam. You were only allowed to complete 75 questions because you are SO not going to be a nurse. Thank you, and good luck in your future endeavors.” Okay, it didn’t say that, but that’s how I felt. Some of the questions were fairly easy, others were really, really hard. I had tons of select all that apply. I’ve heard that’s actually a good thing because you are supposedly ready for the higher level thinking questions. I don’t know. There were meds on there that I had never even heard of, much less know side effects and reactions.

I came home and did the “Pearson-Vue” trick. You know, the one where you try and sign up for another test. I got the good pop up that says you are currently unable to sign up for this test. That’s a good sign, but I’ll feel better when I have that hot little license in my hands.

Moving on…it’s Friday and I don’t have a job to go to, no tests to study for. What am I going to do today?

I have NO idea. Wait I suppose.


-DV

It’s only the most important test I will ever take in my life.

So, why so nervous? It’s just a test. Right? It should be easy. It’s multiple choice! What could go wrong. The NCLEX-RN is finally here. In just a few short hours, I’ll be setting in my own little cubicle with my earplugs duking it out with a computer. One on one. Mono a mono. I’ve been studying for this exam since after New Year’s and I don’t really feel prepared. There is so much information, it’s impossible to feel truly prepared I suppose, but I’m not sure how much better I would be if I had postponed the test. I decided against the big name review courses that cost $500 and chose to take the review online from the Board of Nurses website. I also have a really good NCLEX review book that has a disk full of practice questions with rational. If I could change anything, I’d do more practice questions from the BON website. They actually make up the test right. So, one would think that their questions would be more similar to the actual test. After a while you begin to see a pattern of the type of questions that are presented and how to answer them. Unfortunately, my practice test scores were not very good. We’re talking an overall average of 65%. I believe many of my peers from school were getting similar scores on these practice tests. I did manage to score 75% on the pharmacology section though. Maybe I should consider pharmacy school?

Am I rambling? I’m rambling aren’t I?


Anyhow, I have this crazy test to day that is hard for everyone who takes it. If you don’t know anything about NCLEX, the questions get harder the better you do. If you miss one, the question gets easier, but your overall passing score is determined by your answering the more difficult questions correctly. I have up to 6 hours to complete the exam, so I’m just going to take my time and pretend I know what I’m doing.

Be back in a few…..

-DV

An Update

I’ve made it through the holidays now and I still have no job. I’m not really surprised, but I can’t help but feel a little low when every family member and friend asked me if I had a job lined up. All the general public hears is that there is a nursing shortage. Well there is…IF you’ve got experience. Every hospital website I look at has at least 25 - 100 openings for RN’s, but they will only accept applicants with experience. I heard from a reliable source that one hospital had 15 positions for GN’s with nearly 400 applicants. That’s crazy! I’ll just have to wait my turn.

Speaking of GN’s, that is now my official title! Woohoo! My temporary license takes effect today. I wonder if having that would help my applications. Also, I took my state’s jurisprudence exam yesterday and passed. It’s interesting; some states have this and others do not. It basically covers the legal and ethical issues that come up for nurses. The Board of Nurses apparently isn’t there to protect nurses; they are there to protect the general public from you! So don’t screw up. The actual test was 50 questions (multiple choice). In general it was just a lot of common sense, but there were a few answers I had to look up on their website. Yes, it was “open book/web”. I paid $25.00 for their online study prep course. I’m pretty sure I could have passed without it, but I was paranoid about the exam and had the extra money. It helped I suppose. I was familiar with the information that was on the exam because of it.

One of my readers, Candi, asked if I felt prepared to work in a hospital. Hmmm, good question. A little background…I have absolutely no experience in the medical field. I hardly even knew anyone who worked in the medical field. After two years of nursing school I do feel like I can walk into a hospital with a fair amount of confidence. It’s amazing how much you will learn in a couple of years. However, nursing school is the bare bones! You only learn what you absolutely need to know not to kill anyone. There were so many times I wanted to study a topic more in depth. When I did…I ended up failing exams. There isn’t enough time in school to understand everything about everything. Understand the basics and you’ll do fine. I learned more on my clinical days than I did in the theory classes. Make sure you are prepared for every patient you see. If you get to pick patients yourself, never pick someone with a disease process that you have covered before. You’ll be forced to learn more that way.

That’s enough babbling for now. Oh, I’m studying full time for NCLEX, now. That’s way fun (sarcasm). I’ll post about that another time.

-DV