The Hell that is NCLEX....my experience

I went to Kaplan College, so their test prep program was included in my tuition.  My last week of school was the classroom test prep and then after that I was on my own. 

I think I took about 2 weeks off (it was about a month between last day of school and my test date) after that, I did at least 20+ questions a day from the qbank..

When all was said and done the day before my boards, I had done almost 400 questions from the qbank, trainers 1-5, 3 NCLEX sample tests and just a skimming of the book. I was averaging in the 60's with everything. I was burnt but I thought that I was as prepared as I was ever going to be.

The next day I left a hour early for the testing center.  I stopped and got a bagel and a cup of coffee and some water.  When I got to the testing center there were two of my classmates, which we knew that we were going to be testing on the same day and time.  We were all a little nervous but as ready as we would ever be. 

They are crazy at the test center, it's like being on lockdown, but I had been through this before twice, once when I took boards for massage therapy and when I took national registery for my EMT. 

Finally after all the bs, I get to my little test station and I start the tutorial.  I'm clicking 'next' to get to the next part and my computer freezes up!!!!!!!!  THIS IS NOT HOW I WANT TO START! lol..so I raised my hand, the tech comes over, has me scan my hand for the billionth time and sends me out to the wait while they call IT.  There were two more classmates out there. We chatted and about 15 minutes later the tech came and got me, re scanned me, and took me back to my test area.  Finally.  Finished the tutorial, took a deep breath and started my exam. 

I have to tell you, it was nothing like everything that I had been studying.  I mean I see the similarities in the way the questions are asked but not in the material itself.  (I'll explain more on that later).  So I'm trucking along, I try to keep track of  the SATA questions, but soon it just is too many so I stop.  I get passed 75 and I think, oh man, I'm in for the long haul, I'm going to be going to 265!!!  Ugh!

So I continue on, I'm getting a lot of prioritizing, SATA, and infection control.  I just keep telling myself, 'don't kill your patient.'  Because that's basically what they want to make sure of, that you are competent enough to not kill your patient.  So that's what I keep telling myself.  All the sudden it shuts off!!!  I wasn't sure, I think I was on 117 or 118??  I was so in the zone that I wasn't looking at the number, but the last one I remember was 111, so I think I had about 6 or 7 questions the it shut down.  Anyhoo.  I was 'that's it?' no climax at all :)

When I finished, I was the first one done out of everyone, and I had that delay in the beginning.  When I walked outside, I was like 'did I really just take my boards???'  So I rushed home to do the 'trick.'

At first it said my results were on hold and then I started to freak!!!  But after some reading on a discussion board and several hours later, I checked again and I got the "good pop up"  yay!!!!

Now onto waiting for the BRN to post my license! (I'll keep you posted on that!)

Regarding they way they ask the questions, I guess it more like either you know it or you don't.  It is about test taking skills but over all, I don't think any amount of studying could have REALLY prepared me for boards.  I drew on my clinical experience and all the knowledge that I gained in my theory classes.  Does that make sense?? I get how the test prep helped me, but overall, if you didn't learn anything in nursing school, you're probably not going to pass, you know what I mean?  But if you paid attention, studied, took notes and generally retained information from classes, you're going to be okay. 

I hope that helps anyone who is getting ready to take boards.  I'm by no means telling you NOT to study.  Please do. But overall, either the information is in your head or it's not. Don't worry too much about pharm.  I had pharm questions, but very few and meds I didn't know and I answered by asking myself, 'how do I not kill my patient.'  Seriously. And it got me through!

Update!!

So I had a phone interview with my HR dept two weeks ago.  Today I emailed my rep and gave her a gentle reminder that she said she would contact me in two weeks for the next step.  She responded and said 'we want to move to the next step with you, so let's set a date and time for the panel interview."  YAHOOO!!  Finally the next step, it's only three on the panel as opposed to the original 5 that I was thinking, so that feels good. 

Tomorrow, I have boards, Friday is graduation and next Friday not only is my birthday, but my face to face interview for a job so I can start working as a RN :) 

Wish me luck!  I'll keep you posted on how boards go!

So I guess I need to get you caught up!  Leading up to finals I was a mess.  I knew I needed at least a 75% to pass, but everyone was like the final is hard blah blah blah....so I was really stressed about it. I studied my butt off and I ended up with an 80% on the final yay!! Nursing school is done and I have passed. 

Now to bring you up to speed, it's almost a month later, after some drama, I finally got my ATT so I could schedule my NCLEX.  So I'm ready to go for June 14th. I'm confident I'll be fine, the next day is my graduation.  I wish they could announce me as a RN but they test results aren't final until 3 days later.  Oh well.

So now where to work?? I've already been turned down by 3 hospitals.  Mind you, I already work in an ER here in San Diego so I was hoping something would happen for me here.  After speaking with the COO of our area, I was assured there would be a new grad program.  Yes there is going to be one, for the FLOOR, 3 positions for DOU and the other 25 for med surg.  Great, I don't care anymore I just want to work.  However, the COO informs me today that they are not having a new grad program for the ER, and won't be in the foreseeable near future.  She also informed me that there were 600+ applicants for the floor and yeah only 28 spots.  I asked the UNAC union rep would I be a clear transfer since I'm an employee, guess what, NO. I'm basically thrown in with all the external applicants. So now not only are my hopes of being in the ER deflated, I now am in competition with 600 other people. 

I'm so disappointed!  I did everything possible to set myself up for ER medicine. This is where I want to be, I feel emergency medicine down to my bones.  I don't mind going to the floor, I'll work where ever I can at this point. But I'm still allowed to grieve and be sad about my loss of not being able to get into the ER.

I know that I need to stay positive and I need to be grateful that I even have a job and truly I am.  But I'm allowed to be hurt, upper management made all these promises and now it's all falling through the cracks.....and I feel like they could care less. They don't care about how hard I've worked, they don't care that I did everything possible to make sure that I had a career in EMS, that I have patient care experience on so many levels and most of all they don't care that they have dashed my hopes of being an ER RN. 

Hopefully this job comes through on the floor.  I don't want my education and nursing school experience to go to waste.  Plus I need to start working as a nurse, those student loans are going to be coming due!! 

Till next time, I will keep you posted.  Thanks for reading :)