One Last Thing

I've created this blog to help me stay motivated to study for the NCLEX, which is about 1 month away! The idea of my limited time is daunting yet exciting! I recently attended my pinning ceremony, a long tradition for nurses since the start of nursing programs way back when. I am extremely excited and proud of myself for having completed one of the most difficult and rewarding goals in my life so far! My timeline is to finish nursing school (almost done minus one more thing left to do!), study for the NCLEX on my own, go to a review course in early Jan, and pass the NCLEX. Then I will be a bona fide nurse and ready to proudly brandish the title of nurse to my patients!

I am quasi-finished with school and have a written final to submit for my research class and then I will be ready to start studying for the NCLEX. On some levels I have been dragging my feet in completing the task that stands between myself as a nursing student and myself as a new grad studying for my nursing boards.

I have heard about studying for the boards and asked many nurses about their experiences with studying for and taking the NCLEX since before I was a nursing student. I equate it with a much more important version of the GRE. Both are taken on computers in a small sort-of cubicle and so much is at stake during the testing time. I remember how nervous I was when I took the GRE. It was on Sept 1, a Friday the afternoon before I would leave for Germany for a trip with my parents. I had some errands for that morning (depositing at the bank, getting traveler's checks, etc). It seemed like the majority of Boston was in a frenzy being that it was one of the busiest moving days in the city when all the college students would be moving into their apartments in preparation for the fall semester. I met one such person who collided into my bike with her car while I was on my way to the bank. We were both not entirely present in that moment- she had spent all morning moving and I was preoccupied with my test that afternoon and trip the following morning. I was extremely shaken up but unharmed and my bike was still rideable. A friendly passer-by helped me straighten my badly dented handlebars who also happened to know the father of the girl who hit me and assured me that I would get some compensation for the damages. Since I needed to get to the bank I fearfully rode my wobbly bike a couple of blocks to the bank and then back home. Still shaken up, I rode the T to my test site in Coolidge Corner and went through the testing formalities. I requested ear plugs which turned out to be more helpful than I thought, although I could still hear the squeal of the T on the tracks meters from the building where I was sealing helping seal my future as a graduate nursing student. The GRE went well and I was so relieved when my score popped up at the end of the test.

I expect that the NCLEX will be a similar experience as the testing environment as the GRE, although it could potentially be much longer. So, on to how I plan on actually doing some studying and passing. I have a research final that I have due tomorrow and then I will be ready to move on from nursing school. I have a plethora of prep books and CDs in a pile waiting for me to go through them. I will probably start with taking a long test and seeing where I stand. I'll go through areas of weakness and review topics that I have not looked at in a while (gravida, Erikson's developmental stages, what is an atypical antipsychotic?) and go from there. I feel like I know what to do, but not quite how to stay focused enough to accomplish my goal of passing the NCLEX with flying colors!