“I am struggling with passing the NCLEX® RN exam. I graduated nursing school in June 2012. I have taken the NCLEX 4 times. The first 2 times failed within first 75 questions. The 3rd time I took all 265 questions and failed. This last time which was on 5/5/15, 75 questions failed. I have done Kaplan, Hurst, and have been on brilliant nursing. I have been on several sites looking for answers but everyone wants a ton of money which I can’t afford. I am currently working two part time jobs in the behavioral health field. I am married and have two kids. I would really like to pass boards, so I don’t have to struggle so much and be able to be a better provider for family.”
How many of you reading this absolutely dread the NCLEX?For many nurses, NCLEX is a confidence killer. It has been known to scare academic achieving nurses and nurses who’ve excelled in their clinical practicum all their life.
It doesn’t help that some of those who’ve passed the NCLEX in just one go (and only had to answer 75 questions too!)would sometimes make statements about how ‘easy’ the NCLEX is, essentially making those who haven’t passed the test yet feel more miserable at the prospect of taking it or in some cases, retaking it.
But how can 5 letters hold so much power? Or better yet, WHYdo we give it so much power?
Perhaps the reason why the NCLEX is perceived as the Mt. Everest of becoming a registered nurse in the US is the fact that it’s very nature makes passing it as the sole determining factor whether one is ‘fit’ to be a ‘real’ nurse or not.
Isn’t that weird? How we’ve come down to having just 1 test be the final deciding factor for who gets to be an RN?
You’re an RN No Matter What!
There’s this joke about how not getting a passing score for the NCLEX still makes one an RN (stands for Rejected Nurse – RN. Oh, the irony!)so it shouldn’t matter whether you ace the test or not. Kidding aside, you really shouldn’t think any less of yourself even if you’ve taken the exam multiple times and not ended up coming home with some shiny two letters affixed to your name.
Zeroing in on exam results even if it’s AKA the most-important-exam-of –your-career-ever will transform the exam into a Pandora’s box of horrors. You’ll start doubting if you’re prepared enough for the exam, start thinking that your whole life revolves around this exam, and elevate that exam to a whole new status as the ‘cure’ for all your struggles. It’s a bad cycle, and it often sets you on the road to a downward spiral.
You are an RN no matter what. Registered nurse, or NCLEX-rejected nurse, you are STILL a REAL NURSE!
I am Nurse
Perhaps you need to be reminded about something. It takes a LOT to be a nurse. Think about it, to be a nurse:
- You have to be accepted to nursing school(which means you are a GOOD student to begin with).
- You have to pass all your tests in nursing school.
- You have to graduate nursing school.
- You have to be decent at clinicals.
- You have to work to pay for nursing school. Okay, some of you may have been born with a silver spoon but hey, you still have to be nice to your parents or else you’ll have to pay for school yourself. That’s still work y’all!
- You have to make sacrifices in some of your personal relationships (don’t tell me you never had any problem pursuing friendships or romantic relationships while studying to be a nurse, I won’t believe it!).
- You have to master the art of getting through your day with little to no sleep at all.
- You have to experience being spit on, yelled at, and also to clean up someone else’s poop from their butt plus endure everything with grace and composure. For this alone, you deserve a tiara! Or a crown, whatever works…and of course,
- You have to be a trained jedi-ninja to survive all of the above.
See? Just by looking at everything you’ve accomplished above, you’ll see that the NCLEX is really nothing more than the cherry to your huge sundae!
Speaking of sundaes, surely the ice cream is just as good without the cherry, right? So why procrastinate, use all sorts of fancy gadgets, put on your Sunday’s best, and all that jazz just to place a piece of cherry on top of your ice cream, err career? Just pick up the thing and plop it on your sundae, simples!
That’s really how you should start viewing your NCLEX exam, just another thing to get over with. It’s either that or you’ll be ripe for…
Nursing Diagnosis: Altered LOC
When you feel like you just want to spew fire at your nursing professors for not preparing you enough for the fight of your career and feel that passing the NCLEX is making your nursing dream a living nightmare, then you have a severe case of ‘altered LOC’. Not altered level of consciousness, but altered Level of Confidence – something that you must work on if you’re toconquer NCLEX.
I’m going to lay it out in the open – Altered Level of Confidence affects everyone (including me way back then)who is about to take the NCLEX and those who’ve failed the exam. See that? I referred to NCLEX as the exam, simply an exam, not ‘The Exam’.
You’re Not Defined by Your NCLEX Score
The big picture is that you are not your NCLEX score. You are not defined by how many times you have to take the exam either. Once you successfully pass the exam, it will stop being special.
Reality is, no matter how much you’ve prepared, the NCLEX can still fail you. Get it? You don’t fail the NCLEX, ever!
Sometimes taking the exam just doesn’t work out nicely for you. I’m sure you’ve heard of a story or two about a cum laude’sdisappointing NCLEX result and that’s just that. One person takes an exam and for some reason or another not getting a passing grade. It happens to the best of us, sometimes multiple times over.
There is really no mystery to it and it surely does not take away from how good or smart someone is because everyone can have either a good day or a bad one. The trick is making sure that the day you take your NCLEX exam turns out to be a good day for you by working on what could be sabotaging your results.
Tame Your Inner Nursing Demons
Here are some tips on how you can get out of the NCLEX rut and lay your inner nursing demons to rest:
C’mon, Give Yourself a Break
If you feel that you need to take an entire year off or a few months of studying break, then go for it. If you want to bawl your eyes out because there’s too much pressure to pass the exam, then cry it all out. You need to recharge your batteries and get rid of negativity so that you’ll be ready for the next step, which is…
Gear UpProperly for Your Next Battle
You can take scores of NCLEX Preparation Courses to help crush the NCLEX, download every nursing app known to man, purchase all the NCLEX study tools you can think of – but all of that is for naught if you’re not at your peak performance level on the day of your exam. You got to be prepared for battle. The real work is all about being a good test taker and the rest will take care of itself.
Attack with Confidence
You don’t have to be nonchalant to be confident, it is about finding the right balance between ‘yeah whatever’ and ‘omg, I’m totally toast!’
Being confident means being your own wing man (or wing woman) and avoiding second guessing yourself. Show up at the testing center determined to show the exam who’s boss. That can help with clearing up your mind so that you can focus on getting the right answers.
To Conclude
This post is not about having a blame the victim type of mentality. First of all, not passing the NCLEX does not make you a victim. It has nothing to do with being a loser, and it really is just 1 exam.
Remember DABDA? You’ll have to go through denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally – acceptance in order to accept a change. No one’s going to be sporting a Nursing Diagnosis of Ineffective Individual Coping on my watch okay?
Need help and want to get in touch with a fantastic support network that understands what you’re going through? Then join the NRSNG.com family and we’ll help empower you with both confidence and knowledge so rad that NCSBN would be afraid of you!
