This week the Friends of Flo team talks about getting ready for the NCLEX exam, including study strategies and exam day tips. They also talk about study playlists, from classical to Taylor Swift. What's on your study playlist?
This week the Friends of Flo team talks about getting ready for the NCLEX exam, including study strategies and exam day tips. They also talk about study playlists, from classical to Taylor Swift. What's on your study playlist?
This episode of Friends of Flo is brought to you by NCLEX mastery. If you're a nursing student and you're about to take your NCLEX, you need to go to the app store right now and download NCLEX mastery.
Tess:Welcome back to Friends of Flo. My name's Tess Judge-Ellis
Rebecca:and I'm Rebecca Porter
Andy:And I'm Andrew Whitters.
Tess:We're all nurse practitioners
Rebecca:Well I'm not. I used to be and then I caved and went back to school.
Tess:You got a Ph.D.
Rebecca:I did
Andy:But nursing is still a part of your identity.
Rebecca:Oh my goodness
Tess:Well as you know Loretta Ford know the founder of nurse practitioners said, the most important word in nurse practitioners is nurse.
Rebecca:That's one of the things that really interests me about our little side bar shiny thing is the nurse practitioners that are working in acute care alongside physicians. This is a topic for another day. Are you caving to a medical model. What part of what you are doing and how you are talking to physician colleagues is from a nursing model versus a medical model. Just a question.
Tess:I do think we need to talk about that and it just continues to be how nursing the nursing actions are invisible, there not tallied, they're not billed for.
Rebecca:Right, another talk for another day but today we are talking about exam preparation and I'll tell you even after 14 years of postgraduate education I think about taking a test and my palms are sweaty. Don't you remember the paper days where you've had to go...I remember waiting for the results of my NP certification.
Tess:Well then you heard rumor what sort of envelope it was supposed to be if you passed versus what if you didn't pass.
Rebecca:I checked the mailbox every day. I my hands are sweating thinking about it. Take a deep cleansing breath and cleansing breath. And I remember going to the mailbox every day and just praying to the universe please don't let this be the day.
Andy:Was it NCLEX?
Rebecca:No my NP certification and I was sort of mindlessly thanking the stars that today wasn't the day I would find out whether I failed or passed and I was just mindlessly opening envelopes thinking bill, bill, junk mail, bill and I read this shit one and it said...and we just moved here....so there was a lot of welcome wagon dear Rebecca welcome to, blah blah blah. So I opened this letter. It said, dear Rebecca congratulations you have passed and I thought, what. Wait wait wait. What kind of bill is this? What kind of envelope was this in? So exam preparation for today.
Andy:Yes. My experience was right away though from my nurse practitioner certification. I knew right away which was a huge relief. But whereas the NCLEX I I do recall it being a 24 hour thing. The test just stopped. I think it was the 75 questions and I was convinced I mean I convinced myself that I had failed. So I remember going home. My wife and I were newly married and I just immediately said, I'm gonna start studying over the weekend because I'm pretty sure I have to retake this again. So I was already like in study mode and then I can't remember if it was via email or by mail...ended up passing it. But it was still...it is heart wrenching to wait. I remember the waiting period, but it felt much better though at the nurse practitioner certification just to get the results right there and just move on.
Rebecca:I had to wait. What about you Tessie?
Tess:I had to wait for the psych boards so I had the family boards I got in the mail but for psych mental health nurse practitioner boards I got to have the results. But I remember...
Rebecca:Right away?
Tess:You had to wait. They printed out something and I said print out the boards, print em' out. I told the ladies at the testing center please print them out, put them in an envelope, and don't tell me what they were. And I took the envelope and I walked outside and I sat on a bench by the library and I called my husband and I said I have these results right now and I'm gonna open it so just be on the phone with me while I do that.
Andy:Wow
Tess:That was how I opened them. So...to get the results
Andy:Eliciting the support of your husband
Tess:Somebody needed to be on the phone(laughs)
Rebecca:So I did my RN exams in Canada. They were called not NCLEX they were something else and this is in the previous century. And I remember waiting by the mailbox every day, just waiting waiting it was weeks and weeks of waiting. Yeah, so it's really cool that you can get your results right away.
Tess:For the RN boards?
Rebecca:Yeah. So let's talk about exam preparation
Andy:It is study season.
Tess:It is study season we we're talking about some lists, the number one on my list was create a play list on your phone or iPad, iPod. They still have iPod's I think, but create a playlist of motivational songs that you listen to before and after you study. And then on your way to the study site. You'd probably have some like long hair Beethovenish...
Rebecca:Oh me? Bach, Mozart, I have choral music
Tess:You know there are data that say that if you listen to orchestral or classical music while you're studying that you learn better. Now that would not necessarily unless I was getting some really uplifting you know not...
Rebecca:When I was studying biochemistry I memorized those multiple pathways. I had variations on a theme by Paganini over and over and over and over again. And today I will tell you 30 some, 40, 35 years ago I listened to that and every time I hear that piece now I will tell you what pathways are on there. What's on...
Tess:What's yours Andrew?
Andy:I'm pretty eclectic, I've got some ACDC on there I've got some Jay-Z probably on there.
Tess:How bout Pink?
Andy:I'm not opposed to Pink. I have no opposition to those music artists.
Tess:Taylor Swift?
Andy:Not much of a Taylor Swift fan, but I have no hate towards Taylor Swift out there.
Tess:Cause the haters gonna hate hate hate right.
Andy:I'm no Taylor Swift hater but yeah I'd put her in my playlists. I mean if I found a good spot. I don't know.
Rebecca:So we should ask our listeners what's on your playlist? Post and share your playlists because I would love to know alternative music, I'm open
Tess:And I don't think you need to have like a million songs, but I think you need to have about six or eight songs
Rebecca:What's on yours Tess?
Tess:It is pretty eclectic. I have some country music and I have some contemporary rock and then some old stuff some, what's that one movie? Guardians of the Galaxy. So I like a little bit of everything and I do have some classical music too Rebecca, yeah.
Rebecca:Okay, I'll give it to you Tess.
Tess:Let's do more strategic stuff. So we talked a lot about making a plan for studying. So number one is a playlist. Number two is a plan to study. You cannot just plop down and say I'm going to study for two hours
Rebecca:Right, so you need to have an absolute goal, what do I want to learn in the next hour. Is that what you would do?
Tess:I would even say you have a study book or some study guide and maybe backwards plan from the day you're supposed to take the NCLEX 4 weeks maybe to backwards plan and create you know a weekly guide of content that you're going to study. For example, fluids and electrolytes for you know the day. I'm going to spend two hours then you take a good break and then two hours. So you're going to get your notes out from school you're going to have your books from school you're going to have a study guide from whatever review that you bought during practice.
Rebecca:When do you start doing practice questions? You start goes right away or you do such a thing overview of a topic first, how do you do it Andrew?
Andy:So my plan of study was very similar I'd wake up in the morning, I had breakfast. I mean plus like I was I was keen about what time I was waking up. I had a schedule I had set aside a full hour for eating, preparation and showering just like the regular...and I would I would sit down and study for around three hours I recall. My goal was to take four practice tests a day for usually was like a six week period as I recall before my NCLEX exam.
Rebecca:So when you guys do practice questions do you go back and look at what you got right and what you got wrong?
Andy:Yes I did
Rebecca:I did too
Andy:And then so I developed a pattern of where I got things wrong. So if I needed to button up on my pharmacology I could see that in my test questions or my answers.
Rebecca:So it was kind of a qualitative overview of what you got and what you got wrong.
Andy:And then before bed at night what I would do is again go through some of those content questions
Tess:Before bed?
Andy:Yeah
Tess:I mean, like right before bed?
Rebecca:I'm getting short of breath just listening to studying before turning off the light at night
Andy:Before I was gainfully employed. It was at least two months off. My wife and I got married. I had signed up to have a job. It was purely conditional on whether I passed my NCLEX. So I just took it seriously.
Tess:It is a high stakes exam
Andy:I had a start date and so I spent roughly eight weeks just preparing. I took it very seriously.
Tess:It's a high stake exam and this is what folks need to remember is what they've given up to get to where they're actually not just giving up time with family and friends they missed out on kids events and there are other events and this preparing for the exam is similar. It is important to remember all that has been given up
Andy:But it was a slow ramp-up
:Take it seriously it's the last thing you have to do as a student even though you've already graduated from college you still have to do that.
Rebecca:And at the same time not get overwhelmed by the intensity and that is why the plan...
Andy:So you make that plan a part of your daily routine and it was just hey this is what I got to do
Rebecca:For my NP certification when I was studying for that I also took two months to prepare for that exam and after every study session I did a meditation I actually, Tess you laugh
Tess:I love it.
Rebecca:I lit incense and I had really dim lighting and incense and sort of spacey age music and I lay down on the floor and just did a mindful meditation for about 20, 30 minutes just to reengage all of my senses so that I wasn't focusing on just what I had studied.
Tess:You speak the truth. Not a bad thing.
Rebecca:So I think it's really important that when you are studying is to remember your all of your senses of touch, hearing, seeing, listening, feeling and being in touch with that and that's what you get when you just take time to settle and meditate and let your mind rest. Just let your mind drift and rest because what you're doing is really intense work. What else is on your list?
Tess:Well I think that when you get down to actually taking the questions, we should probably spend a little time on that. So we've got stuff play list and then preparing, take it seriously and plan for studying. Maintain your balance and think about taking care of your whole self.
Rebecca:Getting lots of sleep.
Andy:So those are some of the global things.
Tess:Right. Well kind of concrete but, yeah, global but actually going into the testing center and taking your test.
Rebecca:What did you do on your way to the exam?
Tess:First of all you need to know where it's at. Where are you going to take the test. Do a little recon you know go there the night before. Don't eat anything strange the night before you go. I also will say don't study the night before the exam at all. You know leave it aside and just get a good night's rest and then...
Rebecca:No alcohol for at least 24 hours, 48 hours before the exam I would say.
Tess:For sure you want to have clarity of mind and bring your best brain to it, but keep your routine fairly normal.
Rebecca:High protein breakfast
Tess:Listen to your playlist. Then as far as sitting down to take the test I think the best thing that I always say is before you take the exam deep breaths and think to yourself everything I need to know to answer the question has been given to me right. Everything I need to know to answer the question is given to me. The board exam is a valid test and the NCLEX is a valid exam in every single state in the country. It is the standard exam for safe entry level nursing practice. Period. Get over it. They're not out to mess with you. They're not out to mess with you. So going into the exam prepared and then looking at the test taking a deep breath with every question and saying, everything I need to know to answer the question has been given to me. So when you get stumped on a question on a test question you're not saying I need more information. Or, oh my gosh I don't get this question. So go back to your deep breath. Everything I need to know to answer the question has been given to me.
Andy:Yeah I have that on my list as some of the strategies. I think that's totally important. So the things that I remember wanting to stay away from were those big global words like"always","never""only""every""must" Those are words to be just leery of. Because when you use those words in the context of a clinical situation you don't really hear things like pediatric patients always have pain, you don't. Those are just statements you don't see in practice. It's impractical. So be wary of those global phrases and words and then well...
Tess:And I think if you have a question where that's in the STEM you have to go back and think about some of the core things about nursing practice such as airway, breathing, circulation, and safety right. Keeping people safe doing the safest thing when you need to and that's at the very basic airway, breathing, circulation, and just safety. So I think a question that has that kind of all or nothing is really wanting the person who's taking the exam to say wait a minute this is a safety related ticket.
Speaker 8:So I think it's also it's just taking a step back is to spend a little bit of time early in your preparation as you are doing practice questions. It should just take a sidebar and look at how to answer a multiple choice question and you can google that. You can go online anywhere. It's going to help you look at the answers that are distracters answers that are always or nothing. The always or never answers. What are the distracters, what's a possibility and what's the right answer. And so that's how questions are constructed is to get you to analyze that and not to over-read the question
Tess:For sure
Rebecca:Just being able to step back and say what is being asked here is a safety question is it a specific knowledge question. And that's another way. So we're in the exam and you've got a question that's got you completely stumped and you're thinking, oh my gosh I don't know anything. I'm going to fail. I've been there. So what's your advice, Tess?
Tess:Well, I think that if that comes up and especially if you're stumped between two responses, I would say cover up the responses, cover up the questions and the the question itself and just read the body of the question and say what's going on in this question and then try to understand the case scenario, understand the situation and then look at the question. I think that you'll read the question in a slower way you'll understand what they're looking for after you've covered up the responses a lot of times we go straight to the question the responses to fast and so if you cover up the question and the responses you can read it and usually you'll find some word in the question that helps you tease out between those two questions
Narrator:Here at NCLEX Mastery we love nurses and especially nursing students, but we need your feedback about this podcast. If you have ideas on topics or questions you want us to answer, shoot us a message, leave a comment, go to our Facebook page and just tell us what you think because we want to help you in the most specific way that you need that help. Thank you so much.
Tess:So we're back from our break. This is Tess Judge-Ellis.
Andy:Andrew Whitter's here
Rebecca:and Rebecca Porter
Tess:And we're going to sum up our last section about preparing for board exams. Say number one, I think, make a playlist. There are some decent data that would say that listening to classical music gives you while you're studying gives you a boost in studying. But make a playlist of fun songs that you associate with success and feeling good about yourself. Number two...
Andy:Keep your cool, relax, then also get yourself in a routine and habit of studying.
Tess:And prepare. Don't just plop down make a plan for studying, and number 3 is remember when you sit down to take that test, everything I need to know to answer this question has been given to me. They're not out to mess with me. This is a fair question, a valid exam. Everything I need to know to answer the question has been given to me
Rebecca:And just one other, somebody in our graduate class, a leader always said her prayer to the universe was help me remember all that I have faithfully studied.
Tess:There you go. Send out goodness. Very good. So with that...
Rebecca:One of the things I just wanted to bring up. We're talking about exams and school is the notion of cheating. I'm an ethics person and I I have seen cheating, not very often, but people do cheat or we see people cheating. As a student we might see somebody during an exam either surreptitiously or quite obviously cheating. Or writing a paper and you know they have taken the basis of their material from somebody else's paper not published but somebody else's work or things that they found online without acknowledging it and I think that this translates into how it is that we practice as a nurse because if we think it's okay to cheat on a little assignment or not give it the full attention that it needs how do we know where to draw the line. How do you practice. How do you know that when you get into practice you're not going to tell lies about or somebody won't tell lies about a medication that actually has been given or not given. Or a patients report of pain that was either taken or not taken. So it's just something to think about. And the temptation to cheat. What do you want to do about calling somebody up, who you know has practiced deception. Do you want them to look after you. What does it feel like when somebody you're working with has lied. A nurse looking after my dad several years ago actually lied to the physician and my dad and to me about a medication that she had had given by mistake. And my dad fell in a hospital because his blood pressure dropped and she had given an incorrect dose of an anti-hypertensive. And I challenged her on that I said,"are you sure that you gave the right medication?" I said because the pill was blue and I thought the right dose was a white pill and I saw you give him a blue pill and she went, I saw her go back and change the record and from then on I really questioned the integrity and the honesty of all of the nurses that were looking after my dad because was that normalized? Was that a normal expectation?
Tess:Well and I think that that is an interesting perspective on what it means to have a practice, you know a nursing practice, which is not just a nursing perfection action. Do you know what I'm saying? It's not the perfection
Rebecca:And were taught in nursing school to be that Lone Ranger. That we can go out and fix everything and take everything we don't need to ask for help. And that we're supposed to know everything and do everything on our own. I think our education system sometimes perpetuates that and the burden of being a nursing student can be so huge
Tess:Especially right now because everybody, nursing's such a great field there's a lot of people going into it and there's a lot of courses that are really demanding before you get into nursing like anatomy, physiology, micro. And so we see these high stakes courses that are kind of entry level and that people get keyed up about whether or not they'll pass. And especially now with the Internet there's ways to you know use group chats or such in a way. I think your point is well taken Rebecca, it's a where does...and luckily it's not, I don't think it's a huge problem in nursing or medicine.
Andy:And not necessarily for the NCLEX exam either. I think the NCLEX exam itself it's not only a vetted exam obviously but I think it's difficult to cheat because you're on a computer screen you know usually in a cubicle like setup. It's very difficult to...
Rebecca:And the questions are designed that you can't have a crib sheet or what you're going to have with you cannot possibly address all of the questions that you're going to be asked, but I'm talking more globally about where are you as a person of integrity of moral integrity drawing your line. And that's all I'm going to put out there is just to be aware of where your own moral integrity lies.
Speaker 9:Because it's not like you haven't made a mistake.
Rebecca:We all make mistakes.
Tess:What a sober topic
Rebecca:We need to lighten it up a little bit and then what are we going to leave with today Tess and Andrew.
Andy:Innovate agitate and educate. That's what I say.
Tess:I think keep your eye on the patient.
Rebecca:I say practice with compassion and integrity and empathy and be kind to yourself.
Andy:All right. Friends of Flo out.
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