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Do you think you could pass the NCLEX?

Take this quiz with these sample exam questions and see how you score!

[12 questions]

Study material provided by NCLEX-RN Exam Cram, published by Pearson IT Certification. Part of the Exam Cram series.

Pearson IT Certification is a publishing imprint born of a tradition of proven learning tools and educational training materials such as NCLEX-RN Exam Cram (ISBN-10: 0-7897-4483-X) that have helped generations of certification exam candidates succeed. Tapping into the exciting new opportunities provided by the technology advances of online learning and web-based services, Pearson has created a suite of products and solutions that address the learning, preparation and practice needs of a new generation of certification candidates. Pearson IT Certification delivers learning formats ranging from books to online learning and practice services, network simulators and video training.

Textbook info: 

NCLEX-RN Practice Questions Exam Cram, 3rd Edition 

By Wilda Rinehart, Diann Sloan, Clara Hurd, Rinehart & Associates

Published by 

Pearson

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If you’re a nursing student, there are exams to study for and papers to write, but sometimes your brain just needs a break. These tips will help you unwind (and maybe put off that last paper!) productively—and, okay, give you an excuse to nap, too!

1. Update your resume to begin looking for jobs. As nursing students, clinical experiences are constantly being acquired and need to be documented on your resume.

2. Begin looking for summer nursing externships or patient care technician jobs. These are hard to come by, so the earlier you start looking, the more likely it is you won’t have to babysit the terrible twins next door for the entire summer.

3. Clean up your emails. Your school probably has bombarded your inbox with paperwork needed to begin clinicals and career fair fliers. Take a little downtime to delete those unnecessary emails and organize the ones you need. The more organized you are, the less unnecessary stress you’ll have (and we all know there’s no shortage of stress as a nursing student!).

4. Keep networking. Send an email to that nurse manager you worked for over the summer, make a phone call to your family friend who’s an RN or send some snail mail—it still exists! Like any other field, nursing isn’t all about what you know; it’s also about who you know. A simple reminder that you’re an interested and eager nursing student keeps your name fresh in their minds, and hopefully with a job in the future.

5. Go to a professor’s office hours. We all know nursing classes can be a killer sometimes. Check when your professor’s office hours are and stop in for some assistance with the last lecture material. Those 20 minutes can help you with that next test, as well as build a lasting relationship with your professor!

6. Create a spa day for yourself and your friends. Give yourself a break, stop studying and get a much-needed manicure and pedicure. A good laugh and a healthy do-it-yourself cucumber facial can be the cure to all!

7. Visit an online scrub shop! We all love a fresh new pair of scrubs. Shopping online may be the perfect distraction when you’re in a homework rut. Not only does a new pair of scrubs make you all giddy inside, but it may provide some retail therapy as well.

8. Work out. It’s almost inevitable that nursing school will make us gain weight. Ample gym time is not only crucial for your physical health, but also will allow your mind to stay sharp when memorizing all of the side effects of beta blockers.

9. Learn to cook. I see in your future…very little time to cook. Start whipping up quick and healthy 15-minute meals now. By the time you graduate, you’ll have perfected that yummy lemon baked chicken or gourmet hamburger.

10. Take a nap. The ultimate power nap can rejuvenate your body and give you ample energy to power through those care plans. Twenty minutes of shuteye is all you need to be ready to tackle new tasks.

What’s your favorite way to productively procrastinate?

Melanie Chang is a nursing student at Boston College in Massachusetts.

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Does zucchini bread land on your list of daily vegetables? Is the peanut butter in a Reese’s cup your afternoon dose of protein?

Find out how good you are at counting calories with these nurse-favorite break room treats and vending machine snacks.

Please go to The nurse’s snack calorie quiz to view the quiz

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Every nurse has them: those nasty little non-nursey thoughts that sneak into your brain like steel-toothed ferrets during a hard day.

They’re the thoughts that civilians hope we never actually think, the ones we feel guilty about, the ones we never admit we have until we’re in a well-lubricated frame of mind and in a safe place.

Auntie Jo has those thoughts, and she’s not afraid to share them. Read on, my poppets….

1. Sometimes I don’t like you very much.

Seriously? Sometimes you piss me off. It doesn’t matter whether the “you” in question is a doctor, a patient, a family member, a lab tech or one of the pizza delivery dudes: You occasionally piss me right off. I’m only human, after all, and this job can hit stress levels that make a Red Terror Alert look like a day in a Victorian novel, all lace and picnics.

Even though I look patient and caring, inside I’m seething. I take care of it with AA: Advil and Alcohol, the nurse’s therapy of choice.

Me neither –>

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There is nary a seasoned nurse who would dare show up for a shift without a nose saver, like a few Halls cough drops tucked away in the pocket.

Goodness knows there are all too many opportunities for icky smells to drift into a nurse’s workday.

Break out the peppermint oil and get a whiff of our top ten list of worst smells in the hospital!

10. Alcohol swabs

9. Benzoin tincture

8. Tube feeds

7. Cafeteria food

6. TPN

5. Code Brown

4. Bile

3. Vascular wounds

2. C. diff

1. GI bleeds

This list, by Abigail Raymond, RN, is the winner of our “Win Your Top 10 List on a Mug!” Giveaway. You can buy this mug for yourself or your favorite nursing instructor! Submit your own list here to enter!

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Let me guess: It’s probably gray and depressing where you are, one month of self-control have worn you down and you’re ready to eat a big chocolate sundae/have a day off/rent a chainsaw.

As an antidote to any resolutions you may have made this month, I offer the following Anti-Resolutions for Nurses—and probably not a moment too soon:

1. You do not have to change the way you behave, ’cause it’s not about you.
If you get yelled at by a patient, a family member, a doctor or a coworker, remember that it’s their problem, not yours. People get stressed and yell. People are naturally bullies, or naturally power-hungry, and they yell. Have you ever noticed that it’s usually the first interaction with a new person that makes a yeller be a yeller? Yeah—that’s a power thing, not a you-screwed-up thing. Relax. A patient smile and calm demeanor makes you look better (and drives the yellers nuts).

2. You do not have to change the way you nurse, ’cause the folks who say you do have no clue.
If you work where I work, the new year brings a stack of great ideas from Manglement. In the last two weeks, we’ve gotten three new pieces of paperwork to fill out with our patients, none of which changes our nursing practice in the least. Remember that nine out of 10 new ideas from the Powers That Be are actually boxes they have to tick for one surveying organization or another, so don’t get too stressed about it. Yeah, it takes more time to fill out whichever sliver of brilliance is sitting in front of you, but it won’t change how you work.

3. You do not have to change what you think, ’cause that’s what makes you who you are.
It might be politic to keep your mouth shut about controversial issues, but you’re still allowed your own thoughts and feelings, no matter what anybody says. Those of you who work for state- or government-funded facilities are no doubt well acquainted with the side-eye, raised-eyebrow school of communication. In other words, you might have to toe the party line, but you don’t have to live it. Like a glass-bottom boat in a sewer, you can sail through your day untouched by office politics and institutional mandates, secure inside your own skull.

4. You do not have to stop getting irritated, but do ration your irritation wisely.
Every day involves something so moronic, so baffling, so illogical that it makes you want to change your name to Gorzar, Slayer of Stupid and go on a rampage. You don’t have to be totally apathetic, but do pick your battles. You’ll find that you have lower blood pressure and get better results if you don’t get irritated at every single molecule of Stupid that’s floating around.

5. You do not have to refrain from renting that chainsaw…just make sure you have a bail fund already set up among your friends and coworkers.
Who knows? You might be doing everybody a favor. Just make sure you don’t have to stay in the pokey for too long before you sacrifice yourself on the altar of efficiency.

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The recent advancement in medical technology is astounding, if you think about it.

We can view the inside of the human body to such a fine detail that the human eye has a difficult time deciphering the pieces. We can monitor physiological processes remotely. We can view and document just about anything related to patient care remotely.

I think every piece of new technology that’s come across the healthcare spectrum in the past two decades is one of those inventions you hate when it’s first introduced. In fact, you hate it so much you might be offended by the audacity that someone thought this invention would even work, let alone benefit healthcare.

The invention picks up steam and eventually is adopted as the “standard.” You go from hating it and refusing to use it to sluggishly accepting it. We all become Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh: “Hooo-hummm. I guess I’ll go ahead and use this.”

Eventually, life seems to improve due to the use of said invention, and you bashfully admit it’s worthwhile. But then something crazy happens: You actually start to like the invention.

You like it so much you become proficient at using it. Your job gets–dare I say–easier because of this technology.

The switch has been flipped. You love it.

Then something happens. The new technology–you know, the one you thought was the best thing since sliced bread–turns out to be fallible.

Not only is it fallible, it’s downright breakable. Breakable and useless, I tell ya!

Now that it’s out of order, you have no idea what to do. You have to pull from the depths of your memory what the heck you did before your new toy, err, technology.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? A few weeks ago, our electronic health record system went down. I can’t even begin to tell you how crazy it was trying to function without that “crutch.” We were writing physicians’ orders on real paper! We were faxing orders to pharmacies with a real fax machine! And we were charting on real paper! (Madness, I tell ya!)

It was as if the sky was falling and I was Chicken Little.

Thankfully, the sky only fell on us that morning, and by the afternoon we had our crutch back.

iStockphoto | Thinkstock

Every nurse has nursing school stories…but some are racier than others!

We asked our Facebook fans for their funniest stories from nursing school, and boy, did we get an eyeful. Read on for some hilarious, crazy and occasionally R-rated responses!

I was demonstrating an indwelling catheter to my instructor with a sim patient in lab. When I got ready to insert the tubing, the right leg fell off.
—Sue Stuchlik

On my very first day of LPN clinical, one dear little lady came up to me and gently tugged on my sleeve. I turned and she motioned for me to hold out my hand. I did, and she spit out her oatmeal-covered dentures right into my hand. I had to do some big-time self-talk: “Okay stomach, easy girl, down stomach.” I managed to keep my composure and smiled. Nothing ever rattled me as much as that day did!
—Carol Salminen

I was going to give a glue shot for the first time to an elderly man. He asked, “Will it hurt?” I said, “It can.” I gave him the injection and just as I stuck the needle in his arm, he yelled out, “Somebody call 911!” It frightened me, but I laughed afterward….
—Stacy Flanick

When I was in nursing school, I had a patient who was put on a low-salt diet. My instructor told me this would be a good opportunity to get in a teaching care plan. I went through everything in detail, giving my patient examples of foods to eat and even going through her regular foods she ate at home. When we finished, she thanked me and said that this would be a great help to her. When I went back to check on her, a family member was present and had just brought her McDonald’s per the patient’s request. Both looked at me for a few seconds with that “caught red-handed” look. Breaking the silence, my patient said, “I didn’t put any salt on it.” I couldn’t help but smile and nod, and think to myself that it was a start.
—Lauriel Finch

A friend and I were working at a nursing home and helping to bathe an elderly lady. We had been taught to let patients do all they were capable of for themselves, so we helped the woman get ready to put her clothes on. We put on her panties and pulled them to her knees, and placed her hands on each side of the panties. After a few minutes, she looked at us and, bless her sweet heart, she said, “Tell me, children, was I taking these off or putting them on?” We told her she was putting them on, so go ahead, it was all right.
—Lenita Merryman

My very first day in a hospital on my first med-surg rotation, my first patient was in renal failure, liver failure, Spanish-speaking only (I know about five words in Spanish and the only English words he knew were profanities, which he used on me all day), confused, covered in tattoos and, best of all, he had an open wound on his penis. I was left to do all of his care (I have no clue where the nurse assigned to him/me was all day), including cleaning and applying antibiotic ointment to the wound twice a day. He was so confused that he only knew he hurt down there, so most of my day was spent imploring him through hand motions and drawings to leave his penis alone. The poor guy helped lead me to a career in the NICU and women’s health!
—Megan Teague

I was on a med-surg floor during my clinicals, and I had a patient with a colostomy bag. My instructor asked me to describe the bowel matter, and I said, “Fluffy.” She replied, laughing, “A fluffy BM? I’ve never heard that before!”
—Tina Marie

I was watching a guy in his 50s get a kidney stone blasted. I was standing in the back so I wouldn’t be in the way. When the nurse came over to the draped patient, her eyes got big and she said, “OMG, you have to look at this!” The doctor came over and started laughing. I went over there and gasped at what I saw: Here’s this 50-something-year-old guy with a spider tattooed on his penis! I couldn’t wait to tell my instructor. She said to ask him about it. I was too curious to just let it go, so I went to my patient’s room and made a little small talk, and then I threw in, “So….inquiring minds would like to know the story behind the spider.” He chuckled and said, “Because when it grows, it turns into a tarantula!” I got really red, turned around and just walked out.
—Jennifer Dixon

What’s your funniest nursing school story?

Corbis Photography | Veer

Nurses—you’ve stolen our hearts! And we’re not saying that just because it’s February. Here are some special days for you to celebrate and acknowledge each other this month, including, of course, February 14, Valentine’s Day.

Nursing factoids:
February 2, 1901: The female Nurse Corps became permanent.
February 16, 1881: Mary Breckinridge, founder of the Frontier Nursing Service, was born.
February 17, 1943: The first class of Army flight nurses graduated.
February 18, 1945: Nurse POWs were awarded the Bronze Star.
February 26, 1858: Lavinia Dock, a social activist nurse who wrote a four-volume history of nursing, was born.

Circle these dates:
February 1-7: National Patient Recognition Week
February 3: Wear Red Day (heart disease is the number one killer of women—show your support for the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women movement by wearing red!)
February 6-12: PeriAnesthesia Nurses Week
February 12-18: Cardiovascular Professionals Week

February is also:
American Heart Month
Wise Consumer Health Month

Sources:
aahn.org/nursinghistorycalendar.html
nasrecruitment.com/docs/calendars/2012/Healthcare-Days.pdf

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There’s been a recent surge and great interest in the “incivility in nursing.” I dare ya to do a quick search–go ahead and Google it. I’ll be here when you get back…

Incivility = violence = lateral violence = disrespect = offensive= etc, etc. In fact, I read an article that spoke of incivility as simply being mean. Mean? Really?

Better yet, I read another article that talked about actions that can be interpreted as ‘”uncivil” (incivil?), such as tardiness or sending an email without a greeting (be still my heart!).

I’m poking a little bit of fun at a real and serious problem. For some strange reason, the world of nursing thinks the problem is unique to its profession. Or that the lateral violence we experience is new or, dare I say, different.

I spent a good amount of time reading some of the leaders’ opinions, blogs, articles and presentations online. I have to admit, I’m still trying to understand the uproar here.

Incivility in the workplace is as old at time. The only difference is how it gets handled and whether or not it’s tolerated. The truth of the matter is that lateral violence or incivility will never go away. It’s everywhere–not just in the workplace, but also in our social circles, in our classrooms and in our homes. It can be less prominent or more severe no matter where you go.

I think therein lies the problem. Lately it’s become more severe in the nursing world. There are a lot of theories as to why, and they are all equally entertaining (at least to me).

1. Men vs. women (nursing is a female-dominated career)
Women are more sensitive and thus are “hurt” easily.

• How is it that women all around the world have survived in the medical community, then? Are you saying physicians are insensitive?

2. Women by their very nature can be catty
I have a hard time refuting this theory, since you don’t hear construction workers complaining about incivility. Men may resort to physical violence, but they aren’t diabolically vengeful (mostly!).

3. It’s the generation (Generation Y vs. Generation X vs. Baby Boomers)
Newer nurses feel “entitled”–they are “above” the basic bedside skills.

• I would have picked the word “spoiled.” And it’s not just the younger nurses who are guilty.

4. BSN graduates are entitled and have an ego
So you think because they advanced their degree, they forgot what it was like at the bedside? Or that they would treat a bedside nurse poorly because they have more letters after their name?

5. Newer nurses preoccupied with leapfrogging
Apparently, it’s viewed as an offense if a young nurse wants to advance his or her education? While neglect is rampant (no argument there), how is pursuing a higher education a bad thing?

6. Newer nurses have no respect
Have you heard the saying “nurses eat their young”? Since when is a bad thing if the young fight back? Respect is a two way street.

•  I think it has everything to do with you as a person (and professional) and how you deal with challenges. Period. It’s that simple. If you don’t want lateral violence to snowball, figure out a way to challenge it and deal with the root of the problem.

REALITY CHECK

We all need to grow some thicker skin
If someone offended you, don’t go tattling on them to your supervisor. Have the self-indignation to confront the assailant as a professional with your views, interpretations and explanations as well as suggestions to alleviate the occurrence from repeating. Do not turn into a high school teenager.

There should be zero tolerance from anyone holding a supervisory or leadership role
This includes every nurse who has more experience than the nurse next to them. I’ll say that again: You assume a leadership role the minute you are no longer the rookie. Period.

Newer nurses: Quit being so spoiled rotten
Just because you were coddled doesn’t give you the right to whine every time something didn’t go according to plan. Learn to roll with the punches. There is definitely a difference between self-assertiveness and immaturity.

Seasoned nurses: Quit being so vindictive and insecure
Leaving the bedside is neither good or bad, it’s just a decision to further one career. If you find it so offensive or appalling, keep it to yourself. Better yet, I dare you to try to take the same leap.

And lastly, this is for all the nurse leaders out there. If you really want to effect change, then quit with the academia-babble
Get out there in the trenches. Get your hands dirty (figuratively and literally). Quit creating new employer-based committees and developing action plans with continuum manifestos and evidenced-based theories. Walk the walk, folks.

Am I being blasé? A little too laissez-faire? Insensitive? Is it because I’m a man??!! (Ohh let the hate mail begin!) Or maybe, it’s because I don’t tolerate or accept the incivility when it shows its face.

I take a professional, head-on approach instead of whining, crying wolf and pleading with a “woe is me” attitude. There is a profound difference between being a victim and acting like one.

Let’s all put on our big-girl and big-boy pants and learn to play nice in the sand box.