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how does it feel once you've completed all of school to become a registered nurse?
I would like to become a registered nurse in the near future after completing certified medical assistant and licensed practical nurse. #nursing
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Julie’s Answer
Hi Anna, it is a wonderful feeling of achievement to graduate from nursing school. First let me say, while in nursing school pay close attention to test questions and how they are designed. Instructors generally create test questions that are similar to the state board exam and some may even be on your exam. When doing clinical rotations, try to participate in doing as many procedures as possible. This will help you in boards and will also help you with scenarios during the state board exam. Your entire nursing program should be designed to help you be successful as a student and at passing the NCLEX exam. All nursing schools are not the same so ask around and make sure you choose one that wants you to be successful instead of one that tries to break you down. I have seen both, but fortunately, I attended a wonderful nursing program that prepared me as a Bachelors's prepared nurse. When you first finish, you will feel a little lost at first because you don't have mandatory assignments or exams. Take a few days to relax, but not too long, you must start to prepare to pass your state NCLEX exam. NCLEX has study guides and tools that are great to cover all the important points as a refresher for the classes you took and what you will be tested on. I found the comprehensive lectures to be most helpful. When I took NCLEX, I used CD lectures that were very helpful because they covered every course that was on NCLEX; then I did practice tests as well to test my knowledge. I also took a review course but honestly, the course I took that I could review over again was the best. To be honest, if I had found the CDs first, I would not have taken the live review course. You can check out some of the study material at https://nursing.com.
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Raquel’s Answer
This is such a great question! Getting into nursing school and then getting through nursing school is such a difficult journey in and of itself that it can be hard to think about what it'll be like when you're (finally) done. Obviously once you graduate it's extremely exciting to be done with school and have made such a great accomplishment by becoming a nurse and it is relieving to not have to study for school anymore. But once you graduate with a nursing degree, you are merely a nurse graduate not yet a nurse because you still have to take and pass the NCLEX before becoming a licensed nurse. After having finished your degree it can be really hard to hunker down and put in the time studying for the test, but as soon as you're done and you pass it is such a relief to truly be done with the studying and testing and now you get to work as a nurse! It is important to remember that nursing school prepares you to pass the NCLEX, not to be a nurse. And the NCLEX is all about baseline knowledge and safety, are you knowledgeable enough to safely practice as a nurse in any setting. So once you actually start your first nursing job (yay) you still have so much to learn. Depending on what specific area you work in you will need more knowledge and skills than you were taught in nursing school for some things and some of the stuff you learned in school you won't ever need again. But that's what precasting is for, you get partnered with an experienced nurse while learning how to chart, time manage, call doctors, and all of the nitty gritty stuff of your floor. First starting can be very scary because you don't have experience and there's so much you don't know. But there will always be experienced nurses around who can help you, so never be afraid to ask for help or guidance if you need it! Being a nurse is a very rewarding career and it feels so good to get out of nursing school and start working to help patients every day.