NEW GRAD INTERVIEWS! It's finally here and I cannot believe this is my life writing you as an RN still haha. Today I wanted to make this post to seriously go over everything I have learned throughout my interviewing experience so far. I'm still on the hunt for my perfect first job and searching for any new openings (thanks covid-19 for making it impossible lol) but I figured what I've experienced so far would be helpful! So without further ado, let's jump right in.
TIP 1: Apply, apply, apply. If covid-19 has taught me anything when it comes to jobs it's that there are far and few entry level or new graduate opportunities in my state. I know a lot of my friends are also having a problem of finding jobs opening up. And when they do, the influx of apps makes it really hard to get interviews. My first point really is to apply to anything that remotely interests you. Personally, I always thought I was going head first into pediatrics. Although I still absolutely love peds and totally want to experience that specialty one day, I realize that I need to allow myself to be open to the adult specialties I enjoyed as well throughout clinical. The more apps the more chances of an interview. If you find something you think could make you happy just throw an app in there. You never know what interviews you'll get back. TIP 2: Pre-interview prep is key. This is one of the most important things you can do to sound great during an interview. Recently I had a chance to interview at a top pediatric unit in the nation. It was such a great learning experience (I'll go into this more in a little). But pre-prep is the absolute key here. I made sure to start by researching the hospital itself. I made sure to know what they stood for and valued as a company. This was important because I also want to make sure my values align with theirs. I jotted down a few notes on the hospital and its values and then from there did the same to the specific unit I was interviewing for. I then went more in-depth in researching the unit as a whole. For example, this specific unit had won a daisy award. I made sure to read up more about their awards, recognitions, and what set them apart. I also read up on what kinds of cases typically are on that unit. I think educating yourself in this way is really important so you have more talking points during an interview. It shows you've also taken the time to look up and care about the unit and the work that happens there. TIP 3: Practice answers to questions. One thing I did was google common interview questions. These were also given to me in nursing school by a really amazing professor. I'm going to list some common ones (ones with * I was asked during my latest interview):
TIP 4: There are usually two interviews. I knew this from nursing school as well as friends that have been interviewing. This was the experience I had recently as well. Although it may differ by hospital, there is usually a first screening interview where they ask a couple questions. The second is usually peer or panel based. Since we are in a pandemic, my interviews were conducted via phone call. My first interview was with the hiring manager for the unit. She asked me about 3-4 behavioral and situational questions and then asked me if I had any for her. My second interview contained a similar vibe. It was about 5-6 again behavioral questions. However, this time I had 7-8 people listening in. These people ranged from unit manager, clinical coordinator, RNs, and CNAs. It was basically an interview for everyone to feel out how I would fit into their unit and atmosphere. TIP 5: Always prepare questions to ask the interviewer. This is extremely important. Usually when I start doing my research after being notified that I have an interview, I will compile a list of questions to ask at the end to learn more but also show my interest to their unit specifically. For the first interview I asked more about how the residency program and orientation to their unit worked. I asked details about preceptors and the rotating shift schedules. During my second interview, I asked a few final questions and closed out asking about what they felt was the most challenging for a new graduate nurse to master on their unit. My point of this section is to say definitely prepare 3-5 questions to ask the interviewer. But do not ask about pay or benefits. TIP 6: Follow up immediately. After each interview, I made sure to follow up immediately and thank the person directly who interviewed me for their time and consideration. It's a simple two lined email that was short and to the point. However, it shows a lot of respect and appreciation for their time. TIP 7: Be yourself and bring personality. Nursing is definitely as we well know a customer service based profession. It may be harder on the phone but make sure to feel your best so your happiness and other traits shine through. TIP 8: Rejection will happen. I went through two rounds of interviews for this position and I was not offered the job. I just want to make a point that sometimes it takes tons and tons of apps to land a job and that is okay. For me, I wanted to make a point to write this section as it shouldn't discourage you. Every interview is an opportunity to learn and grow for the next one. And I personally felt that maybe that unit wasn't right for me. As much as we are going for them, they have to feel like we will fit well and thrive in their environment. For this job, perhaps they didn't feel I was the person they needed to fit in at that time. It's okay to not get the first or the 50th. Just keep your head up, keep applying, and you'll land a job soon! That is all I have to offer on new graduate interviews so far! This is definitely only the beginning of my job search and experience. I am really looking forward to finding my first job and being able to share it with you all! Good luck to everyone searching for a new job!
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Welcome back to TCBSN! I'm officially writing to you all as a licensed registered nurse now and I cannot believe we are finally here. A ton of you were requesting my detailed study plan and statistics when it came to preparing for the NCLEX-RN exam. This post is being made to give you an in depth view of my studying time, habits, methods and statistics. I really hope this post can help some of you find a structured study plan to help you crush the NCLEX-RN! Here is what I did to prep and ultimately pass the NCLEX in 60 Qs:
1. The resources I used: I know its an age old debate on which resources to use for your NCLEX-RN prep. Honestly, I was so overwhelmed figuring out which would be best for myself. I heard about Kaplan, Saunders, UWORLD, etc. the list just continued on. I didn't know if I should use one, two, three, or all of them. Ultimately, I ended up purchasing the 60 day UWORLD plan. This plan retails at $159 and contains a test bank of 2000+ questions as well as one Self Assessment. I originally was between purchasing the 30 day plan (which has no Self Assessment) however I would strongly recommend making sure to purchase the 60. Although it is expensive, this is the ONLY you heard me... ONLY resource I used during my NCLEX studying and having the Self Assessment made all the difference in the end. I would highly suggest using one resource to study for your NCLEX. UWORLD is in my eyes the best of the options. The questions allow you to note your trends and weaknesses and practice NCLEX style written questions while you review. 2. Starting studying with UWORLD: I studied/used UWORLD for a total of 5 weeks. I began the week after I graduated. I think its really important to note to not give yourself too long of a break in-between graduation and studying for NCLEX. I'm really glad I was strict on myself with this as I was already in study mode from the end of the semester. It wasn't hard to continue on versus trying to motivate myself to start after being off if that makes sense. Originally, I was doing a mixed amount of 60 question quizzes. However, I highly recommend breaking these questions up into groups by specialty. I would tackle a specialty every few days i.e. OB, Med Surg, Pediatrics, Critical Care until I ran out of those questions. This really helped me see where my weaknesses were in each specialty when it came to reoccurring trends on disease processes or medications. 3. How I used the UWORLD quiz bank: I averaged around 120-180 questions a day. I felt like this was the perfect amount of questions as it allowed me to do 2-3 tests (60 Q per test) and really review the content. Its important to make sure to retain the information. Doing more than this amount a day caused me to lose focus and ultimately waste questions as I wasn't in the right mindset to retain anymore info. All in all this left me studying for approximately 3-4 hours a day. 4. Rationales, rationales, rationales: UWORLD rationales are seriously the BEST thing I have ever seen. Not to be dramatic, but this is what made all the difference for me haha. The rationales are set up on each question in the quiz bank to really help you understand why the answer you chose was correct or incorrect. The rationales break down the background knowledge and pathophysiology you need to answer the question. They also break down the rights and wrongs of each answers. Every time I finished a quiz, I would go back through and read through the rationale of the questions I missed. I created a binder in which I would write the main concept and then condense the information I needed to remember underneath. For example when it came to disease questions I would miss, I would write down the diagnosis, patho, symptoms, causes, treatments. This was a condensed version that was written in my own words. Writing and condensing the rationales in your own words really help to make sense of them in your mind easier and make sure you're not writing meaningless information. I would continue to read through my binder everyday and add more pages every time I took new tests. This ultimately is what helped me retain the information the most and helped me get further questions on the topics correct in the future. 5. My UWORLD scores and percentiles: Now this is what everybody asks. I am honestly so happy to share this information with you all in hopes that it will help you all feel motivated in your studying! I want to note: UWORLD predicts a pass when you score around 60s and upwards on your quizzes. When I began UWORLD, my scores for the first two weeks were averaging in the 50s. I had a few high 40s and a couple low 60s if I got a really good batch of questions. But I found myself really stressing myself out about how low I was scoring. I continued to keep at my method and eventually within the third week, I saw an improvement of my scores. By the time I finished my entire quiz bank, I was scoring around 65s-75s. After this, I decided to retake the quiz bank again. I wanted to see if I had retained the information I had been studying in my binder and from writing out rationales. Once I completed my quiz bank for a second time, I was scoring in the 75s-85s. I started my quiz bank in the 42nd percentile. I ended my quiz bank after the second time being in the 80th percentile rank. 6. Self Assessment and my scoring: The self assessment I took one week before my test date. I made sure to sit this exam as if it were the REAL deal with full concentration and no distractions. Now this assessment contains 100 questions that are timed. Once the assessment is over, it predicts your likelihood of passing the NCLEX-RN. I scored a "High" chance on this assessment which gave me confidence in the hard work I had put in on the test bank. However, although I received a high chance I still made sure I remediated. I did the same method of going back through my questions and reading/writing out the rationales. I continued to review this binder until 3 days before my test. 7.Days leading up to taking the NCLEX: De-stress yourself. About 3 days prior to my test date I would skim my notes (and I mean skim) and then go and spend my day doing fun things or self-care related things. It allowed me to feel as refreshed as I possibly could. 8.Day of the NCLEX: Manifest, manifest, manifest lol. I made sure to get to my testing center early. I made sure to sit in my car and take some deep breaths. For me, I called my family members and had them give me a little pre-test pep talks and I literally spoke the words into existence: I will pass this test. Although I was SO nervous and knew how much was riding on this exam, I made sure to pump myself up and get myself into a positive mindset. Confidence is 50% of test taking so making sure to chill out my anxiety was key. Deep breaths got me through my test as well. As the questions got harder, I grew more frustrated. I would pause and breathe and then get my head back in the game (as Troy Bolton would say). 9. After the test: I literally felt like sh*t I'm not going to lie to you guys. I was certain I failed. The test felt impossible and I was certain I just hadn't done it. The next 48 hours were brutal. I stayed away from the Pearson VUE Trick because I had heard of it being not 100% reliable. I didn't want to rely on a trick that could have been misleading. I took my test Saturday morning and on Monday morning I woke up to my name on my states DOH licensure lookup. This was a guaranteed way of knowing I passed my test and I was so thrilled. Once my quick results were released that evening I made sure to double check and saw the "pass" as well. 10. Final thoughts: The anxiety behind this exam is so real. And I want you to all know that it's ok to feel all of the feels. I felt defeated, confident, doubtful, nervous, anxious, disappointment, failure ALL OF IT. But at the end of the day my hard work paid off and so will yours! Continue to keep studying hard and reviewing your weak points. This is officially the last obstacle you need to surpass in becoming an RN. I hope this post was helpful in explaining more in detail of how I managed to pass in 60! As always, feel free to drop a comment or shoot me a DM on insta with any further questions. You guys have got this! When WHO officially announced 2020 to be the year of the nurse I couldn't be more excited considering it would be the year we graduated and went into the field. But as we know, 2020 took a quick turn to the worst with COVID-19 creating the idea of going into the field as being uncertain and cancelling once in a lifetime events we worked so hard towards.
When I found out COVID-19 cancelled my graduation I cried. When I found out my pinning ceremony was cancelled I cried even more. Nursing school is tough as sh*t and I know those of you reading this know EXACTLY what I meant by that. I never thought I would possibly be strong or smart enough to make it through nursing school. That sounds super insecure but it's true and I think we can all say we've had our doubts within ourselves throughout this journey. I was heartbroken when graduation was cancelled however I knew that it was coming with the current state of the world. But my pinning ceremony was of upmost importance to me. It was sort of the right of passage into the field and something, in my eyes, more significant than a 30 second walk across stage. It was having an instructor, more so a mentor, pin me. It meant I finally did it, I was a nurse and holy sh*t would that be a realization moment lol. It was also receiving a double honor from FAU's SNA chapter earning one of the most prestigious NSNA awards and being a part of the executive board during that time. That was the hardest of the two grieves for myself. It is healthy to grieve losses that aren't physical. In this case for a lot of us, it was those ceremonies we worked so hard to experience. But here's what I did about it... After receiving the news a few weeks later, I took a step back. I realized it was healthy and important to grieve the loss of these prestigious events. But then I realized, why am I not proud anymore without these events? I don't need a room full of people to validate my hard work and triumphs through my program. Of course, I would have loved to have a time to celebrate, however I began to notice that myself and my friends started to invalidate the hard work we had done over the years. I noticed we weren't as excited and lost sight of the light at the end of the tunnel. And thats exactly what inspired me to sit down and write this. I always wanted to be a nurse to help and heal others. It was never about getting the highest grade on a test or having all eyes on me during a graduation ceremony. I took the time to center myself in realizing that ceremony or no ceremony I was still so damn proud of myself. I took a look at all that I endured over my time in nursing school. I mean you literally name it... hard breakups, losing friendships, watching my mum battle cancer for a year and a half. I learned so much about myself...how resilient we really can be, how hard we can apply ourselves to studying, how much we can persevere through hardships, and at the end of the day how we can put on those scrubs, go to the hospital and continue to care for those around us as if nothing else was happening. I learned when to turn on my tough and when to turn on my humanity. And above all I learned my capabilities as a nurse. So I may never get my graduation ceremony. And I may never get my pinning ceremony. But at the end of the day I still get to call myself a nurse. To me, thats the greatest accomplishment of them all. Let me tell y’all.... I wasn’t more petrified for anything in my life. This test was the real deal and I still can’t believe I managed to pass it. For those of you who don’t know, my school used a program called ATI and our exit exam is an exam called the “predictor”. This exam basically predicts your likelihood of passing the NCLEX. I ended up scoring a 97% and wanted to share my detailed study plan with you all in hopes it helps some of you!
My biggest tip to you all is PRACTICE QUESTIONS. I can’t tell you how many practice questions I did (approx 6000) and let me tell you this is where I saw the difference in myself. On the ATI site there is a section called Learning System 3.0 that contains approx 3000 questions as well as adaptive quizzes. What was cool about this section of ATI was that it gave me critical thinking questions and I was able to choose which categories of nursing I wanted to take. This helped me identify my weaker areas and from there I noted to myself to brush up on those. Seriously do as many questions as you can from wherever you can find them (stick to ATI only since information can contradict itself). I also did questions from the content review books after each chapter and a practice test in the pink NCLEX review book. READ RATIONALES. Even if you suck at ATI questions like I did when I started, read the rationales. They are so incredibly detailed and by doing this it helped me figure out where I was going wrong in the questions. I also made sure to note that if I got multiple questions wrong on a certain topic to write it down and review them. MEMORIZE THE LITTLE THINGS. Now I know ATI always loves to pull details. I made sure when it came to pharmacology and laboratory values to memorize those frequently asked over the years. I made sure to memorize the key things that differentiate the meds and memorize the lab value ranges so I could know if an answer was incorrect. Put them on flashcards and study them everyday. LEVELUPRN. If you guys are in nursing school and don’t know who Cathy Parkes is you are missing out! She’s an amazing nurse who gives great outlines and test taking tips and tricks. You can check out her summarized YouTube videos and they helped me a lot to review. I even used to listen to these walking to class, at the gym, or driving to school. DAY OF THE TEST. Breathe and do some serious heart math. Let me tell you I made sure to go in with a positive mindset. I was sick to my stomach but told myself this exam does not define me as a nurse. I knew my capabilities and I knew I was strong enough to be a good nurse. Have a good breakfast, a great night sleep, drink lots of water and focus in. YOY GUYS HAVE GOT THIS. It’s currently 10:30pm as I’m writing this and it’s the night before my LAST first day of school ever. Yup, senior year officially starts tomorrow. I cannot believe I’m here. I never thought I would fail nursing school, but boy was I tested the last few years. Nursing school isn’t easy, it’s not glamorous, and at times it’s the most defeating passion in the world. So tonight, before I begin my final year, I wanted to write a little something about what I’ve learned that may benefit all of you pre-nursing, freshman, or even sophomore or junior nursing students out there.
Clinical confidence comes and goes. You’re probably like Sam what? But let me explain. During my first clinical I was scared... I mean petrified. I felt like I was seriously playing dress up wearing scrubs to a hospital and having little to no training. My instructor was amazing but she was totally a throw you in there kind of person so I felt really like I needed to gather my sh*t in order to survive. But I learned that throwing myself into new experiences, practicing skills, passing meds, giving shots, etc was the only thing really helping me learn properly. I’ve learned that you can be extremely smart when it comes to lecture classes and study the heck out of your textbooks. But when it gets to clinical you need to turn on your nursing persona and get the job done. My biggest tip to those of you reading this post and are nervous about starting a new clinical is just to know that: 1. Everyone is in the same boat as you and are literally so nervous. It’s good to be nervous otherwise you’d be overconfident and potentially hurt your patient by doing so. 2. Volunteer to perform skills and medication administrations. It’s petrifying to say you’ll do it & then realize it’s a real human and not a dummy. But it’s the best feeling in the world when you do it right (or wrong and learn from it). You’re there for experience so make sure you get all the experience you can get your hands on. Plus you get bragging rights to your clinical group haha! This is my biggest tip to building up your confidence in the clinical setting! 3. Ask so many questions. There’s never a dumb question and I can’t tell you how much more the nurses you work with will appreciate you for doing so. Asking questions or asking a nurse to walk you through a procedure/skill is great practice and they often are so happy to see you taking the initiative to learn. This goes the same to other healthcare professionals. Another point I’d really like to share is that there is so much studying. But know that you will be okay and you will get through each challenging exam and class. Friendships are important and I guarantee your cohort will become so tight knit when it comes to studying and surviving together that it becomes comforting to know that everyone else is feeling and doing the same as you. Make sure to study hard, don’t neglect things till the last minute because these classes are too complex for that. But know that you have to take time to take of yourself as well. Do something little each day for yourself to decompress or destress through all of the studying! It’ll keep you sane and more productive by doing so. Leading from that, time management is KEY! Planners will be your best friend and making even a mental layout of your day will help you achieve so much more. For me, I prioritize class, studying, gym, and friend/family time every single day. With practice and time management, I’ve been able to have that every single day of nursing school without compromise. My point is you can have a life outside of nursing school, just make sure to balance everything in order to do so that way nothing suffers. Nursing school is hard. And sometimes it sucks if you have friends in other majors that really don’t understand the time commitment. But keep your head up, focus on working hard, and have fun too! You can have it all I promise you that. This post was sort of all over the place and I will happily dive more in depth into some of these topics in upcoming posts but I wanted to give you all some motivation before the semester starts! I hope you all seriously have an amazing first, last, or whatever semester it may be for you this fall! You’ve got this! |