TEST SMART: HOW TO PASS NCLEX

I. Prioritizing - Means ranking the client’s problems in order of importance depending on:

• Issue of the question
• Clinical setting
• Client’s condition
• Needs/problems that require immediate attention

A. Priority

1. High priority - life threatening conditions if untreated would result in harm/injury
2. Intermediate priority 
3. Low priority

B. Guides for prioritizing

1. Keywords or key phrases
2. Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs Theory

• Physiological needs are the first priority (Airway, Breathing, Circulation)
• Pain
• Safety

    3. Steps of the Nursing Process

• Assessment vs. Implementation (Assess first)
• Expected outcome

C. Other priorities

1. Most acute/least stable patient
2. Complication of the disease condition (not an expected outcome)

II. Delegation and Assignment-making

A. Principles and Guidelines

1. Ensure client safety
2. Focus on what the question is asking for
3. Determine which activity can be delegated safely and legally.
4. Match the activity on the basis of the nurse practice act.
5. Provide adequate supervision (supervise RNs who are new grads.)

B. Who can do that?

1. Unlicensed personnel - Noninvasive tasks and basic client care activities that include the following:

• Ambulation
• Bathing
• Client support
• Grooming
• Hygiene measures
• Positioning
• Range-of-motion exercises
• Skin care
• Some specimen collection, such as urine or stool.

   2. Licensed Practical or Vocation Nurse - Certain invasive tasks and client care activities that include the following:

• Administering oral medications
• Administering intramuscular and subcutaneous injections
• Changing dressings
• Irrigate wounds
• Monitoring an intravenous flow rate
• Suctioning
• Urinary catheterization

   3. Registered Nurse - Some of the tasks and client care activities that only the registered nurse can perform are as follows:

• Administering intravenous medications
• Leading others and managing the client care environment
• Teaching
• Using the nursing process: assessment, analyzing data, planning client care, implementing care and evaluating care

III. Test-taking Techinique

A. Identify the parts of a question

1. Case situation
2. Question stem

B. Read the question carefully. Look for keywords or phrases in the case situation and stem the question

Examples:

1. What is an early sign of shock?
2. What is the initial nursing action? Indicates that options are correct and you have to prioritize.
3. Which statement by the client indicates understanding of the instruction? Indicates a true response questions
4. Which statement by the client indicates the need for additional teaching? Indicates a false response question

C. Identify the issue. (What is the problem asking?)

D. Use the process of elimination. Involves reading each question and removing options that are incorrect and do not address the issue of the question.

E. Avoid asking yourself “what if?” or “reading into the question”. Means that you are considering issues beyond information presented in the question. Moves you off track with regards to what the question is asking.

F. Additional tips and strategies

• Eliminate options that contain absolute words e.g. all, always, never, none, only
• Focus on nursing rather than medical interventions.
• Ensure that all parts of an option are correct.
• Look for an umbrella option. (more comprehensive answer)
• Visualize the information (arrange in sequence/order)
• Look for the option that relates to the question.
• Don’t expect the test to end after 75 questions!

Source: (Nocturalnurse)

BLESS THIS POST.

sleeping-giant:

A boy left his bike chained to a tree when he went away to war in 1914. He never returned, leaving the tree no choice but to grow around the bike. —Photographer unknown.

Life goes on.

les-tigerlily:

same

thedailywhat:

Infographic of the Day: According to the CDC, meals have quadrupled in size since the ’50s — and subsequently, we’ve gained an average of 26 pounds apiece.

Sick.

Literally.

[gizmodo]

worldlyanimals:

Leopard Eyes (sunspotimages)

anjuar:

My favorite picture so far. In the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia a young girl stands in a Tuk-Tuk.

Fading.

[Credit Arva Attarwala] 

yourrrsoulmate:

spiffyxd:

Donna Summer — Last Dance

RIP.

No matter how awesome a party was in the beginning or Middle
It’s not completely awesome unless it ends with this song 

Men who want to flirt with women have to realize: Women live in a state of continual vigilance about sexual safety. It’s like having a mild case of hay fever that never goes away. It’s not debilitating. You’re not weak. You’re not afraid. You just suck it up and get on with your life. It’s nothing that’s going to stop you from making discoveries, or climbing mountains, or falling in love. Sometimes you can almost forget about it. It doesn’t mean it’s not there, subtly sucking your energy. You learn to avoid situations that make it worse and seek out conditions that make it better.

If a female stranger is wary around you, it is not because she suspects you are a rapist, or that all men are rapists. It’s because a general level of circumspection is what vigilance requires. Don’t take it personally.

If this frustrates you, try to remember that women are blamed for lapsed vigilance. If a woman does get raped, everyone rushes to see where she let her guard down. Was she drinking? Was she alone? Was she wearing a short skirt? Did she go to a strange man’s room for coffee at 4am?

A woman must be seen to be vigilant as well as be vigilant. If she is deemed insufficiently vigilant, she will be at least partly blamed for any sexual violence that befalls her. If she’s regarded as downright reckless, that “evidence” can be used to completely exonerate her rapist. If it comes down to a he said/she said dispute over whether sex was consensual, as so many rape cases do, the dispute becomes a referendum on whether the woman seems like the sort of reckless person who would have sex with a stranger.

If a woman does go back to a strange man’s hotel room at 4am, even if she only wants a coffee and conversation, she’s more or less given him the power to rape her. No jury is going to believe she went up there for anything but sex. So, don’t be surprised if a stranger reacts badly to that suggestion.

Attention, Space Cadets: Do Not Proposition Women in the Elevator

I wish I didn’t need to reblog stuff like this. I wish people *got it*. But judging from the ridiculous response to these posts, stuff like this clearly still needs to be repeated. 

(via lavender-labia)