Post by chayam on Jun 30, 2010 22:23:11 GMT -5
I'm no longer a student, so I'm not sure if I should be posting here, but then again, I'm not yet an RN. And as NCLEX gets closer I'm getting more and more panicked...
I was a great student in school, graduated with honors and a 4.0. According to a practice test we took in school I had a 98% chance of passing. So I was feeling pretty confident. Because the job I am hired for requires it, I am taking Kaplan's NCLEX prep course. And all of a sudden, I'm getting terribly low scores on their tests. When I look back at the explanations and their answers, I find that I often disagree with their rationales, find some absolutely ridiculous (especially those that have to do with child stages and interactions... I have three kids, I don't need Kaplan to tell me that the way I put my kids to bed is not developmentally appropriate). A few examples...
1) for a bee sting pt displaying initial signs of anaphylaxis, Kaplan says the correct first action for an RN is to intubate the pt. Excuse me? Can nurses even do this? And before consulting an MD?
2) for a pt with right sided paralysis, Kaplan says it is appropriate to post a sign "do not lift using right arm" while I thought "pt has right sided paralysis" is more appropriate. They say their answer is more specific... but hold on - what if the nursing assistant tries to ambulate the pt? So they wont lift w/ the right arm, fine, but the patient can't use his right leg either!!
3) mother wants to know how to put 2 y.o. to bed without a fight (and what does this have to do with nursing anyway?) so they say the correct nurse response would be "tell the kid, let me read you a story and then you will go to bed" while I thought "which teddy do you want, the brown one or the white one?" would work better. If I told my two y.o. their "correct" response, he would say ok, then as soon as the story is over he would say "one more", or "not going to bed". I don't think two year olds are mature enough to make a decision and stick to it.
4) for a patient that is presenting with symptoms of Guillon Barre, they say the most important comment is "My husband and I were preparing to go on a trip" because you should think that maybe the trip is to a third world country, in which case maybe they got some immunizations, which potentially could have led to the g.b. I thought we are not supposed to "read in" background details to the questions?
Anyway, these are just a tiny drop in the huge bucket of questions I disagree with Kaplan on. But if these make up a significant number of NCLEX questions, and then there is the (large) handful of actual knowledge questions I don't know/mess up... then it looks like there is a good chance I might not pass. Can this be?
Who is crazy, me or Kaplan? And is Kaplan a true representation of the NCLEX? Heeelp!!
I was a great student in school, graduated with honors and a 4.0. According to a practice test we took in school I had a 98% chance of passing. So I was feeling pretty confident. Because the job I am hired for requires it, I am taking Kaplan's NCLEX prep course. And all of a sudden, I'm getting terribly low scores on their tests. When I look back at the explanations and their answers, I find that I often disagree with their rationales, find some absolutely ridiculous (especially those that have to do with child stages and interactions... I have three kids, I don't need Kaplan to tell me that the way I put my kids to bed is not developmentally appropriate). A few examples...
1) for a bee sting pt displaying initial signs of anaphylaxis, Kaplan says the correct first action for an RN is to intubate the pt. Excuse me? Can nurses even do this? And before consulting an MD?
2) for a pt with right sided paralysis, Kaplan says it is appropriate to post a sign "do not lift using right arm" while I thought "pt has right sided paralysis" is more appropriate. They say their answer is more specific... but hold on - what if the nursing assistant tries to ambulate the pt? So they wont lift w/ the right arm, fine, but the patient can't use his right leg either!!
3) mother wants to know how to put 2 y.o. to bed without a fight (and what does this have to do with nursing anyway?) so they say the correct nurse response would be "tell the kid, let me read you a story and then you will go to bed" while I thought "which teddy do you want, the brown one or the white one?" would work better. If I told my two y.o. their "correct" response, he would say ok, then as soon as the story is over he would say "one more", or "not going to bed". I don't think two year olds are mature enough to make a decision and stick to it.
4) for a patient that is presenting with symptoms of Guillon Barre, they say the most important comment is "My husband and I were preparing to go on a trip" because you should think that maybe the trip is to a third world country, in which case maybe they got some immunizations, which potentially could have led to the g.b. I thought we are not supposed to "read in" background details to the questions?
Anyway, these are just a tiny drop in the huge bucket of questions I disagree with Kaplan on. But if these make up a significant number of NCLEX questions, and then there is the (large) handful of actual knowledge questions I don't know/mess up... then it looks like there is a good chance I might not pass. Can this be?
Who is crazy, me or Kaplan? And is Kaplan a true representation of the NCLEX? Heeelp!!