University of New England ABSN Student

Category: Goal Setting

Preparation for Licensure and Transition to Professional Practice

My SMART goal for the semester involved studying pharmacology more by putting a hobby of mine with what I’m learning. I followed this goal for two whole weeks before I realized I didn’t have the time nor energy to fulfill it. I still wanted to fulfil my goal of practicing pharmacology, so I ended up purchasing a deck of flashcards that had visual and pneumonic aids on it to help with learning pharmacology. It was neatly organized by NCLEX topics, so I was able to go through the medications by category. The use of the flashcards took away the stress of creating them myself, but still allowed me to learn a lot. I wasn’t expecting to score as well as I did in the pharmacology adaptive exam as I did so I think the extra use of the flashcards paid off.

When reflecting on my experience with ATI and the use of remediation I did find them helpful. Stressful, but very helpful. I found that during my ATI remediations I got a lot of the same types of questions wrong (content). I also found that I’m awful at select all that apply questions because I begin to second guess myself. At the beginning of the semester, I was extremely stressed out at the thought of all the remediations we would be completing. This past month though, I’ve found that I’ve gain better habits in completing them. I’ve realized I need to break up the remediation into sections in order for me to gain anything from them. I found when I would crank out a remediation in one night, I wouldn’t remember as much as I would have if I broke it up. I’ve also learned through my remediations that I need to take my time. There were so many questions that I got wrong because I missed a word or specific wording of the question that drastically changed my answer. I found that I still made silly mistakes and were rushing throughout the remediations just because of the stress of everything else around me. 

This semester I feel like I’ve learned a lot of test taking strategies and have narrowed down topics in which I need to focus on more than others in preparation in taking the NCLEX. Pharmacology and mental health are still the two topics that I need to do the most review on. Beyond the NCLEX, I’ve learned many useful skills that will help me in my future career. For example, I need to trust my gut and not second guess myself. When I second guess myself that’s when I usually do the wrong thing. My time here in the UNE nursing program, along with this course, has reinstated my lifelong problem of that procrastination only causes more stress. This will be helpful when I’m practicing as a nurse with things like charting and keeping on top of tasks. I’m excited to be going into a career in which the learning never ends. 

Prepare for Transitions

I have such mixed feelings about ending the semester and being done nursing school. I’ve been in college since fall of 2016 so I’m super excited to be done but I’m very nervous about entering the nursing field. I think what I’m most worried about is entering into healthcare during these times during the pandemic. You hear so much on social media, TV, among peers, etc. Even though our healthcare system isn’t the same as it was when I decided to go into it, I am looking forward to practicing on patients. So, I very much have mixed feelings about graduating in May. After graduation my plan is to take some time off from everything and study for a month. I’d like to take my NCLEX no later than mid/end of June. I think once I get closer and see how much I really know with practice exams I’ll determine then when I should take my NCLEX.

            Even though May seems far away, I know it will come up very fast. I know I need to prepare myself to take my NCLEX as well as starting my job as a nurse. My biggest struggle is medications. This semester I’ve set a goal to go over at least 3 medications every week thoroughly. I would hate to get to my NCLEX and miss questions on small mistakes over medications. I plan on writing these drugs down on my iPad. I really enjoy drawing, so I hope to not only make this a good way to learn but I wanted to make it fun. I know I won’t have time to draw every medication so if I write down the content about it, I will be satisfied. I can go back and add anything I want later. With this my hope is by May I will have thoroughly gone through around 45 drugs. I plan on grouping types of drugs (BB, ACE, ARBS, statins, etc) so in reality it will be more. 

            Lastly for the Nurse Logic 2.0 Modules I learned a few things form them. It was nice to get a brush up on discharge procedures, specifically the education that went along with it. It reinforces that I need to be thinking about patient education with everything. It was also nice to brush up on patient priority. I know it’s so important to prioritize as a nurse. Lastly, these exams really engrained how much I need to study my medications. They are so important, and I can’t go into a situation and not know what I’m giving. I hope that with these ATI tests, what I’m learning in my courses, and practice NCLEX questions I’ll be prepared to take the exam and move into the nursing field. 

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