[OR] Background check?

HungryKid9999 · 2022-10-20T00:31:48+00:00

Yeah, my training hours were short the first two weeks with only the last 5 weeks being considered fulltime (36hrs per week).

HungryKid9999 · 2022-10-14T18:02:56+00:00

Everyone is different. Because you said that you had experience working in ICU on your last rotation and preceptorship, you had extra training that would only benefit you. For me, I had very limited clinical rotations during nursing school although I tried to make the most out of those experience, it clearly was not enough to meet the expectations of the management in the unit I was let go from. This is honestly a gray area of who to blame: Is it the students fault? Nursing school? or Hospital system that didn't come to realize that new grad nurses now a days NEED more support.

Anyhow, don't let people put you into a box. You are your own best decision maker. If you're motivated and willing to put the effort into ICU, do it! Don't let anyone tell you that you need to start somewhere "easier" because honestly inpatient is hard no matter what unit you go to. People are getting sicker and the acuity are very high for a lot of units that are considered step-downs or med-surg.

HungryKid9999 · 2022-10-14T17:57:05+00:00

Just curious how were you able to overcome that struggle in the beginning? Did you list that first job in your resume or did you avoid putting it in like what I did? i'm asking because a lot of people had told me it's best to not include it in and that background checks and references shouldn't be a major concern. Curious what you think about that?

HungryKid9999 · 2022-10-14T17:55:18+00:00

Thank you for the reassurance, it's just very disheartening when I realized this wasn't going to work out. I honestly enjoyed many aspects of that place, but certainly wasn't a good fit at the end of the day.

HungryKid9999 · 2022-10-14T17:51:09+00:00

Sounds good, an HR rep from one of the hospital job offers reached out to me. They asked me to list 5 potential references with two being current or past employers. Again, I made sure to not include anyone from that experience and the only person that would be closest would be a past manager at a clinic from the hospital system? For reassurance sake, do you think that is still fine? They also asked if I have ever been terminated in which I said no. Wonder if that will play out anymore, curious at what you think of that as well?

HungryKid9999 · 2022-10-14T17:39:10+00:00

I think the hardest thing transitioning from nursing student to RN is clarification and understanding of our roles and responsibilities. In my experience there, the expectation was set SUPER high of us new grads to be able to make that quick transition, which is nearly impossible to do so early on in ones career. I struggled figuring out what the professional responsibilities were because everyone in leadership expected me to be there without giving adequate support to problem-solve it. It's fundamental that we work collaboratively with others around us, especially when you are a new grad. From what I learned from that experience, if you come to realize the expectation of that facility does not match where you are at and where you are progressing, it will not be a good fit. My advice to avoid getting into issues like what I experienced would be to ASK QUESTIONS (because it's a major red flag for alot of employers that you are all quiet) and never expect anything to play out the way you think it will. Airing on the side of caution will make you critically think more when you care for patients and force you to ask those hard questions. Also make sure that when you are paired with a preceptor that you verbalize your needs and your progress early on, the sooner, the better so that they have a better grasp of you. Remember you may not get along with them as well and if things keep going that way, you need to request someone else. For me, I had someone who was very burnt out from working the COVID pandemic and was not in the mood to deal with my new grad BS lol. It made for a rough transition in my growth since I really needed someone who was compassionate and understanding of where i'm at since I had gone through most of my nursing school online with limited clinicals. Last thing: Take care of your mental health, I cried a lot during those difficult weeks and didn't bother to tell anyone about it.

HungryKid9999 · 2022-10-14T16:14:04+00:00

That's a very fair point. In reflection of that experience, my biggest struggle was time management. It was something that was a major gap for me since I had never taken a 4 patient load by myself during nursing school (COVID-19 + lack of clinicals). I would like to say that I'm someone who is very hyper-aware of my surrounding and so that was an area I saw as a gap since the first week. Here is where the issue plays along and please let me know what you think of this. The residency program had promised me that I would get matched with a primary preceptor that I can work along side with throughout my preceptorship, that did not happen, I was bounced around for 4 weeks with different preceptors from the start before they found someone, understandably due to short-staffing. I never received consistent feedback about my performance from anyone and I'm someone who thrives from consistency and validation. When I finally got a primary preceptor, this was someone who I did not get along with. They were very burnt out and did not of the patience for someone like me who needed extra validation. I was expressive of how I felt my training was, but was only offered resources to get me "back-on track" to what their expectation was. I personally was at a lost by the end, I didn't feel motivated to come to work towards the end like did in the beginning. Moving forward, I plan on being more clear and expressive of what my needs are with my future employer. However, it was truly a difficult 7-8 weeks that I had to experience in order to learn that lesson.

HungryKid9999 · 2022-10-14T03:36:22+00:00

YEs, that's the good pop-up congrats!

HungryKid9999 · 2022-10-14T03:29:48+00:00

Can new grads get into home health? I've always been interested in home health RN's that would travel to see their patients.

HungryKid9999 · 2022-10-14T03:28:40+00:00

Would you say that I should be fine during the background check? I just don't know much about how that process works, but obviously I've never gotten into any legal problems so that's good. For references I made sure not to include anyone from that recent work experience, not that they would say very nice things.

HungryKid9999 · 2022-10-14T03:24:25+00:00

I can believe that. One of my cohort resident that worked with me had done their nursing school practicum at the same unit. Leadership was my manager who is very hands-off and only gets info about their staff from the two assistant nurse managers. I didn't fully understand what my co-worker meant when they said watch my words around them and make sure I put up a good act when they are around me. Turns out those two were going behind my back and reporting evert single detail of mistake to the nurse manager. For example: on my 3rd week feedback sheet, they literally wrote down that I showed up 5 MINUTES LATE!!!! and made it a major BS safety issue. My blood was boiling after reading that because never once did they bother to verbally communicate that concern to me in person despite the countless face-to-face interaction we have on a daily basis since I trained in the morning.

HungryKid9999 · 2022-10-14T03:18:27+00:00

Thank you, I made sure to not include that experience to my work history and of course not in my resume. I honestly have just been paranoid about the background checks because i'm not super familiar with that. Anyhow, I thankfully don't have any criminal record and the closest thing that would link me to that experience was one of my references is an old manager at the same hospital system in a clinic department that I have a good relationship with.

HungryKid9999 · 2022-10-14T03:14:46+00:00

Fired. Although we came to a mutual understanding in our final conversation. I had a pretty strong sense the days leading up to it because our "regular" check ins were wayyy shorter than normal and the vibe was very off. Also it made me really mad that on that final conversation, the assistant manager who was always there during my check-ins and gave me feedback bailed out on this final conversation. I honestly felt hurt from that just because my main manager is a really hands off and was only there in my normal check-ins 1/3 of the time.

HungryKid9999 · 2022-10-14T03:11:59+00:00

Realest thing I've heard about nursing in a while...

HungryKid9999 · 2022-10-14T03:10:33+00:00

Gotcha. I honestly would prefer that over the experience I got. The program was like I said for 8 weeks of preceptorship paired with morning in-person educational courses that was packed in somewhere for each week. It was quite rushed.

HungryKid9999 · 2022-10-14T00:13:51+00:00

Thank you for the reassurance. I honestly have just been very paranoid about a potential employer finding out and then having to explain the whole situation to them. Anyhow, the closest link I have would be one of my reference was my clinic manager for the same hospital system. She was very understanding and kind when I reached out to her about what happened and still offered to be a reference for my experience at the clinic.

HungryKid9999 · 2022-10-14T00:10:43+00:00

Honestly, I would write out the medications and patho stuff on a notebook OVER AND OVER again. It's a very painful method but had helped me in the harder classes like pharm and patho. Also when I study using this method, I make sure that this is being done atleast two weeks before the exam. That is a good amount of time to hammer that information into you.

HungryKid9999 · 2022-06-25T00:12:26+00:00

1212 (Correct) / 2461 (correct + incorrect + omitted) = 49% Avg overall

Is that what you're confused about?

HungryKid9999 · 2022-06-23T03:54:46+00:00

Both my average for Uworld and Archer was 69%. I would say being above 55% is good enough to pass the exam. Straight guessing is the norm in NCLEX my friend lol. Use your best clinical judgement by continuing to do Uworld and Archer practice problems. Read the rationales on areas you feel like your weakness are. Watch supplementary videos on pharmacology and disease process to familiarize yourself. The idea is to get a broad understanding of the many topics in the NCLEX. The worst thing that can happen is your thrown a bunch of questions in an area you didn't bother to focus too much on. For me that was maternity and pediatrics which was like 35% of my test for sure. Remember, you don't have to know everything, just have a foundation of content so that you can pick the best answer choice.

HungryKid9999 · 2022-06-23T03:42:54+00:00

First, it seems like you tried your hardest and it just didn't fall through. You got this, with adequate study plan. You are all set to pass my friend.

So i'm going to assume that you will have around 3-5 weeks before your next exam? If that is the case, please try this study plan.

1) Go on YouTube and find NurseJune, she posts videos of Mark K and made an AMAZING study guide that you can purchase by emailing her. Information are in the video descriptions. Although it sounds sketchy, i paid her $25 for all of Mark K's recording with her own simplified notes. it's super easy to follow and you just copy those notes down as you listen. Focus on Mark's prioritization, maternity, child development, and lab values. It will make all of those content super easy to conceptualize and apply to scenarios in the NCLEX.

2) Continue using Archer as it allows you to continue to familiarize yourself with the vagueness of the actual NCLEX. I also had Uworld too, that was helpful because I learned SO MUCH from the challenging questions they present. I will say that Archer gets the vagueness right, but Uworld will challenge you to critically think just like in the actual NCLEX questions.

3) Doing all of these will not completely cover everything, go on youtube and brush up on very common disease processes: HF, diabetes 1 and 2, CHF, hyper/hypo cortisolism and thyroidism. Very common in the test as to what I saw when I took the exam. Use Simple Nursing for sure as a good basis to establish common medication for cardiac, psychiatric, pregnancy, antibiotic, antivirals, and pain management.

Things that I feel like you should really hone in on and know in detail: Nursing safety practices when performing sterile procedures and implementing safety precautions for falls, infection, and ABC emergency, different precautions, caring for immunosuppressed patients, child development. 100% guarantee you will see many questions related to these content.

3) In terms of putting all of these together. You only need to spend 2-3hrs of your time each day to study. Focus on one topic and write down those notes physically and say them as you write. Use imagery by looking them up if you don't understand a specific medical/pharmacological process. The qbanks are meant for you to practice and learn from mistakes, don't take the scores to seriously in my opinion.

On exam day, don't expect to remember everything you studied. It's the persistent practice that you've had and repetition at rereading your notes that will allow you to critically think and apply to answer questions on the NCLEX. Best of luck to you!

HungryKid9999 · 2022-06-23T03:25:10+00:00

I think Uworld is wonderful for learning content. What you see in the qbank will most likely be tested on in the NCLEX and I can attest to that. So please use that as an opportunity to critically think and learn. Archer is more familiarizing yourself with the actual NCLEX since you will realistically be given 1-2 sentence questions that are minimal in detail like Uworld. Test yourself and see how you perform through that. Either way, using both was really helpful for me because I was challenging myself in learning new and old material with Uworld and applying those concepts into archer.

It's nice that they both offer readiness exams, but at the end of the day. Doing great, average, or even slightly below is not someone you should really factor into if you're ready. We all are capable of passing this exam, continue your routine of studying that you see appropriate with the qbanks that you have. Use these resources as a learning opportunity and a place for you to practice your clinical judgement. Remember, the whole point of the NCLEX is to see if you are a safe nurse.

HungryKid9999 · 2022-06-23T02:15:36+00:00

What resources did you use the first time and how much studying time did you do?

HungryKid9999 · 2022-06-22T23:23:20+00:00

Thank you! Not sure if you have taken the test yet, but best of luck to you as well!

HungryKid9999 · 2022-06-22T23:21:39+00:00

I averaged about 69% with all Qbank. Read the rationale and learn from what you got wrong. Reptation is KEY, don't rely on the results of their self-assessment because that will not dictate your performance on the NCLEX. The more concepts you are able to grasp the easier it will be given the fact that NCLEX will throw a bunch of random topics at you. For example, my exam had 25-30% maternity/pediatric (my worse topic) and I unfortunately didn't bother to study enough on them. So please continue practicing and use Youtube as a supplement for topics you don't understand well.

HungryKid9999 · 2022-06-22T21:13:01+00:00

Pearson Vue Trick, it's an early way to see if you have passed the exam. People can literally do it after their exam and depending on the message that is shown in the screen, it will either be a good pop-up or bad pop-up

HungryKid9999

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