Preparing for the NCLEX – NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN Examinations

A lot of nurse students and people who currently have nursing degrees but face them selves coming up on the NCLEX-RN and/or NCLEX-PN Examinations should avoid costly review sites and programs and stick to just studying the available practice material as much as possible. Many of those who have recently completed the NCLEX-RN and/or NCLEX-PN Examinations have found that the best practice, has come from self study rather than the reviews of NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN Examinations.

If you are about to relocate it is important to study where you are, and test there first, this will reduce any information being lost and help focus on your current studies. There is a great amount of stress associated with the NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN Examinations but the most important thing to know is that you have prepared for this throughout your career and/or studies.

NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN Examinations Procedure:The application for licensure by examination includes a question about need for
accommodation.
More specific information is sent to individuals on request or when an applicant responds
“yes” to special accommodations on the application.
A written request for accommodation is made by the applicant and includes the reason for
accommodation, what accommodations are requested, the preferred time period for testing,
and the preferred test center.
The applicant arranges for two supporting documents to be sent to the Board – 1) a letter
from an appropriate medical professional confirming the disability and diagnosis, and
identifying the special accommodations that are needed; and 2) a letter from the applicants
nursing program indicating what accommodations, if any, were granted by the program.
Board staff reviews the documentation and determines whether the requested
accommodation is sufficiently supported, e.g. the diagnosis is appropriate to ADA, and the
accommodation is appropriate to the diagnosis.
Board staff who are responsible for review and approval or processing the application for
accommodation are thoroughly familiar with and follow any specific instructions in the
NCLEX™ Manual, Tab 5.
When approved, the intention to request special accommodation is entered into the
individual’s record in MBOS. This entry triggers MBOS to print an NCLEX Modification
Request Form. Staff completes this form and faxes it to NCSBN for review and approval (for
test security and psychometric soundness).
NCSBN notifies the testing service of the approved accommodation.
The applicant receives an authorization packet with instructions for scheduling the day and
time of the test.
References: NCLEX Manual, Tab 5, pages 1-14
Authority for approval: OAR 851-31-0010
Policy History: Adopted August 1997, reviewed and modified January 2002
Review by: August, 2002

The NCLEX RN Examination Study Guide

The National Council Licensure Examination-Registered Nurse licensing examination is a Computer Adaptive Test that runs from 75 to 265 individual items, relaying on an individual’s performance on the exam. Following graduation from your respective nursing programs, triumphant conclusion of this test is a nurse’s doorway to his/her professional career as a nurse. The outline for this examination is revised and revisited every 3 years by the NSCBN depending on the results of a job scrutiny study of fresh graduate nurses rendering the practice of nursing within the initial 6 months following commencement. Every item on the exam is itemized as “Client Need Category” and an “Integrated Process”.

Client Need Categories
There will be four categories for client needs, and every test is going enclose a lowest and a highest questions available from each category.

• Effective Care Environment and Safety
1. Management of Care
2. Infection Control and safety
• Health Maintenance and Promotion
• Psychosocial Integrity
• Physiological Integrity
1. Comfort and Basic care
2. Parenteral and Pharmacological Therapies
3. Risk Potential reduction
4. Physiological Adaptation

Integrated Processes
The integrated processes acknowledged on the NCLEX for RNs exam plan are the following:

• Nursing process: a systematic problem-solving method utilized in the practice of nursing ;
Composed of the steps of the nursing process which are assessing, analyzing, planning, implementing, and evaluating
• Caring: nurse-client relations characterized by shared value and confidence and that are bound on the way to the achievement of preferred results.
• Documentation and communication: nonverbal and/or verbal contacts between nurse and the patient including family members and members of the health care team; a written or electronic documentation of actions or events that happen while the client is under the nurse’s care
• Teaching and Learning: helping the client gain knowledge, attitudes, and capabilities that direct to behavior modification.

Preparing for the NCLEX-RN Examination

Using a book (reviewer) can help make your review easier. To make maximize the time you will spend in studying, try these easy yet essential suggestions:

1. Make use of a weekly calendar to enable you to schedule your study sessions
• Outline the time frames for your daily agendas (work, school, engagements, church activities, etc.) on calendar for the week.
• Find the “loopholes” in your schedule– times in which you wish to study. Put study time to the calendar during times when you expect yourself to be mentally fit, and then do it.
2. Provide the most favorable study environment for yourself.
• Get rid of external sources of disturbance, such as telephone, radio, computer games, internet, etc.
• Do away with internal sources of disruption, such as sleepiness, hunger, thirst, or dwelling on items or problems that cannot be worked on at the moment.
• Have at least 10 minutes break after every hour of strenuous study as a prize and an incentive to keep studying.
3. Use skim reading techniques to enhance comprehension on a specific chapter.

• Skim through the headings of each chapter; it can help you identify the chapter’s substance.
• Do not fail to read the definition of keywords that can help you learn new vocabularies to understand the information in a chapter.
• As much as possible do not disregard graphic aids (figures, graphs, tables, boxes); they are used in explaining significant aspects of a topic.
4. Please read each chapter thoroughly however at a sensible rate.
• Understanding and retention are basically improved by not reading very unhurriedly.
• Take time to read again parts that are not clear to you.
5. Summarize the details that you learned and studied.
• Take practice tests to assessment your application of the chapter content
• Review areas that match to questions you answered inaccurately.

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