The test that was taken this week was the Proctored Pharmacology Exam. This was interesting for me because it was the first proctored ATI exam we have taken in this class after doing all of the practice ATI. In terms of taking the test, I felt much more comfortable while taking the test and making sure that I read through every question properly. I usually get very anxious when testing and put a lot of pressure on myself to be perfect and get everything right but this time I just made sure that I took a deep breath before and assured myself that I was confident in my abilities to take this test. It was helpful that this first one was only 70 questions, especially because the practice ones I have been taking are 150 so it made me feel more focused, but it also was nerve-racking that the test was only 70 minutes long. When taking the practice tests I have been making sure to take my time and think through every option and even make myself time for a break but I felt like I couldn’t do that as much with this test. It is good for me to experience that because it will get me prepared for the NCLEX. One thing that was difficult for this test was that weakness in learning is 100% Pharmacology and Medications, so taking this test was hard for me to recall all of the medications but it also showed the ones that I need to study more compared to the ones that I associate with diseases processes and are able to remember more often. I think this test helped me a lot to realize which content areas of medication that I need to do more work on.
Prepare for Licensure #5
Taking this comprehensive test made me feel extremely proud of my work this semester and I felt like I was able to take all of the factors that I wanted to work on into one test. During this test I knew it would be a lot of questions so I made sure to put myself in a good environment with a lack of distractions so that I could focus and get in the right mindset to answer the questions. Since these questions were broader and more incorporated all different types of questions, I knew I had to think of the main points for each question. I believe this is what helped me do so well on this test because when I am memorizing or studying for an exam, I do my best to focus on the priorities and the main focal points that I know will constantly be brought up and a lot of these questions asked me about my nursing interventions and what I would be doing FIRST and I felt like I was WAY more prepared for them this time around. This exam really helped me show my growth and how far I have come to reach my goal of getting better at answering questions and I think the biggest difference that was made was finding a balance between taking my time but also not overthinking the question. If I really didn’t know a question, I just tried to use the process of elimination, but if I did know them I just made sure to come up in my head what I knew the main points of the topics were and be aware of that when reading the answers to the questions. I know I have a lot more to work on and I have a lot of content areas that I need to do better on, especially medications and manifestations of disease processes but I think these exams are helping me realize what I need to go back and study and look over and what my strengths are that I need to continue to be doing when I take these exams.
Attaining and Protecting Your Professional Nursing License
Personally, I don’t know exactly where I plan on becoming licensed by examination. I am currently choosing between Massachusetts, Florida and North Carolina. Massachusetts is not apart of the NLC while Florida and North Carolina are apart of it. I am going to write on North Carolina because that is where I am leaning towards the most. The application is completed and submitted through a web based and requires a transcript to be uploaded directly from the institution. All candidates must undergo a fingerprint based FBI criminal history check. All applicants must provider their fingerprints and the appropriate forms and fee to facilitate a criminal background check prior to the issuance of a license. If a nurse is found impaired the board is allowed to place nurse on probation, impose limitations and conditions, deny issuing a license and revoke a license or privilege to practice nursing in this state. They will also provide education and requires satisfactory completion of treatment programs or remedial/educational training. It also states that any person who has any cause to suspect misconduct or incapacity of a licensee shall report all relevant facts to the board and shall be immune from any criminal prosecution or civil liability resulting therefrom unless such person knew the report was false or acted reckless disregard of whether the report was false. The violation of any provision of the article shall be a class 1 misdemeanor and things that can help are Nursing Insurance to help keep you safe in a time where you slip up.
Prepare for Licensure #4
This reflection I going to be based on the ATI Pharmacology Practice B test that I took. This test went a lot smoother for me and I think it is because of already having the experience of doing the Pharmacology A practice test before this. This made me feel accomplished because it made me realize how much these remediations were helping me with other tests I take in the future and being able to remember certain things about medications that didn’t stick before. I believe that the remediations and the repetition of going through each question is extremely helpful. I also enjoy using the 3 critical points because sometimes it can be overwhelming to try to remember every single thing about a drug, but when you put it in the format of doing 3 of the most important points then its easier to remember for the future.
Something I did notice about myself is that since I was more confident this time around I was answering the questions much faster. This helped for some questions because it helped me not second guess myself but I know some of them I made stupid mistakes that could have been fixed by just reading through all of the answers fully. Ive realized that it is okay to answer the question fast if an answer is really sticking out to me but it is better to go back and really look through the whole question and all of the answers to ensure that I’m not making a reading error or missing out on a better option.
Something I can do better for the future tests is to make sure even when I’m confident going into the test that I still do all of the normal protocols such as highlighting and underlining the important things or key words. Sometimes this slips my mind when I go into a test I feel really confident on but I should be doing the same stuff I do for a test that I’m not so sure of and a test I am sure of. When it comes down to content, I can feel really confident about everything I have learned but in order to show that I have to be able to properly answer the nursing questions so I can display the things I’ve learned.
Prepare for Licensure #3
This week I did an ATI that was based on Maternity/Newborn. I was looking forward to this because this is a subject that I am highly interested in and thought it would be great to improve my knowledge on this topic. I think this week I felt more confident about these questions, but I also think that made me rush through some of them a little too fast and not really read into the question. I found that for this exam I was focusing less on the answers and more the questions and if I thought it was something familiar to that topic I would choose that, but that didn’t allow me to critically think about all of the options. I also had some struggles with “priority” or “first” questions because its a word that can be very overlooked, especially on an exam.
To help myself get better at answering these questions I have been trying to put myself in the hypothetical questions and think about how I would realistically act in the moment because sometimes you overlook answers that are just simply positioning the client or checking the clients band. These are all things that need to be done for any interventions and they can easily be overlooked for a medication administration or an immediate intervention, but sometimes that is not the first step.
Prepare for Licensure #2
This time around I took the Med-Surge ATI. With this test I decided to take more breaks and finish the test over the span of 1-2 days so that I wouldn’t lose as much focus and concentration on the questions. I also made sure to do a better job of fully reading through the questions because I know I had a lot of mistakes on my last ATI because I didn’t full read through. One thing that was challenging for me this time was select all that apply questions. I answers majority of them correctly but then I would leave out one answer that was also correct just because I was insecure of how many answers I was selecting, but I need to be more focused on the answers at hand and what is true/false for the question rather than overthinking how many answers I give. This is something I will work on next time by really dipping deep into select all that apply questions and looking through all of the answers before answering. I really like how these ATI tests are helping me to find problems in my content gap as well and seeing what things I have mastered and what things I need to do more studying on because it gives me great feedback to make me a better nurse in the future.
Prepare for Licensure #1
This time around doing the Pharmacology ATI, I made a plan to just go into it and not change my answers. I made this plan beforehand so I would spend more time on the questions rather than flying through the ones I felt like I knew and then being stuck on other ones and I believe this really helped me. It helped me to not overthink the questions and not get stuck between 2 answers. One thing I could have done better was highlighting key words in the question because the main weakness I had was picking wrong answers for questions that were asking contraindications or “needs for further teaching”. Making sure you read the question all of the way through and thoroughly looking through all of the answers is one thing that I need to work on.
I also found out that I can get very burnt out during tests and then I start to lose focus. One thing that could really help me, especially during ATI is taking my time and doing 10 questions then giving myself a minute to just think and reset as if I am taking a bunch of little tests rather than a 200 question test all at once.
