NCLEX Review: Top ten tips

Techniques and strategies are very important in your success as an NCLEX examinee. Check out this NCLEX review tips which I’m sure will help you a lot in passing the exam.

Top Ten Tips for your NCLEX review:

10.PRIORITIZE!! Remember to look for words that establish priority (most, first, best, & initial). These words will help you weed out info that you really don’t need!! Keep in mind Maslow’s hierarachy of needs, the nursing process, and patient safety. “Which patient should you see first?” is a popular question….understand the rules of management.

9. Know your NORMALS!! Normal lab and test values are good to know. They will help you decide when there is a problem or if it has already been fixed!

8. Stay CALM!! You will get NCLEX questions that you will have little confidence on how to answer, but staying calm and using key words to pick the best answer will never lead you wrong.

7. Always ASSESS before you IMPLEMENT. It is easy to get tripped up by implementing a nursing action before they assess the patient.

6. Assume you have an MD ORDER. There are no trick questions out there and the NCLEX wants to know if you know what to do as a nurse….not what the doc knows! So, your first response is probably not going to be “calling the doc”.

5. Think PATIENT SAFETY at all times. Start remembering this mantra now because you will hear it over and over in practice.

4. The REAL WORLD is a different place from the NCLEX WORLD. Answer the questions by what you know from a textbook…..not what you remember about taking care of Mrs. X in your clinical rotation.

3. Remember the FIVE RIGHTS of MEDICATION administration. Know these frontwards, backwards, and sideways….you will use this on NCLEX and daily in the real world!

2. CONSIDER “THERAPEUTIC COMMUNICATION” WITH THE PATIENT. The wrong answers usually are ones that include you being a drill sergeant, asking closed-ended questions, or “why do you feel this way?” questions. Also be wary of any answers to patient questions that involve “don’t worry” or “that happened to me once”.

1. REVIEW, STUDY, REVIEW, STUDY, REVIEW, STUDY!!!!!! Do not take the NCLEX until you have taken time to review what you learned in nursing school. Use the ATI system to assess your knowledge, review, and re-test, until you are confident in your knowledge. BUT DON’T WAIT TOO LONG TO TAKE NCLEX! You will do better if the information is “fresh” in your mind.

Thanks to this great list of NCLEX review tips from UltimateNurse.com!