Nursing exam

2 weeks and 1 day will begin the beginning of my 2 1/2 day exam. This is my last clinical exam and after passing it I will be able to sit for my NCLEX exam to receive my license. I can't believe how quickly it is coming. Part of me wants this to come quickly so I can get it over with but the other part of me wants it to never come.

The exam consists of showing up at 4pm on Friday night. The first night will be an orientation and the lab simulation. During the lab simulation we will be given 2 of the 4 following tasks to accomplish in a set time frame. These will be done in a mock situation. The tasks include wound management, IV Push (giving meds through the IV), IV injection, and IV piggy back (hanging a med as a secondary IV bag). I feel pretty good about these even though I don't have much hands on with them over the past year. I have practiced them at home with a make shift set-up. I am just praying that I won't get the wound one as that one has a lot of areas where you can make simple mistakes and fail. If I fail any of these I will be given one repeat.

Saturday we go to the hospital and will be given 2 patients to care for. We will have 2 1/2 hours to accomplish the given task on each patient. We have 3-5 tasks that we are asked to complete and then we must write out a care plan and document everything in that 2 1/2 hours. Saturday we have 2 patients and Sunday we have 1. 2 of the patients are adults and 1 is supposed to be a child. If at any point we fail we will be given one extra chance on the adults and one extra chance on the pediatric.

If all goes well I could be out of there by noon on Sunday. If I make a mistake I would be there till 5 or 6. I am truly praying for this to go smoothly and that there are no repeats. I know that once you have to repeat a step it becomes more difficult because they are more critical and you are more nervous.

I have been preparing and praying for this and feel an incredible peace about it. I can't explain this peace except that it is straight from God. In all reality I have not had hands on experience in over a year and the passing rate is only 65%. But I feel as though God is preparing the way and helping me have a confidence that I can't explain. I am definitely looking forward to this being in the past. And I would definitely appreciate all the prayers I can get for that weekend. I know it is those prayers that will give me the strength to get through the weekend.