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February 2013

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, so hopefully this will be a pleasant February with an early Spring. I want to do something a little different with this month's newsletter. Many of my newsletters have focused on my research which seeks to protect the American public from iatrogenic harm. Iatrogenic means caused by a physician. Even by the most conservative estimates, prescription drugs kill more than 100,000 Americans every year. To put that in perspective, adverse reactions to prescription drugs kill more than five-and-a-half times more Americans than AIDS (which itself is a collection of 26 diseases as diverse as cervical cancer, diarrhea, dementia, and tuberculosis) and more than 8 times as many Americans as non-self-inflicted gun shot wounds.

In addition to my research, I teach American Heart Association CPR and First Aid classes, and I work as a Professional Anatomy, Physiology, Nursing, and NCLEX tutor. The NCLEX is the licensing exam for Registered Nurses. I am just as passionate about helping nursing students succeed in their classes and pass the nursing board exam as I am about improving the United States' 49th in the world life expectancy.

I want to share Flabia's story with you.

Flabia immigrated to the United States from Uruguay with her parents in 2000. She enrolled in the nursing program at Mount Wachusett Community College in 2008 and graduated with her Associate's degree in nursing in 2010. Flabia had excelled in the clinical setting, but her grades were only okay. She, like many of my clients, was a self-described "bad test taker." 

Flabia took a five day Kaplan prep course for the nursing board exam that was offered at her school and then attempted the NCLEX-RN board exam. She failed. She took the Kaplan class again, reattempted the exam, and failed again. For her third attempt she purchased an online review package from a company called ATI which offers online practice questions and virtual coaching. She failed yet again.

Flabia tried studying on her own, but the sheer volume of material was overwhelming. She told me that, "There was so much material that I didn't know where to go. I would read study books and by the time I got to the end I would have forgotten everything from the beginning." That's very easy to do given that most NCLEX prep books are more than 700 pages thick. Like many of my clients who had failed the exam multiple times the repeated disappointment had taken its toll. "It gets in your head," Flabia told me. 

By the time this past August rolled around frustration was rapidly growing into a feeling of hopelessness. Flabia was studying for hours a day on her own but felt like she wasn't getting anywhere. Unable to work as a nurse, Flabia was working a physically-demanding job at a fast food chain to pay her bills. Flabia told me that she wanted to work as a nurse so that she could have a job that required her to use her mind as well as her body. 

In August, she did a google search for "NCLEX private classes" and clicked on an ad for one of my 4-Hour NCLEX prep classes. Impressed by the class, she hired me for independent tutoring starting at the very end of August. By this time she had been out of school for more than two years and spent more than $2,000 between NCLEX review classes and the board exam itself which costs $250 per attempt. Her scores on NCLEX practice questions were still far off the passing standard, but Flabia is easily one of the hardest working, most determined people I've ever met. 

Flabia committed herself to my program completely. We started meeting weekly. We would review the most testable material and go over practice questions that she missed. She completed the assigned number of practice questions every week without a hint of complaint. With time and practice, she learned all the core material contained within my exclusive NCLEX study guide. Gradually, her knowledge base, test-taking skills, scores, and confidence started to improve. I always demand more of my students than even the NCLEX does so that I can be more than 95% confident that when I tell someone they are ready to go take the exam that they will pass.

We had to take a brief break from our sessions in December because Flabia had another test to take: her citizenship test. Flabia officially became a citizen of the United States in December. Then, on January 15th, after four months of hard work that saw her scores on practice questions improve more than 15%, Flabia took the NCLEX-RN. The exam can be as few as 75 questions or as many as 265; the exam shuts off when a student is clearly above or clearly below the passing standard. Flabia's exam shut off after 75 questions.

She called me the next day crying. "I passed. Thank you so much . . . I don't have any words." Flabia is far from my first client to call me sobbing with relief, triumph, and appreciation. "Thank you so much . . . I don't have any words" are actually very touching words. 

It is because of phone calls and stories like Flabia's that I work as a professional tutor. There are so many hard working people who just need that extra level of individual attention, academic support, and encouragement in order to excel. I have been fortunate to work with many inspiring people over my career as a tutor. Clients who overcame learning disorders, English being their second language, working 40 hours a week in addition to raising children and taking nursing classes. Flabia no longer considers herself a bad test taker, nor does she carry around anxiety or feelings of inadequacy because of her challenges on the nursing board exam.