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My son Asher is home from the special care nursery, and we're doing a good job of fattening him up! Naturally, I'm ecstatic to have him home, and I'm exhausted and have prominent dark circles under my eyes. This month I want to share some more recent success stories because I recently set a new record that I'm pretty proud of. I've been fortunate to continue to have great success preparing students for the NCLEX-RN despite the fact that only 69% of first time, US educated students passed the NCLEX-RN on their first attempt from October 2013 - December 2013. Another way of saying that is that 31%, almost 1 in 3 students, failed the nursing board exam on their first try after graduation. Repeat test takers failed 55% of the time. The pass rate has dropped more than 21% since the passing standard was increased in April 2013. That's why I have a prep class coming up Saturday March 8th from 9:30 AM - 1:30 PM in Newton, MA for $60. There are only three spots left. I love sharing the success of my clients, but it's also been a while since I've shared some of my research, so next month I'm going to start sharing the results of my last two years of AIDS research. The vast majority of AIDS researchers turn to virology, immunology, and molecular biology in the search for a cure for AIDS. I think they are largely looking in the wrong place. I think the cure for AIDS lies within logic, the scientific method, the chronology of AIDS, and the definition of AIDS itself. Next month I plan to take you back in time to 1981 to look at the first 1,000 AIDS patients, but for now I'd like to congratulate Keith, Heather, Rosario, Lauren, Kathleen, Mike, Alisa, and Jennifer for passing the NCLEX-RN and becoming Registered Nurses. |
| Hard Work and Expert Help Leads to Happy Endings |
Keith, a hard working dad of two with a third on the way, finally succeeded on try number four after attending my 4-Hour Prep Class and one-to-one tutoring. Heather graduated from Salem State University in August 2013, but was unsuccessful on her first attempt at the board exam. Her scores improved above the passing standard after a lot of hard work and one-on-one tutoring; she just passed on her second try. Rosario emailed me to let me know that she passed the board exam in November after attending my 4-Hour prep class, and she is now happily working as a Registered Nurse at a skilled nursing home in Sudbury.
Lauren and Kathleen sought me out as a pair after both failing multiple times. They graduated from a 14-month accelerated program that left them with some big content deficiencies, and they were both far off the passing standard and starting to feel demoralized when they first came to me. After 15 weeks of working their butts off their scores increased more than 15%, they learned all of the core material contained within my exclusive study guide, and they were scoring above the passing standard. Kathleen passed the exam and Lauren soon followed. By meeting as a pair they kept the cost down, and they effectively studied together by running flashcards and quizzing each other on the content we reviewed during our once weekly sessions. I demanded a lot of them, and they rose to the challenge.
Mike just passed on his fourth attempt after a combination of my prep class and one-to-one tutoring. Mike worked as a nurse in Russia, but he struggled to pass the NCLEX, so he has been working as a scrub tech at a local hospital. Mike and I worked together for around four months, meeting about once every two weeks due to his rotating work schedule before he passed after the minimum 75 questions.
I do a lot of work with international nurses. The NCLEX is hard even for native English speakers, but it's extra challenging for those for whom English is their second language, and it's also immensely difficult to pass the exam after having been out of school for so many years. That's why international students fail the exam 70% of the time on their first attempt and 85% of the time on repeat attempts. In general, I've found the international students I've worked with to be highly intelligent and motivated, and Mike was no exception; they just need some help focusing on the most important content and learning the pharmacology suffixes and testable points because the names of many drugs varies internationally.
Alisa is also from Russia, and she also passed on try number four, but she came here at age 10 from St. Petersberg. She has only the slightest hint of an accent that slips out at times, but she has beautiful fair skin, blond hair, and charismatic green eyes befitting a tsarina. Alisa graduated with her Associate's Degree from Laboure College in 2013, but couldn't get past the board exam. Alisa and I started working together on January 4th, and she really gave me everything she had. You have to have that fire, that drive, that passion, to be successful on the NCLEX after multiple setbacks. Every week Alisa came in having drilled the material from the week before so that she knew the material cold, and she did impeccably on the challenging cumulative final I give students right before their exam, so I was not surprised when she passed after 110 questions. She earned her happy ending.
It's such a joy for me to help such deserving people, but there's one more story I would like to tell.
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Jennifer's Story
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Jennifer graduated in 2004 from Rivier College with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree, but she couldn't pass the nursing board exam. She tried the Kaplan review without success. Then she tried the Anderson review but still didn't pass. After a couple of failures, and not knowing what more to do after prep classes proved inadequate, and faced with the need to begin working to derive income, she learned that she could take the easier NCLEX-PN exam become a Licensed Practice Nurse.
Jennifer took the NCLEX-PN and became a Licensed Practical Nurse, but she always wanted to earn the RN credentials she had trained for. Jennifer attempted the board exam seven times over the last 10 years. Seven times is a lot of failure. It's easy to get stuck in a rut of escalating anxiety and powerlessness. Jennifer is successful in most other aspects of her life. She has a good career as a Licensed Practical Nurse. She is happily married with two children. But it always bothered her that she couldn't pass that damn test. That failure cast a shadow over her, dimming an otherwise vibrant life.
Jennifer really gave me her all. I had to send her home a few times because she came to our session after having worked an overnight double shift. By the time she got to me she was brain dead after 16 straight hours of providing direct patient care. Nursing isn't easy. Despite having been out of school for almost a decade, having failed seven times previously, working full time, and raising two kids, Jennifer finally passed and became a Registered Nurse on December 26th, a day after Christmas.
Jennifer sent me an email after she passed that read, "I forgot to tell you, as you know my mom passed away at 54 last year unexpectedly. The night after the test I was driving home from work and I was talking to her out loud. I asked her to please send me a sign to let me know I finally succeeded and didn't let her down. Not even 20 seconds later I saw a shooting star in the sky and the song 'Counting Stars' came on the radio. It was freaky and I cried. The next day I passed."
But the ending gets even happier. Jennifer earned her RN and was now eligible to move up into management. Just last week Jennifer got a nurse manager position that comes with a big pay raise, and, perhaps more importantly, her new job is Monday through Friday, no weekends or holidays, and it affords her a lot more time with her kids and her husband Tom.
Jennifer marks a new record for me. I can now say I've helped clients who had failed up to seven times previously. And she did it in style; she was scoring way above the passing standard before she reattempted the exam, and she passed after only 75 questions. She just needed help focusing her studying, an objective way to measure her progress, and someone to believe in her and help her regain her optimism and overcome the anxiety and negative thoughts that come from multiple failures.
Her success is even more rewarding because Jennifer was a fourth generation word-of-mouth referral. She was referred to me by Sokhira, who was referred to me by Janelle's sister-in-law, who was referred to me by a student from the very first 4-Hour prep class that I ever taught. Satisfied clients who genuinely believe in you make the best sales force.
I don't know if it's extreme exhaustion or the unconditional love of my son or some cracked out combination of the two, but I'm feeling very positive these days. I'm back to tutoring, and I just taught a great Heartsaver AED class for the good people at Popeye's Chicken in Chelmsford. The owner of 7 locations hired me to train all the general managers; he wants to have two staff trained in every store. I got there early to set up so I listened in on their meeting, and I was so impressed by their commitment to quality and cleanliness. Plus, they loaded me up with a 12-piece set of delicious fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, and rolls so buttery they defy modern physics. It really hit the spot after a day in the special care nursery.
I wish you a happy start to March and all the joy in the world. Now I have to go change because Asher peed on me.
Best Wishes,
Dan
Daniel A. Clinton, RN, BSN
Professional Nursing Tutor
617-312-3799
[email protected]
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| About The Author | |
Dan Clinton is a Registered Nurse, CPR and First Aid Instructor, Professional Anatomy, Physiology, Nursing, and NCLEX-RN tutor, Researcher, Writer, Entrepreneur, and overall swell guy. Dan channels his passion for helping others through his businesses, striving to fulfill the American dream of succeeding through altruism, hard work, persistence, and ingenuity. As a CPR and First Aid Instructor, he offers comprehensive and cutting-edge American Heart Association CPR and First Aid instruction throughout Massachusetts and the New England area. As a professional tutor, Dan holistically aids his clients reach (and often exceed) their goals, and he has quickly developed a reputation Boston's premier tutor for the nursing board exam (the NCLEX-RN).
Dan lives in Salem, Massachusetts, works way too hard, and he finds fatherhood the most intrinsically rewarding experience of his life.
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