As my last semester in nursing school neared the end, I could tell that my test taking strategies had shifted in a more positive direction. At the beginning of this nursing program, and even at the beginning of the final summer semester, I would find myself not entirely reading questions or rushing through the exam in order to finish it quicker but this often resulted in misinterpretations of the question and ultimately getting the answer wrong. The Individual Performance Profiles on the ATI exams were very helpful because I could see what categories I needed improvement on and it acted as a way to reflect on the questions I got wrong. I did notice at the beginning, I would get a lot of pharmacology questions incorrect, so I made it a point to begin studying the medications more frequently and understanding their impact on the disease processes we were learning. It was helpful to see the categories I was frequently getting wrong so I could change my study habits and improve on my test taking. It was also good practice to reflect on the questions I got wrong and to understand why I got them wrong. The most frequent reason behind me getting answers wrong was either due to a knowledge deficit in the content or misinterpretation of the question. Knowing that I was having difficulties with understand some questions, I made it a point to take more time reading the questions as well as thoroughly reading the answer choices.

At the beginning of the program, I was also working at Maine Medical Center part time. As the semesters progressed, I slowly backed off of working and the third semester I took off from working as well. This past semester, I began working again and noticed that although I had a busier schedule, I felt that I was more organized and mindful of my schedule. By the time that preceptorship came around, I was only working 1 day every 1-2 weeks to ensure that I had enough time to complete my coursework but also have a break from schooling at a job that I really enjoyed going to. Despite a lot of things happening in my personal life during this semester, I felt that I practiced self-care better than I had in the past and stopped stressing about things that were out of my control.

The most important thing that I have learned in this program is that the only way you can grow in your career is to challenge yourself and step outside of your comfort zone. This lesson is the reason why I chose to accept a full time position working in an Emergency Department – I feel as though this environment will help to challenge me the most as a new nurse and help me gain a lot of experience. The thing that I am most frightened of is a patient coding or not knowing what to do in a stressful situation. I feel as though putting myself into this environment will challenge me and help me get over these fears that I have. Along with the lessons that I learned, I feel as though the exams in this program have prepared me very well for the NCLEX and obtaining my license. I think that transitioning into practice won’t be that difficult due to my career as a CNA and through preceptorship/clinical hours. The only shift when transitioning into my practice as a nurse will be taking full responsibility for my patients and having the confidence in myself as a nurse, which I believe will come with time!