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This book is dedicated to my wife, Lois, who over the years has tolerated many of my idiosyncrasies,
which include writing this book. Too bad it isn’t a novel so she would actually read it!
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CONTENTS
Contributors
Preface
Chapter 1 Let’s Get It Started in Here!
Chapter 2 The Process You Must Go Through
Chapter 3 How Is This Test Different?
Chapter 4 NCLEX-PN®—Fact or Fiction?
Chapter 5 Let’s Make Sense of the Test Plan!
Chapter 6 Basic Test-Taking Strategies
Chapter 7 How to Tackle a Priority Question?
Chapter 8 Management and Delegation
Chapter 9 Why Do I Really Have to Understand “the Nursing Process”?
Chapter 10 Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Therapeutic Communication
Chapter 11 Pharmacology in a Nutshell
Chapter 12 Potential Test Question Topics According to the PN Test Plan
Chapter 13 Cool Charts You Just Have to Know
Chapter 14 A Day in the Life
Chapter 15 I’ve Already Failed Once … What Do I Do Now?
Chapter 16 Tips for International Students
Chapter 17 Sample Test Questions
Chapter 18 Directory of State Boards of Nursing
Index
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CONTRIBUTORS
Dana M. Armstrong, RNC, MSN
Associate Degree Nursing Instructor
Hinds Community College
Nursing Allied Health Center
Jackson, Mississippi
Amanda K. Boyanton, RN, BSN, MSN, CDFS, CFNP
Family Nurse Practitioner
River Oaks Hospital
Emergency Department
Flowood, Mississippi
Wanda Todd Bradshaw, RNC, MSN, NNP, PNP, CCRN
Assistant Clinical Professor
Duke University School of Nursing
Durham, North Carolina
Patricia L. Clutter, RN, MEd, CEN, FAEN
Emergency Department Nurse and Consultant
St. John’s Regional Health Center
Springfield, Missouri;
Med-Ed
Strafford, Missouri
Christine R. Duran, APRN-BC, DNP, CNS, CCTN
Clinical Nurse Coordinator
Hematological Malignancies & Blood and Marrow
Transplant
University of Colorado Hospital
Aurora, Colorado
Amy Martinez Garcie, MSN
Nurse Practitioner
DeSoto Regional Health System
Zwolle Rural Clinic
Zwolle, Louisiana
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Lisa Lathem, RN, BSN, CIC
Infection Control Nurse
St. Dominic-Jackson Memorial Hospital
Jackson, Mississippi
Joahnna D. Evans Songer, RN, CCRN, CLNC
Co-Founder and Lead Consultant
Songer, Valdivia & Associates Legal Nurse
Consultants
Visalia, California
ICU and CVICU Nurse
Community Regional Medical Center
Fresno, California
Kaweah Delta Intensive Care Unit
Visalia, California
Cassandra Lynn Hall Valdivia, RN, BSN, LNC
Quality Management Clinical Coordinator
Community Medical Centers
Fresno, California
Co-owner and Lead Consultant
Songer, Valdivia & Associates Legal Nurse
Consultants
Visalia, California
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PREFACE
Hello, nursing students! My name is Marlene Hurst, President and owner of Hurst Review Services and
author of this book. Hurst Review Services, which is based in Brookhaven, Mississippi, opened its doors in
1988 when I began my new teaching job at a major university. As I began to teach nursing students, I quickly
realized how much additional help they needed while in nursing school. Actually, I figured that out during
my days as a nursing student, but at that time I just assumed that I was the only one struggling to survive
nursing school! Today, my passion to help nursing students still rings true, and this desire motivated me to
write this book for you.
I love to make difficult nursing concepts fun and easy to understand! I believe that if students are relaxed,
they will learn and retain more information. I’ve always said that nursing isn’t meant to be difficult: it’s meant
to be understood! My specialty is guiding students to a true understanding of the “why” of nursing content. If
you understand “why” you are performing a specific nursing intervention, you will understand the related
nursing concepts. On the other hand, if you blindly perform skills without knowing why they are required,
you will never understand how nursing really works.
I know that many of you bought this book to help you pass the NCLEX-PN® examination. No sweat! This
book is designed to help you PASS the FIRST time. The book takes difficult nursing content and breaks it
down into core concepts that are easy to understand. It also includes specific test-taking strategies and practice
questions. If you read this book and use it exactly as I’ve suggested, you will pass the NCLEX-PN® the first
time! For those of you who have purchased this book to help you survive nursing school or exit exams, you
won’t be disappointed either.
I’ll bet you’re thinking “What makes her different from any other nurse authors?” Well, for starters, while I
was director of a nursing program, my wonderful faculty and I always achieved a 100% pass rate on the
NCLEX-PN® examination! I also have a solid nursing background. Once I graduated from nursing school, I
began working in the intensive care unit at a very large hospital. When I interacted with the nursing students
during their clinical days, I knew that teaching was what I really wanted to do! So I bit the bullet and went
back to school while working full time. I completed my master’s degree in nursing as an adult and family
nurse practitioner and also became certified in critical care nursing. During my nursing career, I have worked
as a nursing instructor, assistant professor of nursing, staff ICU nurse, charge nurse, emergency department
clinical nurse specialist, and director of a nursing program.
I hope that this book helps you to achieve your dream—and makes your life easier in the process—whether
it is to survive nursing school, pass exit exams, or whip the NCLEX-PN® the first time!
You may visit me at www.hurstreview.com to say “hello” or to receive information about how Hurst Review
Services can visit your school to conduct a NCLEX® review for you and your classmates.
Best of luck,
Marlene Hurst
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